Victory Square senior community opens in Parkside

Victory Square - Photo courtesy of Communi-k

A little neighborhood east of the Anacostia River, in Northeast DC, is set for a slew of groundbreakings and developments, including a ribbon cutting this Thursday for an affordable senior apartment community.  Victory Square, the 98-unit senior community, is just one of the many new developments - built or planned - in DC's Ward 7 neighborhood of Parkside.  The project is part of the Parkside Master Plan, a 15.5-acre area that was acquired by City Interests in 2004.   

City Interests charts a course for growth for the site near the Minnesota Avenue Metro Station. The neighborhood, home to 5,700 residents and described as poor and isolated by the Urban Institute, has seen an influx of planning and educational grants in recent years.  Greater, Greater Washington this year called the Parkside neighborhood a "place to watch".

Parkside Master Plan developers say the Master Plan foresees a "major transit-oriented development, slated to bring homes, services, jobs and educational opportunity to D.C.'s Ward 7."  City Interests gained approval for Stage 1 of the planned unit development (PUD) in 2007, and Stage 2 gained approval in 2011.  The plan calls for 1,500 to 2,000 residential units, up to 50,000 s.f. of retail space, and 500,000 to 750,000 s.f. of office space.

In 2010 the Zoning Commission rejected a bid by developers to delay first stage construction of the project, putting pressure on developers to push forward with the first stage of the project, which includes the Victory Square apartment community, or lose approvals. 

Victory Square Interior with view of Nevel Thomas Elementary School

The Victory Square apartment community for adults aged 55 or older opened in June.  Of the 98 units, 35 are public housing units reserved for the the poorest of the poor.  It is developed through a partnership between Banc of America Community Development Corporation, a subsidiary of Merril Lynch, and Victory Housing, Inc., the affordable housing arm of the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. City Interests is the master PUD developer, but sold .65 acres to BACDC, a subsidiary of Merryl Lynch, to build Victory Square.  Victory Square was designed by Grimm and Parker Architects of Calverton, MD, and constructed by Hamel Builders, Inc., of Elkridge, MD.

The contemporary design includes a fitness room, an arts and crafts room, an on-site beauty salon.  It also has a wellness room where seniors will have access to wellness screenings, such as consultations with health professionals.

"It's been a long time in the making," Maurice Perry, senior vice president with BACDC, told DCMud.  Perry oversaw and managed the development of and financing process for Victory Square. "The rents in our property are relatively inexpensive compared to other apartments," Perry said of the units which are not public housing, and not paid for by housing authorities.  Rents range from $775 for a one-bedroom to $960 for a two-bedroom apartment.  Units range in size from 600 to 750 square feet.  Although the apartments have been open for less than two months, Perry said the units are now 62 percent leased.

Perry said the community was completed in affiliation with Victory Housing, Inc., an affiliate of the Archdiocese of DC.  "They do a lot of affordable housing and they will be the long-term owner of the property," Perry told DCMud.

In addition to adding to the housing options for residents of Ward 7, Perry also thought the housing project signaled good things to come for the neighborhood.  "It's a great neighborhood, residents are really involved, they care about the community, and have a lot of potential."

Victory Square Community Room

Another residential development in the Parkside Master Plan area is Mayfair Mansions, a renovation of 569 historic apartments that now serve as public housing,  by the non-profit Community Preservation and Development Corporation. DCMud reported in 2010 that 160-unit condo element - that had once also been planned for the  Mayfair Mansions project - was pigeonholed permanently.

Other residential units with groundbreakings this summer include Metro Homes at Parkside, an 83-townhome developed by Enterprise and the family of Abe Pollin, and Parkside Townhouses, a complex of 100 market-rate townhouses developed by City Interests. Also slated for groundbreaking this summer is "Park 7", a mixed-use development including 376 apartments developed by Donatelli Development.  Other retail in the Parkside Master Plan includes Ray's the Steaks At East River, which opened in fall 2008, and the renovation of a Safeway, completed in 2009.  

