Skyland Town Center's Phase One

It's been a long slog, but the work is finally building momentum at Skyland Town Center, where construction on the 18-acre site is expected to complete this year and retailers have finally been committing.  Chase Bank and CVS have already signed leases for Phase 1 of the project, which will include 84,000 s.f. of retail and 263 rental apartments when it completes later this summer.  Rappaport has been in discussion with numerous restaurants as well, despite the obvious impediments to restaurant leasing at the moment.  Lidl and Starbucks, also both committed retailers, will get underway later this year, the latter will take the place of the CVS trailer now on site.  A second phase of the project will nearly double the retail (to 136,000) and residential unit numbers (to 513) when that phase begins, though a start date is not yet determined.  A 4-story medical office building will eventually round out the final development, though a start date is not yet set.

The contentious project is one for the history books.  Initiated by the National Capitol Revitalization Corporation (since dissolved) in 2002 to bring development to a decaying and retail-starved area in southeast DC, developers had visions of urban renewal and improved retail opportunities. Developers, primarily WC Smith and Rappaport, began to assemble and acquire the land, but the existing retailers and landowners weren't convinced the project had legs, and many chose not to sell or abandon their businesses to an uncertain future.  Enter the District government, which chose to acquire the remaining properties via eminent domain, i.e. a constitutional prerogative that permits the government to seize private property for "public" use.  Developers dangled Target as a future tenant, which fell through, but with the District government on its team the recalcitrant owners were defeated, and by 2011 Mayor Vincent Gray predicted construction was "imminent."

That was not to be.  Planners needed an anchor, and eventually signed Walmart, but in 2016, with no construction yet underway, Walmart withdrew from its commitment to anchor the site, as well as another site in Ward 8, and the search was on to find a replacement. The project broke ground in February of 2018, and in May of 2019, Rappaport announced that German grocer Lidl had signed on for almost 30,000 s.f.  The other leases soon followed, including one of the only drive-through Starbucks in the region.  Until the completion of phase 2 a large portion of the site will remain a construction lot, but for now, the neighborhood is one step closer to having the grocery options, sit-down restaurants and conveniences of neighborhoods west of the river that have so long bedeviled the residents in the project's vicinity.

Project:  Skyland Town Center

Address:  Intersection of Good Hope Road and Alabama Avenue, SE 

Developer:  Rappaport, WC Smith, District of Columbia

Architect:  Torti Gallas

Interior Design:  Carlyn & Co.

Construction:  WCS Construction

Use:  480 apartments, 134,000 s.f. of first floor retail

Expected Completion: Phase 1:  Fall 2020.   Phase 2:  TBD

Washington D.C. retail and real estate development news

Ward 7 Gets a $10 Million Amenity in New Tennis Center

Image: courtesy Clark Nexsen

A multi-million dollar tennis and education center opened Saturday off of East Capitol Street in DC's Ward 7.  The complex adds a big amenity to an area of the District with one of the city's highest percentage of vacant or abandoned space, but that has lately seen new developments.

The Washington Nationals in July began work on a youth baseball academy very nearby at Fort Dupont Park.  In 2008, developers Donatelli and Blue Skye were selected to develop a city-owned lot at the nearby, Ward 7 hub of Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road, NE.  Work on the $65 million mixed-use retail and residential project started this summer.

New Courts at Stoddert Pl SE. Photo courtesy WTEF

These developments mean that land in Ward 7, which, according to the Office of Planning, has 32 percent vacant or abandoned space compared to Ward 1's six percent, is seeing more construction.

The force behind the $10 million project is the Washington Tennis and Education Foundation (WTEF), an organization that specializes in a unique combination of tennis training and tutoring to serve school-aged youth from East DC who might not otherwise get tennis lessons or school help. Clark Nexsen is the architect on the project.

