Rhode Island Avenue Has its Day

Rhode Island Avenue's improvement is underway. Seriously. Years of planning have dragged, private development has been promised, but flopped, and even the District government has given itself a full 16 years to pull its plan together, maybe. Despite the unfulfilled promise of the boulevard, today marks a major groundbreaking for Rhode Island's most ambitious project as developers break ground this morning on Rhode Island Station, a project conceived back in 2001.

With the help of a recent promise by DC officials to allocate more than $7,000,000 to jumpstart construction, Bethesda- based Urban Atlantic and Baltimore- based A&R Development Corp will kick off work at the Rhode Island Avenue Metro station. The 8.5 acre, $108,000,000 project promises 274 new residential rental units above 70,000 s.f. of retail. Couple that with the opening of the bike trail, earlier this month, better connecting Brentwood to downtown, and hope for a better neighborhood seems justifiable. Just ask the residents, who in a recent survey overwhelmingly rated "variety of goods and services" as "very poor." In "physical appearance" the area received 88 votes for "very poor," 81 for "poor," 24 thought it "average," and 4 vision-impaired souls deemed it "good". None opted for "excellent."


Maybe that perception will change now that the avenue's pioneers are beginning work, having struck a fresh deal with WMATA to build a 215-car garage next to the Metro Station in exchange for putting its development on the sprawling WMATA parking lot. Instead of pavement, the design by Lessard Group Architects will add street-level retail with sidewalk cafes and apartments above, when completed in 2013. Political speechmaking is scheduled to kick off this morning at 10:30.

Washington, DC real estate development news

EYA Serves Up Old Town Commons

This weekend, EYA will begin sales on its Old Town Commons project in Alexandria. A grand opening Saturday May 15th will be promptly followed by the beginning of sales contracts (it is hoped) on Sunday, May 16th, when EYA will release a limited number of new homes. Old Town Commons will add 245 market-rate and 134 affordable homes, renovating five full blocks of Old Town.

The new development replaces 194 units of affordable housing built in 1954 and owned by the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority (ARHA). Current residents will be relocated on site or transferred to other available ARHA housing in the community. The developer began the process in 2006 when it responded to city-issued RFP, which it won in the summer of 2006. As part of the agreement, the developer will buy the land beneath the market-rate units, money which ARHA will then put toward funding the public housing units. The public housing will also be funded through low-income housing tax credits.

The homes will be a mixture of architectural styles, designed by project architect the Lessard Group. Across the five phases, the housing breaks down into 159 market-rate townhouses, 86 market-rate condos and 134 subsidized apartments. The first phase includes 38 market-rate units and 18 subsidized units with the remaining phases following a similar pattern of two-thirds market-rate to one-third subsidized. The first phase of homes should complete by the end of 2012, according to EYA Vice President, Jack Lester.

The development team will hold a ceremonial groundbreaking on May 26th which Lester described as an event directed towards the neighbors and future residents of the public housing element of the project "to celebrate the beginning of construction."

Alexandria, Virginia real estate development news

EYA's Chancellors Row Begins Sales

Though the field is still green and the sales trailer still under construction, EYA's Chancellor's Row will begin sales this Saturday for the first phase of its townhouse development in Brookland. The houses will be nestled in the residential neighborhood among the various religious orders that call the area home. EYA will build on the 10 acres of property it purchased from St. Paul's College, which maintains a swath of green hill as an entrance from 4th Street to the 10 acre campus it retains. Construction on the new community will begin with basic grading and utility work over the summer with vertical construction expected to begin in October or November and deliver sometime between February and April.

Designed by the Lessard Group, the whole project will bring 237 single-family units near the Trinity and Catholic campuses along 5th and 6th Streets, NE. The 14 to 18 foot wide townhouses will sell between $450,000 and $550,000. The project includes 28 affordable set-asides, 13 of which will come online this weekend. Of the low-income units, half will go to buyers earning 50% Area Median Income (AMI) and half to those earning 80% AMI.

