At National Harbor, Condo Sales Buck Trend

By Anita Huslin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 26, 2007; D09

Two prominent restaurants have pulled out, but the developers of National Harbor, the giant condo-office-retail project on the Potomac River in Prince George's County, say interest in the residential portion of the project has held up well, despite the housing slowdown.

Buyers have put down deposits on all but 48 of the 450 condominium units offered in the first phase of the project, a strong showing in a region where many developers have had to scale back or cancel projects outright.

At National Harbor, as in any other project, sales aren't final until they close. Buyers have walked away after putting down deposits at many other projects in recent months.

"In the last six months, we saw a 60 percent cancellation rate of all contracts written," said Kenneth Wenhold, regional director of the real estate research firm Metrostudy, adding that "condos, in particular, had a very high rate."

But National Harbor may be able to defy the trend, Wenhold said. With the 2,000-room Gaylord National hotel and convention center set to open on the site early next year, the project "has a nice synergy of different land uses. It's got an A-plus location, it has a lot of financial backing and a lot of money being pumped into the ground all around it," he said.

A recent study by RCLCO (formerly Robert Charles Lesser & Co.), a real estate advisory firm in Bethesda, cited four housing developments in the United States that appear to be bucking the national trend of slowing sales. Two were in the Washington region: National Harbor, and CityVista on 5th Street NW between K and L streets. The proposed sales at National Harbor represent about three-quarters of all condominium transactions in Prince George's in the second half of the year, according to one survey. CityVista has sold 200 of 351 new condos, at an average of about $510 per square foot, since March, when they went on the market, according to another survey.

"Normally if you can do just 10 a month, that's fantastic," said Len Bogorad, managing director of RCLCO.

Stuart Prince, residential development director for the Peterson Cos., said units are selling at an average price of $475,000 for about 960 square feet. Marketing of an additional 300 condominiums is scheduled to begin in the fall, and the developer has approval to build 2,500 units.

Source: Washington Post. View Article.

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