DC UrbanTurf by Nena Perry-Brown
The three prospective development teams for the city-owned Capitol Vista site located at the intersections of 2nd & H Streets and New Jersey Avenue NW (map) presented their proposals toANC 6E on Wednesday.
This 9,600 square-foot parcel is currently being used as a parking lot, and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning & Economic Development’s Lee Goldstein anticipates that the parcel will accommodate a mixed-use project. All of the prospective development teams have placed emphasis on community benefits, with the restoration and maintenance of green space and public parkland toward the northern end of the parcel being a unifying theme throughout the presentations. The District would like to have a development team selected by December 15th and would like the ANC’s recommendation before proceeding.
Below are the plans and renderings under consideration from each team.
Graduate Student Housing Partnership with Thurgood Marshall College Fund
The proposal from FLGA Real Estate Group and Perseus Realty seeks to create a hub for higher education, with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) as the primary tenant. A nine-story building would be built with TMCF operating on the first two floors, and six floors of affordable housing for graduate students above the office space. There would be ten below-grade parking spots, but student-tenants would not be allowed to own vehicles as a condition of residence. The development group believes that an ideal retail tenant would be a cafe/bookstore.
72 Units of Workforce Housing
The proposal from a collective called Voltron Partners, which counts Dantes Partners, Menkiti Group, Spectrum Management, Bailey Real Estate, and Vindara & Co. as part of the development team, envisions a building which evokes the feel of New York City’s Flatiron building and the architecture of Shaw Library. The eight-story building would have a total of 72 units of affordable workforce housing. These units, which would be rented at 60%, 50% and 30% of the area median income (AMI), would be a mix of studios, one bedrooms and two-bedroom apartments. There would also be eight parking spaces and 2,785 square feet of ground-floor retail.
Mixed-Income Housing in a Net-Zero 87-Unit Building
The proposal from Vista Development Partners, headed by Argos Group and Potomac Investment Properties, aims to construct the District’s first net-zero building while delivering a mixed-income apartment complex. A net-zero building incorporates existing “green” technologies and building practices such as the installation of solar panels, a green roof and energy efficient windows and appliances with the goal of creating a building that produces all of the energy it consumes. TheVDP group anticipates being able to guarantee that it’s residents will have no electric bills and that the building will generate a 20-30 percent energy surplus that can be sold back to the grid and returned to residents in the form of a rebate check. There would be a total of 87 units, with 28 of those being affordable to those making 30 and 50% of AMI. The development team has partnered with local restaurant crowdfunding outfit EquityEats and non-profit World Central Kitchen in hopes of the location being a hub for entrepreneurship and job training and placement.