Neighborhood Report: Georgia Avenue

Much has been promised of Georgia Avenue, without fulfillment. Some developers, like Chris Donatelli at the Petworth Metro, have made an impact, while miles of underutilized land changed little on one of Washington DC's major corridors. At last, investment on the avenue has arrived. Below is a summary of the improvement now underway.

The Great Streets Project, a centerpiece of the revitalization of middle Georgia Avenue, is in full swing with single lane closures tying up Taylor to Upshur Streets for much of the month. Plans include better lighting at intersections and at pedestrian level, more trees, and repaved sidewalks.

The Heights, at 3232 Georgia Avenue, will offer 69 units and 10,000 s.f. of ground floor retail, is behind schedule. The Neighborhood Development Community (NDC) project had been slated for completion for early 2011, but has been pushed to a third quarter opening. Half the units will be offered as affordable housing.

The Vue is a smaller, privately financed project at Georgia Avenue and Morton Street; 7,000 s.f. of retail space and 112 market rate apartments. Also an NDC project, the completion date is farther on the horizon since the zoning hearing was rescheduled for late this month.

3813 - 3829 Georgia Ave: This Donatelli project on a neglected strip will provide 5000 s.f. of retail and 5000 s.f. of restaurant space. It also includes Chez Billy, formerly Billy Simpson's House of Seafood, at 3815 Georgia Ave. The restaurant, to be run by Thievery Corporation's Eric Hilton and brother Ian Hilton, had been designated for the National Register of Historic Places for its role in the social and political culture of D.C.'s African American community.

Opening has been delayed because of the owners' focus on other projects, namely American Ice Company and the soon to open Blackbyrd Warehouse next to the Hilton-owned Marvin at 2005 14th Street. Projected opening date for Chez Billy is June.

At the southern end of that strip is 3801 Georgia Avenue: Donatelli's seven-story multifamily - The Griffin - is near completion, slated for July or August, 49 units for sale or lease (not yet decided). Designed by Eric Colbert and Associates, the building is residential only, no retail.

6925-6529 Georgia Ave: Blue Skye Construction has been chosen by the city to build 24 mixed income units in this fenced off, undeveloped lot on upper Georgia Avenue. The District bid the project out in 2009 and chose Blue Sky in early 2010, but the District is still grinding through the approval process.

Howard Town Center: In negotiations for an anchor grocer, Howard Town Center is seeing delays that bump the completion date to 2013 or beyond. Ongoing negotiations to obtain a grocer for what would be Georgia Avenue's largest mixed-use project have been inconclusive, and CastleRock Partners, Howard University's chosen developer for the site, has yet to move forward. CastleRock was selected in early 2009 to build up to 450 apartments, a grocery store, and a large retail component.

Georgia Ave Safeway: According to Duball LLC, groundbreaking for what will become the second largest Safeway in the city at 3830 Georgia Avenue won't occur until a year to a year and a half from now. Duball said at this month's ANC meeting that they will focus on permitting and securing approval for the Planned Unit Development. Expect completion in two to three years, at best.

Park Morton: Though Hamel Builders is on site to break ground in the joint venture between the Warrenton Group and Landex Companies on the $130 million dollar, 500 unit housing project, they're still waiting for permits says Tom McManus, Studio Director of Wiencek Associates Architects and Planners, the firm responsible for the project's design.

Dubbed "The Avenue," the development located on the southwest corner of Newton Place and Georgia Avenue includes public housing. DCMud reported that the project was to take 14 months to build, but it has to start first.

2910 Georgia Avenue: The construction of this 22 unit, all-residential development is well underway. Developed by Art Linde of ASL International, the designer is Eric Colbert and Associates. Linde bought the property from Howard University in 2009 for $560,000.

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Donatelli Building Again in Columbia Heights

Developer in Chief of Columbia Heights Chris Donatelli will soon build his next residential addition to the Metro-oriented DC neighborhood. Donatelli has just scored $116m in financing from lender Invesco Real Estate, an event Donatelli said was the last impediment to building a 143-unit apartment building designed by Bethesda's GTM Architects. The building on Irving Street will be adjacent to Donatelli Development's Highland Park apartment building and across from the DC USA shopping center. The apartment building will replace a small homeless shelter that was closed on October 15, with a new structure that will essentially become a wing to its neighbor.

The District of Columbia granted the developer a time extension just this fall, under which Donatelli has until mid 2012 to file for building permits, though Chris Donatelli had firmly maintained that he intends to build sooner, and said in a text (yes, text. Cool.) that construction would start within 60 days. Originally approved as the "Calla Lilly", a 69 unit residence (see rendering, at right below), the building will now feature a setback penthouse level and blend more harmoniously into Highland Park. The recent zoning extension also alleviates parking requirements by taking advantage of Highland Park's underground garage. The new Highland Park West apartment tower will front Irving Street and be connected to its sibling, both physically and visually, replicating the style of the existing apartments. A new shelter facility will occupy the back portion of the lot, and will stand separately from the apartment buildings.