The new center sits on 7.5 acres rented under a 40-year lease with the District Department of Parks and Recreation.  It is located at the Benning Stoddert Recreation Center at 200 Stoddert Place SE,  and includes nine outdoor tennis courts.  The 64,800 s.f. of indoor space includes six indoor courts, a community room, four classrooms, offices, and a 50-seat computer training room.   The site, which already had a field, a playground, and some tennis and basketball courts, also got enhancements, including lighting and better paths.

Image: courtesy Clark Nexsen

"It is envisioned as an additional community resource," Frank Kaye, architect with Clark Nexsen, told DCMud.  He said designs for the facility considered how to save trees, improve existing spaces, and how to best facilitate overall project goals of tennis training and mentoring.  Designers met with community leaders, as well as with the United States Tennis Association to make sure the facilities met their guidelines.

Eleni Rossides, director of WTEF, said fundraising for the center began during the recession, but that donors pulled through to raise almost all of the money for the project privately. 

Photo courtesy WTEF

In addition to work at 23 schools, WTEF had, until now, worked out of a facility on K Street NW and bused kids there from east DC.   With the new facility, students in WTEF's fee-free programs will be able to get tennis training and tutoring in their own neighborhood. Rossides said the center will be open to programming for adults and seniors, organizational collaborations, and someday maybe advisory neighborhood commission (ANC) meetings.

"For us, we really looked at this as a family community center and we really hope that it can help to transform this community," Rossides said.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Bigger, Greener: Skyland Files Another Zoning Amendment

Skyland - the very name implies the ever distant horizon - is back for another zoning review to fully entitle the real estate development project, this time to fit Walmart into the equation.

The most recent change regarding the large ‘town center’ complex is a PUD amendment that was submitted late last week by the development team behind the project. The original PUD was approved by the Office of Zoning in September 2010, but that was before Walmart signed on as the development’s anchor store last fall. The inclusion of the mega-retailer necessitated a number of changes to the plan—though nothing particularly substantive, according to the application. “The proposed PUD modification application is NOT proposing significant changes to the approved PUD project,” reads the document.

That means the development will continue to include 450-500 residential units, some of which will be townhomes and/or affordable housing, and retail space leasing will increase only slightly, from 311,000 s.f. to 342,000 total s.f.

The most serious change appears to be a decrease in the number of parking spaces needed. The total number will be down by about 300 “which meets one of the Office of Planning’s goals,” Matt Ritz, a vice president at William C Smith &. Company, pointed out.  Smith is one of the members of the development team, along with The Rappaport Companies, Harrison Malone Development, the Marshall Heights Community Development Organization, and the Washington East Foundation.

Other changes include lowering the height of parts of the building Walmart will occupy, slightly reducing the number of townhouses, and topping a section of the project with solar panels and a green roof, rather than with a final layer of parking as originally planned.

The revamped development should include slightly more green space, and the application hints at more ‘green’ elements to come: “Walmart has several sustainable goals for this project which will be achieved by the following features: use of water efficient faucets and toilets; implementation of an energy management system; high-efficiency HVAC design; LED lighting; sun shading devices on the roof; and a construction waste stream management program."

Ritz is hoping the project will get a hearing with the Zoning Commission before the end of the year and a public hearing sometime around March 2013. But it’s all up in the air. “The dates are with a grain of salt,” he said. “It’s all contingent on the Zoning Commission.” And the company is still a very long way from soliciting construction bids.

Still, as slowly as it’s going, there is definitely movement occurring at Skyland. In September, the city celebrated the start of a demolition process of some of the buildings in the existing shopping center. And of seven legal cases that were pending in early 2011 - all linked to the city's use of eminent domain on the project--only one is still unresolved.

Washington, D.C., real estate development news

Marshall Heights Residents Get Cheap New Digs

Mayor Adrian Fenty joined executives today from The Community Builders in the Fairlawn - Marshall Heights neighborhood for a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the completion of Ward 7's $20 million Fairlawn-Marshall Apartment renovation, providing another subsidized housing project for the Pennsylvania Avenue neighborhood. The mixed-income housing renovation marks the first DC project for The Community Builders, a Boston-based, nonprofit housing developer with projects in 14 states.

