Work to Begin on Two Clarendon Blvd. Projects

Two open lots in Arlington will start bustling within the next two weeks as work begins on two long-awaited mixed-use developments between the Rosslyn and Courthouse Metro stations.

After many months of predicting an "imminent" groundbreaking at the adjacent pair of now-vacant lots, Elm Street Development plans to begin utility work next week at 2001 Clarendon Blvd., Elm Street Vice President James Mobley said in an email. Next door at 1919 Clarendon Blvd. (the Hollywood Video site), crews were told to proceed, with work getting underway within two weeks, sources at USAA Real Estate said.

Arlington County records show USAA received a sheeting a shoring permit March 28 but still must revise plans to get additional construction permits for the residential and retail development at 1919 Clarendon Blvd., previously 1900 Wilson Blvd.

Rendering of 1919 Clarendon Blvd.

Meanwhile, records show that Elm Street is still working to get approval for sheeting and shoring in addition to the other required building permits for the proposed retail and residential development at 2001 Clarendon Blvd., previously 2000 Wilson Blvd.

"We have submitted for Footing to Grade Permit and addressed comments on the Sheeting and Shoring Plans," Mobley said in the email. "Other than addressing County comments the building is unchanged."

Rendering of 2001 Clarendon Blvd.

Mobley did not respond to a question asking why the project has been delayed. USAA said its project is moving forward as planned. However, both companies have said that construction was at hand at least since 2010.

With an expected delivery date in 2014, 2001 Clarendon Blvd. will be home to a 6-story mixed-use development with 154 apartments and approximately 30,000 s.f. of retail space. WDG Architecture designed the building S. E. Foster will construct. .

USAA will bring a 5-story mixed-use development with 198 residential units and 24,657 s.f. of retail space to 1919 Clarendon Blvd. USAA bought the site and plans from Zom Inc.in 2001. Torti Gallas designed the project that Harkins will build.

Arlington, VA real estate development news

Arlington's Block Busting Year

One of Arlington's most stubbornly static development sites - a superblock of three stagnant development parcels at the Courthouse Metro station - is finally ready to start construction in what could be a fraternity of development initiatives. Developers of the 1800, 1900 and 2000 blocks of Wilson Boulevard, all located on the same block, have been working separately for years to build large, mixed-use projects on their respective sites, and now the latter two say they will start construction this year for vast amounts of retail, housing, and office space, broken up with a new street between them.

Elm Street Development plans to start its construction on 2000 Wilson Boulevard (formerly the Taco Bell and Dr. Dremo's site), known now as 2001 Clarendon, with 30,000 s.f. of retail space and 154 residential units, while USAA, which purchased the 1900 block of Wilson Boulevard late last year, plans to start work this fall on a mixed-use, predominantly residential project. Working out approvable developments on both sites required land swapping and an endowment of land to Arlington to extend Troy Street, connecting Wilson and Clarendon Boulevards. Meanwhile, developers at the eastern end of the superblock on Rhodes Street are still vying to get financing to double the size of the office space and integrate retail.

2000 Wilson
The stuttering progression at 2001 Clarendon was initially planned to begin in late 2007 as a condominium, but in 2008 switched to apartments (in theory), shooting for a 2010 completion. In early 2010 Elm Street VP Jim Mobley said the team was again "looking at" the concept of condos, "financing dependent." With financing now in place (underwritten as apartments), construction is near, with the likely chance of condo conversion down the road. Retail space will front 3 streets, subdivided into small storefronts. Because of Elm Street's rejiggering of the plans, at Arlington's suggestion, no permits have been issued, but sources for the project say work is expected to commence late this year.

George Dove, Managing Principal at WDG Architecture, which designed the 6 story "extremely contemporary" building, notes the challenges facing the climbing site. "From a zoning standpoint, between Courthouse and Rosslyn, you have a sequence of height limits, and you have elevation changes, so it has a series of levels that drop-off as you move down the street, like stair-steps. This had alot to do with driving the design." Besides shooting for basic LEED certification, an Arlington requirement, 2001 Clarendon will incorporate a series of green roofs. "This is the antitheses of the high-rise, urban, compact residential project. It stretches out over a much larger floorplate. That gives alot of rooftop areas at different levels, it is definitely not a boring facade," said Dove.

1900 Wilson
Across the (not yet built) street, USAA has purchased 1900 Wilson Boulevard, along with its plans for a 5-story mixed-use residential building. USAA bought the Hollywood Video site from Zom, Inc., which had already birddogged plans to construct residences through Arlington's approval process. USAA will retain Zom as a fee developer to build out the project. Torti Gallas designed the more urban seeming structures with large retail spaces along Clarendon Boulevard and live/work spaces along Wilson Boulevard.