Highland Park was completed by Donatelli and partner Gragg and Associates in early 2008; the Art Deco revival building, designed by Silver Spring architects Torti Gallas, adds a subtle timelessness while without mirroring nearby architecture. The project had been listed for sale as condominiums from 2005 to 2007, but in late 2007 Donatelli canceled sales with only about a quarter of its 227 units having sold, converting the building to apartments that filled quickly.

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Homeless Shelter Out, Highland Park Addition In

A Street Sense article recently expressed worry over the impending closing of the La Casa homeless shelter at 1436 Irving Street, NW and the prospect of 72 extra homeless men hitting the streets just in time for hypothermia season. The emptying shelter will in fact give way to construction crews and wrecking balls, as the property is set to feature a 143-unit addition to Donatelli Development's adjacent Highland Park apartment building, as well as brand new 82-bed community based residential facility.

Although the development team successfully obtained a two-year PUD extension from the Zoning Commission earlier this summer, citing (surprise) difficulty securing financing giving the economic downturn, the District will still follow through with the closing of La Casa. Trailers will be removed by November 1st, paving the way for construction to begin shortly after. Reggie Saunders of the DC Department of Human Services confirmed that the shelter will officially close this Friday, October 15th. With PUD extension in hand, developers will have until June 27, 2012 to file for a building permit, and until June 27, 2013 to commence construction, but Chris Donatelli, President of Donatelli Development, insists that the soon-to-begin environmental remediation work and demolition will quickly give way to actual construction in the coming months.

The news does not come as a surprise to Steven Jackson, Program Coordinator at La Casa Shelter, who says he's been "operating under the assumption that the shelter will shut down this Friday." Jackson says that plans have been arranged to accommodate current shelter residents by either placing them in "permanent supportive housing" or "reassigning them to alternative emergency shelters." Jackson confirmed that a few of the men had been reassigned to the La Casa Transitional Rehabilitation Program (TRP), a more comprehensive six-month program that "provides temporary residential services for homeless men to help them to achieve self sufficiency."

Old rendering

Originally approved as an 86-foot, 69 unit-addition, Zoning granted the development team a modification to their PUD late last week, accepting the applicant's plea to expand their residential plans from the original 69 to 143 units and push the building up to 90 feet. Additionally, a setback penthouse level will rise nine feet atop the roof line. Twenty percent of the new apartments will be "affordable," marketed at 80% AMI. The modification also permits architects to redesign the exterior facades to more smoothly blend the addition with the existing Highland Park apartment building. The newly amended PUD also rids developers of their parking space obligation, as future residents will be allotted space in the already constructed below-grade garage next door. The new Highland Park West apartment tower will front Irving Street and be directly connected to the original Highland Park. The new shelter residential facility will occupy the back half of the lot, and will stand separately from the apartment buildings.

Torti Gallas, designers of the adjacent Highland Park apartments, have passed off architectural duties to Bethesda's GTM Architects for the new addition. Initial designs which included a lily-like glass building called the Calla Lily, a design that would have been a significant departure from Highland Park and from the architectural standards of Columbia Heights, has been scratched. Instead of creativity and innovation, architects have tapped their best tracing abilities, as "the new building will look like an exact, matching extension of Highland Park," Donatelli explained. But hey, why mess up a good thing. Highland Park has been a popular residential success since it opened in 2008, and Donatelli confirms that the last retail space has just been leased, soon to feature a brand new sports bar named Lou's Bar and Grill.

It remains unclear how the District will foot the bill for the new shelter, or who will operate it once it's reopened, says Stephen Jackson of La Casa. Donatelli doesn't know either: "We're responsible for the demolition and the design plans, after that it's all on them." Them being the District government, and Lydia DePillis's reporting at City Paper makes it pretty clear that whatever money had been previously set aside for a new La Casa is now lost or spent, and one way or the other, unaccounted for. If and when the new La Casa is made a reality, the building will be quite an upgrade from the current mess of trailers that occupy the property. The planned shelter will not serve "emergency" needs, sandwiching 15 men into bunk-lined trailers, but instead feature private one-bed apartments, better suited to rehabilitate homeless men with drug and alcohol addictions and mental health problems. The Coalition for the Homeless, a nonprofit that currently operates the La Casa shelter, seems optimistic about its continued involvement at the Columbia Heights location, as its website reads: "The La Casa TRP was temporarily relocated to 1131 Spring Road, NW by the District government until the NEW state of the art La Casa Multicultural Center is built at its current location on 1436 Irving Street, NW." But then you would have known some of this had you shelled out the $1 for Street Sense last week.

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