Not long ago, it’s unclear what the selling points for a new condo on Bladensburg Road and L Street NE would have been. Proximity to the National Arboretum and Gallaudet University, maybe.

Then new destinations started to open: Jimmy Valentine’s Lonely Hearts Club in 2007 down the road, and then Capital City Diner across the street, and the flood of new bars, restaurants, and performance spaces on nearby H Street NE.

Now, Gina Beaven—the UrbanLand Company agent repping the Renee condo at 1629 L Street—doesn’t even mention the school and the park. It’s all about being in the H Street corridor, near a new microbrewery called Brau, and just a few blocks away from the Benning Road streetcar.

“We’re trying to make this the crown jewel,” Beaven said, while waiting for househunters under the hot sun yesterday afternoon. “When you guy a condo in Washington, you want to buy in a still developing area, because there’s nowhere to go but up.”

The 18 units, 5 of which have gone under contract since the building went on the market late last year, range in price from $146,000 to $225,000. The interiors are decidedly no-frills, unstaged, with basic cabinets and finishes. The hallways are lined with strangely pretentious solid-colored square canvases.

Of course, they’re not selling the interiors—H Street’s the magic word.