Adams Morgan Church Hotel Project Makes Its Case

In a spirited zoning board hearing last night, the Friedman Capital Advisors and Beztak Companies' - developers for the Adams Morgan church hotel - presented a strong case in support of the project, while critics found themselves on the ropes - at one point, with deliberations becoming so heated that a screaming woman in the audience had to be escorted out by security.

It was a striking contrast with last week's hearing, in which developers were roundly and repeatedly rebuked by the board for a late and insufficient submission.

This hearing kicked off with Councilman Jim Graham reading a statement in support of the project.  Treated with worshipful deference by the board, Graham said the hotel was "overwhelmingly supported and endorsed by residents.  I live about two blocks away from the location myself."  He also defended the controversial $46 million tax abatement given to the developers, stating "this project will create jobs, and they can't build this project without the abatement."  (Can't or won't, though let's give the honorable councilman the benefit of the doubt here.)

Graham also presented the hotel project as something of a last chance for the historic 100 year old First Church of Christ, Scientist facade, as the owners have vowed to sell it to other developers if the hotel project falls through, and "if that happens, the church will be lost.  Which no one wants."  Graham went on to acknowledge that there were still people who had legitimate objections to the project, but that it should move forward.

Board member Peter May, the lone skeptic, asked Graham to elaborate on these legitimate objections.  Showing why he's survived in politics all these years Graham adlibbed a meandering non-response that included the phrase, "projects like this deal with challenges all over the city.  All over the world!"

Vice Chairman Marcie Cohen shared neighborhood concerns about traffic, saying she walks her dog on Champlain all the time, and "always notices lots of traffic, and parking on both sides."  (Anyone who frequents the Adams Morgan area has surely noticed the same.)

But a traffic consultant swore that after reviewing the traffic impact analysis, the hotel would not create more traffic.  Cohen, clearly skeptical, asked, "So even though it'll be heavily traveled and there'll be increased movement with taxis, et cetera, there's no significant impact?"

"No," said the consultant, "No significant impact."  There followed a long silence in which everyone debated internally whether to trust the science.  There followed a long presentation by the developers, which contained a few interesting tidbits.

- Chopping off the top floor increased per-room costs to $530,000, from $486,000; $500,000 per room is the industry threshold for profitability in a project like this, so the loss of that extra height could be a significant blow.

- The building will seek LEED Silver certification, at least.

- Assuming the zoning board gives approval, developers are looking at a hearing with the HPRB around Thanksgiving.

- Under questioning about a vague section of the plans, it emerged that the toilet exhaust fans blow out into the courtyard.  "This seems to be problematic," said one board member.

And then there were the fireworks.  After it emerged that a man who claimed to represent a group of Champlain Street residents under the name "Champlain Street Neighbors," only represented one actual Champlain Street resident, and seemed to have padded his resident list with inaccurate and/or questionable names, the board went on the offensive.  Chairman Hood noted it was a "federal offense to falsify a federal form," and moved to revoke the organization's party status.  Under questioning, the man's case seemed to fall apart, and his sub-Jim-Graham-level adlibbing skills ("How many people on this list live on Champlain Street?"  "Yes.") only further annoyed the board.  Hood accused him of submitting "misleading documents" and was "very taken back" and intended to "talk to legal counsel."  When a woman in the audience loudly protested this, Hood had her removed from the hearing, and called for a recess.

The recess seemed to calm everyone's nerves, though it was getting late and Hood moved to end the hearing.  The next meeting was set for October 10, and judging by the tone of this latest hearing, the hotel project is well on its way.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Shrinking AdMo Hotel Rebuked By Zoning Commission

In a brief but heated zoning board hearing on Thursday night, representatives for the Friedman Capital Advisors/Beztak Companies' controversial hotel project in Adams Morgan received a series of stinging rebukes, after botching their documents submission.  Though required to submit any amendments 21 days in advance, developers submitted the newest amendments on Tuesday evening, with disastrous consequences.

The proposed project, which has been n the works for over four years, encompasses properties at 1770 Euclid Street NW, and 2390 Champlain Street NW, and consists of just over 42,000 s.f. of space currently occupied by the 100-year old First Church of Christ, Scientist, a parking lot, and a small office building.  The OPX Global-designed plans call for up to 227 rooms and 174 parking spaces; Thursday's hearing was primarily to discuss changes to the building's proposed 90-foot height (which has been extremely problematic) and to the number of parking spaces.

However, these changes were never addressed, as members of the zoning commission raised serious concerns about the timing, quality, and adequacy of the submitted papers.

