Showing posts with label Furioso Development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Furioso Development. Show all posts

Friday, November 30, 2012

Furioso Starting Logan Office Project

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Giorgio Furioso plans to begin construction on his 14th Street office project on December 10th, the developer announced this morning.   The 42,000 s.f. office building will take the place of the empty lot at 1525 14th Street, NW, wrapped around the adjacent building Furioso already owns that holds Posto.

The Logan Circle-based Furioso Development has worked for years on the development, known now as 1525 Fourteen, but after weighing various options for the site concluded that the underserved office market was the most viable for the site.

Furioso told DCMud he sees the future building as an anchor of 24/7 neighborhood activity, bringing more feet to 14th Street during day to balance the throngs that populate the nighttime hotspot.

Furioso said several office tenants are already lined up, but no announcements have been made yet on the 3,600 square feet of street-level retail.  The project was nearly ready for construction this summer, with only "last minute" issues hindering construction.  The design for the six-story LEED gold building, which includes a green roof, geothermal heating, and solar panels, is by architecture firm Eric Colbert and Associates.  Two underground floors include 28-small-car parking spaces, accessible by car elevator, and a charging station for hybrids.  The building also includes a bicycle room complete with showers.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Furioso's "1525 Fourteen" on 14th St. Close to Breaking Ground

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An office building in the midst of 14th Street's many condos will soon bring the busy entertainment corridor a little closer to true mixed use development.  That is, when Furioso Development breaks ground on "1525 Fourteen", a mixed-use building slated to break ground this fall.  That moment is nigh, according to Giorgio Furioso. He puts the time until groundbreaking at eight weeks.

"We are moments away from breaking ground," Furioso told DCMud, "and we are doing some preliminary stuff to cross all our Ts and Is."  Developer Giorgio Furioso sees the future 42,000 s.f. building - in the planning stage for nearly a decade - as an anchor of 24/7 neighborhood vitality, bringing some daytime activity to a night-time destination.

Some office tenants for the building are ready to move in, Furioso said, but there are no decisions about a tenant for the 3,600 square feet of street-level retail.  That announcement could come in the next few months, Furioso told DCMud.

Original 2004-approved scheme
"We could have gone with one large tenant but we chose not to do that so that it is a collection of different people," he said.  Furioso said he believes this mix of different smaller tenants will contribute to neighborhood vitality. "The building's whole attitude is small, green and neighborhood," Furioso said, "so you are trying to represent in that collection of tenants people the neighborhood would appreciate."

The project has already gained the necessary approvals and financing. The Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) approved the in-fill project in 2010.  It was originally planned as a seven-story, cubist-inspired residential building in 2004, but Furioso changed direction.

The design for the six-story LEED gold building, which includes a green roof, geothermal heating, and solar panels, is by architecture firm Eric Colbert and Associates.  Two underground floors include 28-small-car parking spaces, accessible by car elevator only, and a charging station for hybrid cars.  The building also includes a bicycle room complete with showers.

The Mohawk artists lofts, the condo building Church Place, renovation of the historic Roosevelt, and Solo Piazza residential building on 13th Street are all past projects of Furioso.  Furioso, who is stately in favor of a quality-over-quantity development model, only builds one development at a time.
"I think you can grow by being better rather than being bigger - sort of the Lorax idea," Fuioso, who was born in Italy and holds an MFA, told DCMud. "Sometimes the idea of success is measured by how many projects you do - whether you're the architect, the developer, the builder - rather than saying 'this project contributes to this neighborhood the way other projects don't.'  It's a different approach to working and living."

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Thursday, September 29, 2011

One at a Time for Furioso, Now Offices on 14th

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Washington DC Georgio Furioso development 14th Street, Eric Colbert

Unlike many DC real estate developers, Giorgio Furioso, founder of Furioso Development, prides himself on being “boutique” and developing one project at a time. As such, the focus right now is solely on his new 14th Street mixed-use project “1525 Fourteen,” a build-to-suit that stands out among a slew of new development on 14th Street, NW, primarily because of what it’s not – a condo. “I’m going in the opposite direction of where everyone else is going,” says Furioso, “An office building has never been built [on 14th] north of Thomas Circle.” “You can’t have a really vital neighborhood without a 24/7 presence,” Furioso continues. “Part of how you [create neighborhood vitality] is through mixed use. That’s most of Europe, [and] why New York works so well.” 

In addition to bringing office use to 14th Street, Furioso says 1525 Fourteen stands out for what the 42,000-s.f. building aims to accomplish through an “extremely green attitude; if you’re not into green it’s not going to be your building.” Designed to achieve LEED Gold, the project includes a green roof, geothermal heating, solar panels, a charging station for hybrid cars, and a bicycle room with showers; 28 small-car parking spaces, accessible by a car elevator not a ramp, are included in two underground floors. With the design by Eric Colbert completed, approvals secured and financing in place, Furioso is now looking to fill the 6-story building, ideally with an environmentally minded non-profit for the top four floors, and a local retailer for the bottom two, preferably one not in the food industry. Considering the wealth of restaurants on, or coming to, 14th Street, Furioso explains, “I’ve been called by about ten restaurants, but I’m trying not to go there.” 

