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REAL
ESTATE
NEWS The District
A new record has been set for 1201 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. with the sale of unit number one for $1.74 million. Unit one is a four-bedroom corner residence with a wide entrance gallery, large windows, and a sun porch. The seller was Audna Nicholson a realtor with Long & Foster. The buyers are Craig Wisooker, a member of the International Society of Poets, and his wife, editor Liza Barnes, who previously resided in Old Town Alexandria and is said to own a publishing house dedicated to American poetry. Wisooker was the editor of former Senator Eugene McCarthy’s “Cool Reflections: Poetry For The Who, What, When, Where and Especially Why Of It All.’ Wisooker and Barnes were represented in their purchase by Coldwell Banker Pardoe’s Bobbie Brewster who specializes in architecturally significant properties in The District. The grand apartment building known simply as “1201” was built in 1927 by Harry M. Bralove, and like the Watergate, the Broadmoor, the Westchester, and Tilden Gardens, it is one of Washington’s premier cooperatives. Co-ops became prevalent in the 1920’s when rent regulations enacted in World War I forced the owners of many of the premier apartment houses to sell units to their renters. Allen Walker, Harry Wardman, and Morris Cafritz are among the notable Washington architects and developers who created the first co-ops. The very well-connected Corinne Roosevelt Robinson Chubb Zimmermann has purchased a recently renovated Victorian residence at 5437 Potomac Avenue, N.W. in the Palisades. Mrs. Zimmermann is a great grandniece of President Theodore Roosevelt's and is therefore related to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt as well. Her grandfather was Joseph Wright Alsop, a name made all the more famous by the writers Stewart, Joseph and Susan Mary Alsop. Her father was Percy Chubb II, an heir to the Chubb & Sons insurance conglomerate. Her late-husband, Warren Zimmermann, was a career diplomat and America's last ambassador to Yugoslavia who served under the first Bush administration when his host country was ripped apart by a rash of ethnic cleansing. Although originally supportive of the administration's policy in the Balkans, Zimmermann increasingly insisted on the need to counter Serbian aggression. Accordingly, he was relieved when the Clinton administration intervened militarily. In addition to two tours of duty in the former Yugoslavia, Mr. Zimmermann also served in France, Austria, Spain, Switzerland, Venezuela and the Soviet Union. After Mr. Zimmmermann's death last February, his widow sold their residence “Southdown,” located at 96 Interpromontory Road in Great Falls, Virginia. Her new home has four bedrooms, three baths, and a truly magnificent view of the Potomac River and the Virginia shoreline. Mrs. Zimmermann purchased the property from Albers J. and Nina Tracy Jaeger who were asking $1,695,000. She is believed to have paid $1,600,000. Mrs. Zimmermann also maintains a home called “Knockrudane” in West Cork, Ireland.
By press time, architect Suman Sorg and her husband Scott Sorg of Sorg and Associates are expected to have sold their five-story townhouse at 2027 Kalorama Road, N.W. for $1,595,000. Built in 1980, the international- style home is spacious and airy with a towering entranceway featuring a large skylight. The home has four bedrooms, five and a half baths, a library, family room, living room with a fireplace and a wall of glass, a sizable kitchen, formal dining room, roof deck, a beautiful balcony, and a fenced rear garden with a patio. There is also an elevator and a twocar garage. The Sorgs listed the property with Coldwell Banker Preview International's agent Jim Bell. The prospective buyers are Michael Harris and his wife Liz Fallace, who have four children. The closing date was set for February 7th. Jim Bell also has the 15,000 squarefoot brick manse at 1628 21st Street, N.W. under contract with an anticipated sale price of $5 million. The seller is Robert Muller, who founded the International Campaign to Ban Landmines which was the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 and is known for his work with the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation. Built circa 1905, the Federal-style home has been completely renovated to include new plumbing, electrical, mechanical, and communications systems, and is completely handicap accessible. Still, it maintains its early twentieth century charm and features authentic detailing, including a stained-glass ceiling above the grand staircase, exquisite egg and dart moldings, and thirteen fireplaces with original mahogany or marble mantles beautifully restored. The property boasts ten bedrooms, eleven full baths and two half baths, separate servants' quarters, a carriage house, heated garage and a commercial elevator. While the home's size and location on the same block as the Phillips Collection make it ideal for use as an ambassadorial residence or foundation headquarters, the identity of the prospective buyers is unknown. Talk about having a good day; no sooner did Long & Foster realtor Jim Firkser list 4718 Foxhall Crescent Drive, N.W. for Debbie Boviard, than Coldwell Banker realtor Nancy Taylor Bubes found a couple to buy it. The property listed for $2 million and was snapped up at the asking price within hours by banker Joseph Bracewell and his wife Peggy. The home, which features a swimming pool and sauna, theater and gym, once belonged to Donald