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Deal nears for redeveloping Grimke School site in the District

Thursday, January 26, 2017
The former Grimke School on 1923 Vermont Ave. NW. Photo by Shaun Courtney

 

Washington Post by Shaun Courtney

The District is close to an agreement with a private developer to revitalize a long-vacant public property on the border of the booming U Street and Shaw neighborhoods in Northwest.

Though the details of the deal are still under negotiation, Community Three Development proposed in 2014 to transform the property into a new home for the African-American Civil War Museum, offices for Silver Spring-based Torti Gallas Architecture, space for an arts non-profit, retail and townhouses.

A new mixed-use development could generate $9.2 million in taxes for the District over 10 years by removing the Grimke School parcel from the city’s untaxed real estate portfolio, according to real estate experts in Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration. The site includes the school at 1923 Vermont Ave., NW, an adjoining gymnasium and a nearby surface parking lot. The building dates back to 1887.

“We are committed to getting a deal done as quickly as possible,” said Grant Epstein, president of Community Three Development.

This is the third time Community Three has vied for the right to redevelop the Grimke site.

The project hits snags between two mayoral transitions, from Mayor Adrian Fenty to Mayor Vincent Gray in 2011 and then from Gray to Mayor Muriel Bowser in 2015.

Fenty’s administration requested redevelopment proposals in 2009, but never selected a winner. Gray put out a new request and selected Roadside Development to create a residential and commercial project in 2014. But a formal deal was never signed before Bowser took office, and she insisted any new project meet tougher requirements for including affordable housing, bumping up the portion from 10 percent to 30 percent.

In 2015, Roadside agreed and the city agreed to hand over the property in February 2016. But by December, the deal fell apart.

Roadside’s Richard Lake said his team found conditions worse on the property than they had anticipated and that their plans to accommodate nonprofits and affordable housing made the project financially difficult.

“There was not enough meat on the bone to pay for unknowns,” Lake said.

The city began discussions with Community Three, the runner up to Roadside, “immediately” after the deal with Roadside fell apart, according to Joaquin McPeek, director of communications for the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development.

“The District is moving forward with a sense of urgency to get as good a deal, if not a better deal,” McPeek said.

The historic building’s location at the edge of U Street once placed it on the frontier of development.

While the Grimke School sat vacant, Shaw exploded around it as new luxury condos and apartments opened and retailers like Warby Parker and Glens Garden Market opened their doors.

Neighbors are eager to see something happen at the site.

“We don’t even care what’s developed there now,” Robb Hudson, commissioner for the local advisory neighborhood commission, said about the Grimke site.

“We see just developing the school and getting a building in the parcel beside Nellie’s [Sports Bar] as a benefit to the community in and of itself,” Hudson added.

McPeak said if they come to an agreement, Community Three would not take ownership until the fall. The project would then need to go through Zoning Commission review. The realization of any plans is still years away.

“I know that everybody has wanted this to get off the ground for years, including us. But it needs to take its course and be done the right way,” Epstein said.

Absent a deal with Community Three by the end of March, the District will put the cluster of properties through a third round of redevelopment requests. The project would be added to the roster for so-called March Madness, when the city offers up lists of city-owned properties primed for redevelopment.

Another round of redevelopment talks would leave neighbors like longtime Vermont Avenue resident, Mardicia Nana, frustrated.

“It looks like a haunted house,” Nana said about the Grimke School. “Someone by now should have occupied it.

 

 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/digger/wp/2017/01/26/deal-nears-for-redeveloping-grimke-school-site-in-the-district/?utm_term=.89976214b939