- Address: 714 and 716 Malcolm X Ave. SE, Washington, D.C.
- Builder: 202 Partners
- Architect: bestudio
- Type of home: Duplex
- Price: $620,000
- Number of units: 2
- Bedrooms: 3
- Bathrooms: 2.5
- Square-footage: 1,914
- Property website Congressheightshome.com
- Sales: Camille Robinson, camille@camilleandco.com
Pair of semi-detached houses for sale in D.C.’s Congress Heights
This stretch of Malcolm X Avenue is a quiet, tree-lined street between bustling Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE and the St. Elizabeths East redevelopment area, which occupies property ceded by the city’s historic psychiatric hospital. In addition to a mix of residential and commercial development, St. Elizabeths East includes the RISE Demonstration Center for community meetings and other gatherings. Another major attraction is the city’s Entertainment and Sports Arena for sports, music and other events.
“The neighborhood is improving as more retail options become available and the St. Elizabeths [East] development increases its amenities,” said Ethan Arnheim of 202 Partners. “There’s already more pedestrian traffic, especially when there’s events at Entertainment and Sports Arena, like Washington Mystics [WNBA] games. Visitors from the Department of Homeland Security [and] Bolling Air Force Base, which is at the opposite end of Malcolm X Ave., are becoming more common.”
The houses have identical layouts with some different design elements. Each has two floors, with a great room, a kitchen and a powder room on the first floor and three bedrooms and two bathrooms on the second. Engineered white oak flooring is used throughout.
The primary bedroom suite in each house has an en suite bathroom and a walk-in closet. The two other bedrooms have a closet each, and they share a bathroom. All bedrooms have 16-foot cathedral ceilings.
The second floor hall has 8-foot 6-inch ceilings with three skylights. The two houses are attached at a wall between the staircases and upstairs halls.
The duplex exteriors have beige siding where the units are connected and pale elsewhere. They have architectural features seen at other buildings in the neighborhood, including gabled roofs, front porches and horizontal siding. The siding is Hardie fiber cement. They also have tankless Steibel Eltron water heaters, and the windows are Energy Star-certified as energy-efficient.
Each house has a small front yard and a paved patio in the rear that can be used for off-street parking.
Kitchens
Each of the kitchens has a Moen faucet, a side-by-side Frigidaire refrigerator, an electric range with induction stovetop and a dishwasher. A Summit Appliance microwave is built into the island’s matte blue cabinetry. Other kitchen cabinets are matte white. Counters are Calacatta quartz and the backsplash is herringbone glass mosaic. In the 716 unit, appliances are gray, and the cabinet hardware and faucet are matte black. In 714, appliances are stainless steel and the hardware and faucet are brushed nickel.
Bathrooms
The first floor of each unit has a powder room under the staircase, and the second floor has two full bathrooms. The primary bedroom’s en suite bathroom has a double vanity with a marble countertop. The shower has a frameless half-glass enclosure and an AKDY shower column surrounded by 12-by-24-inch polished porcelain tile. The shower floor has 1.5-inch-wide matte hexagonal tiles. The bathroom floor has 12-by-24-inch gray porcelain tile.
The shared bathroom has pocket doors connecting it to the rear bedrooms. A shower-tub combo has Kohler fixtures. The shower surround is white subway tile, and the floor is white hexagon porcelain tile. In 716, the grout in the shared bathroom is black to match the fixtures. The 714 unit has white grout and brushed-nickel fixtures.
Neighborhood
Congress Heights
Nearby shops and restaurants
The St. Elizabeths East redevelopment is a block away. In addition to new apartments and townhouses, it has Entertainment and Sports Arena, which hosts sports, music and other types of events. Ground has been broken there for retail space that will include shops, restaurants and artist studios. The Gateway DC farmers market is two blocks away. The many businesses on nearby Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue include the Players Lounge, a bar and restaurant long known as a popular place for political gatherings in Ward 8.
Good Food Markets is about a mile and a half away, and Giant Food is about a mile away.
Nearby parks
Green space is nearby at the intersection of Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr. avenues, with picnic tables, a playground and wooded trails connecting to the scenic and historic Shepherd Parkway.
Schools
Elementary: King Elementary
Middle: Hart Middle School
High: Ballou High School
Transit
The Congress Heights Metro station, on the Green Line, is five blocks away. I-295 is a half-mile away.
What sets it apart
These houses are boutique offerings near retail, entertainment and transportation, Arnheim said. “The house is flooded with light, with more than 30 windows in each house, including three skylights that make the hallway connecting the bedrooms a feature,” he said.