Giorgio Furioso 14th Street development, Eric Colbert, Washington DC

To understand the goals, logic, and business philosophy of Furioso, it’s useful to take a look back. “I come completely from an arts background,” says Furioso. “Art is all problem solving. You create a problem and then you try and figure out how to solve it. In a way, what’s kept development exciting for me is that I treat it like art. It’s not art… but the way I approach it is very much in an art solving shape and form.” After obtaining a bachelor’s degree from the Boston Museum school, Furioso chose Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) over Yale for his MFA – not only because a full ride was offered, but because he was given the opportunity to teach (painting) while attending. There was only one problem: “RIT had built a brand new campus, and, I swear, it looked like a hospital,” says Furioso. “It was really, really disturbing.” Instead of inhabiting a sterile, boxy, mint-condition dorm room, Furioso chose to sprawl out in an abandoned and dilapidated building downtown that was owned by RIT. “I took over an entire floor. It was unlocked and I put in my own lock,” Furioso recalls. “By the time I graduated the whole grad school had moved into that old building.” 

Furioso says that his choice to live someplace with gritty urban character served as a creative impetus – “A space for an artist is like a tool; it’s no different than a pencil, a brush, a camera. Space is where so much of the creative spirit [is nurtured] … for poetry some people go to a landscape, a seascape, the woods. For visual artists that interior space is as much a tool [as the poet’s destination].” Another consequence of that move – to wander away from the white-walled dorms – was a fascination with development. “It started me on this quest of changing, fixing, and making spaces your own,” he says. After graduation, Furioso took on teaching full-time and came to the D.C. area as a visiting professor at the University of Maryland, but “couldn’t find an art studio to save my life,” he explains. Although art studio space seemed sparse, in the early ‘80s, school buildings were in spades, and the District was selling them at auction. These sidelined schools, making for unique and expansive residential and/or personal work spaces, offered Furioso and others an opportunity, in Eckington. “I bought a school with some other friends who were artists… four of us bought the whole school.” At once, Furioso settled into a studio space and waded into the world of D.C. development. Another foreclosure, this time a building at the 400 block of M Street, NW, led to a more significant investment for Furioso, but also a financial challenge, “It had already been foreclosed twice before,” recalls Furioso. “The bank was really in bad shape.” 

To get around a dearth of financing, Furioso set his creative mind to legal matters and created a corporation in which the buildings space would be represented by stock. Gathering $10,000 from each of eight artists interested in obtaining a space within the building, Furioso put the up-front funds into fixes and repairs: “I fixed the roof that was collapsing before I even owned it. The bank thought I was totally nuts.” But, it worked: Furioso bought the building for $76,000, and the artists each paid $25,000 for raw space – $200,000 in all. The property was rehabbed, completely redone over a 10-year period, and the value has since skyrocketed. “The spaces were really big; truly [New York-style] lofts, before lofts sort of hit the mainstream,” says Furioso. Though impossible to sell as “stock represented property,” the building eventually turned into a condominium and became what it is today – The Mohawk. 

Shortly after, in 1987, Furioso committed fully to development, incorporating his company with the goal “to develop artist spaces,” amidst some skepticism about throwing money into a business model that catered to the iconic starving artist types. Despite doubts, the company grew quickly, but was immediately parsed back because, as Furioso explains, “My intention was always to be a boutique developer doing really interesting things, one at a time. And no one really gets it…. I never wanted to get really big, or have a huge staff. I have a business philosophy that is so anti-American,” he laughs. An Italian national, Furioso was uprooted by his parents, first to Montreal then to the states, landing in New York at the age of twelve. His Italian heritage colors not only his approach to venture capitalism, but historic preservation (historic has a different meaning – “In Italy the 'new church' is 600 years old!”) and underscores his belief that 1525 Fourteen will succeed by offering 24/7 neighborhood vitality, something he considers somewhat European. Of his current project at 1525, Furioso’s excitement comes through, “We’re looking for a special, really great tenant,” says Furioso. “Once we do that, we’ll put a shovel into the ground and get started.” He’ll also stay connected to the building once it’s finished – “I’ll be doing a business in the cellar, my own personal business.” Furioso continues pointing out aspects of the design: “The lobby is like a little jewel box. We’re not building this cathedral… because the energy from it is kind of wasted, but it’ll be really beautiful,” and adds that he can provide “a beautiful grand stairway so that the two floors [for one retailer] feel connected,” while scrolling through photo examples of the Crate & Barrel on Massachusetts Avenue. 