Vice Chairman Marcie Cohen feared the community had not had time to review the latest plans.  Commissioner Michael Turnbull objected strongly and at length to the quality of the renderings that the board was given.  "I only have little tiny drawings.  You need full size ones.  Black and white is unacceptable, I need color.  I need a ground floor plate that shows the entrance, the lobby, et cetera.  These little black and white cartoons don't convey what the building actually looks like.  They're muddy, they're not accurate."

The roadblock comes at an unfortunate time, falling just a day after the project's developers won support from the Office of Planning as well as a local group that had obstructed the hotel over height concerns.  Friedman / Beztak had agreed to drop the height from 81 feet to 72 to appease height activists despite broad support from the greater community.  Friedman also had to agree to make numerous repairs at the Marie Reed Center as a condition of the neighborhood's approval.  Last December the developer had agreed to reduce the height from 92 feet after a similar slap-down from the Office of Planning.

Still, zoning commissioners weren't impressed.  Peter May, though he began by damning the project with the faintest of praise ("Generally speaking, the development of this case has been positive.  I don't know that it's been positive enough, but it's been positive."), was the sole supporter of moving forward despite the late submission, asking his fellow board members if there was some way to mitigate the damage, and pointing out that if they were to turn down the amendment, they'd have to reschedule the hearing for sometime in December.

Chairman Anthony Hood didn't have a problem with that.  "The way this was presented to me, I don't have a problem waiting until December," he said.  Hood, like Cohen, had concerns that the community hadn't received a fair chance to review the changes, and was clearly irked by the last-minute submissions.  "I spent the weekend reviewing stuff [for this case] and then I get all this stuff on Tuesday. It's not ... popular."

Perhaps encouraged by Hood's apparent irritation, Vice Chairman Cohen quickly moved to cancel the hearing and to refuse to even acknowledge receiving Tuesday's controversial packet.  However, after May pointed out that if they went that route, the developers would have to "get back in line for a hearing date," the board moved instead to simply push the hearing to the 13th.  After a series of procedural moves designed to delay the business at hand until next week without setting everyone back to square one, it was suggested that the applicant be allowed to explain why the submission was so late and so shoddy.

"I really don't want to hear from the applicant," said Hood.  But cooler heads prevailed, and the project's representative was allowed to speak.  Apologizing for the late submission, the representative promised to make all materials available to the community, to submit better drawings, and to observe the proper regulations governing the timing of submissions.  He then pointed out that the changes at hand had been made to address the District's and the community's main concerns; a reduction in height, and a reduction in the number of parking spaces.  "These could make supporters out of a lot of objectors, or at least take people who are against this project and turn them neutral," he said.

However, after reps from ANC1C declined to comment on the new plans ("We've received three sets of documents in the last 72 hours; we're not prepared to comment."), the meeting was quickly adjourned, postponed to next week.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

AdMo Hotel Gets New Look, Pushes Forward

Plans for the hotel addition to the Adams Morgan Historic Hotel have a new look, a new design team - and no shortage of comments on both - at yet another Historic Preservation Review Board meeting.

The Board again will hear community testimony at its May meeting before making a decision about the plans to develop at the First Church of Christ Scientist building on Euclid Street. Dozens of residents attended the March and April meetings for their chance to speak, but two meetings was simply not enough time to hear them all. Another 45 minutes will be designated for the project in May when the Board might finally get its chance to ask some questions and cast a vote.

Barbara Mullenex, principal at OPX Global, presented its latest plans in March showing a more subdued, red brick masonry building with light steel windows behind the century-old church that itself is under consideration for historic landmark status. The new building is 90 feet tall on Euclid Street but steps back as the land slopes down 13 feet toward Champlain Street. A 3-floor, mostly glass, 28-foot hyphen joins the two buildings.

Click here for more renderings

Friedman Capital Advisors and national hotel developer Beztak Companies first introduced plans for a 180,000 s.f. "boutique hotel" four years ago. Marriott signed on to manage the hotel as part of the Edition line of boutique hotels created in conjunction with Ian Schrager's hyper-sophisticated brand. But Kevin Montano, head of development for Edition, said the developers terminated the Ian Schrager agreement several months ago.

The Adams Morgan Historic Hotel website still lists Marriott as the hotel management. Brian Friedman did not return calls or emails requesting information about the project.

New construction behind the (not yet designated) historic church will provide space for guest rooms, parking and other more private facilities. The church will be refurbished and repurposed for a restaurant, ballrooms and community room open to the public.

