Braystone brings 31 condominiums to Old Town Alexandria, Va.

Jun 07, 2023

Braystone, a new condominium and retail building in Old Town Alexandria, Va., was designed to fit in with historical buildings in the neighborhood. “The Braystone purchaser is a buyer for whom no other location but Old Town proper will work,” said listing agent Timur Loynab, senior vice president at McWilliams Ballard. “This buyer wants to be in the heart of Old Town — not ‘north’ Old Town and not the tourist-heavy portion of the waterfront.”

The four-story building, with its brick-and-medal exterior, is next to buildings from the 1800s, including one where a wheelwright, Josiah Ford, had a shop. That bit of Alexandria history influenced the Braystone’s design, said Rita Bamberger, senior vice president at the Holladay Corp. “We decided to add the decorative black metal tracery material to the front of the building and to the ceiling of the condominium’s lobby. The custom design is in the shape of different-sized wheels. It is a very unique design, but one that appropriately harkens back to the 1800s.”

The wheel motif appears on the roof as well as the building’s facade and the lobby ceiling.

As part of the project, a joint effort of Holladay Corp. and the Foundry Cos., the developers restored two adjacent buildings for retail use.

The first floor of the new building has condo units and retail space. Some second-floor units have balconies above retail spaces on King Street. Penthouses have private terraces on the eastern side of the building, and all units have access to a community roof deck.

In addition to the two- and three-bedroom penthouses, the building has studio, one-bedroom, one-bedroom-with-den and two-bedroom units. The two furnished model units have a bedroom and a den. The second-floor furnished model, like most Braystone units, has nine-foot ceilings. Its den has a door and is staged as a second bedroom. The first-floor model unit, with 11-foot ceilings, has an open den three steps up from the floor with the kitchen, living area and bedroom.

The units have uniform finishes, fixtures and appliances, including LG washer and dryer, wood flooring with a walnut stain in living areas, white tile floors in bathrooms, pocket doors and modular closets.

The building has a package room and a bike storage area. Indoor and outdoor parking spaces, compact or standard size, are priced from $36,000 to $55,000. Parking is included with penthouse units.

Kitchens have white cabinets, quartz countertops and a marble mosaic backsplash. They have a Bosch stainless-steel wall oven and a gas cooktop with a vent hood. Two- and three-bedroom units have a French door refrigerator. Kitchen islands have a sink with a chrome faucet and a quartz counter with a waterfall edge. The studio floor plan does not have an island.

The first-floor furnished model unit has a full bathroom in the bedroom suite and a powder room in the entryway. The other model unit has a full bathroom with a door from the kitchen and a walk-in closet that is connected to the bedroom.

Bathrooms all have chrome Pfister fixtures, quartz counters, flat-panel cabinets, backlit mirrors and Cortina white tile.

The en suite bathroom in the first-floor model unit has a walk-in shower with a niche and a single-sink vanity with gray cabinetry. The powder room has the same single-sink vanity. The second-floor model has a shower-tub combo with a shower niche and a single-sink vanity with gray cabinetry.

Old Town Alexandria

Retail spaces in the Braystone and adjacent buildings are set to open this year. Many other shops and restaurants are nearby on King Street. Whole Foods is about a half-mile away, Harris Teeter a mile away, and Wegmans about two miles away.

Waterfront Park is about a mile away and Jones Point Park — with playgrounds, athletic fields and courts, and a canoe launch — is just over a mile away. Access to the Mount Vernon Trail — a paved 18-mile path along the Potomac River, from George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate to Theodore Roosevelt Island — is about a mile away.

Elementary: Lyles-Crouch Elementary

Middle: George Washington Middle

High: Alexandria City High School

The King Street-Old Town Metrorail station, on the Blue and Yellow lines, is about a third of a mile west on King Street and accessible by way of the free King Street Trolley or Metro’s 30 bus route. Reagan National Airport is about 3½ miles away.

“The Braystone buyer likes the boutique nature of the building. They don’t want to live in a sterile high-rise or a shopping mall,” Loynab said.