Douglas Development's Parking-Free Tenleytown Development Provokes Kerfluffle

An unusual two-night Zoning Commission hearing last week about Douglas Development's five-story, 60-unit, Shalom Baranes-designed development on the Babe's Billiards site in Tenleytown centered mainly around the developers' decision to seek relief from minimum parking requirements, as several Tenley residents came out to oppose Douglas' plans for a zero-parking building.

The first opposing witness, a Tenley resident and member of "Neighbors for Neighborhoods" said the Babes development "just doesn't make sense."  According to her, the building will draw students, so tenants will constantly turn over in a neighborhood where "people reside for decades."  Other witnesses objected to the height, pointing out that most homes are two or three stories, and will be overshadowed by the new building, and another warned the commission against encouraging  "sterile, canyon-like Bethesda-style development" (it would be shorter than Cityline next door).

But the refrain of the hearing was whether the developer would build a parking garage.  Bemoaning "parking spillover," one witness said he supported the idea of the building, but warned that Douglas' proposed prohibition on tenants owning cars was unenforceable.  (He might have a point.)  Another came out strongly against bicycling as a "requirement, not a choice."  Pointing out the various perils of bicycling (traffic, weather), she urged the city to require parking for the building.

Combined with the first night's vociferous pooh-poohing of the very idea of, say, grocery shopping on a bike, the second night's opposition witnesses illustrated just how deeply ingrained car culture is in the District.  The dissenters (and some of the zoning commissioners) just couldn't conceive of a carless/post-car city (it may be germane to point out that all six dissenters appeared to be at least fifty years of age), and insisted that whatever rules or promises were made in regards to carless/ post-car tenants, once the Bond opens, the streets of Tenley would surely be overrun by disingenuous faux-bicyclists who secretly own cars.

The zoning code, which dates to 1958, requires a one-to-one (to four) ratio of parking-spaces-to-dwellings.  But this has become an onerous requirement. Harriet Tregoning, Director of the DC Office of Planning and leading proponent of smart growth, has pointed out that minimum parking requirements have forced developers to overproduce off-street parking spaces that often go unused, taking up space that might have been used for retail or tenant amenities. With enrollment in car-sharing programs like Car2Go and Zipcar skyrocketing along with the number of bikes and bike lanes, cars (and their spaces) are becoming increasingly hard to justify in cities across the country, and lately in Washington D.C.  And yet, as this hearing demonstrated, there is still a vocal segment of the population still very much attached to the idea of driving as a right.

Having received approval from ANC 3E already, the odds are good that the Commission ultimately approves Douglas' zero-parking Tenleytown development.  But the intensity of some of the opposition towards carless development in general, and bicyclists specifically, was a reminder that, logical or not, there is real hostility out there towards bicyclists.

The commission will take up the issue again on January 14th, 2013.

Washington DC retail and real estate news

Babes Development OK'd by ANC

The Advisory Neighborhood Commission held a hearing last night to approve development at 4600 Wisconsin Ave., affectionately known as the "Babes" site in Tenleytown.  In a hearing competing with a Vice Presidential debate and sudden death National League playoff, the ANC voted in a lightly attended meeting to support the residential project as Douglas Development gets ready to present the same plans to the Zoning Commission

The approval, the culmination of a Memorandum of Understanding between Douglas Development, the building's owner, and the ANC, gets Douglas past the neighborhood and to a final zoning vote.  Douglas's zoning application calls for a 6-story building with 48,000 s.f. of residential use above 13,000 s.f. of retail.  After a heated battle with some neighborhood turf bullies that feared dozens of new cars clogging Tenleytown, Douglas prevailed on turning the bottom two floors into retail by offering a host of transportation amenities (off-street handicap parking, a bike room, bike racks on Wisconsin, and a "digital multimodal display" in the lobby that lists updated bus, rail, bikeshare and car share data) rather than the 87 parking spaces that would have been required under current zoning regulations.

