New Apartments to Surface on Georgia Avenue

The Heights at Georgia Avenue is closer to beginning construction this summer, a little over a year after the development team received zoning approval to replace surface parking lots and older commercial buildings with a new mixed-use development. Project partners Neighborhood Development Company (NDC) and non-profit Mi Casa, Inc. have filed for construction permits to build the six-story, 69-unit apartment building. The new building, at the corner of Georgia Ave. and Lamont Street, will sit only a few blocks from the planned development at Park Morton. Estimates have the building delivering in early 2012, a bit behind its original plans for opening in early 2011.

The development team is working with Grimm + Parker Architects on the design. The project will have a green roof, with solar panels that power some of the common area lighting. Adrian Washington, a Principal at NDC, said the design team wanted to make a statement about the "important corner" and that the rooftop trellis element "creates a strong corner" for the block, while the rest of the design strikes a balance between a contemporary building and something that "fits with the neighborhood." The apartment building will deliver over 10,000 s.f. of ground floor retail and 69 rental units, half of which will be affordable housing available at 60% to 80% AMI. Within walking distance to the Georgia Avenue/Petworth metro station, the building will offer residents 29 below-grade parking spaces.

Since receiving zoning approval in March of 2009, the development team has been working on finalizing plans to apply for permits, negotiating relocation agreements with existing businesses and securing financing. In January, the District Council approved a $447,000 tax abatement for the project and the team has an application in with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for additional financing options. "We're on track for everything...the financing is what is slowing us down" explained Washington. The HUD application process is "taking a lot longer than we thought it would take," he added, but the federal housing agency is "the only game in town," so wait they must.

Washington said his team has spoken with two or three potential tenants, but no one wants to make a commitment this far in advance, "nothing much is going to happen until you've got a building that is coming up." The developer described the attitude he and his partners at MiCasa have for the project as "bullish." That said, Washington admits "developing infill sites in the city especially in neighborhoods in transition is hard" especially in this "very difficult economic environment."

The developers purchased the property in June of 2008 for $2.75 million under the entity Georgia and Lamont Limited Partnership. Hamel Builders is the general contractor.

Washington DC real estate and development news

Northeast DC Icon Gets a Little Help

Mayor Fenty was on hand today to announce that the District has finally settled on a developer and would move ahead with redevelopment of the long-abandoned Strand Theater in Deanwood. The project is now in the hands the Washington Community Development Corporation (WCDC) and Banneker Ventures LLC - organizations that plan on transforming the 80-year-old former movie theater into the new home of an 18,000-s.f. restaurant and 18,000 square feet of “affordable” office space. The remaining 16,000 square feet within the Strand will be “dedicated for community and cultural uses,” according to a press release issued by the Mayor’s office.

“There will be more energy back on this corner for the neighbors who live in the Ward 7 community, east of the river in general and for the entire city,” said Fenty from the sidewalk of 5131 Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue, NE. Fenty and WCDC head Rev. Steve Young, also leader of the Holy Christian Missionary Baptist Church for All People located across the street, went on to promise that 30 - 40 new, permanent jobs will created as a result of the revitalization effort.

Curiously enough, this marks the second time the District has named the WCDC and Banneker as developers in charge of the Strand. The first came this past July, when Deputy Mayor Neil Albert told DC Mud that the project would “break ground in the next two weeks.” Sean Madigan, the Mayor’s press contact, today told DC Mud the District was forced to hold off a bit, while the rest of the details concerning the theater were hammered out.

Banneker has had a dream year lobbying District officials, having secured from District work on the Strand, and having been named Master Planners for the Park Morton redevelopment, and as a developer of the $700 million Northwest One development. WMATA added to the company's portfolio by naming Banneker the lead developer in June for its Florida Avenue project, and Banneker has its own plans in place for 814 Thayer, a 52-unit condominium in Silver Spring's central business district. WMATA Board member and DC Councilmember Jim Graham reportedly pushed for the developer's inclusion in the project; WMATA said it chose the developer based on its "experience," noting the technical difficulty of building a project on top of an existing Metro tunnel, though Banneker has no previous experience building above a Metro tunnel. Or, apparently, above much else. Park Morton, 814 Thayer, and the WMATA project have yet to break ground, and Northwest One has only recently done so, leaving the conversion of several small apartment buildings into condominiums as its only achievements. Banneker's website touts its appointment to several of the above projects, as well as its "tremendous breadth of experience and professionalism." Calls to Banneker’s metro area offices went unanswered.

