FABB Blog

Photo: Washington Post

Some renters want to live close to a Metro station. Others look for a building with reasonably priced parking. But for a growing number of District residents, a place to park one’s bike is the most crucial component of apartment living.

As the city adds bike lanes to make commuting easier, local apartment buildings have gotten on board with the trend, adding bike-friendly amenities to entice renters who cycle.

Shankar Kulumani, 28, bikes to class at George Washington University, where he’s a doctoral student in mechanical and aerospace engineering. He and his wife, Christine Kulumani, 24, have three bikes between them, so they made finding a bike-friendly building a priority in their apartment hunt.

A year ago, the couple moved to 2800 Woodley (2800 Woodley Road NW; 877-698-4894), which has a secure bike storage space and a bike repair station in the garage.

The bike storage means that when he gets home, “I don’t have to lug my bike up four flights of stairs to my apartment,” Shankar says. “This bike space is a lot better than a lot of other [apartment buildings] I’ve looked at.”

The bike repair station includes an air pump for tires and a set of tools to fix chains and other bike parts in need of maintenance. The video-monitored storage space can accommodate around 40 bikes. Renters who want to store their bikes there get a separate key to access the caged area.

2800 Woodley, which is managed by WC Smith, added the bike amenities about two years ago in response to the popularity of the similar amenities offered at a newer WC Smith-managed property, 2M Street (2 M St. NE; 855-374-5266), says Tanya Congdon, community manager at 2800 Woodley.

The effort has paid off; the bike storage space is currently full and has a waiting list, Cong­don says.