Douglas fought a contentious battle with some in the neighborhood that wanted garage parking to mitigate street parking, but the neighborhood acquiesced when, among other things, when Douglas agreed that residents would not qualify for neighborhood parking stickers and that commercial tenants over 3,500 s.f. would provide free validated parking. Jonathan Bender, the ANC Commissioner in whose district the project is located, said it was a tough compromise that neither side was entirely happy with, but that it allowed the project to go forward.   "This is a tremendous advance in Tenleytown...even if the ANC supported it without the parking restriction the Zoning Commission would never have supported this [without that parking condition]."  The concept of allowing new development while forbidding tenants of new residential developments has long been a contested one, with new residents feeling boxed out by local home owners.

Douglas also agreed to a check list of other neighborhood upgrades, including contributing up to $600,000 to underground utilities in front of the project, building a CaBi station at its expense if DDOT does not build one in the immediate vicinity on its own within 2 years, and enhancing the triangular park across the street.

The site has long been planned as a residential location, a previous owner intended high-end condos on the site, and though Douglas initially floated a plan for office space above retail after purchasing the property in January of 2009 (the site had been a pool hall recently), it soon began developing a plan for housing above the retail.  Click here for the most recent images of the project.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Babes Billiards Redevelopment Plan Heading to Zoning Commission

Within two weeks, Douglas Development intends to submit to the Zoning Commission its plans for a 60,821-square-foot, mixed-use retail and residential development on the old Babes Billiards location at 4600 Wisconsin Ave., NW. Douglas will request a zoning change, from C-2-A to C-3-A, for the planned unit development (PUD) to allow increases in height and residential space. The new building will be just under 71 feet tall and have a residential lot occupancy of 76 percent. With the lot's current zoning, residential lot occupancy caps at 60 percent and height at 50 feet.

View from Wisconsin Street. (All rendering provided by Douglas Development.)

The new category allows parking, but no parking is included in the design, and Douglas will ask for relief from the parking requirement. Residents raised concerns about parking early on, but given the design options and a Douglas parking study finding adequate parking in place, the final plan includes additional retail spaces in lieu of parking spaces. Paul Millstein, vice president and head of construction for Douglas, said he hopes to have the project on the agenda for a zoning hearing in July or September. If all goes well, he expects work will begin about eight months after the hearing. Architecture firm Shalom Baranes Associates designed the building that Millstein said will have about 60 residential units of various sizes. The final PUD outlines more than 47,000 square feet of residential space on five floors above nearly 12,000 square feet of ground-level retail space and lobby. Millstein said there was an additional 10,000 square feet of subterranean retail space, but the PUD lists only 2,200 square feet.

View from Brandywine Street.

The building will include a variety of materials and features such as a terracotta, aluminum, glass and brick on the facade, with a green roof to cap it off. Millstein said the company plans to keep the new development as a long-term holding. No retail outlets have formally committed to moving into the new space, but Millstein said interest is "strong" among many retailers including owners of Matchbox Grill. He said he wants a mix of retail including restaurants, coffee shops and sporting goods stores. "I think once we start construction we'll see leases signed quickly," he said. "I think we'll have tenants waiting for construction instead of us waiting for tenants."

Alternate view from Brandywine Street.

Before new construction begins, crews must raze two smaller structures on the property. The frame of the main structure on the corner will remain with new construction built around it. Millstein said he anticipates a minimum of LEED Silver certification for the property. Douglas Development acquired the property three years ago at auction for a reported $5 million. After considering several different options, the company settled on the current plan.

View from the intersection of Brandywine and Wisconsin streets.

"I think it's going well," Millstein said of the process that has included a sometimes contentious ANC review with community input. "It's taking time ... but I think it was important to bring everyone together and have an open dialogue that we've had." Washington D.C. real estate development news

DC's Largest Private Solar Array Underway in Tenleytown

The largest privately owned solar array is now going up on top of a Tenleytown building owned by Paul Burman at 4435 Wisconsin Ave., NW. Burman hired Seven Seas Energy LLC to develop the project that will produce an estimated 50,000 kilowatt hours of solar energy each year.

Teris Pantazes, founder of Seven Seas Energy, said the project carries an up-front price tag of about $220,000. But tax credits and grants reduce it to less than $100,000, he said, with an annual energy cost savings of about $20,000. Work should be completed in April.

