EYA Moving Forward at Brookland's St. Paul's College

Now that EYA's townhomes in the Navy Yard area are selling and construction is moving along, the developer is setting its sights on the planned townhome project for Brookland's St. Paul's College. Coming off their May 2009 Planned Unit Development (PUD) approval, EYA is finalizing the architecture and engineering plans to move forward with permit applications. Designed by the Lessard Group, the new townhouse development, according to the developer, should begin construction in summer of 2010, with sales beginning as soon as May 2010. VIKA, Inc. is the project engineer.

The 237 single-family units will be built on approximately half of the 20 acres, abutting the Trinity and Catholic campuses along 5th and 6th Streets NE. The townhouses will range in sizes from 14 to 18 feet wide and including between 1,400 and 2,100 s.f., selling between $450,000 and $550,000, with 28 units set aside as affordable housing.

Jack Lester, EYA Vice President, estimated the total cost of the project will come in at a hefty $100 million. When asked about the purchase price, Lester was unwilling to disclose an exact amount but indicated that it was based on a "complicated formula;" the developer paid a fixed amount up front, with a formula for additional payments based on sales. EYA is currently under contract to purchase the property; sales and construction will start after settlement in May of 2010

EYA originally won out over a field of 12 to 15 other developers who responded to a solicitation of interest put forth on behalf of the Paulist order, which plans to retain ten acres that include the school and offices. Lester said his team bested its rivals because the property owners would be a more "sensitive" neighborh; the Paulists apparently prefer to look out on 237 townhouses, rather than commercial space or a residential property with more build out.

Lester added that with all of the "exciting things happening" in the area, EYA was glad "to be part of the vibrant community."

Down the Rabbit Hole at National Park Seminary

With a mix of decaying and revamped historic buildings tucked among cookie-cutter suburban dreams, Maryland's National Park Seminary, an adventurous attempt at adaptive reuse, is surely the most unique new community regionally, if not nationally. The collaborative development team of The Alexander Company and EYA will sponsor a "ribbon cutting" today, highlighting the new construction and first stages of historic renovations ready for tenants, particularly the newly finished Ballroom condos.

A surreal, 32-acre conservation area is the setting for 280 new and rehabbed residences culled from an international showcase of homes - think Swiss mountain lodge next to Dutch windmill, astride American colonial. Shopping for a Japanese Pagoda? Yes, but you will have to wait, Alexander is still using it as office space.

The beltway-hugging Silver Spring site includes new townhomes, historic condominiums, rental apartments and historic single-family homes, formerly an elite girls finishing school and the United States Army quarters (an exemplar of mixed-use). The land extends to I-495 and a few new townhomes have back porch access to Rock Creek Park. The nearest metro, Forest Glen, is about a mile from the site, so residents working in DC will be stuck commuting up 16th street, the most direct route to downtown.

The Seminary has an interesting recent history as well: having identified the property as surplus, in 2001, the U.S. Army tried to raze the historic structures, but local preservationist Save Our Seminary banded together to prevent the historic loss. The federal government then turned the land over to Montgomery County, which selected Alexander as the developer in 2004 after a competitive RFP. Alexander, both the developer and architect, worked with EYA as a local partner for the new construction and hired Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse as general contractor. The historic preservation is valued at over $150 million, which Alexander hopes to offset through sales of the new construction.

Dan Peters, Director of Communications for Alexander, highlighted the unique buying opportunity of historic units, "not one of the condos or apartments has the same floor plan...the site is the most unique residential development in the country." No argument here. The single-family historic homes designed to look like international dwellings and the hodgepodge designs of the condos are unexampled, one part World Fair, one part Alice in Wonderland. Interspersed are the mostly-standard townhomes of EYA - generally the epitome of architectural sameness at home in any suburban cul de sac, for one of the most eclectic juxtapositions outside of a museum.

Since sales began in January 2006, all but 4 of the 90 new EYA townhomes have sold and the 66 historic rental apartments are fully leased, though only 20 of the 50 historic condos, which began delivering in late 2007, are spoken for at present. Only two of the historic single-family homes have sold so far.

