More details emerge on the federal government's proposed $540M civilian cyber campus

The General Services Administration’s proposal for a civilian cyber campus to be built at an as-yet-undetermined location in the D.C. area could cost about $540 million to design and build but would save the federal government nearly $70 million in rental costs by consolidating various leased spaces in the region.

The GSA provided more detail on the ambitious proposal, first floated in 2014, in a prospectus submitted to Congress in February and later posted to its website, seeking funding for the…

Chinatown's first micro-unit hotel, Capital City's Columbia Heights condos

Welcome to permits on this sunny Wednesday. Let’s get to it.

627 H St. NW: Civil plans permit approved for grading the future site of a 230-room micro-unit Chinatown hotel, to be developed jointly by Monument Realty and Modus Hotels. The $60 million project, geared toward the millennial traveler, is expected to deliver in 2016. 3035 15th St. NW: Foundation-to-grade construction only for this new 20-unit condominium building in the heart of Columbia Heights, from Capital City Real Estate. The development…

Vacation home sales surge

Sales of vacation homes in 2014 surged to the highest level since at least 2003, when the National Association of Realtors began keeping track, jumping 57.4 percent from the previous year.

Vacation home sales reached an estimated 1.13 million last year, and accounted for 21 percent of all transactions, a record high.

The NAR says vacation sales last year showed astonishing growth, nearly doubling the combined total of the previous two years.

“Affluent households have greatly benefited from strong…

D.C. streetcar is back, and other highlights from Mayor Bowser's first State of the District address

D.C.’s streetcar roller-coaster is on the upswing, again.

Mayor Muriel Bowser, in her first State of the District address, pledged Tuesday not only to get the initial 2.2-mile line along Benning Road and H Street NE finally up and running, but to extend the line to “downtown Ward 7” east of the Anacostia and then to the Potomac River, to connect underserved D.C. residents with Union Station and Georgetown.

“We all know that the streetcar has been long on promises but short on results,” Bowser said…

ProMed Properties profits from short-term hold on Virginia Square medical space

ProMed Properties has sold its Virginia Square Plaza medical office complex for $28.5 million to Chicago’s Harrison Street Real Estate Capital LLC, a little more than four years after acquiring the properties for about $8 million less.

The acquisition is the latest for Harrison Street, which established a substantial foothold on the D.C. region in 2013 with its purchase of Washington Real Estate Investment Trust’s medical office portfolio for $500.7 million.

The recent acquisition was an investment…