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. The developer paid a fixed amount up front, with a formula for additional payments based on sales. Right now, EYA only owns the land for the first phase, which sits on either side of an extended Jackson Street, abutting land owned by the Dominican Order and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Under the contract with the Paulists, EYA will purchase the second phase no more than three years from now and the third phase two years after that. Depending on sales, the transactions could happen sooner, said EYA Vice President, Jack Lester. The timeline was based on an assumption of three sales per month.

Chancellor's Row is less than a 10 minute walk from the Brookland Metro and, as part of a compromise between the Office of Planning (OP) and the community, each unit will have one parking spot with the option to add a second for a nominal fee. The community expressed concerns that the new neighbors would (collective gasp) seek on-street parking; still, proximity to Metro trumped that concern and OP narrowly won the day with a theoretically smaller carprint.

Washington, DC real estate development news

The Giant Mess of Greenbelt Station

If it continues on its current course, the planned, $2 billion Greenbelt Station development may well go down as one of the biggest - though certainly one of many - debacles of mixed-use, high-density construction in the region.

Greenbelt Station is the brainchild of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and the late A.H. Smith Jr. whose estate still owns most of the land that hugs the beltway just south of where I-95 blends into the beltway.

It was Smith's father who first began mining the land around the (then) rail road tracks in 1916 and created the asphalt plants that supplied the I-495 portion of the Capitol Beltway the raw materials that built it.

In 1996, WMATA announced that it would be redeveloping its part of the land adjacent to the Metro. Smith Jr. approached Metro about combining their efforts and creating a ginormous, high-density, townhouse and shopping development. Lessard Architectural Group was brought in to create a site plan, showing the nuts and bolts of how the separately-owned portions of the development could link together. And with that, the ill-fated Greenbelt Development was born.

For his part of the project, Smith took on a partner, developer Daniel Colton. Together they formed GB Development to develop the South Core and, until 2007, their townhouse/retail/multi-family residential project seemed to be on track for a 2008 groundbreaking. But then things got messy.

The development was supposed to be the apotheosis of a from-scratch, mixed-use community, with retail, entertainment, office space, hotel, and literally thousands of new homes in the heart of Prince George's County.

Designed by SK&I, the 240-acre parcel was to be split between a South Core of Pulte Homes townhouses and a North Core consisting of 2.3 million s.f. of office and retail space, plus 2,200 new homes. Built between neighborhoods where pickup trucks populate the driveways of unassuming one-story homes, and where there is no architecture to speak of, the development would replace a large mining operation still in use, a large surface parking lot, and at least some of the forested hills - with died-in-the-wool neocontemporary suburbanism at a Metro station.

But then everything that could go wrong, did. And today Greenbelt Station finds itself tangled in news of bankruptcy, allegations of fraud, dissolving partnerships, and inaction. Assistant Planning Director for the City of Greenbelt, Terri Hruby, tells DCMud that as far as she knows, the Smith portion of the development is "basically on hold," adding that to date "what's been approved has been a concept plan and one portion of the townhouse site plan. Another plan has been submitted, but hasn't gone anywhere."

In the northern part of Smith's parcel, Urban Design Supervisor Steve Adams, from the Prince George's County Planning Department, says that his department has "heard through the grapevine now and then about various commercial enterprises that might be trying to get something going in the northern part," but adds skeptically that, "nothing has come in to date."

Hruby speculates that "with the financial times being what they are," it's unlikely movement is going to happen in any part of the development any time soon and says that "there are still over-arching issues the developer needs to address." Like how to get someone to finance a gargantuan new suburban development project, for instance.

Bottom line: It's unclear if the developers even have the financing they need to move forward and they won't be getting a green light from planners unless they can make assurances that they are financially viable enough to follow through with road improvements and other existing land covenants.