The one, two and three-bedroom EYA townhomes range from $400,000 to $900,000. The 90 new townhomes and courtyard homes feature Spanish Mission, English Tudor, and Arts & Crafts architectural styles.

With only 4 new townhomes left for sale, buyers may want to fix their gaze on the condos or the historic single-family homes. The condo, pictured at right, features stained glass throughout, a lofted bedroom and reportedly sold for nearly $1.5 million. The first phase of historic condos is just about entirely complete and the second phase, which will tackle historic buildings including the gymnasium, the stables, the servants quarters and carpenter's shop, is set to begin in spring of 2010. Peters indicated construction would take between 12 and 18 months to complete.

Peters notes that historic single-family homes will demand a knack for historic preservation to meet the county's standards. Though to date only two of the homes have sold, the developer was optimistic that sales of historic condos would pick up with the progression of construction - a benefit of selling a concept versus a finished product. But with an entire phase of construction remaining, buyers may still need an active imagination.

Capitol Quarter's LEED Silver Townhomes Open Next Week

Next Wednesday, Washington DC officials and developers will celebrate the first occupancies of the Capitol Quarter community of new market-rate townhomes, affordable workforce homes, and public rental apartments in the Capitol Riverfront Neighborhood. The 208 townhomes along 7 city blocks are walking distance from the Navy Yard, Capitol South and Eastern Market Metro stations. The townhomes achieved Silver LEED for Homes certification and together make up the nation's largest "LEED for Homes" community.

The construction, which began in mid-2008, proceeded in two Phases, the first covering four blocks, the second covering the remaining three blocks. Phase I should be completed in May of 2010 according to Jennifer Hebert, Director of Marketing for EYA. This first phase consists of 77 market-rate townhouses, 36 work force homes, 39 public housing rentals, and 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) units. Only the market-rate and workforce homes are LEED for Homes certified. For Phase I, 53 of the 77 market-rate townhomes are sold (22 are settled), all 36 workforce homes are sold (7 are settled), and Hebert indicated the District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA) has been filling the rental units as quickly as they can be built. Phase II will begin after Phase I is complete and EYA expects Phase II to finish some time in 2012.

DCHA, DC Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, and EYA will attend the ribbon cutting ceremony scheduled for Wednesday, August 26 at 10:00 AM to celebrate the first occupancies in the neighborhood. Capitol Quarter was developed through a public/private partnership among the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, DCHA, the District of Columbia government, Forest City, Urban Atlantic and EYA. According to Michael Kelly, DCHA Executive Director, DCHA and EYA have committed over 40% of labor contracts for the construction work to local and small businesses.

The two, three and four bedroom units were designed by Lessard Group. Each home has ENERGY STAR appliances and other green amenities, such as high-efficiency cooling units and low flow plumbing fixtures. The market-rate townhomes range from $635k to the mid-$700s. The workforce homes were sold in two releases; the first ranged between $295k and $350k and the second ranged from $350k to $450k. Finally, the rental unit rates are set by DCHA, but generally ask the occupants to pay 30% of their income towards rent.

Alexandria Workforce Housing Opens Sales Today

Developer EYA will hold a grand opening today for Alexandria Crossing, its workforce housing project in Alexandria, Virginia. These new homes will be priced from $300,000 to $365,000, and will include as much as $20,000 in purchase assistance subsidies from the City of Alexandria's Moderate Income Homeownership Program. Employees of the city and its public school system are eligible for an additional $10,000 in assistance from the city.

Applicants must live or work in Alexandria, and qualify as a first-time homebuyer with an income of less than $71,900 (for an individual) and less than $102,700 for a family of 4. The project is located between Mt. Vernon Avenue and W. Glebe Road - in the words of the developer, "walking distance to countless restaurants and shops."
The 18 new townhouses being offered are part of 102 units of new and converted housing that EYA is building at the site.

New Public Housing and Mixed-Income Units in Alexandria

On August 7th, Alexandria Mayor William D. Euille, Redevelopment and Housing Authority (AHRA) Executive Director Roy Priest, and developer EYA will break ground for the construction and rehabilitation of 102 homes off West Glebe Road near Mount Vernon Avenue. This is the second public-private partnership between EYA and AHRA.

