Eastbanc to Unveil West End Residences

At long last, Georgetown's Eastbanc will unveil its plans for West End library and fire station sites on the 25th of April at a meeting of the ANC. After months of meeting with local community groups to fine-tune plans, Eastbanc intends to roll out its plans more publicly for redevelopment of the two sites.

Eastbanc's proposal is for a 52-unit low-income (max 60% AMI), 90 foot residential building above a new fire station on M Street, and a 10-story residence of up to 180 units above a new library and retail filling the 2300 block of L Street. The developer was selected by the District of Columbia in March of 2010 to redevelop the 4 city-owned sites - 1 at the fire station and 3 contiguous sites between the West End Library and special operations facility at 23rd and L, each a 2 story, deteriorating building subsumed by development and recent population surge. Eastbanc is not releasing its designs until the ANC meeting, but early renderings (at left, above) indicate the projects will be in keeping with the designer's minimalist, contemporary style.

The project is being designed by New York and Mexico-based TEN Arquitectos, (for Taller de Enrique Norten) and will add 10,000 s.f. of ground floor retail to the street.

Enrique Norten, lead designer on the West End project, started TEN Arquitectos in Mexico City in 1986 designing small, modern single-family homes. The firm has now swelled to an international presence, though still with a predominantly Mexican portfolio, and seeks to "straddle the line between Mexican and New York sensibilities," says a spokesman, who says Norton creates for a "very minimalist aesthetic." The architect has received attention for his redesign of federal buildings throughout Mexico as well as several high profile projects in New York City.

Completed projects and proposals bear that out, with designs that encompass simple, angular and monument- style towers with expansive footprints as well as diminutive rectangular buildings in more clustered urban spaces, most of which reject the graph paper effect of even lines and flat facades in favor of broken, asymmetrical contours and surfaces. (see visuals: Harlem Park in NYC above left, James Hotel in Los Angeles, above right, Mercedes House in NYC below 1, Chopo Museum Mexico, below 2, New York library below 3, Reforma in Mexico, below 4)

Sean Stadler, Principal of WDG Architecture which was chosen as the architect of record to execute the designs, says Eastbanc's choice of Norten demonstrates Eastbanc's commitment to "trying to assert good architecture into the community." Says Stadler, "they approach development not just from a dollars and sense position. I think that TEN Arquitectos is thinking with a much more global eye on architecture than DC tends to, and I think that's part of the strategy that Eastbanc has had in the past." Citing Eastbanc's other accomplishments at 22 West and Ritz Carlton Georgetown (a former power plant), Stadler credits Eastbanc with the transformative effect of well executed project. "If you look at the old power plant in Georgetown, its really made it a much more personable place."
To accomplish the LEED - possibly gold - ranking that Stadler says the team is striving for, and which Eastbanc didn't apply for on prior projects, the architect says to expect efficient glass, solar shades, exterior louvers, a green roof, and the latest wastewater management strategies. Noting the "strategy in this project in reducing our carbon footprint," Stadler calls the mostly glass, louvered shell "a much more efficient vehicle to stop heat from entering the building. Its not an eyebrow, but a more European approach, an operable full louver, somewhat like a blind on the exterior." According to Stadler, the exterior blinds block heat before it enters the building, in contrast to interior blinds, but also "visually adds texture and depth to the facade."

Eastbanc's Joe Sternlieb says the April 25th unveiling will be just the end of a years-long roadshow, acclimating the public and seeking input that has honed the design. "We tend to do alot of community meetings before we file...we've had over 60 community meetings so far over last 4 years, and retooled project many times based on community feedback." Sternlieb says he hopes to file the PUD application with the zoning forces in the first week of May, in conformance with milestones dictated by the District government, though he declines to set a timeline for construction, saying only that construction could begin within a year of zoning approval, or late 2012, at best. Only the library-police site is subject to zoning review, with the fire station "within the zoning envelope." LeMay Erickson Willcox Architects, which has expertise in designing fire stations, is helping craft the M Street site.

