EYA's Chancellors Row Begins Sales

Though the field is still green and the sales trailer still under construction, EYA's Chancellor's Row will begin sales this Saturday for the first phase of its townhouse development in Brookland. The houses will be nestled in the residential neighborhood among the various religious orders that call the area home. EYA will build on the 10 acres of property it purchased from St. Paul's College, which maintains a swath of green hill as an entrance from 4th Street to the 10 acre campus it retains. Construction on the new community will begin with basic grading and utility work over the summer with vertical construction expected to begin in October or November and deliver sometime between February and April.

Designed by the Lessard Group, the whole project will bring 237 single-family units near the Trinity and Catholic campuses along 5th and 6th Streets, NE. The 14 to 18 foot wide townhouses will sell between $450,000 and $550,000. The project includes 28 affordable set-asides, 13 of which will come online this weekend. Of the low-income units, half will go to buyers earning 50% Area Median Income (AMI) and half to those earning 80% AMI.

EYA originally won out over a field of 12 to 15 other developers who responded to a solicitation of interest put forth on behalf of the Paulist order. The developer paid a fixed amount up front, with a formula for additional payments based on sales. Right now, EYA only owns the land for the first phase, which sits on either side of an extended Jackson Street, abutting land owned by the Dominican Order and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Under the contract with the Paulists, EYA will purchase the second phase no more than three years from now and the third phase two years after that. Depending on sales, the transactions could happen sooner, said EYA Vice President, Jack Lester. The timeline was based on an assumption of three sales per month.

Chancellor's Row is less than a 10 minute walk from the Brookland Metro and, as part of a compromise between the Office of Planning (OP) and the community, each unit will have one parking spot with the option to add a second for a nominal fee. The community expressed concerns that the new neighbors would (collective gasp) seek on-street parking; still, proximity to Metro trumped that concern and OP narrowly won the day with a theoretically smaller carprint.

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