On the 800-block of West Glebe Road, 48 new apartment homes will replace out-of-date public housing. On the 900-block of Old Dominion Boulevard the developer plans to rehabilitate two apartment buildings and construct a new apartment building and 18 for-sale homes, for 54 units. Ten of the for-sale homes will be targeted for workforce families. "The combination of rental and homeownership units will assure the continuing affordability of housing in Alexandria,” said ARHA Executive Director Priest.

According to Jennifer Hebert of EYA, two or three-bedroom workforce homes (pictured above, right), ranging in size from 1,024 to 1,416 s.f., will be priced from the low $300s, with a financial subsidy from the City of Alexandria to the buyer. The planned two or three-bedroom market-rate townhomes (pictured at left), ranging in size from 1,920 to 1,944, will be priced from the upper $400's.

Ballpark: Build It and They Will Come, They Might Even Stay

It's a good thing that the Nationals' standing as perhaps baseball's worst team ever will likely have no effect the residences of the surrounding neighborhood. The Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District (BID) has issued its second quarter residential statistics for 2009, showing how desirable the area is to reside in, and it looks like the cliched Costner-ism of "build it and they will come" is working...for some more than others. EYA's Capitol Quarter townhome development appears to be the leader of the pack of with "88 of 113 (market rate) units sold" - though sales began in the fall of 2006. With prices starting at $630,000, EYA can be content with its position as the only new single-family home project in the area, and their only competition in the area are the dreaded c-word – condominiums – and its Capitol Quarter has generated a slew of favorable media coverage for its tre trendy green construction practices and subsequent “LEED for Homes” certification. Proof positive that condos are indeed still on the sluggish side, Texas-based developer JPI’s pair of Capitol Riverfront condos. Or at least they were considered as condos before the Big Crash - The Axiom at Capitol Yards, The Jefferson at Capitol Yards and Faison's Onyx on First (pictured) – are now all renting as apartments. But according to the BID, the buildings have achieved 60% occupancy of their collective 960 units. That leaves approximately 384 empty units on the market, despite the fact the first completed building, The Jefferson opened its doors one year ago this month. It’s presumably that same dearth of buyers that made JPI go rental with their third area building, 909 at Capitol Yards; so far with less success than its predecessors. According to the BID report, only “25% of the 237 units” at 909 – but the project began renting only in the spring of this year. The developer has been trying to court the young, urbanista demographic for the building by advertising amenities like yoga studios, communal Nintendo Wiis and a residents-only bar/pub. JPI's tentative plans for a fifth and final 415-unit apartment building at 23 Eye Street still remain on the table, at least officially. Valhal Corporation’s Capitol Hill Tower Condo-op is still trudging along with "80% of 344 units sold." That would seem an admirable rate of occupancy had the building not opened early in 2006, with sales almost a year before that. Not mentioned in the BID stats is the Cohen Companies' Velocity condo project, the 200 unit condo nearing completion, but for which sales are reportedly not, well, high velocity. Nonetheless, the BID reports that, in total, there are now “an estimated 1,863 residents living in the Capitol Riverfront , with over 2,000 residents expected by the end of the year.” You could be one of the lucky 137 by year's end. Ghost town or boom town? You be the judge. 

UPDATE: Says Ted Skirbunt, Director of Research & Information Systems at the BID: "JPI’s buildings were always going to be rental from the beginning. The only building thus far to convert from condos to rental apartments is the Onyx."

Washington DC commercial retail and real estate news

EYA Paints the Town Green in Southeast

In an unprecedented move for a large scale residential development in the District, developer EYA took steps this week to ensure that all 210 for-sale townhomes within their Capitol Quarter development along Southeast Washington’s Capitol Riverfront will meet the standard for "LEED for Homes" certification – the industry standard for recognizing sustainable design and green building practices par excellence.

“It’s been our intention all along to select an organization that we could partner with and meet agreed upon standards that would certify ‘being green,’ if you will,” said Andy Warren, EYA’s Chief Operating Officer. “It’s an emerging area and some builders are just doing kind of silly stuff…and calling it green. We felt the perfect thing to do was to find some sort of third party that was recognized and public in the industry as a valid resource to define what is and what isn’t green.”