While the library and fire station will be rebuilt on site, the special-operations unit will be moved elsewhere.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Donohoe's Trifecta in Woodmont Triangle

At the end of this month, the Montgomery County Planning Board will likely hand down its approval - with possible amendments - to Donohoe Development Company's Woodmont Central, the multi-phased, mixed use project that will redefine the urban landscape of the underutilized Woodmont Triangle area. "We've been working on this project for many years," said Peter Gartlan, President of Donohoe. "We've made many amendments, we've gotten our site plans re-approved and we're looking forward to moving ahead with our plans."

The biggest draw for the area is 8280 Wisconsin Avenue, now the site of a Texaco station, the area's only car wash. Once the building is razed, Donohoe will develop a 91,600 s.f. Class A office building with 11,000 s.f. of retail. Gartlan said he hopes to break ground on this facet of the project in 2013.

Nevertheless, Donohoe plans to break ground on the two residential buildings in the second quarter of 2012. First up is Phase 1B, also known as The Gallery of Bethesda at 4800 Auburn Avenue. The building will replace old commercial buildings and surface parking with 234 units, 5400 s.f. of retail and its own pedestrian street with public art displays. The second building, now dubbed Phase 2, also know as The Gallery of Bethesda II, will be a 221-unit building at 4850 Rugby Avenue with 19,500 s.f. of ground floor retail. WDG Architecture is on the hook for design of each of the three buildings.

The Montgomery County Planning Board has already approved the preliminary plans of a project that's been in the works following the amendment to the 2006 Bethesda Sector Plan.

Until the 2006 amendment, said Gartlan, density was site-specific. "The adjustment that allows non-contiguous transfer of density was changed specifically to help cultivate the redevelopment of Woodmont Triangle, which is what used to be the center of Bethesda," said Gartlan. Because of the amendment, Donohoe was able to transfer density from one of their sites to another. "We have designed our plans in accordance with the adjustment, working closely with the city, which seems to really like our final designs."

Jad Donohoe, Development Director for the company, told DCMud, "[The transfer is] a new idea and the thought was that because there is such fragmented ownership in that section of Bethesda, this would be a way to bring the density needed to make more of a Bethesda Row-type of experience."

Woodmont Central is much further along than another huge Donohoe project, the hotel, jazz club and retail outlets the company is planning to build called the Arts at 5th and I in Mt. Vernon Triangle. Because the project has yet to be financed, ground breaking isn't yet on the horizon.

Bethesda, MD real estate development news

14th Street Verizon Building Bought by PN Hoffman for Condo Conversion

Last week, PN Hoffman purchased 1700 14th Street, sealing the rumor that the Verizon building would likely become a condominium project with ground floor retail. In a development environment that's only recently become feasible to build after the recession dried up financial resources, that the building is slated for condos as opposed to apartments speaks to the desirability of the 14th street corridor.

Eric Colbert & Associates has been selected for the design. "We haven't gotten very far yet," Trevor Costa, associate for the firm said. "We submitted something preliminary a while ago, but we're currently reworking aspects of the design now." Eric Colbert & Associates is the firm behind The Lofts at Adams Morgan, The Floridian, and The Regent, among others.

"It's a small but very unique building," said Shawn Seaman, Vice President of PN Hoffman. "Given its size, we are projecting it will have 30 to 40 units by the time we finish." Seaman said the company is hoping to push the permits through as quickly as possible for a 2012 delivery.

As far as the ground floor retail, Seaman said the 1,000 s.f. space will house a single tenant. "We are talking to our historical consultants about restoring the ground floor in particular by opening up the bays to R Street and 14th Streets. Right now, it's very heavy."

The PN Hoffman condos will become one of several within blocks of each other, the others of which include the seven-story, 30,000 s.f. building at 14th and R, a project by developer Habte Sequar that has long been planned but has yet to get off the ground. Also on the 14th Street corridor in the former Whitman-Walker site is JBG and Grosvenor's 125-unit District Condos that is scheduled for completion in 2012. The project also has yet to start construction, but is expected to do so soon. The original picture in this story was from Borderstan's coverage of this project.