Sources involved in the development say no dates have been set, but that work is "on target" to materialize this year, and Hailey Ghalib of USAA says the the developer expects to build in the third quarter of this year and is working with Harkins Builders on pre-construction issues, but has not yet signed a construction contract nor obtained construction permits. Construction is expected to last 22 months.

1800 Wilson
The lone holdout at this point is the eastern end of the block, slated to demolish Rhodeside Grill and Il Radicchio to more than double the office space used by the National Science Teachers Association. The NSTA has teamed with developer DRI to expand their Arlington headquarters at 1840 Wilson, with an approved site plan in hand. NSTA hopes to build a 107,000 s.f. office building with 10,000 s.f. of retail, taking up an adjacent surface parking lot. The site plan was initially approved in November 2005, amendments were approved in July 2008 and November 2008 to resolve façade and parking issues, but the project is on hold pending financing, which the team is "working very hard" to secure, of course. The NSTA has already contracted Davis Carter Scott as the architect and DPR Construction Company as the general contractor, if and when the bankers come to the rescue.

As if that weren't enough, work is now underway next door in the 1700 block of Wilson Boulevard, where Skanska is building a 5 story office building. Get ready for a loud but productive year, and lots of cranes.

Arlington Virginia real estate development news

New Townhomes Coming to Congress Heights

Residents of Ward 8's Congress Heights will be getting new affordable housing, this time from a private sector project beginning early 2010. The 4th Street Vistas are 94 single-family town homes designed by DC-based architect Atelier and being developed by Unidev on a currently vacant plot of land near the intersection of 4th and Mississippi Ave SE. The homes will offer 14 different floor plans for 2-, 3-, and 4-bedroom homes.

Unidev purchased the property in early 2007 and spent most of 2008 planning and designing the project, according to Project Manager Emmanuel Ogundipe. The units range in size from 2 bedrooms at 1,200-1,400 s.f., 3 bedrooms from 1,400-2,050 s.f. and 4 bedrooms at 2,050 to 2,100 s.f. The developers secured various permits in early 2009 and the initial 35 units will be built quickly, delivering in the first quarter of 2010.

Geared towards current Ward 8 residents who live in the community but rent their home, 4th Street Vista's offer workforce housing for the city's law enforcement, teachers and civil servants, according to Ogundipe. The units are priced from the $200's to the low $300s. According to Ogundipe, both Councilmembers Marion Barry and Kwame Brown had been aware and excited about the project, and the Ward 8 community supported it energetically.

The general contractor for the project is Harkins Builders.


Washington DC Real Estate News

JBG Adds More Office to Mega Rockville Development

If the JBG Companies keeps at this pace, they may want to consider renaming it "JBGville." The prolific DC area developer received approval from the Montgomery County Planning Board last week to pursue a second phase of development at their Fishers Place at Twinbrook Metro - an office park that has already delivered four office buildings to Rockville’s Twinbrook area - but that is merely prologue to the Disney-sized, mixed-use complex going up across the street: Twinbrook Station, or "2.2 million square feet on the redline," as the developer calls it.

The first approved addition for Fishers Place, at 12709 Twinbrook Parkway, will be a four-story, 72,330 square foot, run-of-the-mill office building built in two phases designed around a central courtyard with underground parking. The second and final office addition, at 5615 Fishers Lane, will include 111,000 square feet of office and a micro-retail space, intended for federal tenants, as it "designed to conform to the GSA Force Protection guidelines.”

"The existing buildings in Fishers Place are occupied primarily by government tenants (NIH/FDA), as well as with biosciences-related private sector companies. Potential tenants have expressed interest in the two newly approved buildings, but we’re not in a position to comment further at this time," said Matt Blocher, a Senior Vice President at JBG. "[But the] two buildings most recently approved will complete that campus."

At a community hearing held concerning the dual buildings last July, the County failed to receive a single complaint from neighboring residents. That normally would be considered neighborly relations by the developer (or dumb luck), but for the fact that there aren’t that many neighbors to complain.

That’s because, once completed by 2017, Fishers Place will join the sprawl of JBG’s greater Twinbrook Station across the parkway – a redevelopment project in partnership with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) that will see 26 acres of Twinbrook Metro parking lots transformed into 325,000 square feet of office space, 220,000 square feet of retail and 1,595 apartments and condominiums, 15% of which will be affordable housing. After breaking ground in November of 2007, the project last year earned a LEED gold certification by the US Green Building Council’s Neighborhood Development program. Last time we heard of this much development going up around a subway line, it was called Tokyo.

"The first phase, which is currently under construction, will have 279 apartments and approximately 15,500 square feet of retail ready to open by early to mid-2010," said Blocher.

