Washington Property Company Celebrates 15 Years of Growth

Washington Property Company (WPC) of Bethesda, MD is celebrating the 15th anniversary of its founding by Charles (Charlie) K. Nulsen, III. During this time, the company has developed more than eight million square feet of residential, commercial, retail, and mixed-use space, and has another 1.6 million SF in its development pipeline.

The company is best known for its five Solaire-branded apartment communities, with a total of over 1,400 apartment homes, all in close proximity to Metrorail's Red Line in Montgomery County, MD. Its latest, the 403-unit Solaire 8200 Dixon, will be Silver Spring's tallest building when it delivers in 2022.

Solaire 8200 Dixon is WPC's third multifamily project in the Ripley District of downtown Silver Spring, a former light industrial zone where WPC and Montgomery County have spearheaded rapid mixed-use transformation. The company's two other Solaire projects are in Wheaton and Bethesda. Last year, WPC acquired land in Tysons for future development of a 700-unit apartment community, its first in Virginia.

Nulsen is especially proud of WPC's success in adaptive re-use. In 2016, WPC converted an obsolete suburban office building to a self-storage facility operated by CubeSmart. And at a well-located retail center in Frederick, MD, WPC recently leased a defunct furniture store to Urban Air Adventure Park after obtaining a zoning amendment for indoor entertainment use.

WPC's diversified portfolio also includes specialized medical office space, such as Stone Ridge Medical Center, located directly across Route 50 from the new HCA StoneSprings Hospital Center in Dulles, VA.

In the retail sector, WPC plans to open Silver Spring's first food hall/city market on the ground floor of its Solaire 8200 Dixon apartment community. Nearby, WPC leased the ground-level space in its Solaire Bethesda apartment tower to True Food Kitchen for the health-driven restaurant chain's second location in the Washington metropolitan area.

Despite the COVID-19 crisis, Nulsen is bullish about his company's future, noting that the company is moving forward with plans for a $250 million mixed-use redevelopment on a downtown Bethesda site that includes its own office building.

In honor of its milestone anniversary, WPC has donated $10,000 to help Montgomery County first responders and public service workers during the COVID-19 crisis.

Nulsen began his real estate career in the early 1980s, first with the Spaulding and Slye brokerage and then with Centennial Companies in northern Virginia. After the real estate market crash of 1990, Nulsen co-founded Atlantic Realty Companies in 1992.

"The important thing in this business, and something that I would advise anyone beginning a real estate career, is to stick to it," said Nulsen. "We launched Atlantic Realty in 1992 during the darkest real estate recession of all time and grew it to become one of the area's leading commercial developers. At WPC, we've taken advantage of a variety of emerging opportunities and trends, including expanding into multifamily housing. I'm looking forward to Washington Property's next 15 years."