Washington Business Journal by Michael Neibauer
On Dec. 7 at 11 a.m., the District announced Wednesday, Mayor Muriel Bowser and Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Brian Kenner will host a groundbreaking for the controversial 25-acre "project delivering jobs, housing, neighborhood-serving retail, a large public park and community center, health care facilities" and more, the city said.
The invitation makes no mention of Vision McMillan Partners -- the team of EYA, Jair Lynch Real Estate Partners and Trammell Crow -- which will actually tackle the vertical McMillan development.
The 2.1-million-square-foot plan for McMillan -- a historic site bounded by North Capitol, First and Channing streets and Michigan Avenue NW -- calls for roughly 1 million square feet of medical office space from Trammell Crow, 531 apartments and a 52,000-square-foot Harris Teeter from Jair Lynch and 146 townhouses from EYA. According to the project website, the private team hopes to have its first buildings complete by 2018.
The District, meanwhile, will develop the 8-acre central park and a 17,500-square-foot community center, and prepare the overall site for vertical construction. It is that horizontal work (demolition, infrastructure, etc.), worth roughly $70 million, that will have to be done first, so that the development pads can be sold to the Vision McMillan team at a rough price of $27 million.
The project’s vocal opponents have appealed McMillan’s zoning approvals to the D.C. Court of Appeals, a legal review that is ongoing. As long as the project is in the court's hands ( a court that has not been all-friendly, at least recently, to D.C. Zoning Commission rulings), there's only so much work that can happen there.
Led by Friends of McMillan Park, critics argue that the high-density zoning is inconsistent with D.C.'s comprehensive plan (they compare it to Tysons) and that demolition is inconsistent with the protections afforded McMillan as a city landmark. Generally, they have sought to preserve McMillan largely as a park. They have referred to McMillan as an "affront to the community," the result of an "incestuous relationship between business and government."
Vision McMillan Partners earned Historic Preservation Review Board approval earlier this year for changes to the McMillan design, including the removal of a promised fountain in favor of a grand staircase.
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