After an Arlandria apartment complex has been owned by the same family for more than 70 years, the owner has sold the property and retired.
Joann Poladian Belknap recently sold the 213-unit, three-building Glebe House Apartments complex at 25 W. Glebe Road to Maryland-based Rock Creek Property Group for $29.5 million. After managing the 2.5-acre property for nearly 40 years with her Potomac Management Company, Belknap has officially retired and moved to Myrtle Beach, S.C.
“Glebe House was not just a family-owned business, it was a family,” Belknap told ALXnow. “It means everything, it’s my entire life … The maintenance engineer who I ended up marrying [Greg Belknap] worked there for 19 years. The resident manager, who I worked with for 38 years, happens to be my mother-in-law.”
Belknap said that she chose to sell to Rock Creek Property Group after they assured her that the property would be maintained as is.
“That was the most important thing to me,” she said. “I wanted to sell it to someone who would take good care of the buildings.”
Casey Sutherland of Rosemont Real Estate managed the sale. The property was put on the market last September and Belknap closed in April, he said.
“The best part for me was that Joann came to us with this large asset she’d worked on her whole life,” Sutherland said. “She trusted us to not only bring the property to market, but see it all the way through to settlement.”
Rock Creek Property Group has listed the property on its website.
“Built in 1952, Glebe House was owned and operated by a single family for over 70 years,” Rock Creek Property Group said. “Rock Creek’s acquisition represents the first institutional transaction in the property’s history. The buildings are solidly constructed with three stories each and feature a mix of studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments with on-site laundry facilities and off-street parking.”
Belknap’s grandfather, Jacob Poladian, built the apartment complex in 1952, as well as a number of other properties in the city, including the former Department of Community and Human Services building at 2497 Mount Vernon Avenue. Her father, Harry Poladian, later managed Glebe House Apartments, and until they moved into a house when she was five years old, Belknap lived next door to her parents in her own one-bedroom apartment.
“My bedroom was an apartment, yes,” Belknap said. “My parents took over another one-bedroom [unit], and the second apartment became mine.”
An only child, Belknap started working with her father at Glebe House Apartments in 1987.
Belknap says it’s hard to believe that she’s left Alexandria.
“Every time the phone rings, I have to stop myself from jumping out of my skin like I used to,” she said. “Every time the phone rang it was an emergency. So, the first month I had to teach myself not to react when the phone rang.”
Image via Google Maps
