New Apartments for Hill East in 2013, Two Blocks from RFK

The recently formed joint venture - between Tritec Development and JBG - has just begun construction on its 141-unit apartment, Kennedy Row, at 1729 East Capitol Street in Hill East, just two blocks from RFK Stadium.

Construction on the 42,629-s.f. site, under general contractor Clark Builders Group, will take approximately 18 months, and the first apartments will deliver in April of 2013. Kennedy Row will be managed by JBG's residential property management arm (we're told the Kennedy Row website is coming next month).

Early this fall, the partnership - a $40 million effort brokered by Colliers - was formed, enabling the project to break ground late last month, just after a building permit was issued for the project, and just before the PUD was set to expire, this month.

The 4.5-story, red-brick apartment designed by architect Polleo Group, is located at 1705-1729 East Capitol Street, SE, right across the street from Eastern High School - which received a $70-million renovation last year - five blocks from the Stadium Armory Metro, and two blocks from RFK Stadium. There will be 113 parking spaces in an underground parking garage.

Well in advance of construction, demolition of the aged structures previously on the site commenced a year-and-a-half ago, and the south side of East Capitol Street between 17th and 18th has been waiting on development since that time. A representative involved with the project said that the timing of the project's start has been purely a market-driven decision.

In December 2007, The Merion Group/Tritec acquired the property for $6.2 million from Comstock East Capitol LLC, which paid $9 million the previous year.

The consolidated Planned Unit Development (by Comstock, with renderings by PGN Architects seen at left) was approved around the time Merion/Tritec took over (late in 2007), and the project was granted a time extension by the Zoning Commission in 2009.

Originally - four years ago - the project looked to become condos, however, developers confirmed that the aim is now apartments.

As for the rest of the Hill East area, the Washington Post reminded readers a month ago that the 67-acre area south of RFK known as Reservation 13 "has been eyed for an ambitious redevelopment for the better part of a decade," and reported that speculation surrounding the area's potential continues, noting the option for: "a new [Redskins] headquarters and training facility near RFK Stadium in anticipation of building a new stadium there when the FedEx Field lease ends in 2027." Meanwhile, D.C. United looks to a short-term lease at RFK, as the soccer team's management continues to try and sort out its future, and appears to be sticking to its guns in declaring that RFK is not a long-term solution.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Reston Station Gets Underway Today

Comstock Partners will break ground this morning on Reston Station, a 1.3 million s.f. development that will soon be connected to Washington D.C. via Metro's Silver Line, running from the Stadium Armory station to Dulles Airport. Reston Station will be the final stop of Phase 1 of the Silver Line, now at the mid point of construction having broken ground exactly two years ago and scheduled for completion in late 2013. Comstock will eventually build three office buildings, two residences, one hotel and retail space, but today will begin work on the 2300-car underground garage and bus depot, replacing the sprawling surface parking lots, hopefully in time for the opening of the Wiehle Ave station.

Davis Construction will do the digging and building of the "urban employment center" site 3/4 of a mile east of Reston town center, for the Dantesque 7 levels of underground parking. Design of the live-work center that will sit on top of it is still in the early planning stages.

Reston, Virginia real estate development news

Reston Station Announcement Heralds Coming Development

Comstock Partners made the expected announcement today that it has selected Davis Construction to build its underground garage at Reston Station, setting the stage for a "spring 2011" groundbreaking for the 1.3 million s.f. facility on the new Silver Line. Comstock had previously projected a March start to the project in order to get the garage open in early 2013 when the Metro line is scheduled to run its first train. Davis has already been at work building the other parking component on the site for Fairfax County, but today's announcement kicks off what will be the start of new "office, retail, residential and hotel uses in multiple buildings surrounding a public plaza," according to a Comstock press release.

Comstock's massive mixed-use project is planned 3/4 of a mile east of Reston town center, the developer plans to build the 500,000-s.f. residential component as the first step in the process. The two towers will have 205 and 370 units, 19.5% of it designated for workforce housing.

