Beckert's Park on Capitol Hill - Coming This Summer

Redeveloping the aging, low density Safeway at the eastern end of Capitol Hill and ridding the neighborhood of a vast expanse of parking lot was inevitable.  But it took purchasing the land from Safeway's parent company and agreement to lease new space to Safeway to make the concept reality, and since purchasing the land in 2016, developer Foulger Pratt has been at work on the details.  Later this summer, the Silver Spring-based developer will open the 325 rental apartments and celebrate the new 60,000 s.f. Safeway.   The building will feature a "luxury pool" among its amenities, and 8000 s.f. of "neighborhood retail" on a site that housed an amusement park and beer garden in the 19th century.  Sadly, the beer garden will not be brought back, but those that remember the former Safeway will no doubt be pleased with its next generation replacement.

Project:  Beckert's Park

Address:  415 14th Street, SE, Washington DC

Developer: Foulger Pratt

Architect:  BKV Group

General Contractor:  Foulger Pratt Contracting

Use:  60,000 s.f. Safeway, 325 rental apartments,

Expected Completion:  Summer 2020

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Washington D.C retail and real estate development news

Zoning Commission Approves Hine School Redevelopment Project

Observers of the long-running saga that is the redevelopment of Capitol Hill’s Hine School can finally turn the page. Yesterday, DC’s zoning commission definitively approved the project’s PUD, which means developers Stanton-EastBanc can now move forward and focus on next steps: gathering financing and preparing for a groundbreaking next summer.

Last night’s meeting was the project’s final action hearing. At a meeting last month, commissioners requested clarification on a number of mostly-small matters, like whether trucks would be limited to accessing the project’s loading docks by driving in rear-first. Stanton-EastBanc representatives submitted their responses—in the loading dock case, pointing out that the entire design would have to be altered in order to facilitate front-end loading—and the commissioners were satisfied.

The Hine School project—which will include residential units and ground floor retail in Capitol Hill’s busy Eastern Market area—has moved slowly since it was awarded to the developers September 2009. Intense community engagement has necessitated a bevy of meetings and consultations, and numerous revisions.

But the project’s community-engagement process has finally come to an end, and the developers are ready to move on. “We’re seeking financing for the project, and are starting that whole process of getting building permits,” explained Alex Golding, a senior associate with Stanton Development Company. He said that the partners started assembling construction documents and drawings some time ago in order to hit the ground running once the PUD was approved, and will be soliciting construction bids in early 2013. “We’re closing with the District [on the property] in July 2013 and hope to begin construction right after that,” he added.

Of course, not everything related to the project’s community aspects has been sewn up. Questions of where the Eastern Market flea market will be located are still unresolved. The market—which has been located on the Hine School site and is currently run by two different private entities—will temporarily operate on a closed 7th Street, but the city hasn’t yet approved that location as a permanent solution. To boot, questions of whether those private groups will continue to run the weekend markets, or whether the city should take them over, are still pending.

Washington, D.C., real estate development news

Hine School Project: Planning Not Quite Done

Sometimes ‘final’ doesn’t mean final. Exhibit A: the DC Zoning Commission’s meeting on Monday night to take final action on Capitol Hill’s Hine School development.

Developers Stanton/EastBanc may have arrived at the meeting expecting a resolution of zoning issues, but it turned out that the commissioners weren’t quite done. A host of questions arose that the developers will need to respond to by October 29th, and the topic will be taken up again by the Commission, probably on November 19th.

The commissioners spent almost an hour going over details of the project and materials that the developers had turned in following the most recent zoning meeting on September 10, and came up with new questions. Many of the issues were quite technical, covering topics like the District’s First Source hiring policy and the construction management agreement; others, such as whether trucks would have adequate space to unload, were slightly broader. But the result is a slowed down process for Stanton/EastBanc, which may have to re-open discussions with the local ANC in order to resolve the questions that the committee posed.

