(Washington, DC) – Mayor Adrian M. Fenty on Wednesday announced the District has issued a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) to attract a master developer to transform the former DC General Hospital campus and 50 acres of land into a new waterfront neighborhood that will be a national model for green building and sustainable development.
“Hill East is the last major piece of the District’s ambitious Anacostia Waterfront Initiative,” said Mayor Fenty. “This is an incredible opportunity to reconnect the Capitol Hill neighborhoods to the Anacostia River.”
The RFEI builds upon years of community-based planning, including the Hill East Master Plan that was approved by the DC Council in 2002. The site could accommodate up to 5 million square feet of residential, commercial and mixed-use buildings including new primary care health facilities and neighborhood-serving retail. Hill East Waterfront offers an opportunity to become a model for sustainable urban development. The US Green Building Council selected this site as a LEED neighborhood development area and current designs for stormwater management already incorporate best practices for low-impact development.
Under the stewardship of the former Anacostia Waterfront Corporation and now the District’s Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the District has already begun to redevelop the Hill East site. The District completed work on an interim plaza this month, which will ultimately become a village square above the Stadium-Armory Metrorail station. Design work for the extension of Massachusetts Avenue is 90 percent complete. The historic Anne Archbold Hall will be preserved and incorporated into the project. Stabilization work will begin this year.
Several national and international development firms expressed interest in responding to the solicitation after it was promoted at an Urban Land Institute Green Conference in North Carolina in April. Given the scale and complexity of the project, the District expects the redevelopment timeline will likely span at least 10 years.
Hill East is one of three major redevelopment sites that comprise the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative – a 20 year plan to reconnect the District’s residents and neighborhoods to the Anacostia River. Taken together with the Southwest Waterfront project and the redevelopment of Poplar Point, the three projects represent more than 12 million square feet of development potential.
The RFEI is available at hilleastwaterfrontdc.com.