Washington Post by Michele Lerner

While micro-units have a place in a city with rapidly rising housing costs, families need a little more room. Ditto Residential, best known for its high-end condo developments, is partnering with Irving Developmentand Group 360 Real Estate Advisors to develop a vacant site at Seventh and Rhode Island Avenue NW in Shaw into The Ellis, a rental community with mainly two- or three-bedroom units.

Construction won’t start until the fall of 2018, with move-ins likely in the spring of 2020. The Ellis, named after Percy Ellis, principal of Robert Gould Shaw Middle School and a beloved part of the Shaw community until his death in 2003, will include 118 units. Thirty percent of the units will be designated affordable housing, with more than half of the affordable units restricted to households with 30 percent of area median income and the rest limited to households with 50 percent of area median income. Area median income for 2016 is $108,600.

Rents have yet to be determined.

A second-floor outdoor mezzanine area will be available exclusively to residents and their guests. Located across the street from the Shaw-Howard U Metro station, the development will include a park open to the public and 8,000 square feet of retail space with one storefront to include a rent subsidy for a neighborhood business.

The developers plan to open a small park adjacent to the main site for neighborhood activities during construction.

More information about the project can be found at www.parcel42partners.com.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/where-we-live/wp/2016/12/01/affordable-two-and-three-bedroom-apartments-planned-for-d-c-s-shaw/?utm_term=.77a7b36af730