Washington, D.C. real estate development news

In a Family Way

By Beth Herman

For the son of award-winning industrial and commercial designer and handicap accessibility activist William L. Wilkoff, the decision to live and work in a single 2,200 s.f. structure, built largely with his own hands, was not as big a leap as it might be for some. Winning an AIA chapter award for design excellence in 1984, the inspired Cabin John, Md. home and office of architect Robert Wilkoff, Principal of Archaeon Architects, underwent a major renovation in 1990 where the third floor office became a master suite, and the practice migrated to a brand new 1,000 s.f. addition at the front.

"One of the main reasons I kept the office in the house was I really wanted to be involved in my kids’ lives when they were younger,” Wilkoff said, acknowledg- ing the idea was not as popular two or three decades ago as it might be now. In true family form, Wilkoff’s wife Martha, formerly a college librarian, joined the practice to oversee administrative affairs when Hannah, now 22 and a mental health counselor, and Kate, 20, a fashion design student at N.Y.’s Pratt Institute (a third generation Wilkoff to attend), were young, with the home office advantage making a close-knit family even closer.

With green building principles nearly tantamount, for the Wilkoff’s, to the intimate family environment they sought to achieve, from the beginning the architect used a heavily insulated Styrofoam sheathing system, uncommon at the time, and ferreted out 5,000 s.f. of reclaimed redwood for the new home and office - something he conceded was done as much for economy as nascent sustainability issues.

“Wood was expensive, so I hunted it down,” Wilkoff said of his early days. Revealing he’d (courageously) rented a tractor trailer he wasn’t sure how to drive in order to meet an incoming load of Western red cedar at the docks in Baltimore, notions of the wood’s passive solar qualities fortified him for the trip. As for the actual construction process, teaching himself carpentry as he went along, Wilkoff said he and Martha, along with the senior Wilkoff and some friends, did all the interior partitions, finishes, set the cabinets, the fixtures, etc., with a general contractor putting up the exterior structural shell. A plumber and electrician were also hired for expertise and code purposes.

“We’d have staining parties. We’d have insulating parties. We’d have bagels and cream cheese or crabs–whatever would entice a bunch of people to come over for a day on the weekend, and we’d put them to work. It took four years,” the architect said, adding at the time he was working 20 hours a week as a consultant and 40 hours on the house.

A Greenhouse Runs Through It

Currently a three-bedroom, 3.5-bath home, the 400 s.f. third floor master suite, nee office, includes an adjacent library/greenhouse that serves in a passive solar capacity to facilitate the home’s HVAC system. According to Wilkoff, the greenhouse’s dark tile floor, which is actually hard-fired ceramic pavers from Italy, sits on a thick masonry mat. At a due South exposure, the floor heats up, radiating the heat back up through the room, which gets to a high point in the greenhouse where openings in the upper wall help draw it into the HVAC mechanical return. In summer, when it’s really hot, a fully-leafed 70-foot sycamore tree provides a huge canopy effect, shading the greenhouse, and shading mats applied to the glazing on the inside of the room reduce sun infiltration by about 60 percent.

In the master suite bath, charcoal grey polished porcelain tiles, resembling granite, line the walls which are ribbed with Corian. Milled to an inch in width, Wilkoff glued the Corian strips to the wall (prior to the tile installation), with a 6-inch deep invisible support Corian window shelf for displaying bottles or other objects. Sited on the other side of the greenhouse wall, corresponding upper wall openings can be seen above the bathroom’s sink and counter area, where any warm, moist air is drawn into and utilized by the home’s HVAC system.

In the first floor living room, a wood stove used for many years as the home’s main heating source stands idle most of the time, with Wilkoff claiming that “…dragging wood in at 3 in the morning on a cold winter day is not quite as appealing as it used to be.” Used on occasion for exceptional cold snaps, the architect explained that based on a concept dating back hundreds of years and seen in pot-bellied stove farmhouses, the wall behind the wood stove is a dense, concrete material with black slate. A duct return on the ceiling opens into the bedrooms above, and fans in each bedroom pull rising heat from the stove into the rooms. Motif-wise, a 1950s Folke Ohlsson-designed Dux chair, Mies van der Rohe glass and metal table, Barcelona chairs and table, a Nakashima desk chair and Le Corbusier LC6 dining room table punctuate the living and dining rooms, with much of the furniture traced back to a store once owned by the entrepreneurial senior Wilkoff who passed away in 2004.