Per a statement released by the developer, EYA intends to use the Capitol Quarter project as a “model for volume builders on how to implement LEED for Homes on a larger scale.” They’re even pushing their eco-friendly ethos one step farther by including Energy Star-branded appliances and windows in the homes, along with a host of other green chic features like high efficiency cooling units and low flow plumbing fixtures. According to Warren, the modifications will represent only a modest increase in cost over their typical construction practices, as the development team had always intended on utilizing some aspects of sustainable design for the Capitol Quarter - with or without LEED certification.

“I think frankly if you were going from the minimum code requirements to the standards that you need for LEED for Homes and Energy Star, the cost would be very significant. For us, it’s more the magnitude of several thousand dollars, as opposed to the maybe tens of thousands of dollars you’d have to spend otherwise.”

At present, the Capitol Quarter project is slated to deliver approximately 137 market rate townhomes, 75 workforce housing townhomes and 86 public housing units to the burgeoning Capitol Riverfront quadrant of Southeast – well within walking distance of the Navy Yard Metro, the Nationals home turf and a bevy of similarly scaled (re)developments, such as Forest City’s Yards project . The Capitol Quarter’s public housing component - built in conjunction with District of Columbia Housing Authority – will not, however, bear the same LEED certification as its ballpark brethren.

“That is primarily due to the significant lead time that was involved in putting the plans and specs together for the city,” said Warren. “Those decisions were made more than a year ago and to change that just wasn’t feasible, but some same elements and construction techniques that we used on the for-sale units will carry over.”

EYA currently projects an April or May 2009 delivery for the first batch of Lessard Group-designed rowhouses at Capitol Quarter; all construction is expected to be complete by the fall of 2010. The market rate units are currently available for pre-sale, with prices starting at $630,000.

Drinking Deep at the McMillan Sand Filtration Plant

There seems to be substance dribbling out of the McMillan water treatment plant these days, not all of it good. Last month, the District-selected development team tasked with transforming the 25-acre, deteriorating facility into more than 2 million square feet of new mixed-use development presented a fresh round of designs to the local community. New details disclosed at the December 23^rd meeting include the possibility of a restaurant corridor and amphitheater at the corner of North Capitol Street and Michigan Avenue – new conceptual renderings of the latter are available via the Washington City Paper’s Housing Complex blog.

McMillan was designated as a historic landmark in 1991 and, as such, will be subject to review by the District’s Historic Preservation Review Board as the $500 million project moves beyond the planning stages. The immediate result of this is that that the development team – which includes Vision McMillan, EYA, Jair Lynch Development and architects the Lessard Group – will retain as many of the 107-year-old site’s architectural flourishes as possible, including the distinctive concrete towers that abut the reservoir. Current plans call for those to be joined by 1,170 residential units (with a roughly 50/50 ratio of rental apartments to condos), 684,000 square feet of office space, 110,000 square feet of retail and 63-room boutique hotel rooms, with construction starting as early as next year.

So far so good. But DC residents got an unpleasant surprise in their mailboxes this week, courtesy of the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DCWASA). According to the statement from DCWASA General Manager Jerry N. Johnson that was mailed to District tap water consumers, the quality of potable water emanating from the McMillan water treatment plant in Ward 5 was compromised for a 14-minute period on the evening of December 22^nd. Per an addendum from the US Army Corps of Engineers, the lapse could have resulted in release of organisms that cause “nausea, cramps, diarrhea, and associated headaches.” Surrounding areas affected via the Washington Aqueduct included the whole of the District of Columbia, Falls Church, Vienna and the Willston area water system in Arlington.

The prospect of such large scale development also seems to have caused some nausea in the community. Just last month, local resident Paul Kirk started up a “No Drilling at McMillan” blog that protests the perceived downsides of the redevelopment – including a presumed rise in the crime rate and traffic, in addition to infrastructural critiques such as a lack of “usable park space.” With four years to go until the ribbon cutting, there should still be enough time for everyone to get a word in edgewise.

