Shaw will have its renaissance yet. Earlier this week Alexander Padro, the President of Shaw Main Streets, provided positive updates on several long anticipated developments in the Shaw neighborhood. It should make for a busy summer and fall, beginning with Monday's groundbreaking for 1501 9th St., NW, a small development by a small business, Inle Development. It marked the beginning of the groundbreaking "season" with bigger projects, like the Howard Theater, set to follow shortly.Inle's development will be home to Mandalay Restaurant and Cafe, a Burmese restaurant currently based in Silver Spring. Mandalay will have a ground floor restaurant with outdoor seating, a second floor bar and the remainder will be residential space for the restaurant owner and family members. The restaurant will open next summer.
Ellis Development Group and Four Points will break ground on August 22nd at the Howard Theater, marking the centennial anniversary of its opening. According to Padro, the team recently acquired and demolished a neighboring building and plans to seek approval for an alley closing so that the Theater will get a makeover and an expansion all at once. Construction should take approximately 18 months.
As we previously reported, Roadside Development will "break ground" on the O Street Market in September. At that time the developer will begin the process of bolstering and securing the existing structure with new construction likely to follow in "Spring of 2011." The two-block, mixed-use project will include 611 residential units, 86 of which will be subsidized by the city, senior housing, a 189-room hotel, a 516-space parking garage and 88,000 s.f. of retail: 57,000 s.f. Giant and 31,000 s.f. for additional vendors. The Shalom Baranes-designed project will cover two city blocks between 7th and 9th Streets, and O and P Streets and will re-open 8th Street.Padro said this forward momentum is leading other developers, small and large alike to begin piecemeal work in other areas. Developers are "already investing in renovating some of the smaller historic buildings that are part of the larger projects." Little by little, one project at the time, Shaw's developers are bringing new energy to the neighborhood.
Washington, DC commercial real estate development news
6 comments:
This is great news. I live up at 9th and U and maybe this will jump start something happening with the Howard Town Center and get that moving forward.
Great news...hope it all happens this time for everyone in Shaw...
The mention of smaller projects in your post made me wonder about the status of Kelsey Gardens/Addison Square? Any progress on that front?
And I'd heard the Warrenton Group owned the vacant building at 7th and Q and were "about to renovate it"...anyone know of anything happening on either of these buildings?
Kelsey Gardens is still looking for a new developer. There is little movement on that lot since we wrote this update: http://dcmud.blogspot.com/2010/03/metropolitans-other-options-for-shaws.html
This will hopefully spur development in the area such as the WMATA lots (both the Jazz on Florida at 8th and Florida and the new office for the UNCF at 7th and S Streets).
Empty large lots like these are unheard of near metro stations and the lack of development has led to this area to experience drugs and crime to continue.
I only hope that the projects mentioned in the article do break ground in August since the residents of this area have experienced many "ground breaking" ceremonies with nothing actually being built (except the Shaw Library).
On the issue of groundbreakings for developer's projects not being followed up with construction, other than DC government projects, there have been no such instances in our area. While there have been announcements about financing held on site well in advance of construction, the only instances where shovels have hit the dirt and construction did not follow shortly thereafter have been parks that were tied up in the Banneker contracting imbroglio.
Every non-government groundbreaking was followed by construction, such as Bread for the City's expansion adjacent to their 1525 7th Street, NW headquarters, which will be completed in October.
For the record, I am executive director of Shaw Main Streets, inc., not the organization's president. Our organization does not have a president. Our Board of Directors is chaired by Timothy C. Mack, a 30-plus-year Shaw resident.
--Alexander M. Padro
Shaw main Streets, Inc.
This is good news to hear/read. I hope someone takes action and starts developing!
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