Are there no more good (commercial) opportunities left in DC?

Central National Bank Building, Richmond, VA. Photo courtesy of Mary Ann Sullivan, Bluffton College. Douglas Jemal plans to completely renovate the art deco Central National Bank building at 219 E. Broad St. into Class A office space. He purchased the building in April for $5.2 million.

Today's Richmond Times-Dispatch updates us on the latest doings of Doug Jemal, in Richmond, in the report "D.C. Developer is Moving In: Renewing Richmond landmarks." I had mentioned this a couple months back that Douglas Development is increasingly active in Richmond.

The article reports that Douglas Development owns ten large properties in Richmond and is actively seeking other properties. Although Baltimore is closer, it has plenty of developers such as Streuver Bros. Eccles & Rouse, comfortable with large scale adaptive reuse projects, although Douglas Development owns a fair amount of property in Prince George's County, in Hyattsville, Riverdale, and Bladensburg among others, and perhaps some in Montgomery. Perhaps Richmond offers extra-normal returns in today's overheated commercial real estate market.

At one time the company had sought to sell much of its portfolio of buildings in the Washington region ("Developer Looks to Anacostia: Southeast Waterfront is Next Target for Douglas Jemal" and "Is now the time to cash out" from the Washington Business Journal).

While some sales have been made ("Jemal's land sale signals NoMa is gaining ground"), the company is no longer looking to sell--after all, Doug is known for "portfolio" investing--buying properties and holding them for a long time until he has a good plan and/or tenants lined up. And he is known for being one of only a few DC developers that is interested in and unafraid of historic buildings.