"What's unique about this job," Pantazes said, "is this is the largest system where an owner of a building has stepped up and said I like this so much I'm going to pay for this solar array myself."

Paul Burman, president of Burman Properties Inc., will have the largest private solar array in the city. There are, however, larger non-private solar arrays. For example, Pantazes said American University has one that was built under an agreement with a private investor who funded the project and sells energy to the school.

Pantazes said there are some unique challenges to building more than six stories at nearly the highest point in the city. In addition to getting permission from the zoning commission to build on top of the building's fifth floor along Wisconsin Avenue, high winds required a strong, steel structure.

The building, which stretches in an L shape from Albemarle Street to Wisconsin Avenue, houses a variety of tenants including Hot Yoga and Mattress Warehouse.

Burman said he wanted to switch to solar power in the interest of using alternative energy sources and as an investment in his property, his first attempt at using solar energy.

"I felt it would be a good thing to do at this time with all the problems the country has," Burman said. "I'm hoping this will be an example to other commercial building owners, and they'll come over and decide they're willing to try it, too."



Correction:
Due to a source error, this article incorrectly identifies the solar array under construction above Wisconsin Avenue as the largest privately owned solar array in the city. Carol Chatham of William C. Smith & Company confirmed that the solar array on the company’s Sheridan Station building is privately owned and three times as large as the Tenleytown project. We apologize for the error.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Safeway Tries Again With Revamped Tenleytown Design

Officials from Safeway, Torti Gallas and Clark Realty Capital unveiled more renderings of its planned Tenleytown site last night - with once again, decidedly mixed community reviews.

Plans to replace the backwards-facing Safeway store at 42nd and Davenport, which has cheekily shown its veteran rump to Wisconsin Avenue passersby for the better part of thirty years, have been in place since August 2009. But opposition from the Office of Planning and the neighborhood ANC over an above-ground parking garage forced Safeway to suspend the project in January 2010.

Now Safeway, and its architects have returned with a newer, scaled down version, with the 56,000 square-foot store being folded in to a five-story complex with 184 apartments, 14 town homes and more than 140 spaces 0f underground parking for customers. There will also be dedicated parking for residents.

Still, a few in the Northwest DC community that is well known for its opposition to development on Wisconsin Avenue, worried about adding such high-density housing and traffic to a the single-family neighborhood, fear additional traffic and delivery trucks on nearby narrow residential streets such as Ellicott and Davenport.

"There is a great deal of concern on the density of the units," said Tenleytown residents Adam Rubinson, who attended Safeway's Jan. 18 unveiling at St. Mary Armenian Apostolic Church. "The concern is pretty much unanimous," he said in an interview.

Rubinson wants to see a "stepped-back" design along Davenport so as not to overwhelm its neighbors across the street. Safeway and Torti Gallas say they have done just that with a design that will top the trees in the neighborhood but not block sunlight during morning and evening hours.

Rubinson wants to see the height of the project, currently 79 feet, lowered to no more than 55 feet, with one story below grade, similar to that of the brand-spanking new Whole Foods along Willard Avenue in Chevy Chase, less than a mile away. "There are plenty of developers who are willing to do just that," he asserted.

Improving the look and size of the store is key for Safeway in a suddenly uber-competitive market like Washington D.C. Unionized middle-market grocery chains such as Safeway and Giant, even with their single-digit profit margins, once ruled the roost in D.C., where shoppers had little choice but to tolerate dirty stores, bare shelves, long lines and surly staff.

Now amid an influx of higher-end choices such as Whole Foods and Harris Teeter, the Safeways of the world must upgrade their legacy stores to keep pace with a changing market. "Everyone who sells food is a competitor," says Safeway spokesman Craig Muckle. Often they are stuck in between high-end but non-union grocery chains like Whole Foods and Wegmans that can charge a premium for their quality and variety, and low-cost producers like Wal-Mart, with the volume and a non-union workforce to wring additional profits out of food shoppers.

The 35,000 square foot Tenleytown Safeway, which first opened in 1957 and was remodeled in 1981, is no exception, facing competition from the aforementioned, newly-constructed Whole Foods in Chevy Chase, an existing Whole Foods in Tenleytown and a remodeled Giant Food along Western Ave. in Chevy Chase.