Reston, Virginia, real estate development news

Four Points Teams With Comstock On Two DC Redevlopment Projects

After a lengthy hibernation in development limbo, Four Points LLC's W Street Townhomes, which earned HPRB approval in 2007 and a go-ahead from Zoning in 2008, is finally moving forward after developers announced their newly formed joint venture with Comstock Housing, a move that no doubt provided the capital injection necessary to jump-start a couple dormant projects. The project, now being nicknamed Cedar Hill, is planned for the corner of W Street and 13th Street SE; at roughly 40 units, it will be one of the most significant multi-unit residential construction projects to hit the streets of Historic Anacostia in many years.

The PGN-designed development will include a combination of larger, single-family townhomes and duplex-style units that double as condominiums. The seven single-family homes will each offer three bedrooms, a parking spot and a front yard. "What we tried to do is capture along W Street the historic nature of Anacostia," explains project architect Jeff Goins, "and then also create something unique for the neighborhood." Developers are waiting to hear back on their applications submitted for necessary building permits, but expect that they'll be able to break ground by mid-2011.

The joint-venture between Four Points and Comstock will also initiate redevelopment of a Lamond Riggs community, a development that went before the Zoning Commission as far back as 2006. The Northeast project that was most recently dubbed The Hampshires, with the design process headed by Arthur C. Lohsen of Frank & Lohsen Architects, proposes approximately 110 units, a healthy mix of townhomes, single family homes, and condominiums. The project also include a generous amount of green space, arriving in the form of a large, centrally located “great lawn,” as well as a number of smaller parks and gardens. The development will replace what was most recently the Med-Star Health facilities, and utilize a series of vacant lots along the 6000 block of New Hampshire Avenue, Peabody Ave, and Quakenbos St.

Each development will offer 10-20% of the total units at affordable housing rates. In a press release issued by Comstock last week, Four Points Principal Stan Voudrie said "We are big believers in the continuing demand for reasonably priced, for-sale housing in Washington, DC. These joint ventures with Comstock will allow us to deliver exactly that in both the Lamond Riggs and historic Anacostia neighborhoods." Christopher Clemente, Comstock's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer added: "We believe the strength of the Washington, DC area economy, and the demand for new housing in the District of Columbia provides tremendous opportunity to complement our existing platform in the greater Washington DC area."


Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News

Reston Station: Planning for the Last Stop of the New Metro Line

When it comes to development along the new Dulles Corridor Metrorail Silver Line, connecting downtown Washington D.C. to Tysons Corner and Dulles Airport, developers think big. Reston Station, a transit-oriented, mixed-use development soon to be brought into the orbit of Washington DC as the terminus of Phase 1 of the Silver Line, is no exception. Zoned for 1.3 million s.f. of development and incorporating three office buildings, two residences, one hotel, retail space and a 2300-car underground garage, developers expect to break ground on the garage next March and start the residences in late 2012. Davis Construction, now at work on Reston Station's county-sponsored underground garage, intends to complete work by 2013 to sync with the Silver Line's debut.

Comstock Partners, the Reston-based developer behind the vision, is just now beginning to market to prospective office users and hotel operators to fill up the 60,000 s.f. of retail, 650,000 s.f. of office space, and 220-key hotel that have been planned 3/4 of a mile east of Reston town center. Comstock has just begun design process for the 500,000 s.f. of residential space with the search for an architect, but already plan pair of residential buildings, 205 and 140 feet high, with a total 370 units, 19.5% of it designated for workforce housing.

Turning what looks, at least aerially (mislabeled picture above courtesy of MWAA), like a land of parking lots dotted occasionally by office buildings, into a community that is "edgy, contemporary, with easy living and walking to the Metro" as Comstock's Maggie Parker puts it, will require a bold metamorphosis. Anchored by the indispensable Metro station, various groups are working to design a more urban Reston. Reston 2020, a committee of the Reston Citizen's Association, which represents residents of Reston in the Reston Master Plan Review process, has outlined its own optics for the area, A Strawman Proposal for The Wiehle Area Metro Station, that envisions a thriving mixed-use, beyond 9-5, transit-oriented community. The group calls for increased residential uses, pedestrian and bike interconnectivity along the Silver Line corridor, embracing the urban center paradigm and integration of growth along the corridor. According to Penniman, Strawman Proposal author and board member of the Reston Community Center,

"Reston is a wonderful, planned community of urban and village centers, but running in the middle of it is the toll road, which has historically been lined with office buildings. With the arrival of the Metro and three stations running through Reston, there is an opportunity to add some urban flavor that would allow more people to live, work, walk and play...If we can create more pedestrian connections and manage traffic, that should do a lot to energize the corridor and would fit in well with the image of Reston as a community of open spaces and quality architecture."

