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Shovels in the ground at Walter Reed. Here's what comes next.

Monday, April 24, 2017

Washington Business Journal by Karen Goff

After a decade of planning for the redevelopment of the shuttered Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the massive project reached a milestone on Monday when ceremonial dirt was turned for the 66-acre Parks at Walter Reed.

Now comes the heavy lifting: installing infrastructure across the historic campus and demolishing the main 2.7 million-square-foot 1970s-era hospital building — all work being tackled by the private development team of Hines Interests LP, Urban Atlantic and Triden Development Group.

Chuck Watters, Hines’ senior managing director, said the company will review demolition bids for the hospital this week, with an eye on beginning that 18-month job by the end of the summer. In its place will rise a mixed-use town center, likely featuring a grocery store anchor.

he larger, 3.1 million-square-foot development, designed by Torti Gallas Urban, is expected to build out over 10-15 years. The project will include 1,560 apartments, 550 condos, 96 townhouses and 2-over-2 units; 200,000 square feet of office and medical space; 240,000 square feet of retail; a 200-room Hyatt hotel; 30,000 square feet of arts and cultural space; and 20 acres of open space.

Watters would not say if the team was in talks with Wegmans, a grocery anchor tied to both Walter Reed and, more recently, the Fannie Mae headquarters redevelopment. Roadside Development committed to bringing Wegmans to Walter Reed when it bid for the project in 2013, but the Hines-led team won the competition. Wegmans was in active discussions with Hines and its partners in 2015, but no deal came of it.

Mayor Muriel Bowser said the Walter Reed redevelopment will spark a renewal along Georgia Avenue NW.

“There is already energy around the redevelopment of Walter Reed,” she said at the groundbreaking. “Upper Georgia Avenue’s time has come.”

The Army transferred the 66 acres to the District in October. The city agreed to pay $22.5 million for the site — $10 million at closing and $12.5 million one year later. The ground lease was signed in November.

Work is well underway to renovate the 100,000-square-foot Delano Hall at 16th and Aspen streets NW. It will house charters D.C. International School and the Latin American Montessori Bilingual School. More than 700 students are expected to be in the building for the 2017-18 school year, Bowser said.

The District also hopes to open the campus to community events in the coming months, beginning with the Walter Reed Dreams Community Block Party on Saturday. Look for farmers markets, concerts and other events this summer, said Malaika Abernathy of the D.C. Office of Planning.

Elsewhere on the 110-acre campus, Children’s National Health System will carve a new medical research facility out of Building 54, a 348,000-square-foot former laboratory, and the U.S. State Department controls 33 acres, which it will develop as foreign chanceries.