Among the laundry list of contributors to the JBG/WMATA “smart growth” co-development are the architects Torti Gallas and Partners, DNC, David M. Schwarz, Grimm + Parker, The Preston Partnership, EDAW, Johnson Bernat Associates, Wells + Associates, and MV+A with construction by Harkins Builders. If Rockville Pike is unofficially known as “the world’s longest strip mall,” it looks like Twinbrook Parkway might soon claim the moniker of “world’s largest lump sum community.” Leisure World better watch its back.

Another Addition to Affordable Arlington

Helping to cement its place as the most affordable-friendly county in the region, the Arlington County Board yesterday approved up to $35 million in financing to facilitate the purchase of Buckingham Village 3, a 140-unit, 16-building historic development on the 300 block of North George Mason Drive. In the same session, the Board also approved a 75-year lease of the property to the Telesis Corporation and National Housing Trust-Enterprise Corporation (NHTEC), which will “begin to renovate the property within 12 to 24 months, then operate and manage the dwellings.” The price of the lease was not disclosed by County representatives.

The County is billing their purchase from 4319 North Pershing Drive Apartment Investors LLC, as “one of the…most ambitious efforts to date to preserve affordable housing on a single site.” 

Following the completion of renovation procedures on the 5.4-acre site, Telesis is forecasting a mixture of rental and ownership opportunities available at Buckingham Village and is pledging to contribute to a new community center. As stated in the terms of the county’s lease, all of the residential units on site will be earmarked as affordable housing for at least 75 years.

In addition NHTEC, the Telesis team, which was selected after a 2007 RFP, includes architects Wiencek and Associates, CTA Inc. Consulting Engineers, general contractor Harkins Builders, property managers Neighborhood Partners and general counsel Bean, Kinney and Korman.

While Village 3 may have been the sole subject of the County’s landmark action, it is not the only development in store for Buckingham Village as a whole. In June 2007, the Board approved a $7 million loan from the County’s Affordable Housing Investment Fund for construction of 100 new affordable units in Village 1, while Paradigm Development leveled Village 2 to make way for 69 "luxury" townhouses - since rebranded as the Buckingham Commons. The latter move sparked protests from local advocacy groups, including the Arlington Green Party and the Matthew 25 Network, and subsequent legislation – including historic protections for Village 3 and the Telesis deal – are likely to be viewed by some as peacemaking tactic.

Arlington's Affordable Housing Haven

Affordable housing developers, AHC Inc., have opened the doors on their newest project, The Shelton, at 2310 Shirlington Road in the Arlington suburb of Nauck. The developer is billing the 94-unit development as an “affordable apartment community” – one that boasts a presidential pedigree with units named after former Commanders-in-Chief - Madison, Jefferson, Harrison (we don't know which one) and Washington, respectively - and rents that range from $636 for an efficiency, up to $1401 for a three-bedroom. According to the developer, "almost half the apartments are already leased" in the 4-story, 103,138 square foot building. Bonstra Haresign ARCHITECTS and Harkins Builders rounded out the development team, which began work following the 2007 demolition of the Fairview Manor Apartments.

The Shelton is the first AHC project to wrap up in recent months, but more are on the way. Other affordable housing projects in the Northern Virginia developer’s pipeline for 2009 include their partnership with the Macedonia Baptist Church of Arlington, the planned Westover Apartments (also of Arlington) and the Jordan Manor in Ballston - which is scheduled to begin construction in March and will share the same architect and general contractor as The Shelton.

Arlington Virginia commercial real estate news

Marymount University Digs Itself a New Hole

With its’ 60th anniversary just around the corner, Arlington’s Marymount University looks to be buying itself a $25 million present a few years early.

Next month will see Dewberry Development break ground on two "contemporary neo-classical buildings" that will take the place of a Marymount parking lot bounded by Old Dominion Drive, Yorktown Boulevard and 26th Street North. Plans for the Davis Carter Scott-designed sibling structures, a dormitory and academic building respectively, were initially approved by Arlington County Board of Supervisors in July 2007.

Rose Bente' Lee Ostapenko Hall (good luck to the co-eds stammering over that one after a few jell-o shots), the 6-story, 75,000 square foot dormitory going up on the site, was named for – you guessed it -Rose Bente' Lee Ostapenko, the University’s current Secretary to the Board of Trustees and founder of the Rose Bente' Lee Endowed Scholarship Fund. Ms. Ostapenko also lent funds (and, surprise, her name) to Marymount’s student center in 1999.

That 239-bed facility will be erected concurrently with Caruthers Hall, a 4-story, 52,000 square foot academic building. The new building will house classrooms, lecture halls, faculty offices, and lab space for health science, chemistry, physics and biology. The facility is being named in honor of Preston C. Caruthers, chairman of Arlington real estate firm, Carfam II Associates LP, and longtime Marymount supporter.