The Board provided concept review for the project in July and November of 2008 when Handel Architects presented a mostly glass building with colored panels. According to the latest Historic Preservation Office staff report:

"In its two concept reviews in June and November 2008, the Review Board offered a range of comments to improve the compatibility of the project. Those comments focused on: 1) increasing the distance and visual separation between the church and the addition; 2) ensuring the connection was light-weight in feeling and lower in height than the church’s cornice line; 3) redesigning the porte-cochere and vehicular access to the addition to ensure it did not extend over to the side yard of the church; 4) shifting the mass of the addition away from the church to the greatest extent possible (moving it further down Champlain Street and/or concentrated at the rear/west side were specifically suggested); and 5) articulating the building’s all-glass elevations so that they didn’t appear flat, monolithic and looming behind the church building. It has been based on this guidance that the HPO has worked with the applicants over the past 18 months to ensure that these points of concern have been addressed."

The building is more clearly separated from the church, the glass connector is much shorter and transparent, vehicle traffic moved to a redesigned porte-cochere that fits better with Champlain Street, massing shifted away from the church, and masonry replaced most of the glass.

The Historic Preservation Office staff report "recommends that the Board find the revised concept to be compatible with the proposed landmark and consistent with the purpose of the preservation act..." If the Board follows that recommendation, it is fairly certain members will offer tips for improvement as plans develop. The real problems could occur with zoning.

Residents who dislike the plan seem to focus on two big factors – height and community impact.

This fall, the Office of Planning sent a report to the Zoning Commission including concerns about the building’s height. The Zoning Commission agreed in November to set down the proposal for a hearing but also expressed its own height concerns.

Designs changed since November based on recommendations from the Zoning Commission such as colors and massing. But the overall height dropped only two feet to fit within current zoning limits, leaving even more uncertainty about whether a high-end hotel can be a good-enough addition to AdMo - the District's preeminent late night bar scene. 

Washington, D.C., real estate development news

Friedman/Schrager AdMo Hotel Rebuked by Office of Planning, May Shrink

The Brian Friedman/Ian Schrager/Marriott International Adams Morgan hotel project received a mild rebuke when the Office of Planning issued a setdown report last month criticizing the hotel design as too tall, among other things. The report went on to list several other points of contention, including concerns about the roof design, the inadequacy of Champlain Street as a main thoroughfare, a dearth of information about potential transit use by hotel patrons, and an “overall lack of information and inadequate drawings.” (!!)

The most potentially problematic of the Office's objections was the height overrun, which at 92 feet was two feet over the C-2-B PUD maximum. While the Office does have the prerogative to grant a 5% flexibility height exception, an anonymous source tells DCMud that developers are now leaning towards lopping off that two feet rather than making the case that the 92-foot height is "essential to the functioning of the project."

One possible avenue to this (speculation alert!) would be amendment of the roof design, to which the Office of Planning also took exception. Looking at the mockups, the present roof design seems to consist of multiple stacked tiers or platforms ("the rooftop would exhibit multiple heights where only one is allowed"). Amending this to a flatter, more consistent design seems like an obvious two-bird-one-stone solution.

Friedman’s plan to convert the historic First Church of Christ building at 1782 Columbia Road into an 174-room Ian Schrager-designed Edition boutique hotel has traveled a bumpy road from the very beginning. Early community resistance centered around a 20-year $46 million tax abatement the city awarded the project. With the D.C. budget in tatters and the tide of conventional wisdom starting to turn against Nineties-era orthodoxy about the public value of municipal givebacks like tax abatements and publicly-funded stadium construction (many studies have shown the economic benefits promised by builders seeking subsidies have been negligible or nonexistent), many observers wondered why a luxury hotel needed handouts. (Standard rebuttal - a number of hotels in DC received similar abatements; the abatement is a vital part of the financing package, i.e. the hotel can't be built without it; the abatement is just a discount on future tax revenues - estimated at $7 million per year - none of which will reach city coffers if the hotel isn't built.)

Local critics also wondered if the location was right for a high-end hotel, pointing out the neighborhood’s lack of access via public transportation, its potential harmful effects on area rents and, again, the narrowness of adjacent Champlain Street (some online commenters astutely observed that design mockups seemed to fudge street proportions). Friedman assuaged some of these concerns by emphasizing the number of jobs that will be created by the hotel's construction (1,500 construction jobs alone), partnering with the Adams Morgan Youth Leadership Academy to provide jobs and apprenticeships to local youth, and throwing in a 4,000 square foot Adams Morgan community center.

Overall the plan calls for a conversion of the existing church building into a restaurant and bar, with the southfacing c-shaped hotel itself being built on the church's rear parcel (now a parking lot) and on the adjacent lot on Champlain, the present home of Washington City Paper and jazz radio station WPFW.

Washington D.C. real estate development news