The DC Housing Authority (DCHA), the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), and the Department of Mental Health were also on hand to celebrate the part they played in funding the overhaul of 98-units within eight buildings spanning the 2700 block of Q and R Streets, SE as well as the 5000 block of Call Place Street, SE.

Adrianne Todman, DCHA's interim Executive Director, credited the newly remodeled homes as a shining example of "the power of partnership" in DC, adding that projects like this one show that "Housing Authorities are players in real estate deals."

Beginning in February of this year and wrapping up in August, the Fairlawn-Marshall redevelopment was made possible through financing provided by the Housing Production Trust Fund, DCHA, The Department of Mental Health, Enterprise Community Partners and Low Income Housing Tax Credits. Additionally, Community Builder's VP Rob Fossi paid credit to Aegon for bringing "in money from Holland to make this possible."

Renovations encompassed everything from the installation of energy efficient heating and cooling systems to kitchen and bath upgrades to new security entries. At the conclusion of the conference, Mayor Fenty led attendees on a tour of the updated apartments designed by the Bethesda-based Environmental Design Group.

Because they are financed through Low Income Housing Tax Credits, all 98 units will be income and rent restricted. Thirty units will receive public housing assistance from DCHA, with an additional 10 units being designated for supportive housing for disabled clients through a contract with DCHA and the DC Department of Mental Health.

Minnesota - Benning: Apartments and Sit-down Restaurants Coming

Ladies and Gentlemen: We have lift off. Today, Mayor Adrian Fenty and Co. gathered at the Minnesota Avenue Metro station in Ward 7 to throw a demolition party for development partners Donatelli Development and Blue Skye Development at the site of the future Minnesota-Benning project.

This particular press mixer was the culmination of two years of Land Disposition Agreements that sought to answer the question: How can the District best put $80 million to good use in a neighborhood known for its high crime, heavy traffic and lack of sit-down restaurants? One of the neighborhood's first sit-downs, Ray's the Steaks, only opened this past April with the help of a grant from the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development's office, and the District wants another.

The answer the development team came up with was the Eric Colbert & Associates-designed Minnesota Avenue-Benning Road, NE, (formerly known as "Phase 2") a five-acre, three-building mixed-use development. The transit-oriented goliath will stand adjacent to the Minnesota Avenue Metro and the new, $95 million Department of Employment Services (DOES) headquarters (a.k.a Minnesota Avenue-Benning Road, NE Phase 1).

The location of the project is part of the larger Great Streets initiative, a joint venture between DMPED, The District Department of Transportation (DDOT), and the Office of Planning that seeks to transform some of DC's more blighted neighborhoods into "great streets - places where people want to be." Upon delivery in the fall of 2012, the Minnesota-Benning project will boast 325 rental housing units at 60% AMI, 48 for-sale condos offered at market rate and 23,000 s.f. of retail and restaurant space.

Five thousand s.f. of those 23,000 s.f. will be reserved solely for sit-down restaurant space and 4,000 s.f. will be set aside for local business, assures DMPED Director of Communications, Mary Margaret Plumridge.

So, let's say you have a great idea for a sit-down restaurant in Ward 7. Will you be eligible for the same type of grant DMPED made available to Ray's the Steaks? Those details are still being ironed out, and the District seems at least mindful of the fact that this will require something more luring than an empty space.

Either way, construction begins Spring 2011.

DC Real Estate and Development News

Pollin's Parkside Project: Bringing Down the House(s)

Public housing in Parkside will crumble and fall this summer, not from age or neglect, but by a demolition team, clearing the way for the new Linda Joy and Kenneth Jay Pollin Memorial Community Development. The Pollin project will replace one-for-one the 42 affordable rental units on site, known as Parkside Additions, while adding 83 for-sale units. The project was initially spearheaded by the late Abe Pollin and his Pollin Foundation. The District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA) is seeking permission to raze the row of apartment buildings from 705-721 Anacostia Avenue, NE and, according to DCHA Spokesperson Dena Michaelson, hopes to demolish the buildings over the course of the summer.

