Vacant buildings take steps towards progress

Our last report on the saga of the "Ledo Building" at 433 Mass was that the city notified to the owners that the building would be demolished if it remained unsecured. It turns out this has closed the chapter on the Spriggs family as the bank has sold the property out from underneath them.


No details yet on the identity of the new owner or their plans for the property.

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In other news on old buildings in the Triangle, the old High G Paint building located at 924 Fifth Street NW has been sold. This 3 level structure lies within the Mount Vernon Triangle Historic District.


The new owner of this property is interested in placing retail on the ground floor and has approached the MVT CID for suggestions. What type of tenant for this 1300 1650 SF space, that is just steps away from 5th and K, would both flourish and complement the existing uses in the neighborhood? Suggestions I heard at the MVT Marketing Committee meeting included a chocolate bar like ACKC, or a housewares store like Home Rule. What are your thoughts? Keep in mind the size constraints of the space.

Ledo property to be demolished?

In February of this year I learned that 433 Mass Ave, which is commonly referred to as the Ledo Pizza property, was an unsecured shell. An entire rear wall was missing leaving the interior exposed to the elements and vagrants. Additionally the neglectful owners had left a dumpster and chain link fence protruding over 20ft into the public sidewalk space.

Photo of Ledo property from Feb 2009

At that time Councilmember Tommy Wells office, MPD and other DC agencies were contacted about this unsafe and blighted property. The issue has recently come to a head. Rumors I've heard is that the District government has notified the property owner that they will demolish the building.

The owner has in turn finally scrambled into action to get the property up to code. The chain link fence and the dumpster have been removed and sod grass has been laid down in the public space. As the most egregious structural defects were never visible from street (i.e. the missing rear wall) I'm not sure if they've been remedied yet. Should be interesting to see how this unfolds.

PoP visits the Triangle

The uber popular DC blog Prince of Petworth had a trio of Mount Vernon Triangle postings yesterday. PoP surveys his readers for input on the Dumont and Ledos, Louis Rogue, and Buddha Bar.

In the comments I riffed against the urban design of the DuMont's Mass Ave frontage. Two entrances accompanied by semi-circle driveways on Mass Ave was completely unnecessary. Good urbanism would have been to place one entrance on Mass Ave and the other (sans semi circle driveway) on either Fourth or Eye Street. This would have allowed more Mass Ave frontage for retail space. The developer placed greater emphasis on the prestige of Mass Ave addresses over good urban form. That was a very short sighted attitude. Is this a travesty - no? But definitely a large missed opportunity considering.

Ledo building is swiss cheese

There was some recent buzz at PQLiving of a possible late spring opening of Ledo Pizza at 433 Mass Ave. A few Triangle residents had serious doubts regarding this heresay. Ledo Pizza has no posted permits or signs of construction activity.

I've dug around a little deeper to learn details about the building's condition. The Mass Ave fronting facade appears to be in reasonable condition (for a vacant) to passers-by. However the rear exterior of the building is missing entire walls leaving the structure open to the elements and basically little more than a shell. Any future build out would not simply be to customize the interior to suit the business use. Substantial construction work is also needed to make the structure complete and the building inhabitable. Difficult to accomplish when financing has dried up.



With the amount of equity and effort that would need to be invested to turn this shell into a Ledo Pizza it is easy to wonder why the owner did not sell. Also questionable is the choice of business. Pizza franchises need delivery service to be viable. Where would Ledo's delivery drivers park? Restaurants produce lots of waste however the rear of the building is only accessible by a roughly 3 foot wide walk way. The plan seems doomed to failure. Unfortunately demolition by neglect may be a more likely outcome than the signature Ledo square pizza pies...

$2Million declined for a 200,000 property

The blog For the Love of Growth (DC That is) wrote an interesting post about the rowhouse at 433 Mass Ave that The Dumont and Penzance Building had to build around. Apparently the owner of the property turned down 2 to 3 million dollars for a property assessed at just shy of $200K. One source suggested he wanted $17 million. He has reportedly taken out a 650K loan to open a Ledo Pizza. He'll have to sell alot of pizza pies to earn 2 million. =)

The WashingtonPost has more on owner Austin Spriggs and his decision (part1 | part2).