$13,000 penthouses top DC’s Wardman Park development
San Francisco-based developer Carmel Partners, which acquired the former Wardman Park Hotel in D.C.’s Woodley Park neighborhood in 2021, and has been redeveloping the 9.5-acre site as two large residential towers, is now accepting prelease applications for the first of the two buildings.
Living there will not be cheap.
The first tower, named the Aerie, has 290 apartment homes, ranging from a 746-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment for just shy of $4,100 a month, to a 1,700-square-foot, three-bedroom penthouse that is listed for just over $13,000 a month. Most larger units have private balconies, some with more than one.
The second building, the Zephyr, will begin preleasing later this year. Residents at the Aerie are expected to begin moving in this fall.
Both towers are built around a regulation football field-sized park that includes an outdoor pool, fire pits, lounges, hibachi and grill stations, lawn games, a bocce court, dog park and children’s playground.
There is also 20,000-square feet of amenity space, a second, rooftop pool and lounge, fitness and wellness center and an indoor lap pool, with hot tub, saunas and private fitness studios. Carmel Partners describes the vibe as a “resort-style residential oasis.”
The Aerie and Zephyr, both with terra-cotta facades, were designed by D.C.-based Shalom Baranes Associates, whose projects have included the Georgetown Ritz Carlton, The Yards, several Rosslyn high-rises, and the renovation of the Pentagon. Interiors were designed by New York-based Champalimaud Design, whose projects have included dozens of luxury hotel interiors.
The new Wardman Park, at 2650 Woodley Road, is the culmination of a protracted series of transactions that began at the start of the pandemic in 2020. The Wardman Park Hotel, managed for decades by Marriott International, was one of the D.C. area’s largest hotels. It closed in March 2020 when the pandemic brought conference and convention travel to a standstill.
The Pacific Life Insurance Co.’s Wardman Hotel Owner LLC, which owned the property, filed for bankruptcy in 2021. A series of legal battles ended with its sale to Carmel Partners, which began redevelopment in 2024.