Near-Earth asteroid 2012 DAsub 14 made its closest approach on February 15, 2013, when it passed at a distance of 27 700 km from the Earth's surface. It was the first time an asteroid of moderate size was predicted to approach that close to the Earth, becoming bright enough to permit a detailed study from ground-based telescopes. Asteroid 2012 DAsub 14 was poorly characterized before its closest approach. The main objective of this work was to obtain new and valuable data to better understand its physical properties, and to evaluate the effects such a close approach on the object. Visible spectra together with visible and near-infrared color photometry of 2012 DAsub 14 show that the object can be classified as an L-type asteroid, a rare spectral type among the asteroid population, with a composition similar to that of carbonaceous chondrites. From the absolute photometry, together with some constraints on size and shape, we compute a geometric albedo of pv=044 + or - 0.20, which is slightly above the range of albedos known for L-type asteroids.