This all brings us to the question: Who's developing this mixed-use masterpiece, anyway? On paper at least, the developer for the Smith parcel is Metropark LLC. But who are the entities behind Metropark? That's a question that leaves even city and county planning officials scratching their heads.

In December of 2007, Smith died at the age of 74, leaving the project jointly in the hands of his estate and with his business partner, Daniel Colton.

According to a 2008, WUSA News 9 Now report, Patrick Ricker, a developer working with Colton on the Greenbelt Station development, became the subject of an FBI raid aimed at high-level officials with ties to fancy development contracts. That same report revealed that Colton had once served time in prison for bank fraud and that the Greenbelt Station Development itself had also become part of the FBI's investigation.

After the fallout, Colton filed for bankruptcy in 2009, severed his ties to the project, and left the community at large even more exasperated and confused.

Hruby can tell us that original partner in the townhouse project south of the tracks, Pulte Homes, is now officially out of the project, but says that "there have been several town home developers and I don't know who the current players are."

Edward J. Murphy, Town Administrator for the adjacent Berwyn Heights community responded in much the same way, saying that as far as their town planners know, "the developer for the entire Smith project hasn't changed," but "the people that run the development have."

Murphy was equally fuzzy on details about who's now running Metropark LLC, which is not so surprising when you take into account that since 2006, at least nine different partners and LLC's have been cited as partners in the joint Smith-Metro Greenbelt Station project.

Now it's time for some more bad news: the saga over the Smith family parcel is matched on the WMATA land, where developers are suing Metro for backing out on an agreement that would have allowed Greenbelt Ventures the rights to develop the Greenbelt Station Towne Centre.

For its part, WMATA representatives have failed to respond to DCMud's inquiries into where its part of the development stands now. When a public agency won't return your phone call about very public project, assume the worst.

Maryland Real Estate and Development News

Four Years Later, Arts District at Hyattsville Chugs Along

Hyattsville in PG County is not exactly the center of "urban chic" in the DC Metro area, but a mixed-use project, lead by EYA with retail by StreetSense, is vying to stake a claim to being Maryland's H Street. Most of the residential in the West Village, the first phase of the Arts District at Hyattsville that began in 2006, has sold. After several years of threatening to do so, the development team this month broke ground on the retail element of the second phase, the East Village, and has signed on tenants: Tara Thai, Busboys and Poets and, most recently, Yes! Organic Market. Construction on the one-story retail element is scheduled to begin in earnest in May and to complete by fall 2010 with occupancy in late 2010 or spring 2011; construction on the East Village residential element is expected to begin late this year.

The $200 million Arts District is a new, 25-acre residential neighborhood off of Route 1 in PG County (a.k.a. Rhode Island Avenue in D.C.), just two miles from the District border and two miles from the University of Maryland. Jack McLaurin, a Principal at Lessard Group architects, said his firm tried to create a "depot main street architecture" for the project, hearkening back to old railroad towns, since a railroad line runs along the property. Lessard "tried to funk it up" to make the new project look like "someone had come in and revitalized an area that had been there for a long time." Faux adaptive reuse?

The project is delivering in two phases: the West and East Villages (i.e. East or West of Route 1). The West Village includes 132 townhouses, 10 of which are live-work space for artists, and the rehabilitated Lustine showroom, which serves as a community center with an art gallery and gym. Aakash Thakkar, a Vice President at EYA, said 102 of the residential units are settled, most are built, and the team "hopes to have it sold and completed by the end of 2010." To put it in perspective, sales began on the West Village in 2006.

The East Village will include 41,000 s.f. retail, 275 multi-family units and 183 townhouses. The project originally was to have fewer multi-family units, but EYA recently received approval from the Prince George's County Planning Board to add an additional 198 units in one, four-story building and to reduce by 21 the number of townhouses. Thakkar said at this time EYA has not decided whether the multi-family units will be rental or condos and that construction on the three buildings will not begin until early next year. The townhouses, however, should start sales as early as this April, with construction set to begin in the 3rd quarter of this year.