Moving Out But Staying In

Ascended to by a two-story spiral staircase and comprised of four separate rooms including a work studio with four CAD stations, Wilkoff’s decision to create the 1,000 s.f. office addition was precipitated both by a growing family and burgeoning practice that supported up to six team members. With the only entrance to the previous third floor office space directly through the house, privacy had become an issue, though Wilkoff said despite the new space, and to this day, staff traditionally eats lunch together at the old breakfast table.

With client access on the outside and its own HVAC and plumbing systems, Wilkoff said the office addition is almost like a separate building except for a communicating door between it and the house. In the conference room, flourishes like beveled, pocketed wood trim (milled on a table saw in the office) that protrudes deep enough into the space to support presentation drawings and material sample boards preclude tack and nail holes in walls, and banks of awning windows open to the trees for natural cooling whenever possible.

“Being here has its benefits and drawbacks,” Wilkoff concluded. “It’s energy-conscious: I’m not commuting - sitting in traffic and burning gas, but in the middle of the night if I think of something I need to take care of, I’ll come in at 3 a.m. and draw,” he said. Mostly, though, the opportunity to wholly participate in his daughters’ lives from the beginning is what has driven him, and continues to. “This is exactly what I was looking for,” Wilkoff said of his own life.

Georgia Avenue Projects Finish Out, Fill Up

The Georgia Avenue corridor at Petworth comes into its own as one more residential development marks its completion this month: 3 Tree Flats, the 130 unit rental building from AHD Inc., Jair Lynch Development Partners and Stratford Capital Group, part of the Georgia Avenue revitalization. An opening celebration is scheduled for April 13th.

The mixed income building two blocks from the Petworth metro offers views of the city from its perch on a hill, a green roof and parking. According to Tara Russell, building manager from Equity Management, units have been available since February. Forty-nine units have been leased, with applications having been filed on the remaining 81 units. "We have had a great response from the community," said Russell. "We could not be more pleased."

The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (ODMPED) selected the development team – which also included EDG Architects and Frank Schlesinger Associates - in 2007 following a competitive solicitation process, the project had been started under the name Georgia Commons before rebranding last year.

Washington, D.C. real estate development news

Reston Station Gets Underway Today

Comstock Partners will break ground this morning on Reston Station, a 1.3 million s.f. development that will soon be connected to Washington D.C. via Metro's Silver Line, running from the Stadium Armory station to Dulles Airport. Reston Station will be the final stop of Phase 1 of the Silver Line, now at the mid point of construction having broken ground exactly two years ago and scheduled for completion in late 2013. Comstock will eventually build three office buildings, two residences, one hotel and retail space, but today will begin work on the 2300-car underground garage and bus depot, replacing the sprawling surface parking lots, hopefully in time for the opening of the Wiehle Ave station.

Davis Construction will do the digging and building of the "urban employment center" site 3/4 of a mile east of Reston town center, for the Dantesque 7 levels of underground parking. Design of the live-work center that will sit on top of it is still in the early planning stages.

Reston, Virginia real estate development news

Douglas' 450 K Street in Final Design Phase for January Groundbreaking

On March 24, the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) gave the go-ahead (with a few reservations) to Douglas Development's plans to build out 450 K Street N.W., a 13 story, 250 unit development in Mount Vernon Triangle. The finished project will be managed by Kettler.

R2L Architects Principal Tom Lenar said designs for the facade are being finalized to address HPRB concerns over a west end wall that is not as deep as the modestly sized adjoining buildings.

The HPRB report advised that "while this is not problematic in itself, it does suggest that that west wall need not be 'sculpted' and complicated by the division of the three window bays into separate columns at different planes...a more straightforward approach, as on the east end, would be better."

The organization also requested recessed, more traditional balconies as opposed to steel suspended ones which HPRB deemed "out of character with a historic district," though Mt. Vernon Triangle has far more numerous parking lots and newer towers than historic properties. Lenar said he expected the design changes will be reviewed by HPRB by the end of the month.

