Press House — Location & Market Research

Standalone location/market evidence for the Press House underwriting. Public sources only — no tenant PII. Figures dated where known; items that need CoStar/RealPage/operating statements are flagged. Google Maps links are provided for the asset, comps, and key anchors.

Subject: Press House at Union District — 331 N Street NE, Washington DC 20002 (NoMa / Union Market). 📍 Map As of: June 2026 (rents Mar–Jun 2026; vacancy Apr 2026).

1. Location & site

• Submarket: NoMa (North of Massachusetts Ave) / Union Market District, NE DC. One block from the NoMa–Gallaudet U Metro (Red Line). 📍 Metro
• Transit: NoMa–Gallaudet averaged ~6,593 weekday entries (2023) — 9th-busiest in the Metro system and the busiest elevated station; the Metropolitan Branch Trail (bike/ped) runs alongside.
• Walkability: Union Market food hall, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods (H St), REI flagship (Hecht Warehouse), restaurants/H Street corridor all within ~5–15 min walk. Strong amenity base.
• Site risk — FEMA flood: 331 N St NE sits inland (~1 mi from the Anacostia) on elevated ground, so it is almost certainly Zone X (minimal hazard, outside the 0.2% / 500-yr floodplain) → no federally-mandated flood insurance. DC's mapped Special Flood Hazard Areas (Zones A/AE) follow the Anacostia/Potomac, not NoMa; the practical exposure here is urban flash / combined-sewer flooding in extreme rain, not riverine. Confirm the exact parcel zone before close at FEMA MSC / dcfloodrisk.org (it drives insurance + lender requirements).

2. Demand drivers — anchors & employers nearby

(why people rent here — the demand side)

Read-through: demand drivers are real and durable (transit + federal/media employment + Union Market lifestyle), which supports the long-term thesis. They do not, however, offset the near-term oversupply (Section 5).

3. Rental market — asking rents by floorplan

NoMa / Union Market, 2026 (free public aggregators):

• Press House's in-place market-rate rents are already at/above the submarket (a Class-A premium). So the value-add upside is occupancy/economic-occupancy, not rate.
• The model's target rents (esp. 1BR ~$2,705 vs ~$2,355 submarket median) sit at the optimistic top of the range in a soft, concession-heavy market.

4. Comparable rental properties (NoMa Class-A)

Building-level units/year where confidently known; "—" where exact figures need CoStar. Concessions are current (Jun 2026) and are the key signal — the submarket is giving 1 to 2½ months free.

Concession takeaway: market is at ~1–2½ months free (≈ 8–20% of annual rent). The proforma's 1.5% concession at stabilization assumes the giveaways largely disappear within 24 months — aggressive while the pipeline is still delivering.

5. Supply, absorption & vacancy (the near-term risk)

• Pipeline (the headwind): NoMa/H-Street holds 5,556 of DC's ~15,810-unit 36-month pipeline — the largest of any DC submarket. NoMa has overtaken Capitol Riverfront in deliveries/absorption (Skanska, Jair Lynch, et al. — Delta Associates).
• Vacancy: NoMa/Union Market ~10.8% overall / ~10.0% stabilized (Apr 2026) vs DC metro ~7%.
• Concessions: widespread 1–2½ months free (Section 4).
• Rents: DC asking rents fell ~2.2% in 2025; mid-tier vacancy rising.
• Absorption (the offset): while DC absorption fell ~40% YoY, NoMa absorption was ~unchanged (Delta) — the submarket is still leasing, just at concessions.
• Outlook: pipeline eases later in 2026; if completions slow and household/job formation hold, occupancy could rebalance into 2027 — i.e., the back half of Press House's 24-month plan is when the market may help.

6. Demand-supply demographics

• Profile: young (median age ~31–33), affluent (~$98–120K HH income), renter-majority — a healthy renter base. Rent-to-income on a ~$2,500 unit ≈ 25–30% (affordable band).
• Supports long-term demand; the constraint is near-term supply, not demand fundamentals.

7. Other income / ancillary (per-unit & % of revenue)

• Press House (actual, from proforma): other income ≈ $65K/mo (~$0.78M/yr) ≈ 7–8% of EGI — parking, storage, bike, fees. Parking/storage is only ~36% leased (156 of 428 items) → genuine unmodeled upside.
• Class-A benchmark: other income typically runs ~5–10% of EGI (parking, storage, pet, amenity, application/admin fees, and RUBS utility reimbursement). Press House sits mid-range with room to grow ancillary as occupancy rises.
• Comp-level other-income %: not publicly available — requires CoStar/RealPage or the comps' operating statements. Flagged for paid-data verification.

8. Implications for the Press House underwriting

9. Sources & data quality

• Free / verified: Zumper, Apartments.com (rents & current concessions); Bisnow, UrbanTurf, Hoodline, Delta Associates citations (pipeline/absorption/vacancy); washington.org & NoMa BID (anchors); WMATA/Wikipedia (Metro ridership); Census/Point2/zipdatamaps (demographics); Gallaudet Office of Institutional Research (enrollment).
• Needs paid/primary data (CoStar / RealPage / operating statements): building-level unit counts/vintages for several comps, building-level occupancy & effective (net-of-concession) rents, and comp-level other-income %. These are the professional-grade inputs for the appraisal.
• Note: concession figures are point-in-time leasing promotions (Jun 2026) and move week to week; treat as directional, not contractual.