The Parkside Master Plan also foresees offices and health facilities.  It already includes the 227,000 square foot headquarters for the DC Department of Employment, with 700 employees, which was completed in 2010.  A groundbreaking is planned this summer for the DC Primary Care Association, a 43,000 s.f. primary care facility owned and operated by Unity Health, according to project developers.

Victory Square was built using tax exempt bond financing in the form of a construction loans from Bank of America, the DC Housing Authority, the District's Department of Housing and Community Development and tax-exempt bond financing from Bank of America. The project also received Federal stimulus dollars by way of the DC Housing Production Trust Fund. The National Equity Fund provided $4.85 million in low-income housing tax credit equity proceeds. Victory Square is located at 600 Barnes St., NE.  The ribbon cutting will be held July 26 at 10:00 a.m.  The community is located between the Minnesota Avenue Metro Station and the Anacostia waterfront, in northeast DC.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Parkside Development In A Hurry To Break Ground

A pivotal development in northeast DC may get underway within a few months, say developers of a project that is expected to house a new senior center, health clinic, community college and townhouse development. Just this July, the Zoning Commission denied Parkside Residential's (aka Lano Parcel 12, LLC) "premature" request for an extension of their first stage zoning application, despite a bid by the developer to push back the timeframe, giving developers a little more than a year to start the project or lose approval. Now the development team is hard at work trying to push through the second stage zoning applications for the remaining few blocks of the original 10-block, 15.5-acre master plan for the land located just off the Anacostia Freeway. Earlier this week the Zoning Commission set down a public meeting to hear the applicant's contested request for changes to their original PUD, as well as approval of the second stage specifics for the newly hatched community college plans.

Developers have confirmed that they are in the last stages of editing closing documents on the Victory Housing senior living development set for block A. Final agreements will be sent to HUD for their signature within the next several days and construction is expected to begin in early October. The project will consist of a 98-unit, four-story senior living facility offered at 60 percent of AMI (area median income). Also approved (2nd stage PUD) are the development team's plans for 112 townhouses on blocks B and C, 42 of which would be made available at 80 to 120 percent of AMI. Developers claim that contractual negotiations with financiers should conclude by the end of the week, paving the way for land development, and eventually being turned over for construction early next year.

The centerpiece of the new second stage plan is the flagship campus of the Community College of the District of Columbia (CCDC). The college, initially planned as an apartment building set to range in height from 54 to just 90 feet, would rise to 110 feet along Kenilworth Avenue. The building would stand a modest 21 feet (one-story) along Kenilworth Terrace to better transition the roof-line into the adjacent neighborhood. The first floor would reserve a small portion of its space for retail, potentially including a place for caffeine-deprived students to jump-start their mornings, and a book store where students can fall deeper into debt at the hands of textbook publishers. And like all well designed colleges, the C-shaped design allows room for an open, green courtyard for suntanning and Frisbee.

Not only will the applicant request an increased height allowance for their now 1.1 million s.f. office project, but also for Zoning's permission to bump their residential buildings' height another thirty feet in order to make up for the residential square footage displaced by the alterations. Representing the wishes of Lano Parcel 12, LLC before the Commission, DC Office of Zoning official Joel Lawson argued that increased daytime population use as a result of the proposed changes would make commercial opportunities in the area more viable. This and the increased educational benefit to the community were justification enough, he contended, to accept the extensive changes and reduced residential offerings. The 1.1 million s.f. of office space also makes the project eligible to entertain GSA solicitations for the leasing of office space to the federal government, with a potential suitor being the Department of Homeland Security.