McLaurin said the West Village has more of an art deco feel than the updated design for the East village, where the team simplified the design to reduce costs. "No vinyl siding" the architect assured DCMud, but "we tried to work with interesting color combination with the brick and hardie panel." The multi-family buildings are broken up to look like a series of taller townhouses, and to keep with the depot idea, the multi-family buildings have space for ground floor retail or artists work spaces, with "larger window patterns" and "doors on ground level units." McLaurin said he wanted to create a "distinct" feel, so that people would know they were not in "anywhere U.S.A."

Guy Silverman, Managing Principal at StreetSense, said his company is the majority owner on the retail, but has been working closely with EYA so that the two developers are "very aligned...in terms of how we envision the Arts District." Silverman said this will be the first location for both Yes! Organic Market and Busboys and Poets and that the choice of Hyattsville "speaks volumes" about the project and the developers' efforts to create an urban neighborhood feel. Tara Thai is also signed on, bringing the total spoken-for retail space to 60%. StreetSense is now looking tenants like a yoga studio, a drop off dry cleaners, a small spa or maybe even an organic pet food store to fill the remaining space.

Hyattsville real estate development news

District to Give Money to Start Rhode Island Mixed-Use

Today the District government announced it will provide financing for development team Urban Atlantic and A&R Development Corp, meaning plans can now move forward to transform the 8.5 acre surface parking lot at the Rhode Island Avenue Metro station, one of DC's most stalled projects, into a sizable mixed-use neighborhood, Rhode Island Station. The District will provide $7.2 million in financing through a PILOT note toward the $108 million project, which will bring 274 residential rental units above 70,000 s.f. of retail in two buildings. Additional financing will come from the federal government in the form of Federal New Market Tax Credits and a traditional HUD-backed loan. Today's announcement marks a significant step toward the execution of the District's Great Streets Plan for Rhode Island Avenue.

The developers today also closed on their ground lease agreement with WMATA, which has been working with the development teams for almost a decade since Metro's initial Request for Proposal in 2001. As part of the exchange with metro, the development will provide a 215-car WMATA garage alongside the busy Rhode Island Avenue/Brentwood Metro station.


According to a release from the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development's office, the residential project will include 54 (or 20%) affordable housing units at 60% area median income. Rhode Island Station - formerly Brentwood Town Center - will also include a community center and two private parking garages for residents. Designed by Lessard Group Architects, the project will feature ground floor retail with sidewalk cafes and "heavy landscaping" along the streets.

The development team originally won final zoning approval in April 2007 and were initially scheduled to begin construction July 2008. Clearly that time line did not work out. A ground breaking is not tentatively scheduled for May of this year and construction could complete in summer of 2013, if everything goes according to plan this time around.

The surrounding area has had many plans in the works over the years, see Brookland Square for example, which have not been able to get past the planning stage.

Washington, DC real estate development news

Green Light for Canal Parc

Today, the Zoning Commission issued its final order approving plans for Canal Parc, 34 new single-family townhouses that will take the place of the aging Riverside Hospital. The decision should serve to dispel recent rumors circulating around the Palisades neighborhood and the Local ANC3D Chapter that the residential development was flat-lining. Developed through the LEED Neighborhood Development program to replace the hospital at 4460 MacArthur Boulevard, the homes are being built by Willco Residential, LLC and New York-based The Athena Group.

In September of 2009, Washington DC's Office of Zoning (DCOZ) drafted its final approval for the Lessard Group-designed development. But six months have passed and the final order had not been released. "It's not supposed to take this long," Willco Residential President, Gary S. Cohen lamented earlier this week. "Usually after the Zoning Commission approves [a PUD], it only takes a few months" for a project to garner its final official approval. The delays have left community members scratching their heads.

