New condos in D.C.'s Trinidad neighborhood

Jul 13, 2023

A former townhouse at 1638 Trinidad Ave. NE was expanded in almost every direction to make room for three condominiums. The two-story building was gutted, bumped out in the back and widened. A third floor was added, and the basement was deepened to accommodate mostly nine-foot ceilings. The facade was rebuilt to resemble those on other houses in the neighborhood.

Units 2 and 3 are accessible from the ground level. A front porch on one side has a doorway that opens to unit 2, which includes the first floor and the back half of the second floor. A front porch on the other side leads to unit 3, which includes the third floor and the front half of the second floor. Units 2 and 3 each have two back decks. On the lower level, unit 1, is not complete and not yet on the market.

“These are large units,” said real estate agent Stefan Rahimian, one of the investors in the development. “Average units in the neighborhood are 1,400 square feet, while these two upper units are both approximately 2,200 square feet each.”

On the first floor, unit 2 has an open-concept space with the kitchen and the living and dining areas. A hall leads to two bedrooms and a door to a back deck. The ceiling in the kitchen is 19-feet high. A floating staircase leads to a primary bedroom with two closets, an en suite bathroom and French doors that open to another deck. There is a closet with laundry hookups, and a beverage center, or wet bar, with sink, quartz counter and white Shaker-style cabinets, is on the landing next to the primary bedroom suite.

The door to unit 3 opens to stairs that lead to the second floor, with its open-concept kitchen and dining and living areas, and then to the third floor, which has three bedrooms, a laundry closet and a loft area. A beverage center near the loft has a sink, a quartz counter, white Shaker-style cabinets and an under-counter refrigerator. The loft and the bedroom at the front of the condo, decorated as an office, each have two skylights. The primary bedroom, at the back of the condo, has a walk-in closet, an en suite bathroom and French doors that open to a rear deck. And an outside spiral staircase connects that deck to a rooftop deck.

The spiral staircase also connects the two decks that come with unit 2 and a parking pad behind the building. Two parking spaces are available for $20,000 each.

All units have Calacatta quartz countertops, black, steel stair railings, oak stairs and red oak flooring in the living areas. Each has different fixtures and hardware: brass in unit 3 and chrome in unit 2.

Kitchens in units 2 and 3 have U-shaped counters with peninsulas, white Shaker-style cabinets and marble-look tile backsplashes. A pot filler faucet and floating shelves are set in the backsplash. The 36-inch Verona induction range, French door refrigerator by LG, Whirlpool microwave and Samsung dishwasher all have a stainless-steel front.

Units 2 and 3 have two full bathrooms and a powder room.

Primary suite bathrooms have a double-sink vanity, white Shaker-style cabinets and a walk-in shower with a rain shower head and a wall-mounted shower head. Shower niches have LED lighting, shower floors have small hexagonal tiles and shower surrounds and other parts of the bathrooms have marble-look tile. Unit 2 has a soaker tub with a black accent wall.

Other full bathrooms have a single-sink vanity, a tub-shower combo and a white cabinet. The floor has marble-look hexagonal tile, and the shower surround has subway tile installed diagonally with gray grout. These bathrooms open to the hall and to one of the secondary bedrooms.

The powder rooms have a pedestal sink.

Trinidad

Ivy City is just to the north of this development, and Union Market is a mile to the west. New development along Bladensburg Road borders the neighborhood to the east. The H Street neighborhood, about a half-mile away, has restaurants and entertainment venues.

An Aldi grocery, on 17th Street, and a Safeway, on Maryland Avenue, are each about a half-mile away. A Whole Foods store is about a mile away on H Street.

The Trinidad Recreation Center is a block away. The U.S. National Arboretum is about a mile away.

Elementary and middle: Wheatley Education Campus

High: Dunbar High School

The D8 bus to Union Station, on the Red Line, stops on Trinidad Avenue. The free D.C. Streetcar route on H Street, which runs from Oklahoma Avenue to Union Station, has a stop less than a mile away. The B2 bus to the Stadium-Armory Metro station, on the Blue, Orange and Silver lines, stops a half-mile away at Bladensburg and Mount Olivet roads.

“There is tremendous growth in the neighborhood,” Rahimian said. He said Trinidad is surrounded by development in such places as New City, Ivy City, Union Market and along Bladensburg Road and H Street.