“We were obviously disappointed that the final vote didn’t happen last night, since we’re on a tight timeframe; we need to move forward to close on land and start construction,” explained Mary Mottershead, EastBanc’s head of development. “Some of the items won’t be ready for completion when we need the [permits] for building,” she worried.

The Hine School project—which will include residential units and ground floor retail in Capitol Hill’s busy Eastern Market area—has moved slowly since it was awarded to the developers September 2009. Intense community engagement has necessitated a bevy of meetings and consultations, and numerous revisions, and these final zoning commission meetings are the result of roughly 15 hours of hearings that occurred over the summer.

Still, even as the development team responds to the questions that arose, they are focused on the future, said Mottershead. “We’re still moving forward,” she said. “We’re working on construction drawings and permit plans, and we’re hopeful the next meeting will be the last one.”

Washington D.C. real estate development news

D.C. Zoning Commission Votes on Hine Redevelopment, Final Decision Still to Come

Anyone who thought last night’s Zoning Commission hearing would be the final word on the Hine School redevelopment project’s longstanding PUD and map amendment efforts was surely disappointed.

Representatives from Stanton-EastBanc, the development team for the Capitol Hill mixed-use project, as well as from the architecture firm behind the project, Esocoff & Associates, gathered in front of the Zoning Commission, joining a range of neighbors largely opposed to the project in its current form. But the commission failed to vote on the project, opting instead to gather more information from the developers and reconvene on October 15th for a final decision.

The meeting, which was closed to comments, came on the heels of some fifteen hours of Zoning Commission hearings that occurred in June and July. During those meetings, civic groups and concerned citizens presented their concerns about the future of the Eastern Market flea market and worries that the project included too little open space for the community. Questions about the project’s north building, which is slated to include only subsidized housing, also arose.

In mid-August, the development team submitted an 81-page final PUD order that responded to many of those complaints. New elements include better design of the north building; description of a compromise that has been reached with Eastern Market’s flea market managers, allowing vendors to use an additional street for the weekend market; and details about a 46-point memorandum of agreement between the developers and the area’s ANC commissioners which, among other things, would limit the project’s retail elements to specifically commercial streets.

During last night’s hearing, the commissioners leafed through the document. “There are a lot of improvements,” said Commissioner Turnbull. “I think the pluses outweigh the negatives.” Still, he had concerns about waste removal and the project’s loading docks, while Chairman Hood questioned whether the project might eventually cause debilitating traffic problems in the area.

In the end, the commissioners voted unanimously to ask the development team for more information on a handful of points, including details on how 55-foot-long trucks will serve the project’s south building, how garbage pickup will occur in the alley north of C Street, and a revised floor area ratio calculation that doesn’t include C Street. The developers have until September 24th to respond.

While the development team was largely satisfied with the hearing, many neighbors left unhappy. “I thought [the commissioners] would do more,” said Ivan Frishberg, the 6B02 ANC commissioner. “I thought they’d ask for more in terms of the structure and design of the building.”

Washington, D.C., real estate development news

HPRB Hears Hine Project Changes

Changes to the Hine Project, such as reducing the height of a penthouse, improving transitions and adjusting facades, helped resolve some issues for the Historic Preservation Review Board, which voted today to approve a staff report recommendation that concludes "the revisions improve the compatibility of the conceptual plan and (are) consistent with the purposes of the preservation act."

The Board last approved a concept review for the development effort at the old Hine Junior High School Site near Eastern Market in August, at which time Board members offered guidance for further plan development.

Architect Amy Weinstein, a principal at Esocoff and Associates/Weinstein Studio, presented the revised plans and explained the changes to the Board, many members of which were not part of the initial concept review.

