413 H St sold for $550,000

The blighted vacant shell of a building at 413 H St (next door to Capital Fine Wine & Spirts near Sidamo and on the block bookended by The Big Board and Ethiopic) sold for $550,000 last week.  The building's previous owner made a good bit of money by doing nothing with the property according to DC property records.  The Office of Tax and Revenue shows the property was purchased in 2002 for $167,500, so the former owner appears to have taken nearly $400,000 by doing little more than paying the property taxes for the past several years.  The building was added to DCRA's "blighted" property list earlier this year and thus subjected to the "blighted" tax rate of 10%.  It was listed for sale soon thereafter for $650,000 in July.

We haven't spoken with the new owner, but are reliably informed that he plans to begin renovation of the building soon in anticipation of making it available for lease. 

This is yet another sign of great progress on the western end of H Street over the past year. 413 H Street joins 5 other properties currently under renovation on the 400 block of H Street and is just east of the ongoing 360 H Street/Steuart Development mixed-use project which will house a Giant grocery store & a couple hundred residential units in 2013.