Other design features embraced by HPRB are the 5,000 s.f. of ground floor retail and the "modified C plan" which allows for outdoor space and more sunlight into the building. Amenities include a cyber cafe, fitness center, roof deck, and pool. Lenar said the developers are hoping for a January 2012 groundbreaking for a project that's projected to span 18 to 20 months.

Washington, D.C. real estate development news

Mark Center Milestones

Construction of the Mark Center in Alexandria reached an interesting if meaningless milestone last Thursday as developers paused to note the millionth man hour spent on the massive federal project. The auxiliary to the Pentagon will be one of Northern Virginia's largest buildings when the Department of Defense (DoD) and developer Duke Realty complete the project in September of 2011. The Mark Center will serve as an overflow to the swelling number of Defense employees that cannot fit into the Pentagon.

The 1.7 million s.f. building will sit on 16 acres of land, with two office towers (15 and 17 stories) two parking garages - one below, one adjacent - and a public transportation center (far from Metro, as it is) for employees and the surrounding community. Duke, along with a little help from project architects HKS Architects and WBA, the Army Corps of Engineers and Clark Construction, is expected to earn an enviable LEED Gold ranking on the ginormous project.

Following a 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) recommendation, the military is under an agreement with Duke to purchase the land once the project is built out. The Mark Center location provides enough land to allow for a substantial security perimeter, not to mention proximity to I-395 and the Pentagon. Transportation concerns have been a weighty issue for the project, located far from from the nearest Metro station, both for planners to prepare for alternate transport plans and for the community, which fears an unbearable addition to the already congested roads.

The two towers will connect on their first 10 floors, and have exteriors of precast concrete and blast-resistant glass, materials that meet security standards including preventative measures against "progressive collapse." Over 24 different users will occupy the space. The interior of the building will likely use a modular SmartWall system like that of the Pentagon, which allows for flexibility in arranging personnel.

More concerns have arisen over the required Remote Inspection Facility (RIF) - for screening packages and traffic coming onto the site - for its potentially traffic-blocking ability. The city initially requested that the facility be located off site, citing design concerns, traffic issues and worries over the safety of the community, but the Army opted to place it on site.


Alexandria Virginia real estate development news

Your Next Place...

By Franklin Schneider Located in the landmark Solo Piazza (which loosely translates as "shoe pizza"), this stunning unit just didn't feel like D.C., which I mean as a compliment. While D.C has its charms, it tends, like its inhabitants, towards the straight, the square, the blocky and obvious and functional. This place actually reminded me more of Los Angeles, only without all the dudes with blond streaks in their hair, wearing those tearaway pants with three white stripes down the side (and you just know they're not wearing underwear either). Progressive but refined, and graceful. A curving space with hardwood floors, it looks out onto a private patio that features a sedate waterwall and 40 ft. grove of bamboo. Sliding walls of frosted glass (sliding doors are so 2009) separate the bedrooms from the shared areas, and the kitchen is outfitted with Poggenpohle cabinets, stainless steel appliances, and a marble breakfast bar. The bathrooms are nicer than most five-star hotel rooms, there are a ton of closets for all your crap, and everything, from the faucets to the cabinets to the tilework, gives the impression of having been painstakingly handpicked. It also comes with two underground parking spots, so you won't have to worry about your ex keying your car anymore. Located just off Logan Circle, you'd have quick access to Whole Foods, a ton of great restaurants, and the 14th Street nightlife corridor which, for my money, is by far the least horrible place in D.C to get a drink. I head there every weekend - I'm the guy at the end of the bar who looks like a half-Asian Jeff Foxworthy. If I try to talk to you, just throw some change on the ground and then run. That usually works. Usually. 1300 13th St NW #107 Washington, DC 2 Bedrooms, 2 Baths, 2 Parking Spaces $899,000