Changes include:

• The alley side of the residential building on C Street was redesigned using different materials to set apart the base, core and top of the building similar to the front design.
• New design features throughout the development include panel brick ornamentation, rolled coping in cast stone and copper, and bridged bay projections.
• The 5-story piece on 8th Street transitions to the rest of the building with rolled edges and varied materials.
• At D Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, the bays are extended and bridged to connect the retail spaces.
• A larger setback and reduced height moves the penthouse above the office building at 7th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue farther out of view.
• Twisted brick columns were added to the windows and clustered at the corner of 7th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
• The plaza component at 7th and C streets now has more of a "late Victorian vocabulary."

7th Street

Although the Board did approve the staff report, members voiced concerns with the project.

Recommendations for continued development included more attention to the C Street alley design, reconsidering the water feature, looking at ways to better transition from residential to office space, and - this being DC - reducing building height.

Stanton-EastBanc team is developing the site, Oehme van Sweden is the landscape architect.

Washington, D.C., real estate development news

Your Next Place

By Franklin Schneider

Located in a Victorian red-brick townhome, this very fine vertically-arranged living space will get you one step closer to everyone's childhood dream of living in a lighthouse. Put in a fireman's pole and I promise I'll drop by unannounced at least four times a week. (Which is probably the best reason not to put one in.)

You ascend through the place via a beautiful floating stairwell painted sky blue, from the living room up to the kitchen (granite countertops, Kitchen Aid Professional appliances) and then up to the two bedrooms and the luxury baths (Travertine tile, etc.). Four levels in all. I'm a huuuuuge fan of this place - a friend of mine lives in a vertical-type place and there's something really novel and appealing about the setup. Not to mention the peripheral fitness benefits of the stairs; if you really want to beat the obesity epidemic, all you have to do is mandate that all new houses have to be built on the Y axis. My hammies were on fire after just a brief open houser – I bet after a month of living here you'd have the lower body of a young Jean-Claude Van Damme.


The place also boasts some beautiful interior design and furnishings - from the pendant lighting to the turquoise bathroom basins – which you could maybe convince your friends and family you picked out yourself, depending on how good a liar you are. In back is a small patio perfect for grilling out or a getting a little sun with your morning coffee, and the unit also comes with assigned parking. I once lived in a place where I had an assigned parking space, but I didn't have a car, so I rented it on Craigslist. The guy who rented it conveniently omitted the fact that he was going to be living in the car he'd be parking there. I felt bad for him so I let him stay for a month, and at night sometimes when he'd shift in his sleep his feet would accidentally hit the brakes, and his brakelights would flash and reflect onto the wall of my bedroom, where I'd be up late reading. If you can come up with a more depressing image than that, I'll give you a hundred dollars. (Not really.)

1328 Maryland Ave NE #4
Washington, D.C.
2 Bedrooms, 2 Baths
$539,900

Your Next Place

By Franklin Schneider

This Capitol Hill rowhouse looks like your standard issue rowhouse from the outside, and then you walk in and you're all like “whoa.” I felt really bad about judging this book by its cover, but then I remembered that the other nine times out of every ten it's a totally accurate, legitimate life strategy, and then I felt better.

Architecturally redesigned in 2007, this home really took a quantum leap forward aesthetically. The main addition was the conversion of the living room into a huge, amphitheater-like space that goes up two full levels. With plenty of windows letting in light, this is a totally unique and fantastic space, especially for a rowhouse. The renovation also added a very nice roof terrace – you can see halfway across the city from up there, or so it seems – and a small balcony. Basically they put in everything you always wished rowhouses had – larger exterior spaces, larger interior spaces - but almost never do. Add in a fireman's pole and a “Star Trek: the Next Generation” pinball machine and this would be the perfect house.

Aside from all that, the house boasts fine hardwood floors, exposed brick, recessed lighting, and large, beautiful bedrooms. Located on a serene Capitol Hill block that was so outrageously picturesque on the day I visited, with loads of mature trees in front of the pristine houses, that it was downright ridiculous. I was about to point and laugh contemptuously at this little panorama but there was an attractive woman right there, walking her dog, so instead I just sucked in my cheeks and squinted off into the distance. I'm pretty sure she was impressed.