Muckle says if all goes well, the project could break ground in 2014. Safeway had hoped to start on the new Tenleytown Safeway once retail construction adjacent the Georgetown "Social" Safeway was completed, but now will have to wait. Torti Gallas is also the architect on that project as well. The 200-plus United Food and Commercial Workers members who work at the store will be "farmed out" to other stores during the reconstruction, according to UFCW Local 400 Secretary Mark Federici.

The debate over the size of the store and its accompanying town home and apartment developments threatens to devolve into the protracted tug-of-war that surrounded the redevelopment of the Newark Street Giant.

That store, just a mile further south on Wisconsin Ave, saw organized neighborhood resistance for the better part of a decade before the Bozzuto Group got the OK to start construction on a new 56,000 square foot facility this spring. Rubison says he hopes the Tenleytown Safeway development process doesn't go down that path.

"I think if Safeway can make some reasonable compromises, the chances of that happening are close to zero," said Rubinson. "But if they take a hard line, especially on the overall massing of the building and the number of units, and residential parking, I could see this getting mired in delays."

Safeway plans another question-and-answer session on Feb. 2 in the lobby of the Tenleytown Safeway between 6:30pm and 8:30pm.

Washington D.C. real estate development news.

Plan in Queue for Babe's in Tenleytown

Plans for the former Babe's Billiards site at 4600-4614 Wisconsin Avenue NW in Tenleytown have been knocked around, and ultimately scratched, since early 2004, three years before the well-known neighborhood hangout was forced to give its final last-call-for-alcohol. The site, dormant now for four years, is owned by Douglas Development, and the developer plans to rekindle an earlier vision for the parcel: a six-story, mixed-use development with a significant retail component. Douglas Development, flying as Jemal's Babes LLC, purchased the site at auction in February of 2009 for $5m - in what many insiders considered an overly aggressive bid - after previous owner and developer, Clemens Construction, went into foreclosure and was forced to fold on its plan to turn the site into the 70-unit Maxim Condominiums, first conceptualized in 2006. In 2009, Douglas asserted it would re-establish the site as simple retail, but then filed a request with the Zoning Commission in September of 2010 to rezone the property and develop the site into a significantly more dense mixed-use project incorporating anywhere from one-to-three floors of retail topped with residential. This plan, however, was scaled back in December of 2010 - back to a one-story, one-tenant redevelopment of the existing structure, likely to be occupied by a restaurateur. Following through with this downsized plan would have allowed Douglas to forgo the PUD and rezoning process and develop by right, in line with the property's current C-2-A zoning (low density, maximum height of 50'). Yet, eight months later, with the corner building still empty, Douglas is opting to go big again and has returned to the six-story, mixed-use plan for five stories of residential above 12,600 s.f. of ground-floor retail, confirms Paul Millstein, head of construction-related activity at Douglas (the rendering above is just a concept). Plans are currently in Shalom Baranes' design queue, although there are no active renderings yet, per the architect. The PUD-plans will be submitted to ANC 3 "by September" said Millstein. "If not September, October for sure." Meanwhile, anyone looking for pool can head to Babe's new home in Silver Spring, where the watering hole relocated in November of last year. Anyone looking for vestiges of the neighborhood's seamier days of the '60s and '70s will have a harder time finding it. 

Washington D.C. retail and commercial real estate news

Mixed-use: A Safe Way to Go in Tenleytown?

It’s a short Safeway with a long story.

As reported by the Washington Post, the nationwide grocery chain is looking to move forward with new, yet-to-be-fleshed-out plans for a mixed-use development where a low-slung, red-brick Safeway store currently resides just off of Wisconsin Avenue in Tenleytown.

The Safeway, built in 1981, sits with its backside to 42nd Street – the building was built to face away from the main drag – while conversely, Safeway execs are facing a call to action from the Office of Planning and Ward 3 ANC 3E-03 to address specific problems both groups had with a previous version of redevelopment, one which merely raised the Safeway to 2 stories and added a touch of retail.
The problematic PUD was submitted by Safeway in August 2009. Things began to unravel for Safeway as early as October – only two months after submitting plans –when substantial criticism arose from both OP and the ANC. Safeway chose to “indefinitely suspend” its plans in January 2010. OP expressed concerns about various elements of the plan, but was pointedly critical of Safeway’s request for rezoning.


