Toll Brothers acquires D.C.’s Sursum Corda for $60M

Since approvals in early 2016, there have been plans to redevelop Washington, D.C.’s Northwest neighborhood, Sursum Corda, but plans have stalled due to at least two deals to buy the site fell apart. Washington Business Journal now reports that progress will begin due to Pennsylvania-based Toll Brothers Apartment Living successfully acquiring the site from the Sursum Corda Cooperative Association for $60 million. Toll Brothers also purchased the adjacent site at 76 M Street NW for $3.5 million.

By July, the developer plans on filing raze permits for the property, bounded by M Street NW to the north, L Street NW to the south, 1st Street NW to the west, and 1st Place NW to the east. Within a year, the developer will also file a stage two Planned Unit Development (PUD) application. Construction work will begin within six months of the PUD approval.

In early 2016, the first-stage PUD approved designed five buildings with over 1,100 residential units and 41,000 square feet of retail. The residential units would include 199 affordable residences, including 136 set aside for Sursum Corda residents.

The 199 townhouses currently located at Sursum Corda opened in 1968. By the 1980s and 1990s, the neighborhood became known for open-air drug markets and drug-related violence, according to the Washington Business Journal.

• D.C.’s Sursum Corda community has a buyer, setting stage for massive redevelopment [Washington Business Journal]