Pollin Memorial Community Development, LLC's planned $35 million development would bring 125 new affordable for-sale and rental homes to the northeast site, an assemblage belonging at one time to three different government entities – the District of Columbia, the District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA), and the National Parks Service (NPS). The developers courted the approval of all landowners back in 2006 and received approval for the project from the National Capitol Planning Commission (NCPC) in 2008. The NPS transferred its property to the District in 2007.

According to Michaelson, the developer is putting up $2 million to guarantee construction loans for the project. Michaelson said the entire project will eventually be paid for by the condo sales, and that Pollin, acting as a fee developer, will not gain financially from the sales. DCHA will be the property owner for the public housing and will maintain the units. Financing for development is being provided by the District of Columbia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), the District of Columbia Housing Authority, United Bank, Enterprise and the Abe Pollin Grantor Trust. DHCD is providing a construction loan, explained Michaelson, "a portion of the DHCD loan that applies to building public housing units is forgivable."

The project will provide 125 off-street parking spaces, one per unit, and the new residential structures will not exceed 40 feet or 3 stories. The 83 condominiums will be available to individuals earning between 40 percent and 100 percent area media income (AMI) and the 25 rental units will be offered to residents earning at or below 30 percent AMI.

A ceremonial groundbreaking in December was marred by a community boycott - an effort to convince developers and city officials to be more forthcoming about the project's community benefits which, though not final, had been viewed as skimpy. At the time, Michaelson indicated that a community benefits package would be available to the public upon its completion. When asked if an agreement has now been reached, ANC7C04 Commissioner Sylvia Brown said, "Short answer: no, no community benefits. Medium answer: there was a change in the ANC7D chairmanship and the momentum went out like air from a balloon. There hasn't been any other broad community update or discussion." Michaelson said the Pollin family has committed to giving $350,000 to the community, but was not sure what form the donation would take.

Meanwhile, DCHA will begin relocating residents to alternate public housing until Pollin's project delivers, a process that will determine the demolition date. "It's not a quick thing...it's a process to be able to relocate folks...to find the right size bedroom units, etcetera." explained Michaelson.

Current Parkside residents will have the first right to return to the new units. A press release from the ground breaking indicated the first units would be available in 2011. The phased project will complete in February 2013, according to Michaelson, who added that for-sale units will not be marketed until 2013.

Enterprise Community Investment is one of the development partners on the project. John Stranix, of Stranix Associates, is spearheading the construction effort with designs by Torti Gallas & Partners.

Washington, DC real estate development news

Say Yes! to Organic East of the River

For the first time, the Fairlawn neighborhood, just on the boundaries of Ward 8 and Ward 7 and a few blocks from the Historic Anacostia neighborhood, will have access to fresh, organic products like its brethren on the other side of the Anacostia River. Yes! Organic's newest store will open in August, occupying all 7,500 s.f. of ground floor retail in Chapman Development's new affordable housing project, The Grays, at 2323 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE.

The Grays brings 118 units of subsidized rental apartments to those making at or below 60% area median income; so far, 45 units have been leased. Renters pay $1,155 for a one-bedroom, $1,386 for a two-bedroom. Computecture Incorporated designed the building, which sits on a plot formerly home to an unsightly strip of used car lots and a tattoo parlor.

The site is the 7th Yes! to open in the District. The District provided $7.5 million in construction loans and $1.9 million in affordable housing tax credits to the developer, and an additional $900,000 grant to get a Yes! store through the Supermarket Tax Credit and Great Streets Program. The new project will create 27 jobs over the next four months.