As seen in the 2005 OP land use map (at left) the Safeway-owned land between 42nd and 43rd street and Ellicott and Davenport Street, is a mix of low-density residential (yellow), low-medium density residential (peach), local public land (navy), and commercial (pink).

The yellow-peach areas are what caused Safeway the most trouble, and led to a mixed-use plan.

Designed by Torti Gallas and Partners, the redevelopment was initially meant to expand and renovate the out-dated Safeway store there – which turns (gasp) 30 this year – and also tack on additional retailers on site: a coffee shop, dry cleaners, and florist.

Now, a year-and-a-half since scrapping plans Safeway is back at it, yet, taking it slow, and contrary to what was reported by the Post, Safeway has not yet issued a request for proposals. Craig Muckle, manager for public affairs and government relations in the region, says that Safeway is first gathering input from the community and is paying particular attention to the opinion of residents in the immediate area.

Jon Bender, chair of ANC 3E, noted that he and other ANC 3E commissioners suggested to Safeway more than a year ago that some kind of mixed-use development at the site could make sense.

Given that single-family homes immediately abut the Tenleytown site, he added, the details of the project matter a great deal. "A majority [of ANC3E commissioners] views this development positively in principle, but I think we’ve got a good distance to go before a majority could support a specific project," Bender explains.

Bender observed that Safeway’s preliminary, conceptual description of what it intends for the site raised concerns, and Safeway has stated that - until it selects a developer - it will not discuss significant changes to the project, share detailed renderings, or produce perspective drawings of the view of the development from adjacent residences.

This time around Safeway is looking for a plan that will work, but not before getting the go-ahead from the community, and that community has proven to be a difficult client many times over.

Update:

At left: Office of Planning Future Land Use Map (as designated in 2007)
This map shows more accurately that the land in question is zoned for moderate residential and light commercial development. The Office of Planning was opposed to rezoning in order to accommodate Safeway's 2009 PUD, and ANC 3E03 suggested that Safeway consider a mixed-use development for the site.

The yellow and peach areas at 43rd St and Ellicott St. on the Office of Planning Land Use Map from 2005 (within article) are currently residential areas - with residents - and it is these folks who are particularly concerned about Safeway's redevelopment plans for the site as it is quite literally in their backyard.

Correction: In paragraph five, "Safeway-owned land" is incorrect, and the article should read "the affected area"

Washington D.C. real estate development news

American University Submits Expansion Plans

American University has officially submitted its decadal vision of growth to the Washington D.C. Zoning Commission for review. The AU Campus Plan has been the subject of two years of public comment which have, predictably, shrunk its size and density, but which increases enrollment from 10,200 to 13,600, expands the campus across Nebraska Avenue and builds out AU's campus at Tenley Circle into a new law school.

The university intends a number of upgrades to its current campus, including $400m in construction and renovation projects, a further greening of the campus and construction that aims for "carbon neutrality" by 2020, and a consolidation of student housing into new buildings, drawing more students in from the neighborhoods.
The largest, and most controversial, portion of the proposal is to turn the 8-acre surface parking lot at Massachusetts and Nebraska into a 6 building mini campus with housing for 770 students (down from 1000), administrative offices (placed strategically between student housing and the gated townhouse community next door), and small scale retail fronting New Mexico Avenue ("primarily to serve university needs"), 329,000 s.f. of development in all. The plan has had some AU Park and Spring Valley residents atwitter, particularly given the Department of Homeland Security's plans for a major expansion directly across Massachusetts Avenue. The new "east campus" will front New Mexico and Nebraska Avenues, leaving surface parking along Massachusetts for a later "signature" building, something like the gangly Katzen building on the north side of Ward Circle.
Earlier versions of the plan held open the possibility of more retail, an idea that created controversy at some meetings, but which numerous AU Park residents thought would be welcomed. "I drive from Tenleytown to Bethesda or to Cleveland Park if I want to get out and walk, those of us that choose to live close in deserve better, closer options" said a local resident who asked not to be identified. Earlier plans floated the idea of additional retail along Nebraska, but that was nixed in favor of a plan for 14,400 s.f. of retail along New Mexico Ave.

