Debonair Student Housing in Woodley

Just when Woodley Park residents thought they were safe from college kids, tucked safely across the bridge from rowdy Adams Morgan, a new development, the Debonair, will bring the college students right to their doorsteps. Debonair, by developers Ashbourne Developments, will bring 11,000 s.f. of student housing to 2608-2612 Connecticut Avenue, which currently sports a drycleaner and surface parking lot in the rear. Groundbreaking for the project is April 20th at 11 AM. The four-story residential building, directly next to the Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan Metro entrance, will have one level of parking, accessed from 24th Street. DCMud reported the project last June, but recently Boston University signed a long term lease for the apartment building as a home for its student interns. According to Crispin Etherington, founder of Ashbourne Development, "BU is currently located in a building two blocks away and several other universities have housing in the Woodley Park area." In a press release, project architect Todd Ray of Studio27 Architecture said, "the building is designed to complement the existing urban fabric." The structure is described as having an "historically influenced limestone and brick" facade with "three bays of oversized balconied windows." The owners of the Debonair Cleaners at 2610 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Shahram and Maria Taginya, hired Ashbourne in 2009 to create a residential building directly behind their storefront. The cleaners will stay in place during construction and a neighboring space has been leased by an unnamed Italian restaurant, which will open late summer 2010. The student housing construction is expected to be ready in time for the spring 2011 semester. Monarc Construction will serve as general contractor. 

Washington, DC real estate development news

Debonair Development Coming to Woodley Park

Woodley Park may soon become still more debonair now that the owners of the Debonair Cleaners at 2610 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Shahram and Maria Taginya, have taken on Annapolis-based developers Ashbourne Developments LLC to construct a four-story residential building directly behind their storefront. Entitled, surprisingly enough, the Debonair Residences, the project will include "up to" 14 residential units and span the length of the existing one-story commercial outlets on site - Fusion's Alley restaurant and Baskin Robbins, to name a few - from 2608-2612 Connecticut Avenue, NW, directly next to the Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan Metro. A rear-entry garage will be built at basement level for residents coping with the scarcity of parking along the retail strip and be accessible from 24th Street. Plans by Studio 27 Architecture include balconies overlooking 24th, with a fourth-story roof terrace, but the historically protected commercial building facing Connecticut will be simultaneously “renovated and restored to a condition respectful of the original architecture” - i.e. the original height and roofline will remain along Connecticut Avenue. According to Ashbourne President Crispin Etherington, a June 15th meeting with the local ANC 3C went “swimmingly,” though the project’s scheduled appearance before the District’s Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) has been pushed back to July for unspecified reasons. Ashbourne is currently projecting a third quarter 2009 start date for the Debonair “with delivery in the spring of 2010,” though a final construction schedule is contingent on HPRB approval. Monarc Construction will serve as general contractor.

Washington DC commercial real estate news

SE to See New Charter School

Last week, the Board of Zoning Adjust- ment approved plans for KIPP DC to build the second phase of their charter school development at 4801 Benning Road, SE. Phase one, which started construction last March, is set to finish this April, allowing phase two to begin shortly thereafter. Both phases were designed by a joint venture architectural team: Studio 27 and Devrouax and Purnell.

KIPP stands for Knowledge Is Power Programs, and is self described as being "a network of free open-enrollment college preparatory public schools in under-resourced communities throughout the United States." KIPP DC is part of the larger national network; the charter school currently operates on four campuses in the District: AIM, LEAP, KEY and WILL academies. The charter school is aiming to reach more kids on their own turf. Real Estate Director Alex Shawe explains: "The simplest answer is that KIPP DC is one of the highest performing public schools in the entire District, and it's important to have a campus that's located near where the majority of our students actually live. And it's also important for those students to have a facility that matches our high expectations of academic performance."

The total plan will create two schools for KIPP, a 56,000 s.f. elementary school which can hold up to 600 students, and the recently approved 29,000 s.f. middle school, which can hold up to 320 studious youngsters. The school's new home is a 51,000 s.f. site which used to house the old Benning supermarket, now demolished. Construction of the new schools is so far privately funded, though it is anticipated that tax exempt bonds will be issued in the Spring to help finance the project. Forrester Construction is building the facilities; KIPP plans to be finished with the entire development by February of 2009.

But don't think that this new school will give your kids a better shot at getting in; KIPP is already at capacity this year. The new campus is going to allow KEY and LEAP academies to move out of their leased space and into a permanent home. KEY, for fifth through eighth graders, currently enrolls 320 students, LEAP will eventually house pre-kindergarten to fourth graders. KIPP claims that in a 2005 Stanford verbal and math test, KIPP students scored in the 92nd and 71st percentiles, respectively; local neighborhood school students scored an worrying 22% and 21%. In that same year, incoming fifth graders scored an average of 31% on a math test; in the Spring those test scores rocketed to 94%.