Also on the table for Parkside Residential is the second-stage and modification application for another part of Block I. These augmentations would also ditch the previously suggested high-rise residential building in favor of a "much needed" three-story health clinic. This application was not set down by the Commission at its public meeting of July 12, 2010, but developers are moving forward and hope to get the project scheduled for discussion soon. The proposed 430,000 s.f. clinic is intended to be a primary care clinic open to the entire public regardless of insurance coverage; it would be operated by Unity Health and sponsored by the District of Columbia Primary Care Association (DCPCA)

The Zoning Commission did not entirely reject the proposed changes, but said these plans as currently submitted were rather hasty and "woefully inadequate," barring further evaluation until a traffic study is produced and submitted. Zoning also requested a status update on the pedestrian bridge intended to connect the development with the Minnesota Avenue metro. The bridge has been designed by Boston-based transportation architects Rosales and Partners, but funding questions remained.

Chris LoPiano, Director of Development at City Interests, explained that the Commission doesn't normally entertain extension requests until less than a year remains on the timer. "We're very confident that as plans further materialize and second stage approval comes together for the community college and health clinic, Zoning will be more than happy with our progress...[T]his is why we originally partitioned the development plan into distinct parcels, so we could approach it project by project. We anticipated this being a five to seven year process." LoPiano stressed that the developers expect approval on these latest changes in autumn; at that point a request for a PUD extension would likely be resubmitted to a zoning commission that has been lenient in granting extensions to projects slowed by the recession.

The development team is a partnership between Bank of America Community Development Corporation, Lano International, City Interests, and Marshall Heights Community Development Organization.

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development

DC Offers $10 Million to New Retail Development

Mayor Adrian Fenty joined Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry today to announce that the District of Columbia has granted a total of $10 million worth of tax increment financing (TIF) to three retail-centric real estate projects currently in the pipeline: City Interests, LLC's South Capitol Street SW residential/retail hybrid, Four Points, LLC and W Street Acquisitions' development on Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue, and the Neighborhood Development Corporation's Heights on Georgia Avenue. According to the Mayor, it’s a calculated move designed to stop Washington DC's loss of retail revenue to suburban shopping outlets.

“Essentially, this is way to make sure that you use additional revenue to help the private sector bridge the gap to where they see great and exciting new projects, but where there may not be right now the right level of financial equity to make the projects happen,” said Fenty. “The District, as everybody knows, loses tons of money to the suburbs every year…If we don’t have economic development right here in the neighborhoods of Ward 8, people will then just take their tax dollars to Maryland. It’s a cyclical problem.”

The first project on the docket is also the largest. City Interests’ development at 4001-4035 South Capitol Street SW – currently a strip mall and the site of today’s press conference – will receive the bulk of the TIF funds announced for a grand total of $8.8 million. Once completed, the project will contain 200 units of housing, 47,000 square feet of retail and 15,000 square foot grocer or pharmacy in the forgotten portion of southwest - a small strip of land just south of Bolling Air Force Base. Construction is planned to begin in late 2009.

The Four Points project on the 2200 block of Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE will receive $1.1 million from the TIF program to supplement its $5.2 million budget. The mixed-use project will bring 11,000 square feet of retail and a “soul jazz café” to the site – numbers regarding the housing component have yet to be disclosed. Construction is also projected to begin sometime in 2009.

The last project announced – and only non-Ward 8 development named – was the Neighborhood Development Company’s The Heights on Georgia Avenue. Located at 3232 Georgia Avenue NW, the $25 million project will receive $742,000 in TIF credits. With 10,000 square feet of retail (possibly to include a hardware store and sit-down restaurant) and 70 residential units, NDC hopes to start building late next year.

These three projects are merely the first recognized projects under the District’s Neighborhood Retail TIF program. Earlier this year, Fenty announced that the District - in conjunction with the Great Streets Initiative - would offer a total of $95 million in financing to local developments with a strong retail component. The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (ODMPED) will continue to accept applications for funds on “a rolling basis.” ODMPED's Project Manager, Derrick Woody, said recipients are judged on a “long list of criteria” that includes “the composition of the development team, the level and amount of retail,” and a 5,000 square foot minimum in order for projects to be considered.

Washington DC retail news