Post Park Coming Soon to Post-Hyattsville

After forty years of relative imperviousness to real estate development in neighboring Washington DC, the Prince George’s County hamlet of Hyattsville is finally taking advantage of its seat just one mile from the District line. First came new development at the aging University Town Center, which was followed shortly by EYA’s Arts District Hyattsville project – an ongoing undertaking that’s been a shot in the arm for the town’s main corridor along Route 1. Now Atlanta-based developer Post Properties, Inc. has begun construction on a new phase; their Post Park development at 3300 East West Highway.

Located on a 7-acre parcel just off of MD 410, Post Park will be a serious addition to the Prince George’s County market – especially along the busy thoroughfare known more for its drive-thrus and strip malls than big ticket residential properties. The developments primary building will measure in at 466,700 square feet and four to five stories, for a total of 364 new residential units. 1750 square of retail space will occupy the building’s ground floor, while a 544-space parking garage will serve residents only (and not patrons of the Prince George’s Plaza Metro Station just 1600 feet away).

Post has dubbed their units “apartment homes” and will be offering, in "late 2009," finishing touches like stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, ceramic tile floors, high ceilings, and access to the in-house fitness center and swimming pool to prospective residents. Per a request from the Prince George’s County Planning Board (PGCPB), the developer will also be constructing an 8,000 square foot plaza at the intersection of East West Highway and Toledo Terrace and include a connection to the neighboring Northwest Branch Stream Valley Park – one that according to PGCPB “will contain little or no transition to the park and…make the park an amenity for [Post Park] residents.” Niles Bolton Associates is handling designs for the project, while Clark Builders Group is serving as general contractor.In a move similar to EYA’s intentions for the township, Post - in tandem with the Hyattsville Community Development Corporation (HCDC) - is currently accepting submissions from local artists interested in contributing to the project’s public arts component (and the more they stand out against their Home Depot backdrop, the better). Any and all entries are due to Stuart Eisenberg, Executive Director of the HCDC by January 16^th.

Prince George's County real estate development news

Hyattsville Hanging in There

Hyattsville - otherwise known as "that place in between Washington DC and College Park" - has been undergoing a significant reinvention for the past two years, courtesy of real estate developer EYA. Their Arts District Hyattsville project is currently midway through its plans to drop nearly 500 new rowhouses and condos into the sleepy Prince George's County hamlet, less than two miles from the DC line. With a splash of urban design fundamentals - gridded street layout and sidewalks - and one dash of "aw shucks" small town neighborliness, EYA is hoping to make the once-overlooked township a new upscale alternative to the communities that surround it.

Once home to a strip of dilapidated warehouses and auto body shops, Hyattsville's main drag, Route 1 (Baltimore Avenue), is bearing the majority of development. On the west side of Route 1 - the West Village - 132 units and 35,000 square feet of retail are already largely complete, while the east side is advertised as the eventual destination of 440 residences in Phase II of the development. Even for a developer known for the heroic size of its projects - Capitol Quarter, Park Potomac, and National Park Seminary at Forest Glen, to name some - the "Arts District" is an ambitious, contending with the lack of native commerce to lean on.

EYA's solution is the “live-work” unit – a townhouse with 450 square foot storefront on the ground level with a 1300-square foot residence above, providing both residential and commercial activity not dependent on attracting big-box retailers.

Angelisa Hawes is owner of the first such unit to open for business in Arts District. After purchasing her new home in November of last year, her shop, the Book Nook Bookstore, opened its doors this past February. She says the Arts District is drawing new clientèle to the once blighted area. "It's people who live in the Arts District, but I've also had people coming from Cheverley, Bladensburg, Mount Rainier, College Park and University Park" said the recent DC transplant.

These small entrepreneurships will soon be paired with the larger operations EYA has lined up for the area – a village market and new Busboys and Poets, Tara Thai and Weight Watchers locations are among those planned in Arts District's Phase II component. EYA is also currently seeking a tenant for a 3,500-5,000 square feet space on the East Village's planned "restaurant row.

But construction of the even larger East Village - planned to include 200 condos, 220 row houses and up to 40,000 square feet of retail - was supposed to commence in the beginning of this 2008, yet remains a vacant lot surrounded by promotional renderings and "coming soon" signs. According to Aakash Thakkar, EYA’s Vice President of Development, 45% of the East Village's planned retail space has already been leased and construction will be begin - market conditions being what they are - once they hit a threshold of between 55 and 60%.

