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The Louis Apartments, U Street Corridor,
Northwest Washington, DC |
Photos courtesy of The Louis
WASHINGTON, DC -- Washington D.C. is inhabited by titans of
government and some of the most influential people in the world … temporarily.
It's a city of transients and uprooted politicians living election to election.
But if you’re a high-priced
power player looking for the best place to live for the duration of your stay
in town, where would one find the most expensive Washington D.C. apartment?
Just north of the White
House and Capitol Hill near the swanky neighborhoods of Dupont and Logan
Circles and just off the nightlife enclave of Adams Morgan is The Louis,
an upscale, amenity-laden apartment building along the trendy U Street
Corridor.
There you’ll find Apartment
912, a two-bedroom, two-bath, 1,078-square-foot, E22-style open floor plan
stunner that runs for as little as $8,655 per month to start bare-bones, but
can be upgraded to as much as $31,434.
Republicans and Democrats can
agree that’s a big slice of the deficit, so what do you get for that kind of
mint?
The coolest street in The
District
Located in Northwest Washington,
the U Street
Corridor is a stretch of trendy shops and fashionable restaurants
along U Street from 9th to 18th Street NW designated a “Great Street”
by the American Planning Association.
Smack in the middle is The
Louis, built in 2014 with 268 units and access to a host of specialty stores,
grocery stores, pubs, eateries and nightlife spots.
In the early part of the 20th
century, U Street’s “Black Broadway” was the heart of Black Culture in America,
teeming with jazz clubs, soul food joints, historically-black theaters and
hotels.
In recent years, U Street’s
demographics have diversified. But the corridor remains one of the coolest in
the city while gaining an upscale appeal.
Today, the area is populated by
some of the best music clubs in the nation, including the 9:30 Club, the Black
Cat, DC9, U Street Music Hall and the Velvet Lounge.
Dozens of popular restaurants
are available in walking distance, but none stand out more than Ben’s Chili
Bowl, a D.C. “must go” that luminaries from Redd Foxx to Martin Luther King,
Jr. to Barack Obama named as a favorite spot.
Also along the street are
Restaurant Marvin, Busboys and Poets, Ice Cream Jubilee and authentic cuisine
in “Little Ethiopia.”
The area also features both
upscale and vintage clothing shops, brewpubs, galleries, cafés, pocket parks,
the century-old Lincoln Theatre, the African-American Civil War Museum, the
outdoor 14&U Farmers’ Market and even the longest cascading fountain in
America in Meridian Hill Park.
While back in the comforts of
home, what exactly do you get for eight grand a month? A fantastic living space
and enough high-end amenities to rival the White House itself.
The unit is a sleek
marble-inspired open space featuring a large living area flanked by two large,
airy bedrooms. The spacious living and dining room is lined with grayscale
hardwood floors and a plethora of natural light thanks to a full wall of
floor-to-ceiling windows.
The modern kitchen contains a
built-in oven and microwave, two-tone wood cabinetry and a stainless-steel
refrigerator across from a minimalist granite countertop kitchen island.
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| Redd Foxx |
Two nearly-matching bedrooms are
accessed from either side of the living space via a sliding door, where the
hardwood floors continue and offer two walls of floor-to-ceiling windows
overlooking the neighborhood for an abundance of sunlight.
The unit contains two baths with
modern fixtures, one in the main bedroom and the other off of the living area.
But as exciting as the interior
space is, the killer feature of this apartment is a gigantic terrace running
the length of the entire unit accessible from the living room and both
bedrooms.
Not only does the terrace offer
a full-length stone patio ready for lounge chairs and al fresco dining, but it
also features a private stone-landscaped green roof along the city-view edge,
perfect for both human and canine frolicking like a garden apartment in the
sky.
However, with all the amenities
The Louis offers residents, you may do nothing in your apartment but sleep. The
elegant rooftop features a pleasant swimming pool and patio sundeck, an outdoor
projection movie space and fire pit lounge and outdoor intimate and group
picnic spaces overlooking U Street with three separate grilling stations.
Inside, the building provides a
party-display kitchen, meeting lounge and business center, game room with
shuffleboard tables and a fitness center with free weights and group exercise
programs.
There’s even a Trader Joe’s,
neighborhood coffee shop and a James Beard Award-fronted bistro right
downstairs on the lobby level.
A lot of dead Presidents
Yes, $103,860 a year is a large percentage of the U.S. Treasury for a nice apartment. Add in the full upgrades and that price goes up to about $375,000 a year.
Budget experts suggest spending
no more than a third of your pre-tax income on your living space, so all you need to be pulling down to snag this deluxe Cardozo unit is a cool 311,583 Georges. What else could you afford in this government town for $8,655 a month?
If you don’t run the Treasury Department
We can’t all add a budget line in a bill to fund our apartment rent or throw a fastball like Stephen Strasburg or Max Scherzer, so you’re probably not pulling down the GDP of a small nation on Embassy Row. Fortunately, there are plenty of other gorgeous — and affordable — rental units around D.C. that might be a little more your style.
Or, if you’ve got your heart truly set on The Louis, snag a studio for $2,358.
The rent information included in this article is based on April 2019 rental property inventory on ApartmentGuide.com and rent.com and is used for illustrative purposes only. The data contained herein do not constitute financial advice or a pricing or availability guarantee for any apartment.
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