ANC3D Chair Betsy Sandza says she has "heard rumors that the developer has cooled off." Canal Parc "has fallen off the face of the map," says Palisades Citizens' Association President Spence Spencer, who speculates based on conversations he had with Cohen that money for construction may have dried up and that Willco and development partner, Athena, may have parted ways.

But according to Cohen, rumors about financing and a developer split are "absolutely false." Cohen told DCMud, "Bottom line: every thing is in the District's hands, "adding that he and Athena are still partners on Canal Parc and that the "project is still moving forward as planned."

So even if the project hasn't changed development hands, the Palisades community would like to know: What was the hold up?

Though Cohen had a draft approval, he could not apply for permits until the DCOZ issued a final order. And before that could happen, the Office of the Attorney General reviewed the draft order, provided by the developers, to make sure the legal language expressed the decisions of the DCOZ. The AG looks for inconsistencies, vague language and loopholes to ensure the developers' promised park benches and scholarship funds are included in the final order.



Prior to today's official green light, Cohen admitted that the project has been a sensitive issue within the community, but he said he was hopeful that the DCOZ was just working to "make sure all the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed." Consider them dotted and crossed.

As ANC3D Chair Betsy Sandza tells it, "density and height were our two biggest concerns" within the neighborhood surrounding the development. In light of these concerns, Willco and Athena changed their design to reduce the number of brick townhouse units from 41 to 34.

But in August of 2009, Sandza combined forces with Spencer and submitted a letter to the Zoning Commission, arguing that the reduction of units was not enough to bring Athena and Willco in line with the designated Floor Area Ratio (FAR) (i.e. density) on their lot. In the letter, Sandza and Spencer further charged Athena and Willco with miscalculating the FAR for the project so that it appeared to be within the limits allowed by law, arguing that "the Zoning Commission should approve this project only with the condition that the applicant eliminate at least 7,220 square feet of gross floor area...to bring the FAR into appropriate scale."

The good news for Cohen could be overshadowed by an appeal concerning the FAR. Cornish Hitchcock, an attorney representing two families on the SE corner of the project, expected today's approval, but could make things difficult for Cohen. An appeal would delay Cohen's ability to apply for permits and start construction.

For now, though, Canal Parc has momentum behind it and, according to Cohen, he will forge ahead.

Washington DC Real Estate and Development News

New Townhouse-Style Condos for U Street

A lot at the corner of Vermont Avenue and T Street, NW, in the heart of the U Street neighborhood, is about to get an infusion of six new condos in three townhouse-style buildings. The two-over-two units, sitting almost on top of the U Street Metro station, will range from approximately 2,000 s.f. to 2,400 s.f. with two floors for each unit. The three lots are part of a larger parcel that was once home to a four-story apartment building, "The Cameron," which was built in 1899 and destroyed in a fire in the 1960's. The new condos will be a huge improvement over the site's use as a parking lot for the neighboring Masonic Temple.

The three upper units with have roof top terraces, all will have one private parking space, two of which will be private attached garages. Two of the houses (four units) will face T Street and one will front Vermont Avenue. Mimicking the style of the neighborhood, the Lessard Group designs take their form from Queen Anne and Romanesque architecture; the corner of Vermont and T Street will likely feature a tower that conforms to the many existing historic homes in the surrounding community. The matter-of-right development will go before the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) this week and received an approval in the HPRB staff report.

Developer Derek Huetinck said a date for construction has not been scheduled, but he is filing for permits and hoping to begin by the end of this year. In a best case scenario the units could deliver in the first half of 2011. Huetinck said he was "unsure of final sales prices for the units at this time" and that the project "likely will not open for sales until after construction has begun."

The site was formerly the proposed home of Evanti Condos, a 14-unit project by Macy Development and the Masonic Temple, which owned the land, but which never broke ground. Huetinck obtained the properties under his project entity T Street Builders, LLC in November 2009 for $770,000.

