Norman Jemal

There are many great, successful real estate families who looked at the landscape, the credit markets, and the overall real estate picture over the last year or so, and decided to take a break.

Not Douglas Development.

“We’re starting to see some good opportunities,” said Norman Jemal of Douglas Development, the company that his father founded and that has been buying and developing real estate in the District of Columbia since 1981.

Certainly, the financial world takes Douglas’s intentions seriously. In March, the company nabbed a $65 million construction loan from United Bank, Sandy Spring Bank and Metropolitan Bank and another $41.6 million in preferred equity from EB5 Capital for its two-building, 354-unit apartment complex at 6830 and 6896 Laurel Street NW in Takoma Park. According to Jemal, the developer is planning to deliver the first phase in the next 12 months.

Just a block from the Ritz and the Rosewood in Georgetown, Douglas is building a 105-key, 30,000-square-foot hotel. “We’re particularly excited about that,” said Jemal. “We should close on our loan [for the hotel] in the next 30 days or so.”

And at 2715 M Street NW, the company is taking a mixed-use office property and turning it into all residential units.

“These were two buildings in Georgetown that don’t work as office [and we’re turning] into very successful other things,” said Jemal. He added that conversion is definitely an answer to some of the District’s office woes but not an answer to all of them.

However, even on the office leasing front Douglas can make at least one extremely impressive boast over the last 12 months: They announced last November that the SEC would anchor 60 New York Avenue NE to the tune of 1.23 million square feet! 

As for what’s next? “We are looking at opportunities and actively bidding,” Jemal told CO.