More Art at 5th and I, but No Buildings

Art is coming soon to the empty lot known as The Arts at 5th and I - unfortunately, the art is not the beginning of the project by Donohoe Companies to build a high-end hotel, retail outlets and jazz club, but rather an open air market to draw crowds to the lot that remains empty. The Mt. Vernon Triangle BID has announced that the Liberty North Community Market will open on the site on Saturdays and Sundays, more than 80 vendors hawking

"arts, crafts, produce, prepared food, and home improvement goods." The news is a reminder that development of the lot, announced in September of 2008, is still not ready for action, but development leader Jad Donohue says the newest timeline points to a presentation to the DC Council in the next few months and construction possibly by the 2nd quarter of 2012. Donohoe also struck a less committal tone about the retailers. Previous announcements listed Spanish hotelier Melia for a 260 room hotel, 100 apartments, Boisdale Jazz Club, and Zenith Gallery's new home, but Donohoe would say only that "we're committed to doing a boutique, lifestyle hotel" but that they are "keeping all options open" regarding retailers. 

The site does not require a PUD, so zoning is not an issue, but the land is still owned by the District, so the Council has to approve terms. Donohoe says details "are still being finalized," but that he expects a 99 year ground lease. He also says that while financing has not yet gelled for the project, there is "alot of interest" from those that had pulled back on financing over the past few years. Promoters initially projected groundwork to start in early 2010, spokesmen for the project then said in August of 2009 that an agreement would be concluded within a month, and in November of 2010 that financing would be cinched up by the end of the year. But the District of Columbia implemented a plan to put parking on the site to generate short term income in February of 2010, an indication that construction was not imminent. The new market will include live music, arts and crafts, from the promoters of the market that once occupied the CityCenter site. Here's to hoping they will have to hunt for yet another site next spring... 

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News

Your Next Place...

By Franklin Schneider

Just a block from Catholic University and the Red Line, 1014 Monroe St. NE is billed as “the best house in Brookland.” From the outside it looks like a quaint, cottage-style home, but inside it's shiny and modern, with all the usual perks of a new renovation. The open plan living/dining area and kitchen has a ton of light and is pretty ridiculously huge; if you pushed all the furniture to the side, you'd have more than enough room to put down a legitimate full-size Slip n' Slide. (Try not to careen into the stainless steel custom railing though; the braided steel cable looks like it could easily decapitate.) Upstairs, each of the two upper floors has a master bedroom suite; the one on the third floor has vaulted ceilings and a skylight, so you can lie in bed for a few minutes each morning and pretend you're on death row and that that little square of sky is all
you ever see of the outside world. (I used to do this when I lived in a room with skylight; it made getting up and going to work slightly less unpleasant. Slightly.) The bathrooms are very modern, with exposed brick and stone and ceramic basins and glass shower enclosures. The house also has an “in-law suite,” which is sort of this separate little wing of the house with two bedrooms and a bathroom and kitchen and its own private entrance. I think this is a brilliant idea, though if I bought the house I'd also install a series of trapdoors throughout the main house that opened onto a network of slides, that all emptied into the in-law suite. That way, when the in-laws visited, they could come chat and have dinner in the main house, but as soon as they tried to get out the jigsaw puzzles or interrogate me about your “nest egg” I could just press a concealed button and be like, “alllllllll right, back to the in-law suite.”
KA-CHUNK!

1014 Monroe NE
Washington

6 Bedrooms
4.5 Baths
Parking

$699,990

Ft. Totten: Hanging Tough, or Just Hanging?

Being on top of a Metro station means that real estate development and rising property values are a given; or so goes the axiom. More so if that Metro line is vermilion and close to downtown. Ft. Totten is proving the exception, with neighborhood-transforming projects sidelined, and now a distressed apartment sale shows why developers have held off.

Despite Ft. Totten's 3 Metro lines (Green, Yellow, Red), its bike trail, its local parks, its juxtaposition at several major traffic arteries and ample developable land, developers have balked at building out what seems on paper to be a model of transit-oriented, mixed-use development.

