Jemal-Led Joint Venture to Convert Washington D.C. Office Building into 323 Apartments

A joint venture formed by Jemal Real Estate, DivcoWest, and JLS Capital is set to undertake a major office-to-residential conversion project in Washington, D.C. The partnership will transform the 342,000-square-foot office building at 1255 23rd Street NW in the West End into 323 apartments. Approximately 36 of these units will be designated as affordable housing, while 22,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space will be retained.

Madison Realty Capital provided a $40 million loan to facilitate the acquisition and predevelopment phases of the project. DivcoWest, the current owner of the eight-story property, will maintain an equity stake alongside Jemal Real Estate. Fillat+ Architecture has been engaged for the design of the conversion.

Built in 1982, the property includes 257 covered parking spaces and is strategically located near the Foggy Bottom-GW University Metro station, between Georgetown, George Washington University, and Dupont Circle. Norman Jemal, who launched Jemal Real Estate in late 2025 to focus on such conversions, emphasized the increasing importance of adaptive reuse for Washington's neighborhoods. This project exemplifies a growing strategy to repurpose underutilized office assets into much-needed housing, offering a template for similar urban revitalization efforts.