Washington DC real estate development news

EYA Ready to Demo Another Old Town Low-Income Project

After nearly 4 years of planning, developer EYA is getting ready to demolish one of Old Town's numerous subsidized housing relics and replace it with a mixed-income community. EYA reports that demolition should be underway by March on 808 Madison Street, part of the James Bland Additions community on the northern edge of Old Town Alexandria. Old Town Commons will add 245 market-rate and 134 affordable homes, renovating five full blocks of Old Town, replacing the 194 units of affordable housing built in 1954 and owned by the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority (ARHA). Current residents will be relocated on site or transferred to other available ARHA housing in the community. The EYA project will continue in phases, one phase per block, allowing for many residents to remain in their homes until new space becomes available, though public housing residents are not guaranteed a space in the new project. The developer began the process in 2006 when it responded to an RFP released by Alexandria, which it won in the summer of 2006. As part of the agreement, the developer will buy the land beneath the market-rate units, money which ARHA will then put toward funding the public housing units. Across the five phases, the housing breaks down into 159 market-rate townhomes, 86 market-rate condos and 134 subsidized apartments. The first phase includes 37 market-rate units and 18 subsidized units with the remaining phases following a similar pattern of 2/3 market-rate to 1/3 public. 

The first phase units should complete by the end of 2011. The homes will be a mixture of architectural styles, designed by project architect the Lessard Group. According to Jennifer Hebert of EYA, the primary streets, such as Madison and Wythe, will have "very traditional Old Town" designs, while the new secondary streets "will feature a more modern architectural style." EYA told DCMud that subsidized and market housing will be interspersed and that the exterior will cloak such distinctions to "ensure that the overall community has a consistent look." According to Brian Allan Jackson, a Senior Vice President at EYA, both type of units will be built to LEED for community standards, like their Capitol Quarters project in D.C. EYA also developed several projects in the immediate vicinity, including Chatham Square and Potomac Greens, both collaborations with EYA and county-funded ARHA. EYA is also now building Glebe Park, another partnership between EYA and ARHA, with funding from Alexandria that will be repaid through land sales at Old Town Commons, and have caused more than a little hand-wringing at the thought of sponsoring more low-income housing within Old Town. Glebe Park broke ground in August for the construction and rehabilitation of 102 homes off West Glebe Road, with completion scheduled for late 2010. Jackson said the two projects combined will likely amount to $200 million in total project costs.

Alexandria Virginia real estate and development news

Ripley District Moving On Up

Silver Spring's Ripley District, once home to a derelict strip of parking garages and auto body shops, has had its share of growing pains in the economic downturn, but signs of progress are sprouting up in the form of construction and design reviews for area projects. The Ripley District, a triangular parcel of downtown Silver Spring between Bonifant Street, Georgia Avenue and the B & O Railroad, is one of Montgomery County's reinvention projects in an effort to bolster real estate development and the growth of Silver Spring. Planned residential and commercial projects are in various stages of development, one building is almost finished, others are waiting on the sidelines.

The County approved designs for the Midtown Silver Spring residential building in September 2008, but developer Home Properties is back with altered plans, a new project name - Ripley Street North - and a new architect - Shalom Baranes Architects. The team submitted amended plans earlier this month, and the developer expects to go before the Planning Board shortly after their February meeting with the Design Review Committee. The new plans, though still tentative, would increase the total number of residential units by 50 to 396 and, of the total, 49 will be moderately priced. Though the team has made several adjustments to areas including public use space and building setbacks, the planned structure maintains a 5.0 FAR density rating. According to Elza Hisel-McCoy a Coordinator within Montgomery County Planning Department's Development Review Division, depending on the comments from the Design Review Committee, the Planning board could review the project six weeks to two months thereafter. More information will be available once the DRB makes recommendations and the Planning Board staff issues a review, likely to come this spring.