Clark Realty Capital, the only developer to have built on the site, demonstrated the hazards of pioneering, having recently lost its 5.6 acre property in a distress sale to Greystar, which paid $55m for Fort Totten Station (Greystar also snapped up 909, Axiom, Jefferson at Capitol Yards, all near the ballpark, and Jefferson at Thomas Circle.) Clark had completed the project in late 2007 after obtaining a $47m financing loan in 2006 plus a ground lease from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, but had gotten several foreclosure notices late last year. At the time, Clark called the project "the anchor for a comprehensive revitalization plan for the Fort Totten Metro site...the first of several developments planned for the Fort Totten neighborhood," but hedged its bets with little retail space and low budget architecture.

Clark's vision might still come true, but not soon. The few single family homes in the area sell (after a while) for around $200,000, and commerce is all but forgotten. The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation and Lowe Enterprises, the two biggest private landowners in the area, have both iced plans for development. Representatives of Cafritz refused to speak about their project, and a representative of Lowe would say only that the project has been "put to the back burner." An Urban Land Institute (ULI) study in 2009 (sponsored by WMATA) noted that the project is "a mere 3.5 miles from the U.S. Capitol" but that "the Fort Totten market will support calls for smaller, more affordable units, and basically allow only for wood-frame construction."

If anyone sees opportunity in Fort Totten, it is WMATA. The publicly chartered organization still owns 9.3 acres around the Metro station (on top of the 5.6 it leased to Clark), and can't afford the pessimism of a private developer. The transit agency has been pushing for the past several years for Ft. Totten to be a different kind of example, one that showcases revised concepts of transportation planning, and has been working to corral developers to integrate plans, so that the individual pieces are built in some semblance of an organized whole.

Foremost among those pieces are Cafritz's Art Place and Shops at Fort Totten, 2 million s.f. with a mixture of community-serving retail, residential (over 1200 units) and arts and cultural space to house arts promoters like The Washington National Opera. Cafritz expected to begin construction in the first half of 2010.

The Lowe team (with partners Jack Sophie Development and City Partners Development, and now JBG too) was to include 898 residential units on 9 acres of land (see rendering below right), and was to have preceded Cafritz. Together the projects would have added more than 200,000 s.f. of retail space. But if its clear that projects need to be coordinated, its also clear that the area cannot yet support that much development, at least to its financiers.

Laura Cole, an executive with RCLCO and formerly head of ULI when it issued its Fort Totten study, says that there's a gap between what a financier would typically support and what might work for the area. Cole notes that a financial institution will require traditional parking-to-apartment ratios, a model that is simply too expensive for a neighborhood like Fort Totten, and sites the DC USA site as a model of overbuilt parking requirements.

WMATA is attempting to change that philosophy, and followed up with another study in 2010 with urban development planner Parsons Brinckerhoff. Nat Bottigheimer, Assistant General Manager for Planning at WMATA, seconds Cole's assessment of the financial inviability of traditional notions of housing development, but is also keen to change the way planners see parking in general. Bottigheimer's vision for the undeveloped site is a communal approach to parking, where evening uses (for residents) piggyback on daytime uses (office and retail). "We should experiment with a kind of residential building that doesn't reserve spaces for cars, the building might provide 50 or 75 shared spaces instead of 150 dedicated parking spaces...[y]ou don't want to be just doing standard models, you also want to push the envelope as a public agency to promote the achievement of these public goals that we're in business to support." Hence the ULI report.

"We don't want to find out that we've built adequate parking, and others have developed theirs, and together we all contribute more than the necessary amount of parking...but that requires alot of coordination with other property owners to come up with an overall development plan." Bottigheimer pleads the case for a concept he admits is an "untested product in this market," but points out that "it costs $40,000 per space to build...more than a vehicle. Most of these are just car storage spaces, there's got to be an efficiency to provide a better system than we have now."

While WMATA has no specific plans for its own property, and can't force other developers to abide, it still has an influential voice at the District's Office of Planning. "We will collaborate with the District to get the kind of development that makes sense for the area" says Bottigheimer...we need to do more research with the development community to see how this could work." Admirable as that may be, it still requires developers to invest in an area that now is 0 for 1. At least WMATA seems intent to keep trying. Says Bottigheimer, "all options are open."

Washington D.C. retail and commercial real estate news