(Washington, DC) – Today, the Bowser Administration, led by the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED), announced the Fletcher-Johnson Community Partners (FJCP) as the development team to redevelop the Fletcher-Johnson Campus, located at 4650 Benning Road SE in Ward 7.
“I want to thank the community for working with us to design a project that moves us closer to our goal of 36,000 new homes by 2025 and that meets the needs of the Marshall Heights community,” said Mayor Muriel Bowser. “This campus has sat vacant for nearly a decade and we are proud to finally move forward on delivering the housing and amenities that the residents of Ward 7 asked for.”
The project, which will be known as Fletcher-Johnson at the Park, will deliver approximately 816 units of rental and for-sale housing consisting of condominiums, townhomes, multifamily rental apartments, and affordable senior assisted living units, targeting families at various levels of affordability. The units will include studios as well as one-, two-, and three-bedroom options. The campus size and proximity to the Benning Road Metro Station makes it a prime destination within the Marshall Heights neighborhood. The proposal also includes green space for outside recreational and community activities, retail-commercial space for neighborhood serving retail, and a wide-range of community programming space along the campus.
“I am delighted the Bowser administration announced the long-awaited award for the redevelopment of the Fletcher-Johnson site,” said Ward 7 Councilmember Vincent C. Gray. “A former school, this site is one of the largest and most valuable parcels of property in the District. I want to express my gratitude to my staff, the Ward 7 community and the Fletcher Johnson Task Force for working together to get us to this point. I was pleased to work with the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development and the city on getting this property back to full use, and we are now one step closer to fully activating the Fletcher-Johnson site for the benefit of the Marshall Heights community in particular and Ward 7 in general.”
“Mayor Bowser created the OurRFP initiative to ensure the community was involved in all aspects of development projects, and Fletcher-Johnson will be better for having utilized this process,” said Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development John Falcicchio. “This will yield 816 units of housing bringing us closer to our goal of 36,000 new homes by 2025. ANC 7E, the Fletcher-Johnson Task-Force, and the Marshall Heights Civic Association all played instrumental roles to find consensus on the future of the site.”
The FJCP team is led by a Certified Business Enterprise (CBE), Gragg Cardona Partners, while other team members include Foundation Housing, Carding Group, H2 Design Build (also a CBE), and the Marshall Heights Community Development Organization, Inc. The Fletcher-Johnson Campus becomes the newest redevelopment project under Mayor Bowser’s OurRFP process, which incorporates community feedback early in the Request for Proposals (RFP) process to ensure that the priorities and perspectives of residents are considered during the development. After extensive community engagement as a part of the OurRFP process, the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 7E passed a resolution in support of the proposal on December 8.
Bowser Administration’s Commitment to Affordable Housing
Mayor Bowser reaffirmed her commitment to investments in affordable housing with her Fiscal Year 2021 budget, recognizing that both short- and long-term efforts must be ongoing to preserve housing affordability and stability for all District residents. The Mayor’s FY21 budget includes an investment of $100 million in the Housing Production Trust Fund – for the sixth consecutive year – and a $1 million investment in the Housing Preservation Fund.
At the start of her second term, Mayor Bowser set a bold goal to deliver an additional 36,000 units of housing – including at least 12,000 units of affordable housing – by 2025. From January 2019 through September 2020, the District has produced 12,094 units, of which 1,956 are affordable. You can track the District’s progress toward #36000by2025 at open.dc.gov/36000by2025.