Chapman was also previously responsible for the Lotus Square Apartments on Kenilworth Avenue, NE. Chapman recently announced that he and Gary Cha, owner of several Yes! Organic Market stores, would be partnering to open five more stores in other District neighborhoods. Mayor Adrian Fenty called the new store just the latest addition in Cha's "Yes! Organic empire" (making up, perhaps, from has gaffe when he announced at the 2008 groundbreaking ceremony that the store would a Harris Teeter.)

Washington, DC real estate development news!

The Continuing Saga of Skyland Town Center

Apparently three hours worth of a Zoning Commission hearing was not enough time for all interested parties to have their say about Skyland Town Center, a the proposed mixed-use residential and retail development. Neighbors showed up in force to voice their concerns and hesitant support for - or outright opposition to - the project set to bring 450-500 residential units and 315,000 s.f. of retail to the intersection Alabama Avenue & Good Hope Road, SE. The five-member development team, made up of the Rappaport Companies, William C. Smith & Co., Harrison Malone Development LLC, the Marshall Heights Community Development Organization (MHCDO) and the Washington East Foundation, has been working with the community on the plans for Skyland for 7 years. The December meeting ended with a "to-be-continued" status, set to finish (in theory) February 4, 2010.

Original plans called for 80% of the residential units to be condominiums, an obvious non-starter today. According to one resident who spoke before the Zoning Commission, the community first began pushing for new development in the town center area in 1989, in 2000 then - Mayor Anthony Williams' administration chose the current development team to plan and build the mixed-use center. The DC Council has already approved a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) package to provide gap financing for the project.

Residential units will be provided in three apartment buildings and approximately 20 townhouses. Developers hope the retail will include a big box retail store, multi-neighborhood retailers, and local retailers.

ANC-7B submitted a letter of support, but it listed approximately 20 concerns or items that needed further discussions, including concerns over traffic mitigation, litter control, and promised transportation enhancements. One group of neighbors, the Ft. Baker Drive Party, remains in complete opposition citing concerns over, naturally, the proximity of the planned development to their homes. Neighbors such as Tiffany Brown, a resident of neighboring Akron Place, said they opposed any type of development on the site that added housing to the retail mix, citing abundant housing already in existence.

After three hours of testimony from the developers and residents, the Zoning Commission set the schedule for February to hear the Office of Planning's report on the project.

Washington DC real estate development news

Fenty Announces Developer for Deanwood Affordable Housing

Deanwood has been grabbing headlines left and right this summer. Today, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty announced that Denning Development, Urban Matters Development Partners and Beulah Community Improvement will develop the two parcels at 400-414 Eastern Avenue, NE (now a vacant building) and the empty 6100 block of Dix Street, NE. The Dix Street and Eastern Avenue project, with 56 new, affordable, three bedroom townhomes, joined the pipeline of new projects promising affordable housing and jobs for area residents. Other new Ward 7 redevelopment projects include the Strand Theater, the opening of Marvin Gaye Park and last week's demolition on Hayes Street.

Both projects will be developed under the purview of the District’s Nehemiah Housing Program, which builds homes for households earning between $25,000 and $75,000 per year. According to a press release issued by Washington Interfaith Network, a portion of the units may be made available as workforce housing.

Of the 56 units, 18 will be adaptive re-use and the remainder will be new construction. The townhomes will range in size from 1,484 s.f. to 1,680 s.f. At least 10 of the units will be reserved as replacement housing for families currently living in the Lincoln Heights/Richardson Dwellings community. The Mayor projected groundbreaking in February 2010. With 21 of the units scheduled for completion by "this time next year," the remainder should be completed by October of 2011. Square 134 Architects designed the new buildings.

Both sites are governed by two long-range planning initiatives – the Lincoln Heights and Richardson Dwellings New Communities Initiative Revitalization Plan and the Deanwood Strategic Development Plan – that are targeted at undoing the “blight and underinvestment” the community has suffered from over the past 40 years.

