(Washington, DC) Mayor Adrian M. Fenty today announced the District has selected One Vision Development Partners as its partner for Northwest One, a $700 million project and a key piece of the District’s New Communities Initiative.

“We have an incredible opportunity to create a more healthy and vibrant neighborhood here,” Fenty said. “This team has demonstrated that it’s more than capable of working alongside us to get this highly complex job done.”

One Vision is a partnership led by the William C. Smith Cos. and the Jair Lynch Cos. They proposed building more than 1,630 new units of housing – apartments, condos and townhouses priced for buyers and renters at all income levels – as well as a new 21,000 square foot clinic, more than 40,000 square feet of retail and 220,000 square feet of office space. The team also includes Banneker Ventures and affordable housing provider CPDC.

While the District issued a solicitation seeking development partners in July for about 228,000 square feet of property it controlled in the Northwest One neighborhood, the One Vision team was able to reach an agreement with the leadership of the adjacent 199-unit Sursum Corda Cooperative to expand their development plan for the entire community, greatly increasing the number of new housing units, retail an other amenities.

One Vision, in accordance with the New Communities development principles, will replace each subsidized housing unit on the site with a new unit and provide roughly two times as many new market rate and workforce units. The District is also investing about $45 million to rebuild the nearby Walker-Jones Elementary School, incorporating a new recreation center and public library.

The New Communities Initiative calls for development to span beyond bricks and mortar. Each of the District’s four New Communities project have incorporated a substantial human capital program to ensure residents have ready access to health care, job training and other supportive social services. The other New Communities are Barry Farm/Park Chester/Wade Road in Ward 8, Lincoln Heights/Richardson Dwellings in Ward 7 and Park Morton in Ward 1.

Northwest One will be built in several phases and work will likely begin first at District-controlled sites along North Capitol Street. The entire Northwest One neighborhood is bounded by K Street to the south, New York Avenue to the north, New Jersey Avenue to the west.