"[Retail is] the first and foremost priority. The reason is, we’ve got housing on the other side and the area has great housing stock and there are lots of residents there. People are hungry for good retail and restaurants. We think there’s a real market to get that going as quickly as possible," says Thakkar. "Once we get that lease done, we can start construction and we’ll be delivering space to tenants about 6 months from when we start…The hope is that we start first or second quarter of next year."

If the the West Village is any indication, the second half of development should be well received – the homes already built have richer detail than the cookie-cutter suburban town center designs so prevalent in new town centers, and the project was awarded the seal of approval by the Smart Growth Alliance, which advocates for live-work communities and sustainable practices for the economy and environment.

The project does, however, boast quite a few vacancies, despite an initial influx of sales that began two and a half years ago (the first two waves of “live-work” units sold out, while the other models all have vacancies). Today, there is a 70% occupancy rate, with 38 units yet to sell. As recently as November 3^rd, the developer initiated 15-20% price cuts for those units still on the market.

"We have multi-family development on that side as well, but again, we’re kind of looking at the market and just trying to forward a timeline that makes sense," says Thakkar.

Nonetheless, current residents remain are unfazed by the delays facing their new community's continued redevelopment. "Living in DC, there's so many people and you're kind of a blind face. When you go into a restaurant [here], people recognize you and say 'Hey, how's your baby?" says Dawes. "It's been a good move."

Hyattsville, MD, real estate development news

Alexandria Low-Income Gets Mixed-Income Makeover

The Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority (ARHA) and EYA Development Inc. have filed for the permits needed to move ahead with their proposed redevelopment of Alexandria's James Bland Public Housing Project.



Following the demolition of all 194 units that currently occupy the site, the development team hopes to install a radically different housing development that will promote "mixed-income communities." Shooting for a 65/35 ratio of market-rate to public housing, the new James Bland will consist of 159 townhomes and 86 multi-family units on the upscale end, and 72 townhomes and 62 multi-family units on the affordable side. The same ratio will be maintained throughout each block of the five block development - with no separation by income type.

Other components of the redevelopment include a new, 13,800-square foot park at the intersection of Alfred & Montgomery Streets – intended to cater to the expected influx of families with children, and to serve as a link to the new Charles Houston Recreation Center. A second, 7,800 foot park has also been proposed at the corner of First Street.

The $55 million project will be drawing its funds from AHRA’s sale of the Glebe Park public lots to EYA - whichs plan on beginning construction at that site next month - and Virginia low-income housing tax credits. The plan proposes that 44 of the 194 public homes at James Bland then be relocated to the Glebe site upon completion. The builders plan on offsetting the environmental effects of the construction by aiming for LEED certification – the grade has yet to be determined – and recycling as many building materials from the old structures as possible. The development team has also pledged to use designs that are in keeping with the greater aesthetic of the Parker-Gray neighborhood.

The developer plans five phases of construction, with the build-out expected to commence in November, 2009. The buildings on the 8.49 acre site were originally erected in 1945, and converted in public housing by the AHRA in 1987. The development team received approval for demolition and for their preliminary concepts on September 24^th. The project still awaits approval of special zoning and special use exceptions needed to bring the development to fruition.

Razing Begins Monday on Old Capper Site

"The bulldozers are ready," said David Cortiella, Project Coordinator at the District of Columbia Housing Authority, alluding to the demolition vehicles that will be unleashed upon the old Capper Seniors building this coming Monday, November 5. This correspondent's preference for dynamite notwithstanding, the slow work of demolition will take place at 601 L Street, SE, lasting approximately four weeks, clearing the way for a new construction project (pictured) to be supervised by Forest City Washington, the developer behind The Yards on the southeast riverfront and the Ballston Common Mall in Arlington, VA. EYA and Mid City Urban LLC will also work in collaboration with Forest City on the site. 