Woodson High School to Start Construction, Seek Bidders

Washington DC government officials today opened bids for construction of the $100 million effort to rebuild H.D. Woodson High School. HESS began demolition almost of the post-apocalyptic structure, circa 1973, one year ago. The new High School will be the only one in the District's 7th Ward.

DC Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization (OPEFM) and HESS Construction + Engineering Services will hold a pre-bid conference on Wednesday, September 9th from 10 AM until 12 PM for Division Two Trade Contractors (Site Work, Utility, Excavation), and have issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ). The conference will be held at The Riverside Center at 5500 Foote Street, NE.

In a press release, OPEFM said they, along with HESS, are "aggressively seeking" "Certified Business Enterprises," especially those in Ward 7, as construction on the new H.D. Woodson High School gets underway, for at least 50 percent of the project’s costs.

In a June press release DC Mayor Adrian Fenty's office said the new Woodson, located at 5500 Eads Street, N.E., will also be among the D.C. Public School system’s most environmentally sensitive facility as it seeks the highest Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for “green” building development. The new school is designed by Cox Grae and Spack Architects and SHW Group.

Benning Station Yanked by DC

The much vaunted Benning Station project has lost its main tenant and developer in a recent twist that leaves its future in doubt.

Having long envisioned the Benning Road corridor in Ward 7 as one of the keystones of redevelopment in eastern Washington, DC, city planners aimed to realize their goals by not only attracting new retailers and residents to the long struggling area, but local government agencies – and the traffic that comes with them - as well. To the end, the Fenty administration has masterminded mixed-use projects, like the $108 "Downtown Ward 7" project at Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road, NE that will include large residential and retail components neighboring the new, currently under construction headquarters of the Department of Employee Services. But another project in the same vein may be in danger of falling through. And now community advocates are laying the blame at the feet of those that promoted it – namely the Office of Property Management and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development.

Developer (and Fenty confidant) Ben Soto and DBT Development's $55 million, Bonstra Haresign-designed project was supposed to bring a new, 132,500 square foot headquarters for DC’s Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) to 4414 Benning Road, NE – along with 21,000 square feet of much needed ground floor retail and a future phase that would include sixty-two residential units. Then, last month, the developer told the local ANC that he could possibly be pulling out of the project, just as news came down from OPM Director Robin-Eve Jasper that CFSA would not be relocating to Ward 7 after all.

“[The] reason the CFSA lease was being pulled was that they had found a ready-to-move in space… in Ward 5, specifically NoMa,” says Sylvia Brown of the ANC 7C04. “The DC City Council passed legislation two weeks ago giving developers in that area a $50 million tax break for the next two years. When you look at the fact that Ben Soto has designed the Benning Station project for CSFA with no additional monies requested and he’s not asking for any tax subsidies, that move to NoMa contradicts what the city says about needing a ready-to-move-in space.”

The news not only raised suspicions of community advocates, but was also an unexpected surprise. Soto himself had reportedly spent $11 million of “pre-development investment” funds to ensure the CSFA’s occupancy. Furthermore, according to the Ward 7 Citizens Coalition, the Benning Station project had already received numerous letters of interest from potential retailers, including CVS, TGIFriday’s and “other neighborhood serving retail” and has been tailored specifically to meet needs of the CFSA – making occupancy by another tenant unlikely, even as the project nears the end of the District-led approval process.

“Just this morning, it was before the Board of Zoning because it needs to have some zoning variations and it’s gotten the approval of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission, as well as the Department of Transportation,” said Brown. “This is a project that had acquiesced to the CSFA’s needs for an additional 50,000 square feet. How can you…negotiate that additional space to meet your particular needs and then pull out at the last minute?”

Director Jasper will be on hand to answer that question herself, when she attends a public forum concerning the future of Benning Station this evening, Wednesday, April 22^nd, at the Kenilworth Recreation Center at 4300 Anacostia Avenue, NE. The meeting will begin at 7 PM.

Washington D.C. retail and development news