As it stands today, Green Door Advisors and Blue Skye Construction will handle the build-out of the heavily dilapidated building, located at the intersection of Burroughs Avenue and Division Avenue NE. The Strand Theater is currently on the DC Preservation League’s list of Most Endangered Places in the District. Hopefully, that will be changing as the Strand moves on to a bigger and better future.

Washington DC commercial real estate news

Alexandria Gives Thumbs Up To New Park

The Alexandria Planning Commission yesterday recommended approval of the master plan for a 13.7-acre bio-friendly park, creating two 86,000 s.f. athletic fields and public facilities between Duke Street and Eisenhower Avenue. The entire $62 million cost is being footed by the federal government to compensate Alexandria for the problems associated with redevelopment of the Woodrow Wilson bridge and 7 ½ of miles of beltway. The final plan will be presented at a public hearing by the City Council on October 13th at 9:30 AM.

The Witter Property at 2600 Business Center Drive will accommodate the two athletic fields, one multi-use baseball field, 141 surface parking spaces and a multitude of pedestrian amenities. The master plan calls for three unique solar powered structures: two open air pavilions and public restroom facilities, totaling over 1,800 s.f. Although the structures are far too small to qualify for LEED certification, the nationally recognized benchmark for “green” buildings, the entire facility has been designed to be proactively bio-friendly. The three buildings will house solar panels or photovoltaic roofing shingles in conjunction with an efficient use of natural and low-voltage light to reduce electricity consumption. The plans include bioretention systems throughout the facility to collect and reduce rainwater runoff coupled with dense rain gardens on the southern edge of the property to help absorb and filter the water, a “natural” way to continually recharge the soil in the park with clean, recycled water.

The property was purchased in 2006 by the City of Alexandria for $12 million, but reimbursement of the acquisition price and construction of the facility are being provided by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in a mitigation effort involving the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project. The FHWA began work on the Wilson Bridge traversing the Potomac River and connecting Maryland and Virginia via the beltway, in 1999, finishing earlier this year. Along with the replacement of the existing bridge, the plan called for upgrades to four interchanges along the corridor, with the underlying theory being that the rampant traffic issues that plague the area would be alleviated upon the project’s completion.

The entire Wilson Bridge Project, which has cost an estimated $2.5 billion to date, has caused “collateral” effects including noise pollution caused by the construction and additional traffic congestion along the corridor. The new corridor cut into the green pastures of Jones Point Park and led federal archaeologists to research and excavate the neighboring lots two blocks west of the entrance to the park where a lost cemetery was thought to have stood, in an attempt to preserve any archaeologically significant material. Development on the site dates back to the 18th century, when it was divided into separate parcels of farmland and a lone family cemetery. The Fruit Growers Express Company (FGEC) purchased it in 1926, using the land for the maintenance of railroad refrigeration cars. In 1989, CSX Transportation purchased FGEC and took ownership of the site, converting it and its existing structures for industrial use. Excavation of the site uncovered Freedman’s Cemetery, home to more than 1800 graves of freed slaves from the Civil War era. Dr. Pamela Cressey, an archaeologist for the City of Alexandria for over 30 years, thinks that this type of archaeology will become more prevalent prior to construction. “In the DC metro area and slightly beyond, we now have County Archaeologists that are operating as managers. As a result, more and more developers are doing archaeological surveys in all jurisdictions as a part of their county’s codes, practices and policies.”

The FHWA promised recompense in the form of a new recreation facility for the community and a memorial park for the freed slaves. Initially priced over $62 million, the new facility was intended to be built to the east as a massive deck above South Washington Street, serving as a screen where the local roadway crosses above the inner and outer loops of the beltway. Because of technical problems encountered in designing the massive urban recreation deck, the city scrapped the initial plans and divided the project into two developments: a smaller recreation deck screening the beltway, and a new recreation facility – the inevitable fate of the Witter Property if all goes well on October 13.

