WBJ article on SFD-to-multi-family-flat conversions; Bloomingdale architect Ece Kilic (and her converted rowhouse!) on the front cover

A Bloomingdale rowhouse made the front cover of this week's Washington Business Journal!

Bloomingdale resident and architect Ece Kilic is quoted in this Michael Neibauer article.  

The WBJ cover story centers upon the current popular practice of converting single family dwellings (SFDs) to multi-family flats in DC.   Bloomingdale is zoned R-4, which allows for multiple dwelling per lot (900 square feet per dwelling unit).  

Most Bloomingdale lots are less than 2,700 square feet, which allows for two dwelling units.  A few blocks in Bloomingdale -- like on the unit block of Adams, Bryant and Channing -- which have long, long lots -- have lot size greater than 2,700 square feet, which allows for greater than two dwelling units.

Some neighbors champion the SFD conversions and others vehemently oppose it.

But do note that it is allowed by DC zoning regulations.

Click on the article link to read the entire article.

[Okay, I have been advised that I cannot include the cover article photo of Ece Kilic in front of her Bloomingdale home.  So I have removed it. Sorry.

So here is a pic of Ece Kilic from her Urbane Architect's website.]

SUBSCRIBER CONTENT: Jan 17, 2014, 6:00am EST

City of converts: D.C. homeowners turn extra space into cold cash

Michael Neibauer

Staff Reporter- Washington Business Journal

Angel Donchev purchased 1307 Euclid St. NW for $695,000 in November 2012. Five months later, he was issued a permit by the District to convert the Columbia Heights rowhome to a two-unit flat by gutting and renovating the basement, moving the kitchen and adding 2.5 new bathrooms.

Why? Too much space.

It “is too large for any one family/individual,” Donchev said in an email. His plan: Live in one unit, rent out the other.

Over the past year, at least 50 D.C. property owners, including numerous small developers usually operating as LLCs, have obtained permits to convert their homes into two-family flats, or apartment houses/condo buildings with three or more units. Some will convert to accommodate an aging relative or an au pair; most, for the additional income or to increase the resale value.

[Ece Kilic is referenced below.]

“If the client is the homeowner who will live in the house, it is more likely that they are looking for mortgage help besides increasing the resale value,” said Ece Kilic, a partner with D.C.-based Urbane Architects. “Rental basement apartment is the most common type we do in this case.

“On the other hand,” Kilic continued, “the client can be a developer who wants to squeeze the maximum resale value from the existing site. Then the most typical approach would be converting the house into two-, three-bedroom condominiums.”