Level 2 Development buys development site near Union Market

Level 2 Development, part of the team working with Edens to remake part of the 45-acre Union Market in Northeast D.C., is spreading out with plans to redevelop another site nearby.

An affiliate of Level 2, 320 Florida Owner LLC, bought the Burger King site at 320 Florida Ave. NE July 22 for about $8.8 million. It picked up the property from Lionstone Investments, a Texas-based real estate investment trust that had owned it since 2006.

L2 Principal David Franco confirmed the deal but said it is too early to discuss what the company’s plans are for the 28,394-square-foot property.

The site is on the northeast side of Florida Avenue between the railroad tracks and Fourth Street NE, just next to the property LCOR Inc. bought for $13 million in June with plans to build a 188-unit apartment building. The sale was brokered by Mac Realty Advisors, which marketed the property for Lionstone with the potential to build about 200 residential units. To do that, Level 2 would need to have that property rezoned through the District’s PUD process.

Even with that extra step, MAC Realty Executive Director Bruce Levin said there were nearly 10 offers from local, regional, and national groups interested in the property, a sign of the energy Edens has created surrounding its Union Market plans. MAC Realty Executive Director Andrew McAllister said that enthusiasm is starting to spread now that people can see the renovated Union Market and the activity surrounding it.

“People realize that this is going to happen and it’s going to be a special place,” McAllister told me Wednesday. “Unique is an over-used word in real estate, but it truly is going to become a unique neighborhood.” MAC Realty’s Ben Lazarus and Nicholas Rubenstein were also part of the marketing team.

The developer announced plans in May to build up to 520 residential units and nearly 40,000 square feet of ground floor retail on part of the site. Edens team for the project includes Level 2, Shalom Baranes Associates, Gustafson Guthrie Nichol and Bohler Engineering.

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