AU also plans to move the law school from its Spring Valley facility in the hinterlands of northwest to its current campus on Tenley Circle, providing metro access for the average peripatetic student, a change that will seem positively urbane for the students that have experienced the gulag of the Spring Valley campus.

At the same time, the university will decamp 497 of its undergrads from Tenleytown to the main campus to make room for the aspiring litigators. The general footprint of the Tenley campus would change little, though the bland mid-century architecture would be replaced by new (and possibly bland) designs. American University has shouldered most of the design process internally, with McKissack & McKissack contributing to some design and graphic elements, though designs for the buildings have not been fleshed out.

University Architect Jerry Gager says the initial renderings supplied for the report are "suggestive of the bulk and massing" of the buildings and "clearly placeholders, not meant to evoke any sort of design style." Eventual building design on the east campus will be handled by Little Diversified Architectural Consulting, the Tenley site will be handled by SmithGroup. The timeline is still dependent upon zoning approval, but the school hopes to start work on the east campus housing in mid 2012 and open in the fall of 2014, and start work on the Tenleytown campus in mid 2013 and open in the fall of 2015.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Tenley-Friendship Library to Open Monday

The Tenley-Friendship Library at 4450 Wisconsin Ave. will open on Monday, January 24.

It's been through three mayoral administrations, three development teams, countless community discussions, but at last it's done. The new Tenleytown library opens Monday, five years after discussions began about replacing the outdated library on Wisconsin Avenue.

According to D.C. Public Library's Chief Librarian Ginnie Cooper, the space was designed to accommodate the changing role of the city's libraries. During Mayor Anthony Williams' administration, and through Mayor Adrian Fenty's tenure, a re-distribution of funds has translated to beefier collections, more targeted programming, and updated technology. Over the past five years, she says, community library attendance has doubled.

Tenley-Friendship Library will house 80,000 books, DVD's and CD's, 32 Macs and wi-fi, says Cooper. The new space also features quiet study rooms, conference rooms, a meeting room that seats 100, and a children's programming area.

The library showcases several design features that are somewhat unique. For example, the building committee hired a consultant to monitor light and heat in the adult section to maintain comfortable temperature and light, particularly during late afternoon sun. The building also features a green roof that houses as an environment-friendly waste water management system.

Thirteen of the city's 24 libraries will have been rebuilt or renovated in two years. Three more will open this fall, including the renovated Mount Pleasant Branch, a new space in Washington Highland, and the Francis A. Gregory branch in Southeast. The renovated Petworth branch is slated for a spring opening.

The entrance to the library showcases books on the left, with spines facing both directions. Many of the books on these shelves will feature new releases as well as titles that may entice readers, says Cooper.

The ground floor showcases a walkway that will accommodate crowds as well as stroller pile-ups during children's programming, which Cooper notes, is an issue at the Shaw branch.

The children's section features books shelves at eye-level for kids.

The second floor walkway allows for plenty of natural light, yet features design that ensures it is neither too bright nor too warm.

The teen section of the library marked by bright orange chairs offers computers specifically for middle and high schoolers.

The second story offers quiet rooms which Cooper says are often co-opted by bloggers.

The meeting room accommodates up to 100 people, says Cooper. Anyone from the community can reserve the space, provided the meeting is open to the public.

The Tenley-Friendship branch juxtaposes wide open spaces and reading nooks.

Teardrop lights punctuate the lobby, which is framed by a dramatic staircase.

Roadside Development first proposed a new library in 2005, at a time when Mayor Williams cut funding for several libraries, including Tenleytown's. Roadside instead proposed building an apartment complex adjacent to the library, a cash-generating operation that would entice it to pay for a new library and renovation for the hard worn Janney school next door (now under renovation at city expense). Small but concerted local opposition derailed the project - and Roadside - but a skittish city warmed to the idea and solicited bids for the same project, then changed the bid requirements to move prospective residences off the library, eventually awarding LCOR the same project. The Council demurred and forced a redrawing of plans, and by February of 2009 LCOR's romance with the city ended, leaving the city to build the library and rebuild Janney as a salve to frazzled nerves; construction began in September 2009.