Hisel-McCoy added that another planned residential project, the Lessard Group-designed 1150 Ripley, formerly know as 1050 Ripley, has all of its approvals, but there have been no signs of forward motion so far. The approved Washington Property Company plan is for a 306,000- s.f. residential building that will include 318 rental units including 48 moderately priced dwelling units and 7,000 s.f. of commercial space. Evan Feldman, a Development Manager for Washington Properties, indicated that the team is working on financing right now, but expects to begin construction in April of this year, despite the lack of a general contractor. Once construction begins, Feldman expects the first units to be available in 18 months and the entire project to deliver in 21 months. 

For some actual progress in the district, Division One Architects, the minds behind the Lacey, have been working on a brand new headquarters building for ALC, Inc., which will sit on the southwest corner of Ripley Street at Georgia Avenue. The three level building includes a ground floor restaurant and walk up office space with green features like a sodded roof and north and east oriented facades to capture all that natural daylight. The project should deliver by April or May of this year. The County's efforts to re-brand the Ripley District are crawling along, but the development movement so far looks promising for the future. 

Silver Spring real estate development news

Shaw's Addison Square

Despite skepticism from community members, Metropolitan Development says it is near finality for launching the $54 million Addison Square development in Shaw. The former site of the Kelsey Gardens apartments, the 8-story, mixed-use development will be Metropolitan Development's first DC project. Designed by the Lessard Architectural Group, the 12 townhouses, 278 rental units, and 14,000 s.f. of ground-floor retail are slated to take the place of the 54 subsidized apartments currently on the site, but finally closed and fenced off.

Developers at Metropolitan were granted preliminary PUD approval in March 2009 and according to Metropolitan Construction Manager Jim Wurzel there has every reason to believe they will "have final approval signed in the next few weeks" - a prediction representatives in the DC Office of Zoning also confirmed.

"We're hoping we can start construction this summer," he says, adding that when the development is complete it will fill in some of the "final pieces of renewal for that area." But for a community that has seen its fair share of stalled development projects over the past few years, the hopes and assurances of developers are greeted with a healthy dose of skepticism, especially for a development that was thought to be a year away almost a year and a half ago.

"We're probably talking 2011 or 2012 before anything is even torn down," predicts ANC Commissioner and Shaw Main Streets founder, Alexander Padro who adds ominously, that "the reality is that financing for the project, they needed to get that from the city and with the current economic climate and banks' unwillingness to provide financing - it makes it impossible to move forward." In response to Padro's timeline concerns, Wurzel asserted, "our intent and our efforts are to get things going this summer," adding admittedly, "in this climate who knows what's really going to happen next week, regardless off what we're trying to do." Wurzel said that the two year project might mean residents would not be able to move in until 2012, but that his firm is "working toward ground breaking this summer."

Economic indicators aside, Metropolitan has had an uphill battle developing Addison Square ever since they purchased the Kelsey Gardens property back in 2004. In those days, the developers found themselves embroiled in a legal battle with Kelsey Gardens tenants who had banded together to try to block re-development of the property by attempting to purchase Kelsey Gardens themselves. Metropolitan has since payed $250,000 in relocation assistance to the former tenants who will have first dibs on Addison Square's 54 affordable units when the development is complete.

Today, Padro characterizes Metropolitan Development as "responsive to the neighbors" and sites their willingness to shrink the development from nine stories down to eight, remap the alley to make it wider, and come up with what Padro calls a "substantial community benefits package" as signs that they want what is best for the community.

  

In exchange for the development, the community will receive a $250,000 donation to support neighborhood organizations including Padro's own Shaw Main Streets organization, as well as the Shaw Junior High music program and the local library branch.

With community members now more or less on board with the project, it's only a matter of time before we find out what the future holds for a construction site located just one block away from the O Street Market, another hopeful, yet slow moving re-development project in Shaw. To date, Metropolitan Development has not released the name of a general contractor for the project, an issue Wurzel says is "sensitive."

Washington DC commercial property news

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."

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.