Washington City Paper by Andrew Giambrone
The District has selected a development team for the aged and underutilized Grimke School near U Street NW after a deal with the previously chosen team failed in December on account of financing.
Mayor Muriel Bowser's administration announced today that Community Three Development and architectural firm Torti Gallas and Partners will redevelop the 52,000-square-foot historic school located at 1923 Vermont Ave. NW as well as adjacent parcels along alley-like 9 1/2 Street NW. Their plan calls for a mixed-use facility to be anchored by the African American Civil War Museum, which currently operates in an annex behind the school. It would also include a new headquarters for Silver Spring-based Torti Gallas (the firm's H Street NE office would also relocate to Grimke); a new nonprofit arts center, the "U Street Arts League," to host classes, exhibitions, and other activities; 10 new townhouses on 9 1/2 Street; and a new six-story, mixed-use building featuring 20 condominium units to front U Street.
The announcement comes during the District's annual "March Madness" event for developers interested in public-land deals. Headed by Brian Kenner, the office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development is also rolling out a series of bidding opportunities for development teams.
The selection follows a stop-and-start history for Grimke, which was has been an eyesore along one of D.C.'s most vibrant corridors for years, frustrating neighbors. Under former Mayor Vincent Gray, the District awarded a development deal to Roadside Development and Sorg Architects. Then the Bowser administration reviewed it, ultimately re-awarding it to those companies in 2015, with the condition that the project was to include more affordable housing than initially planned. But last year, the city's arrangement with Roadside and Sorg fell apart following months of delay. That project would have also installed the civil war museum in a refurbished Grimke but would have served as "a home for the arts," too, anchoring various nonprofits. (Roadside said the project had become unfeasible.)
Given the school's current condition, the chosen development team expects that the rehabilitation of Grimke, built in 1887, will involve major work. "Without adequate maintenance for almost a decade and the need for updated systems, windows, access, among others, it is anticipated that renovation hard costs will exceed $8.5 million to ultimately create a structure capable of housing the Museum and Torti Gallas and Partners," a concept proposal by the development team explains. To help finance it, the team has proposed a 50/50 split of the revenue generated from the renovated school building's annual ground lease. That's projected at $2.8 million to the District over a 10-year period.
"While it is anticipated that proceeds generated from the construction and sale of the U Street parcel and 9 1/2 Street Townhouses will provide some of the funds necessary to execute and complete the Main Building renovation, additional private financing will be necessary to fund all of these costs," the concept proposal continues. "In total, all the hard costs necessary to bring the Main Building into operation will be invested into the District's asset with no guaranteed return on the investment to the development team for the ground lease term." Hence the 50/50 revenue split.
Preliminary renderings of Community Three Development and Torti Gallas' project follow below.