Douglas Scales Back Tenleytown Plans

Weeks after floating a plan for increased density at the Babe's Billiard site, Douglas Development has told the local ANC that it has scrapped plans for a multi-family development in favor of a single-story restaurant. Originally purchased at auction for $5 million in 2009, Douglas Jemal voiced his intention of reestablishing the former Babe's Billiards site as a viable retail corner in the center of Tenleytown. Jemal's aggressive bidding on the property had some speculating that the fix was in for a big name retailer. But nothing materialized, and more recently it was understood Jemal's ambition for the site had grown. Just last month the Washington Business Journal ran a headline reading "Tenleytown warms to higher density developments," citing Jemal's aims to construct two floors of residential atop three floors of commercial/retail. But attendees of ANC 3e's most recent meeting witnessed the presentation of Jemal's "radically reduced" plans, reports the local ANC's Secretary Jonathan Bender.

Indeed, the proposal has reverted back to a simple retail project, likely "a restaurant with lofty twenty foot ceilings," says Bender. Shalom Baranes will trash their sketches of a multi-story addition but continue to work with Jemal on the design aspects of the now much smaller development plans. While the dream of increased density at the site is dead, the shrinkage is reportedly financially-driven, not a result of the perceived difficulty of earning community support, as many may assume. Tenleytown has earned a formidable reputation for harboring a relatively small but vituperative group of NIMBYs, routinely cited for extinguishing developer's hopes of high-density development in the area. The group's most recent victims include the currently stalled seven-story Akridge development at 5220 Wisconsin Avenue (deceased) and the Tenleytown Safeway development, which remains indefinitely motionless in planning approval-limbo. Surely, American University students, faculty, and staff are trembling at the thought of receiving the reaction from the Tenleytown ANC when they explain their 2011 Camps Plan and their wish to relocate their Washington College of Law to Tenley Circle.

But according to Bender, Jemal's plans for a six story mixed-use development had not drawn the ire of Tenleytown residents. In fact, the project had the ANC's support, he says. But the necessary PUD approval process, sometimes costing developers upwards of a million dollars, was not financially feasible, compelling Jemal to pursue a more modest project. While the rumors that Tenleytown now has a more nuanced and friendlier attitude towards development may be true, the economy remains decidedly less charitable.

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News

Opus Dei Retreat Resurrected in Tenleytown

Tenleytown may soon make space for the Opus Dei religious order, now that it has a fresh HPRB approval in hand. The Yuma Study Center Inc. and its owner, the Heights Foundation, are planning to construct a residential addition to the landmarked Convent of Bon Secours at 4101 Yuma Street in Tenleytown for Opus Dei. The new building would entail a cloister constructed around a central courtyard and, according to a 2008 Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) report, consist of “meeting and classroom spaces, residential space and a chapel for fifteen members of the Opus Dei religious community.”

The Heights Foundation has a long history with the HPRB. Plans to renovate and alter the Bon Secours Convent first came to light in 2003. At the time, HPRB was considering the Convent for a historic site designation—a move that would shield it from being razed by its owner, The Heights Foundation. In 2004, the Convent officially became a historic site, requiring all changes to pass through the HPRB, which has since reviewed designs for the project three times—most recently back in January of this year.


Though the concept received initial approval, the HPRB required revisions to a planned roof deck, porch, alley parking, and walkways before complete approval could be granted. In a hearing, the Board has also raised concerns that the architects' original renderings for the project are vague, perhaps intentionally so.

The architect was equally vague in describing the timeline for the project. According to the architect, Alvin Holm, the timing has been a “source of contention.” He then declined to comment further, citing privacy concerns. The architect is well-known in his home town of Philadelphia, and nationally for his classic architecture, having founded the Philadelphia chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America.

According to HPO staff reviewer, Tim Dennee, The Heights Foundation has not submitted any new plans, schedules, or drawings to his office since January.

If it goes forward, this will be only one of three projects to begin on the same block, with plans for a new library and school addition, all contiguous, nearly ready to begin.