In the Thick of A Resurgence On the Hill

Building Salvaged From Neglect
By Ruben Castaneda
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 1, 2007; Page T05

Although she's lived in suburban Maryland for most of the past 20 years, Yvonne Johnson found herself spending more time in the District in recent years. So much time that she decided she may as well live there.

This spring, she moved into a three-story brick building on 15th Street SE in Capitol Hill.

It was a good choice, Johnson said. "I enjoy living in the city."
The Stadium-Armory Metro stop is a short walk away, and, though her job as a real estate agent is in Waldorf, the commute is relatively easy. "I'm going in the opposite direction of traffic . . . so it's a breeze," Johnson said.

Now, in her spare time, Johnson walks to such venerable Capitol Hill haunts as the Banana Cafe and Marty's, two of the many restaurants on Eighth Street SE. Johnson has become a regular at nearby Eastern Market and takes Metro whenever she can.
But life in and around Johnson's building wasn't always so pleasant.

In the late 1990s and the early part of this decade, the building was in disrepair, some of its 17 units were unoccupied, and others were occupied by squatters, said Joan Simon, who with her husband, Joel Simon, bought the building for about $500,000 at a foreclosure sale in December 2001.

Some of the people who lived in or hung around the building then sold drugs, Simon said. The front door was not secure and was often broken.

When she and her husband bought the building, the legal tenants received federal Section 8 vouchers and other help finding new homes, Joan Simon said.
Then the Simons went to work, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to renovate the units and the building's common areas.
Among the new features: a secure front door, an intercom system, security cameras in the front and back entrances and in the hallways, and a fenced parking area behind the building with a remote-controlled gate.

Joan Simon updated the landscaping, planting shrubs, small trees and colorful flowers. The Simons reached out to D.C. police, who, she said, were responsive. "The police and I became best friends," Joan Simon said.

Their hard work paid off. By August 2002, the first new tenants had moved into the renovated building. By December of that year, the building was completely rented, the Simons said.

The building's comeback is part of a broader neighborhood resurgence; housing prices and rents have soared in Capitol Hill in recent years. Most of the other buildings on the block are rowhouses inhabited by families, and there's a new condominium building going up a few doors from the apartment building.

Joel Simon estimated that his building dates to the 1930s or 1940s. There are coin-operated washers and dryers in the basement, and there is no elevator. Although the kitchens in each of the units were modernized in the renovation, the apartments have a film-noir feel, with arched doorways, asymmetrical angles and hardwood floors.

Tenants said Yarmouth Management, which manages the building, is friendly and responsive whenever they call for service. Johnson said that when she moved in, the remote control for the gate around the parking lot wasn't working, and she called the management company. "They got on it right away, and by the next day it was done," she said.

Johnson and other tenants said they knew before they moved in that crime was a problem for some parts of Capitol Hill but that they feel secure in their building and haven't had any problems in the neighborhood.

Michael John Casey, an actor, moved into a one-bedroom unit with his fiancee in late April. "I've never felt any kind of danger since we've moved here," Casey said.

Casey praised the convenience of the neighborhood, noting that he can walk to Eastern Market, the restaurants and shops on Eighth Street SE, or a nearby Safeway in a matter of minutes. Casey said his fiancee, Colleen Delaney, an actress, walks to a theater group's rehearsal hall on Eighth Street.

Kathleen Barr, a lobbyist for a nonprofit group, lives in an efficiency in the building. She described the neighborhood as welcoming, noting that there is usually no shortage of quiet activity on the street, such as people walking their dogs or tending to their front yards. "I like the laid-back atmosphere," Barr said.