E. Powell, chairman of the FDIC. Jim Firsker was also the listing agent for 4704 Foxhall Crescent Drive, N.W. Built in 1987, this gorgeous contemporary has an open floor plan and dramatic appeal provided by such outstanding accouterments as its spectacularly landscaped rear courtyard and its over-sized master bath complete with a roman tub and skylight. Sellers Irwin and Jeri-Ann David have now retired to Hilton Head, South Carolina. The new owner is Dr. Joseph Yalch, Jr. a dentist who paid $1,514,000 for his new residence. Maryland Frank R. and P. E. Goldstein have sold their home at 11516 Big Piney Way in Potomac. Frank Goldstein is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP. One of the country's best known experts on corporate law, he has often been quoted in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. His clientele include ClearComm; Friedman, Billings, & Ramsey; ING; Legg Mason; and Merrill Lynch. During the 1990's, Mr. Goldstein chaired the D.C. Corporation Code Revision Project that led to the enactment of a variety of changes to D.C.'s Corporation Law. A 1967 graduate of the University of Maryland's School of Law, Mr. Goldstein has taught Securities Regulation at the University and has served as a member of its Board of Visitors. The new owners of the Goldsteins' Montgomery County property are Abdoulreza Azarmi and Shahla Parvizi, a pharmacist. They paid $1.5 million. Frank T. Shull, IV and his wife Ann have paid Dr. Jay E. Lieberman, D.D.S., and his wife $1.795 million for their home at 10404 Stable Lane near the Old Anglers Inn in Potomac. Mr. Shull is a registered investment advisor and a partner and vice president of Lara, Shull & May, Ltd., located in Vienna, Virginia. A fourthgeneration Washingtonian and a graduate of the University of Maryland, he followed in his father's footsteps to become a financial planner. He and Ann have two children. Virginia
Pamela M. and Robert J. Thompson now own 434 Montpelier Road in Great Falls. As chairman of Jefferson Consulting Group, Mr. Thompson advises IT corporations, health care agencies, management consulting firms, and energy companies on business and legislative matters. Previously, Mr. Thompson founded Thompson & Company a D.C. lobbying firm that he ran for 14 years. as president and chairman. Earlier, Mr. Thompson served as special assistant to the president and deputy director of legislative affairs in the Reagan White House. The sellers were financier Neal G. Bibeau and his wife Monica who were asking $2.35 million for the New Englandstyle Colonial. The totally renovated house has a gourmet kitchen and a master bedroom suite with his and her walk-in closets and a light-filled master bath with a double Jacuzzi tub and steam shower. There is also an au pair suite with a separate entrance on the totally finished lower level. One of the home's most exceptional living spaces is a screened porch with a stone fireplace, cathedral ceilings, French doors and a lovely view of the 3.47-acre private lot. Located in the Chinquapin Manor subdivision, the property sold for $2,175,000. In the Allegro community of Great Falls, 730 Forest Park Road, has changed hands. Built in 1993, the spacious Colonial has classic moldings and hard wood floors in the public rooms. The large eat-in kitchen contains a walk-in pantry, a center island and a built-in office work station. Two sets of French doors lead from the kitchen to a screen porch and a sunken family room. A library/ music room is also situated on the first floor. Upstairs, the master bedroom suite includes a sitting room and there is even a second floor laundry room and two-zone heating for added convenience and efficiency. The sellers were Karen Kay Keegan and Guy W. Van Syckle, Jr., a child psychologist whose areas of expertise include parenting issues, family conflict, divorce and separation, and custody litigation. The buyer is Joseph G. Krassy an attorney from New York who spent $1,119,000 for his ol' Virginny home. If Internet blogs are any indication, Rep. Jim Moran and Lu Ann Bennett will apparently be spending their first Valentine's Day as a married couple amid controversy and confusion over whether the 175 Chain Bridge Road property Lu Ann reportedly purchased as their marital abode can really be in Arlington and thus in Moran's 8th Congressional District despite its McLean mailing address. Presumably Ms. Bennett would have purchased the house as an alternative to her prenuptial residence on Dogwood Road in McLean in an attempt to silence critics who have called her husband an absentee representative. Unfortunately, the sniping continues. Still, if Moran does now live at 175 Chain Bridge Road, he can hardly be pitied. After all, how many people reside in a $5,250,000 house, much less one where Queen Noor slept? Noor's father, Najeeb E. Halaby, owned the property which overlooks the Potomac with his third wife, Libby, until his death on July 2, 2003. While the moniker of being the father of a queen stuck with him, Halaby was also a World War II Veteran and a Navy aviator who test-piloted the first U.S. jet. He was foreign affairs advisor to Secretary of Defense James Forrestal and deputy assistant secretary of defense under President Truman. In 1961 President Kennedy appointed him FAA administrator. In 1965, Halaby joined Pan American World Airways, where he rose to the rank of chairman in 1970. He was also an author, ran an international law practice and headed a company that supplied aviation technology to Arab nations. |
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