A D.C. medical building’s two-year redevelopment is finally complete.
The eight-story, 133,000-square-foot building at 1145 19th St. NW underwent renovations starting in 2018 that completed earlier in 2020 — delivering on-time and avoiding the wrath of coronavirus.
“When we got into 2020 as the pandemic hit, we were down to the final punch-list items, so the impact was extremely minimal,” said Chris Bilotto, vice president of asset management for The RMR Group, which manages the building.
The $26 million project, now open and operating, has welcomed its existing doctors and other tenants back. At this point about 90% of its roughly 30 tenants have returned to full-time practice from remote work, Bilotto said. Those tenants include general practitioners, dentists and specialists in areas such as obstetrics and gynecology. The building also has a surgery center, onsite radiology, laboratory testing and pharmacy.
The structure itself has a glass facade, upgrades to its mechanical system to increase energy efficiency and reduce costs, a new fitness facility, high-tech conference center and lobby lounge.
“Given the improvements we’ve done and how this building is top of class for the medical office market, particularly downtown, it’s turning a lot of heads favorably and we’re starting to see the activity come together with respect to the delivery,” Bilotto said.
But, of course, Covid-19 has its impact, requiring both the independent tenants within their spaces, and the building managers overall, to implement safety protocols. RMR has added signage, adapted air filtration and managed elevator usage, Bilotto said, “trying to make sure that we’re first and foremost protecting the health and safety of everybody coming in and out of the building.”
This project set out to offer an expanded suite of options for doctors and their practices, with more common area elements and a community environment, based on feedback from existing tenants and physicians across the country, Bilotto said. The goal was to give them the tools and resources seen in more traditional office buildings, he said. “We felt like introducing that into the market would provide something that has not historically been seen, and we’d be first-to-market with that approach.”
Check out the photo slideshow above for a look inside.
