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The Boston Globe

Art Solomon, president and chief executive of DSF Real Estate Investors LLC, is just finishing up a prominent Cambridge project, the $175 million rehabilitation of the Necco building, which is leased to Novartis AG, the big Swiss pharmaceutical manufacturer.

The company is expected to begin occupying the old candy factory in April. But what's next for Solomon?

Nothing right now in Greater Boston, he said over lunch. But he has four projects going in the Washington, D.C., area.

"That market has been sizzling," said Solomon, a former senior partner at two Wall Street investment firms, and before that an urban specialist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "D.C., and particularly Northern Virginia, is probably the strongest residential market in the US."

DSF Real Estate is building two condo projects in Fairfax County, VA., and two in the Old Town section of Alexandria, VA., with a total of 1,000 units.

All are near public transportation.

All across the Bay State, there's so much investment money chasing deals that good buys of existing properties are hard to find, Solomon said. "I'd rather be a seller in this market then a buyer."

DSF in February will sell a 399-unit complex of garden apartments on 23 acres in Plainville.

But he's looking for his next bid development endeavor.

"Necco is winding down," Solomon said. "We'll probably make bids on a couple in the next few weeks.:

Thomas C. Palmer Jr.
Saturday, January 17, 2004