DC Radio Station Comes Back on Air as Apartments

By D.C. Stribling

Urban Investment Partners (UIP) has completed Frequency Apartments, a 100-unit community in the Tenleytown neighborhood of northwest Washington, D.C. The property used to be an office building that housed local National Public Radio affiliate WAMU.

UIP acquired the building at 4000 Brandywine Street, NW, along with two other properties, from American University in 2016. The company then undertook a $14 million, year-long gut renovation of the original 36,000-square-foot building and added 14,000 square feet to the structure.

Common amenities include keyless entry, a roof deck with grilling area and panoramic views, a fitness center, resident lounge, teleworking space, conference and meeting rooms, bike storage, resident lounge, package acceptance and reserved garage parking. The property is also pet-friendly.

According to UIP Principal Steve Schwat, the unusual name is derived from its history as a radio station and recording studio for WAMU/NPR programming, including the syndicated talk shows hosted by Diane Rehm and Kojo Nnamdi.

The DC Neighborhood has a Storied Past

Located on one of the highest elevations in D.C., Frequency counts as transit-oriented. The community is one block from the Tenleytown-American University station on Metrorail’s Red Line, and is also served by 11 Metrobus lines, the American University shuttle and the Sibley Hospital shuttle.

Named in the late 1700s for local tavern owner John Tennally, Tenleytown surrounds the site of Civil War-era Fort Reno, built on the city’s highest natural ground at 409 feet above sea level. By 1900, the last remains of the fort had been replaced by a reservoir, water tower and a park.

The 1941 opening of Sears & Roebuck store at Wisconsin Ave. and Albemarle St. spurred the neighborhood’s growth. The area’s first Hechinger store also was in Tenleytown; after Sears vacated its store in 1994, Hechinger bought and moved into the property, though it eventually shuttered all its stores. By 2003, the former Sears/Hechinger site had been converted into one of the city’s first transit-oriented developments, Cityline at Tenley.

The UIP group of companies owns and manages more than 2,800 apartments in Washington, D.C., and Maryland, and has renovated, restored and built more than 25 downtown apartment and condo buildings over the last 10 years. UIP’s primary focus includes renovations, adaptive reuse of office properties, and working with tenants in D.C. to help them exercise their TOPA (Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act) rights.