The DC Housing Authority has been working to prepare for demolition since the beginning of September, carefully navigating the obstacle course that is the HAZMAT abatement protocol. As of tomorrow, all of the hazardous material on the site will have been removed and the raze permits will be in effect, paving the way for the future of the site. What lies in store is a 500,000-s.f. office building on the southern half of the lot and an undetermined number of mixed-income residential components on the northern half. The redevelopment project began with destruction of two Capper residential buildings and the construction of two new residences in their place: Capper #1, completed in 2006, as a seniors' residence and Capper #2 for workforce housing, set to begin housing residents as early as next month. The office building, by being designed by Shalom Baranes Associates Architects, is the third structure to materialize in the vast 32-acre Capper/Carrollsburg Housing Redevelopment - a project which has been funded by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development in the form of a $35 million Hope VI grant. The rest of the 32 acres will be developed in a joint effort,Mid City Urban and Forest City is proposed to house retail spaces, office buildings, condominiums, apartments and townhouses.

Brookland Eyes 10 Acres of Development at St. Paul's

St. Paul's College, located between 4th St. and the Metro tracks in Brookland, is subdividing its 20-acre campus and has contracted with EYA to purchase and develop half of the property into 250 single-family townhouses. The college says it will monitor the $50 million project to ensure that the design vision of the college is realized through EYA's efforts.

The property, abutting the Trinity and Catholic campuses along 5th and 6th Streets, will be fed by extensions of Jackson and Hamlin Streets, and will house three and four story town-homes of two distinct design styles: a minority of the structures will feature gothic architecture matching the existing college building, while a vast majority are said to be in keeping with the design features reminiscent of the surrounding Brookland neighborhood. About 10% of the housing will be devoted to low-income households. Along with the homes, EYA has discussed constructing sidewalks along existing streets as well as building passive parks and courtyards to beautify the residential landscape.

The next step for EYA and the Paulist leadership is to appear before the entire ANC commission towards the end of this year. ANC 5C representative Silas Grant has met with the members of the community multiple times, but according to sources close to the process some people within the community feel that the construction and heightened traffic density could cause problems. Still, others see the single family homes has having a positive effect on property values for the community as a whole.

The P.U.D. was submitted in September and if all goes as planned it should be ratified late in 2008, putting EYA on schedule to break ground in the first quarter of 2009. Once the P.U.D. is approved, EYA will open up the bidding to contractors, although the Virginia based Lessard Group has already been chosen as the acting design architect and VIKA Inc., located in Maryland, has been designated as the project engineer.

Washington DC real estate development news

Official Ground Breaking at Park Potomac Place

Ground breaking on the new Park Potomac Place office building is officially set to commence tomorrow. The colossal development site, spread out on more than 50 acres in Montgomery County off I-270, will host the ceremonial event where the site's largest office structure will stand. Already more than 60% of the building has been leased to Shulman Rogers Gandal Pordy & Ecker P.A., a Maryland -based law firm, which reserved over 65,000 s.f. The office compound is scheduled to be completed in 2009.

The Park Potomac Place, when finished, will be a massive mixed-use collection of structures encompassing: six condominium towers holding 450 luxury living residences, 150 individual brownstone townhouses, a 156-room hotel, 145,000 s.f. of retail space and a total of 570,000 s.f. of office space. Foulger-Pratt Companies, the developer for the site, will be building the condominium and commercial portions while Eakin Youngentob & Associates will be constructing the brownstones. Both companies are working together with SK&I Architectural Design Group to complete the entire complex by 2014.

Washington DC retail and real estate news

Hyattsville "Arts District" Community Moves Ahead

Bethesda- based real estate developer EYA's Redevelopment of Route 1 of Hyattsville into a city center with residential, commercial and retail takes a step forward next week with sales beginning for the first residential units. The project is the beginning of a $115m effort to redevelop the vacant site to eventually include approximately 300 townhomes, 200 condos, and ground floor retail.

The run down auto-oriented strip is intended to become a "walkable" community, essentially incorporating its own town center by concurrently developing both the residential and retail in one project, with the Lustine showroom being converted into a gallery, community center and gym. EYA’s recent projects have included similar large scale residential development in Potomac, MD and near the National’s new stadium in Washington DC. Smart Growth Alliance awarded the development its Smart Growth Award in 2005.