318 16th Street SE
4 Bedrooms, 3.5 Baths
$799,000

District's Northeast Neighborhood Library to Get Facelift

The District's Northeast Neighborhood Library, the fourth-oldest library in the city, is getting a $10 million makeover.

The D.C. Public Library announced it had selected Baltimore-based Whiting-Turner Construction, builder of Rockville Town Square and RBK Construction, with BELL Architects and Vines Architecture, as the design/build team for its Georgian-style Capitol Hill facility.

The library, at 330 7th Street NE, first opened in 1932. It will get its original woodwork restored, as well as new plumbing and lighting, along with more space for meetings, and a new elevator and restrooms. Existing furnishings and fixtures will be rehabbed as well.

Design plans will take six months, and the project, which will shoot for a LEED Silver Certification once complete, is expected to begin in fall 2012 and will take about a year to finish, the D.C. Public Library said.

(photo courtesy DC Public Library)

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Columbus Circle Upgrade Takes Shape

Columbus Circle, the front yard of Union Station, is finally getting a much-needed rehabilitation thanks to the District Department of Transportation, Union Station Redevelopment Corp. and the National Park Service.

The problems with the current arrangement of Columbus Circle, built in 1912, four years after Union Station was completed, are well known.

Pedestrians alighting from Union Station and its accompanying Metro stop, supposedly the grand entrance to the District, are met with ugly Jersey barriers placed after 9-11, forced to walk across the crumbling fountains, brickwork, pavers and impromptu dirt paths where the grass has gone untended, then cross several lanes of traffic consisting of taxicabs, tour buses and the occasional D.C. Duck.

Navigating around Columbus Circle on Massachusetts Ave. was no picnic either for motorists. Bone-shaking potholes along the Circle made a cab ride from Union Station an often-unpleasant introduction to tourists visiting the nation's Capital.

Worse, pedestrians, mostly well-dressed young Capitol Hill staffers, would often emerge from the chin-high hedgerows at the edge of the Circle and dart across Mass. Ave seemingly at random. At night it was even worse, as battered and rusting Washington Globe streetlights cast long shadows across the Circle, making the traverse from Capitol Hill to Union Station a sketchy encounter at best.

The key to Columbus Circle's restoration is rerouting of traffic, with the removal of a central service lane that cuts the Columbus plaza and fountain off from Massachusetts Ave. The service lane will be filled in with brick and pavers, and pedestrian access widened in certain spots and narrowed in others, encouraging walkers to stay off the grass and not take shortcuts. The new Columbus Circle will eliminate the bottleneck at the east end as cabs and passenger cars merged from the hairpin turn of the service lane onto Mass Ave. Now there will be simply a conventional four way intersection on the west end. Drivers on Mass. Ave, which is increasingly becoming a high-speed artery with 20,000 cars traveling on it a day in both directions, will be able to take advantage of wider lanes as well.

The shrubs at the edge of Columbus Plaza will be removed, and pedestrian islands along the north and south sides of Massachusetts Ave. will be widened. Lighting along Mass. Ave, First Street NE and Columbus Plaza will also be improved, including new lighting for the fountains and flag posts. The National Park Service will also repair the often-dormant Columbus Fountain and its smaller twin sisters at either end of the Plaza with new piping and pumps.

Finally, a new line of security bollards guarding the entrance to Union Station will replace the temporary Jersey barriers.

The rehab by Parsons Transportation Group (which performed the architecture and engineering for Union Station's bike station) and Capitol Paving is more than seven years in the making. But like restoration to Union Station itself, with a hodgepodge of agencies, including Amtrak, Metro, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission all claiming turf, the process was painfully slow. The initial plans came together in 2004 but work only started last September and won't be complete until February 2013 at a cost of $7.8 million.

Washington D.C. real estate development news