A. Morton Thomas Associates Inc., based out of Rockville, Maryland is the design engineer and sports consultant for the project, and. has provided their expertise on a number of large projects in the DC Metro area including the Atlee/Elmont Interchange in Ashburn, the Pentagon Renovation Program and the Watts Branch Watershed Restoration Study in Montgomery County.

Donatelli Breaks More Ground in Petworth

Developer Donatelli Development broke ground this past week at 3801 Georgia Avenue, until now a vacant lot in DC's Petworth neighborhood. The 49-unit, 7-story project will rise across from the Petworth Metro, and across the street from Park Place, Donatelli's last project. Originally the project was a joint venture between Willco Residential and Donatelli, but a source at Donatelli says Willco is no longer involved in the building. Eric Colbert & Associates has designed the heavy-gauge steel and concrete building. Donatelli reports that the project will not have a retail component. Given its proximity to Metro and retail components in the neighborhood, this could be the beginning of a more "downtown" Petworth, which has lacked a concentration of sustained retail, even along the busy Georgia Avenue corridor. While the groundbreaking was more ceremonial than real, actual work on the project is expected to get underway within weeks. The building will take up most of the empty lot, though the northernmost section of the land, at 3825-3829 Georgia Ave., will not be built out at this time. Donatelli plans a smaller project on that portion, with first-floor retail and "a small amount of residential" on the upper floors. That project will be designed by Bonstra Haresign Architects. In addition to proximity to Donatelli’s recently completed Park Place, the corner will also soon be home to a new CVS, and just next door, a historic rehab-turned-restaurant, a project that kicked off just two months ago. There should be no shortage of affordable housing in the neighborhood, as just a few blocks north is the Georgia Commons Project, creating 119 of its 130 apartments as "affordable," while just to the south is the ambitious Park Morton project, a massively subsidized 500-unit community in the final planning stages. 

Washington DC commercial property news

Lower Georgia Housing Project Approved

The DC Council today voted unanimously to give the final affirmation to Park Morton, the mixed-use, mixed housing development on lower Georgia Avenue that will replace 174 units of well worn public housing with 477 units of "moderate density" newer housing, both subsidized and market.

Park Morton had been originally sponsored by Councilmember Jim Graham back in 2006, and the Council had approved an additional $3m for the project only last December, going only a small way toward the estimated $157m the project will cost. A host of contributors has already been selected to realize the city's vision, including DC-based development firm Banneker Ventures, nationally renowned environmental consulting firm Circlepoint, and design firms PGN Architects and WDG Architecture.

The project, sitting on the east side of Georgia Avenue and the south side of Park Road, had been noted by the District in several studies as encompassing "severe poverty" lacking basic amenities, though the project's planners did not include a retail element, relying instead on the slow accretion of retail on Georgia Avenue to service the new homeowners. But don't call your real estate agent just yet, development is not likely to start until at least late this year, and take an estimated nine years to complete.

Northwest One Project Announces Start Date

The District announced today its decisions on how to proceed with the first major phase of Northwest One. In an 11am press briefing, the Mayor announced that DC-based Banneker Ventures will join developer William C. Smith & Co. to build 300 units of housing in place of the vacant parking lot at the intersection of North Capitol and Patterson Streets. Groundbreaking is now expected in "spring" of 2010, according to Mayor Adrian Fenty.

The $80m project will include 313 new housing units, with 30% pledged for "affordable" housing. 59 of the units will be set aside for former Temple Courtiers.

The Warrenton Group has been having a good year with DC officials, having been named recently as the local partner for the planned Park Morton, a $130m project announced earlier this month, and having been selected last December (as Banneker Ventures) to build the Deanwood Community Center, and last October rebuild the Strand Theater. Warrenton Group was also given a new lease on life for the Florida Avenue parcel, awarded to Banneker by WMATA in 2008 but not built out.

Architecture firm Eric Colbert & Associates will design the 12-story building, and William C. Smith & Co affiliated WCS Construction team will build it. The larger Northwest One project, in all $700 million worth of development, will also include Jair Lynch and affordable housing provider Community Preservation and Development Corporation, which together will team up as the One Vision Development Partners as a Certified Business Enterprise.