With a financing package that settled today, construction of the 33-acre Capitol Quarter in Southeast is now set to begin. Spurred by a Hope VI grant from HUD in 2001 that has been leveraged from $34.9 million to $700 million, the DC Housing Authority is partnering with Forest City Enterprises, Mid-City Urban, and EYA Associates, Inc. to create Capitol Quarter on the site of the now-demolished 707-unit Arthur Capper and Carrollsburg Dwellings public housing projects in Near Southeast. DCHA closed today on the first of three phases; construction will now begin on a 158 townhouse segment that will deliver at the end of 2009.
Until this point, construction was being done on the infrastructure of the area as part of an agreement with the District government to install new underground utilities, sanitary and water lines, and a new storm management system. These improvements were financed by a $36.7 million bond approved by the District Council and backed by new real estate taxes generated from new developments.
A mixture of affordable and market-rate rental and for-sale townhouses, the site, located officially at 1023 4th Street, SE, will include 395 public housing units, 162 rental units for seniors, 139 rental units for workforce housing, 410 affordable rental units, 42 voucher for-sale units, 171 for-sale workforce units, and 144 market-rate units when the project
reaches completion in 2013. Located near the Navy Yard, the development will also offer 702,00 s.f. of office space, 51,000 s.f. of retail space, and an 18,000 s.f. LEED-certified community center.
“The retail will be neighborhood serving but will also serve the office portion because this will be a large residential community, but it is also right on the Navy Yard, and that huge office complex is right there. It is also caddy-corner to the stadium,” said Dena Michaelson, Director of Public Affairs for DCHA.The 33-acre site is within walking distance of the Navy Yard Metro, and was vacated in phases starting in 2001. The project was fully demolished in 2006, and has since completed the senior independent-living building. The second phase, which will include another 158 townhouses, will deliver between 2011 and 2012. The third and final phase will deliver 52 townhouses between 2012 and 2013. The townhouses, handled mainly by EYA were designed by Lessard Group.
7 comments:
Honestly, way too much "project" housing to make it a sustainable community. I know that's not gonna be popular, but it's the truth. I'd say 20-30% affordable is a bit more realistic...
But, I guess we'll see. I'd love to be wrong, and I'm usually not cynical. But elsewhere in the city, I think the mixed use balance is a bit better.
@anonymous
This is not that much public housing it just depends on how DC Gov. handles it which will be fucked up on there part like always
Public housing can with market rate rents be substainable it just depends on the place and how they go about the housing.
The problem comes when you place a bunch of public housing togther if it is spread out and not all togther it can be sustainable and it was never called project housing, because all public housing is not projects for your info.
DC seems to be pushing all people in public housing to maryland, plain and simple. There has not been any public housing built in DC for a while and none of these new developments will have any.
DC is often criticized as evicting all people on the public dole. Those paying attention know that nearly every new project contains a subsidized element to it, so the amount of assisted housing is constantly going up. So please don't criticize the city for that.
But kk, bunching people together in public housing is a bad thing, we long since figured out. They need to be spread thin, so if Maryland wants our public housing, let them have it, DC (okay, really all governments) should never be doing project housing again, unless your goal is to create a segregated ghetto of the perpetually down and out. And I agree with Anon, way too much low-income housing in a low-density community without retail, DC screwed up a great piece of real estate so that taxpayers can subsidize a large minority of the population.
All places have public housing plain and simple; you can go to any country and to their capital or any major city and you will see it.
There will always be poor people and you have to provide something for them, I didn’t say a lot but something. I didn’t say that subsidized housing doesn’t have its place but there is also a need for public housing if you like it or not.
Subsidized is not the same as public housing, subsidized housing could mean a apt. in a building that usually goes for $1500 going for maybe $300, 400 or 500, does that help a person who is poor or is borderline poor or working class poor whom does work but it still classified as poor no.
I know a lot of how DC handles public housing compared to other cities in the US and throughout the world while I was working for an advocate for the poor.
All the problems that happen in DC's public housing are nothing compared to some places. Go to any public housing in Detroit, NYC, Mississippi, Houston or London especially London DC's public housing is like Spring Valley compared to public housing in London.
There will always be a need for it whether you like it or not you just have to cope with it by not living by it or doing something to fix the problems. You can go to any public housing or any area where there is mass poverty in any country and it will always be the same. Forcing the poor somewhere else on brings the problem to some other community who may not be able to handle it and the same process happens again with no real solution.
The best way is to combat the problems are to get to the bottom of it and not just handing the problem off to someone else in this case PG County who is handing the problem to Mont. and Frederick Counties and the process will continue until something is done about it.
Instead of building public housing they could place some of the people in buildings that are not public housing and DC would take care of the rent or work out something with the property owners like paying less property taxes for XX amount of years, only a small number of people thought maybe having 10 or 15 households but if that happened in many buildings it could work here as it has in other countries so why wouldn’t it work here ; other than a person stereotyping poor or lower income people. It’s better to try something than sit and do nothing and just pass the problem to someone else.
$700 Mil HUD grant? Somebody's getting rich.
regardless, this place is one of the most popular developments around. People were camping out to buy these homes.
To see how well workforce housing blends with market-rate housing, visit Chatham Square in Alexandria.
It's important to know that the people who will occupy the old Capper site are hard-working individuals who are thankful for the opportunity to live near their jobs (e.g. the stadium).
If wealthy residents of large cities want to take advantage of affordable goods and services, then we have an obligation to provide local housing solutions to those who work to provide those goods and services.
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