Not everyone would agree that Reston calls to mind architectural splendor or exudes urbanity, but Comstock hopes their site next to the Metro will afford the opportunity to change that. Comstock plans on entering Reston Station in the running for LEED-ND (LEED for Neighborhood Development) certification, a relatively new category in the LEED rating system, which the US Green Building Council, the Congress for New Urbanism and the Natural Resources Defense Council developed collaboratively to certify neighborhoods that are planned according to smart growth principles with attention to urban planning and environmental design characteristics at the community scale.

Debate on the project has focused on traffic mitigation from the beginning. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority began increasing tolls on the Dulles Toll Road last January by 33% to help finance the Silver Line, with further toll increases expected in 2012. With increasing gas prices and suffocating traffic, the commute along the toll road has become less sustainable.

Comstock's Parker says the developer has focused on traffic management from the start, making the most of the pedestrian bridge that will link its project to the Metro station. Planners have designed Reston Station Blvd. as a new cross street, "an east-west spine road parallel to both Sunset Hills Road and the Dulles Toll Road provides a key cornerstone to the ultimate goal of a well-planned grid of streets." "We have proffered to significant traffic modifications to accommodate the suggested increase in traffic with the arrival of Metro. We are also committed to conducting other traffic studies as the development progresses through an aggressive Transportation Demand Management plan designed to reduce automobile trips generated by the office and residential uses" explained Parker.

Ultimately, construction timelines will be determined by economic realities, with even citizens groups acknowledging that "development will not proceed as fast as might have been thought a couple of years ago." With three years to go until the Metro station opens, time will tell what awaits sojourners venturing out to the end of the new metro line.

Reston, Virginia, real estate development news

Empty Southeast DC Project Hangs on Longer

The Merion Group, the new owners of 1705-1729 East Capitol St., SE, have asked for a permit to raze the building, the first sign of movement on the eyesores across from Eastern Senior High School near RFK Stadium. The raze permit, filed under the name PYD I LLC, comes after a March 2009 approval by the DC Zoning Commission, which had approved development plans filed Comstock East Capitol LLC in December of 2007. The 2009 approval allowed for modifications by the new owner. Kennedy Place, as the new condos will be called, now has an extension until 2011, when the revised PUD expires.

The site is currently a vacant, 80-unit apartment building (pictured) on East Capitol Street, SE, between 17th and 18th Streets. The 42,629-s.f. plot is just blocks from the Stadium-Amory Metro. The Merion website describes the project as "a redevelopment effort which will create new condominiums in a gentrifying area of Capitol Hill." The ANC must be pleased to hear about their neighborhood finally gentrifying.

In December 2007 Comstock received approval for a consolidated PUD and zoning change from R-4 to R-5B, allowing construction of a 133-unit building. In that same month, Merion acquired the property for $6.2 million from Comstock, which paid $9 million in 2006. Merion Chairman Bill Bensten was formerly a senior executive at Comstock.

In September of 2008, PGN Architects, the project architects throughout the toss up, filed on behalf of the owners for a minor modification to the original PUD, changing the total units from 133 to 141. In January 2009 the counsel for Merion requested a one-year extension to December 2010 in addition to the earlier modification request.

Though the original plan had been to immediately begin construction, as financing realities were pouring cold water on new construction, developers added more one and two bedroom units to the mix, requiring interior changes to the architecture, further slowing the project. The change was intended to increase marketability.

The approved zoning changes and plan modifications give the developers until December of 2010 to file a building permit, and December of 2011 to begin construction. Beyond that, developers would need to start anew.