The 2 new structures will both sit atop an underground, 4-story, 145,000 square foot parking garage that will contain 370 new spaces. A new plaza will straddle the gap between the academic building and dormitory, while an overhead pedestrian footpath will be erected across Yorktown Road and connect the facilities with Marymount proper.

“This initiative responds directly to Marymount’s most critical needs,” said university president Dr. James E. Bundschuh. “The new facilities will help us meet the increasing demand for campus housing, significantly enhance instruction in key academic programs, and address the parking challenges that we have faced for several years.”

The 4 Arlington communities bordering the Marymount campus - Old Dominion, Donaldson Run, Yorktown and Rock Spring – have already lent their approval to the project. Davis Construction and Harkins Builders Inc. will be going to ground on the site starting next month. Further BIDs are due by September 25th. The project is slated for completion in time for the start of the 2010 academic year.

Arlington Virginia real estate development news

Parkside Terrace Apartment Renovation to Begin

The Community Preservation and Development Corporation (CPDC), Washington DC's largest affordable housing developer, will announce on Monday the beginning of the reconstruction of the failed Parkside Terrace housing project. The renovation marks what District officials hope will be a watershed in the provision of affordable housing, many of which began amid utopian dreams of lifting up the working poor into self-sustaining communities, and ended as crime-ridden enclaves in dilapidated buildings. Officials expect to ready the building for occupancy by the summer of next year.


The twelve-story high-rise at 3700 9th St., SE, vacant since 2005, will be converted into 316 units of "affordable" rental housing, with seven floors of housing for low-income seniors with rental assistance by the DC Housing Authority. The remaining five floors will become "workforce housing" targeting small families, in all a $73 million project financed entirely by the city through the DC Housing Finance Agency through a bond program.

CPDC's own press release called Parkside Terrace Apartments, built in the late 1960's as a Section 8 housing provider, "a major source of blight" in Ward 8, despite early visions of a new era for occupants. Monday's ceremony will mark the beginning of a complete gut of the building by Harkins Builders, with hopes of a new start for working families, and of improving the general community. Let's hope the plan works out better this time.

Allegro says: Arrivaderci Condos

Metro Properties Inc. has just announced that the Allegro Condominiums, their 297 unit project at 3460 14th Street, NW, in Columbia Heights, has joined the tide of reverse condo conversions and is now destined to become an apartment building.

According to Jeremy Rubenstein, CEO of Metro Properties, the firm had finished their sales for the initial phase back in July, "right before the worst part of the instability of the housing market hit." MP had planned to resume condo sales this spring. "It actually has been an enormously successful condo sales program," Rubenstein said, adding "we reasonably suspected it would continue to be successful, but we looked at the risk in the financial environment and the uncertainty that many of our purchasers faced if sales did not meet our hopes and expectations. The rental market is tremendous in that location, and we decided it was the best choice for the area...we had been mulling it over for the past couple months. We're tremendously excited about this. We decided that our purchasers and our firm would be far better off."

Rubenstein expects that the entire building will be converted to apartments, and that Metro Properties will not keep any of the original purchasers as condo owners. Rubenstein predicts that its unlikely that leasing agents will have any trouble unloading the metal panel and brick apartment building with its nine foot ceilings, large balconies, hardwood floors, and underground parking. For the truly discerning, Allegro will have 62 two-level penthouse units with gigantic private outdoor roof decks, and interior apartments that face a courtyard with a reflecting pool. If all of that isn't enough, the largest retail project in DC history will be opening its doors in March, just 1000 feet from Allegro, offering tenants an assortment of shopping choices...and a Target.

The Allegro site is on the location of the old Giant Supermarket and surrounding parking lot, which was bulldozed in 2006 to make way for the new building. Metro Properties purchased the whole site in three phases, buying the Giant lot in June of 2006, and acquiring the two supplementary sites the next month. Marriottsville Construction, LLC, an affiliate of Harkins Builders, expects to complete construction by the fall of this year (construction photo at bottom).

Washington DC real estate development news

1300 Rhode Island - New Name, New Birthday

The developer of Brookland's next residential project have announced they will break ground next spring. The project, formerly known simply as 1300 Rhode Island Avenue, is also being re-christened Brookland Square. Republic Land Development plans to build the 350,000-s.f. structure for an estimated $75 million, with aspirations for it to serve the new residential center for Brookland, located only 2 blocks from the Rhode Island Avenue Metro station and a developing retail sector.

The name change comports with physical location: the actual development site resides on 2711 13th Street NE - not Rhode Island Avenue. Brookland Square is being managed by Republic Land Development, the developers behind Georgetown Park and Washington Harbour. Eric Colbert & Associates is designing the structure and Harkins Construction tentatively holds the contract to build.