Government Pulls Plug on Developers' Dreams for Walter Reed

On Wednesday, May 10, the Department of Defense - owners of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center located between 16th Street and Georgia Avenue in Northwest Washington - announced to DC officials that it has decided to accept applications from the General Services Administration (GSA) and Department of State to use all 113 acres of this campus. Walter Reed is scheduled to be closed by the Army in 2011. GSA officials expect to use about 34 acres of this land, and State will use about 80 acres. This decision comes as a major blow to city officials and developers, whose starry-eyed visions saw the availability of this prime real estate as offering a unique chance to expand one of the city's most attractive mixed-race, solidly middle-class neighborhoods with a combination of new single-family homes and medium-density townhouses, with a park and a school and a neighborhood recreation center - development that would have also helped advance the revitalization of retail businesses along Georgia Avenue.