Furioso maintains involvement with the design and the development every step of the way, crediting his innate fascination with all of it, “The question before I start a development is: does this interest me? Will I lose any money? If I don’t lose any money I don’t care if I make ten cents as long as it’s interesting.” But he hasn’t; with several successful developments, among them: The Mohawk, his initial artist loft foray; Church Place, a modern 32-unit condo; The Roosevelt, a historic preservation project; and Solo Piazza, which was, when built in 1999, "the first large, new residential building on 13th Street [NW] and just about the whole District,” says Furioso. Furioso’s success in development can perhaps be attributed to his attitude, problem-solving approach and hands-on nature, but whittled down even further to a simple penchant for risk-taking, the first of which dates back 30 years, when he deserted a position as the head of Ohio University’s art department. “I gave up my tenure and came here. My mother until the day she died was saying ‘I can’t believe you gave up tenure.’ I gave up security. Security’s never been a big thing for me.” 

Washington D.C. commercial real estate news

Friday, October 29, 2010

HPRB Approves In-fill Project: Historic 14th Street Filling Up

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Yesterday, the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) recommended approval of a six-floor office space development at 1525 14th Street, NW in the 14th Street Historic District. Originally approved in 2004 as a seven-floor residential project, developer Giorgio Furioso of Furioso Development decided to switch gears given the difficulty of financing and unloading a small-scale condo operation under current conditions. With the change from residential to non-residential, Furioso also ditched original architect Sorg for updated concept designs from Eric Colbert & Associates.

The development will be sandwiched by two eateries, as it is set to occupy the empty space (currently a parking lot) between the beloved Great Wall Szechuan House and the highly reviewed Posto. The project calls for an additional three stories to be affixed atop the historic and stylish facade of 1515 14th, "a classically-styled automobile showroom constructed in 1928 for a Hudson dealership" that now houses Posto on the ground-floor, and an art gallery on the top level (both entities will remain). The addition to 1515 will be set back roughly 20 ft. from the front façade, so as not to compromise the architectural integrity of the building. Furioso is proposing that the first two floors of the total 55,000 s.f. house retail tenants, while the remaining four levels will be reserved as office space. The building will rest atop three below-grade levels, the first for storage, and the bottom two accessed by a car elevator for parking.

The originally proposed residential project offered a much different aesthetic, as architects at Sorg had initially designed a Cubism-inspired building reminiscent of the work of Frank Gehry. And while the density and massing of the new proposal remain the same, the design is entirely reworked. Although not boring, the new design is certainly less adventurous than the previous. And while the design and materials remain of a modern flavor, the prevailing stone curtain system, and the arrangement of the columns, help better reflect and mesh with the proportions and the large showroom windows of the historic building next door.

HPRB Staff Reviewer Steve Callcott had previously expressed concerns about fluorescent fixtures from the offices becoming an unattractive anomaly on the historic nighttime streetscape. Due to these concerns one of the earlier drafts, a design employing a more generous use of unobstructed glass, was scrapped for the presently submitted rendering (pictured at the top). Architect Eric Colbert explained that increased architectural complexity on the facade as well as added louvers had diminished views into the office levels and alleviated Callcott's concerns. With Callcott and the Board's approval, the development team will now submit their proposal to the BZA, with a groundbreaking still some time off.

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Furioso Condo Project on Hold – Commercial Development Considered

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Giorgio Furioso’s project to develop the vacant lot on 14th Street, next to the organic restaurant Veridian, is on hold, a representative of Furioso Development said. Furioso had been approved by the Historic Preservation Review Board to build an ultra-modern condominium next to and above 1515 14th Street, but may instead pursue opening a second restaurant or boutique hotel on the site.

Speculation about the reasons for the plan’s demise centered on potential construction costs. Construction companies may have perceived the project - designed to have a large, curving glass and steel facade - as being so architecturally sophisticated as to exceed reasonable construction costs.

Furioso is known for his background in the arts, having redeveloped the former Hudson Automobile showroom building at 1515 14th Street into a center for the arts, with his restaurant Viridian on the ground floor featuring regularly changing art shows, and art galleries on the second and third floors. The building, originally constructed in the 1930s was part of the 14th Street "auto-row" – a series of car dealerships.

The aborted condo project, which was to include additional arts-oriented retail, had been delayed in zoning and permitting. Emma Saal, an associate of Furioso, describes his style as very modern. She added that he was one of the originators of a now much-used mixture of glass and steel that makes use of the classical attention to detail. Saal points to one of Furioso’s signature projects as an example of his style. "Solo Piazza," she says (SoLo – or South of Logan) "is a perfect illustration of his combination of classical detail within a modern structure." Saal points to Solo Piazza’s floor to ceiling fenestration and multiple colors for the masonry as capturing the essentials of that style’s attention to detail while reinterpreting the building in a modern manner. "It’s very Giorgio," said Saal, "old and new in a modern setting; clean lines with a crown of steel and wood."

Saal added that regardless of what Furioso does with the 14th Street property, she’s certain it will be a great architectural addition to the Logan Circle area. "The restaurant, or a boutique hotel; either will be designed with the same great attention to detail and the wonderful modern flair that makes Furioso unique."

Washington DC real estate development news

 

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