May 2, 2007
Old Convention Center Site to Host 700 Housing Units
By Victoria Solomon
The Dupont Current, Staff Reporter
May 2, 2007 Vol. V, No. 47
Crowded around a miniature wooden model of what will be a soaring complex on the site of the old convention center, developers, architects and others at a recent meeting expressed enthusiasm for the plans.
Fashioned as a temporary parking lot, the site has been structurally vacant since the city razed the old center in 2004. At the April 19 meeting, developers presented plans that they said would bring needed retail and office space, desirable housing and attractive shopping and strolling opportunities.
In a joint venture, Hines Interest LP and Archstone-Smith are leading the development on the 10-acre parcel, which is located southwest of Mount Vernon Square and bounded by New York Avenue and 9th, H and 11th streets.
Speaking to 100 or so people at the National Music Center, Hines’ D.C. project office vice president Howard Riker said the District pushed for “really building something that reflected high design and quality architecture.”
Riker promised just that.
A team of architects and builders that includes award-winning London-based Foster and Partners as well as D.C.-based Shalom Baranes Associates is slated to complete the complex in 2011.
The mixed-use project includes retail, office and for-sale and for-rent housing, along with a promise of environmentally friendly design features and community space. “There’ll be plenty of civic and open space on the site,” Riker said.
Developers are awaiting design approval by the deputy mayor for planning and economic development. Next will be preparing construction drawings and then seeking permits for the work, which they hope to obtain by next year in order to begin construction in summer or fall 2008.
The complex, when completed, will open up 10th and I streets as limited-access, two-way thoroughfares within the project area. Pedestrian paths and outdoor cafes will be positioned throughout the site, and the space will cater to residents, shoppers, tourists, retailers and office tenants, the development team says.
If the D.C. Council so deems, a new, main city library will be constructed on New York Avenue near a public park. The council has yet to vote on the controversial move of the main library from its nearby G Street home.
The site will hold about 700 housing units, two-thirds of it rental housing and the rest for-sale. Twenty percent of the housing will be priced affordably.
About a third of the 700,000-plus square feet of retail and office space will be leased to small, local, “unique” businesses, as well as for some sort of grocery store, according to developers.
Riker said the group looked to woo Whole Foods Market to the space initially, but the grocer would not fit; however, other, smaller markets would, he said.
Riker said the project will be seeking the gold standard of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rankings, a green building rating system used nationally. The gold standard is a mid-range level on the scale (platinum is the highest), and Riker said the company is seeking to attain it through a green roof, cisterns, minimizing the impact on storm-water runoff and other initiatives.
Below ground, there will be 1,700 parking spaces — a key in keeping heavy traffic out of nearby residential areas in Logan Circle and Shaw, residents note.
Logan Circle advisory neighborhood commission chair Charles Reed said last week, that the project is of interest to the commission because it impacts the residential neighborhood.
“So far as I know, we have supported most of the proposed uses for that site,” Reed said. “It’s right in an area of town where the densities they proposed are appropriate. ”Reed said the commission’s only requests are that the project benefit the neighborhood and that overflow traffic not overwhelm residential streets.
Hal Davitt, president of the Blagden Alley Neighborhood Association and a resident of 9th and M streets, which is about three blocks away from the site, said the project is “probably a far greater benefit to us than it not happening.”
Davitt said he occasionally jokingly refers to the project as the “ Reston Town Center at Mount Vernon Square” because of the glassy, retail look of the design. “It’s the template for our times,” he said, noting that each new shopping square seems to have a similar look.
Davitt said weekend traffic at the Washington Convention Center sometimes infiltrates his neighborhood, and he hopes parking issues from the new development will be mitigated by traffic management and the provision of spaces. Another Blagden Alley resident, Greg Melcher, who lives in the 1300 block of 10th Street, said parking is not really an issue for him.
“They are going to provide a fair amount of parking, so I’m really not worried about it,” he said. Melcher also said people seem to utilize the Metro to a great extent for traveling downtown.
The multiuse development, he said, is “appropriate,” and including a residential element, “gives some life” to the project.
To facilitate neighborhood dialogue, Hines communication manager Dawn Marcus said, the company will soon form a neighborhood advisory committee to address issues related to construction of the buildings. “We want them to know what’s going on so they can be informed,” Marcus said.
The D.C. Zoning Commission voted last summer to amend city regulations governing the development of the site to foster residential use as well as an increase in allowed building density.
The D.C. Council approved the project’s master plan in 2006. Twenty percent of the project’s equity must come from local, small and disadvantaged businesses in the city, and a minimum of 35 percent of the contracts for pre-construction and construction work must go to such businesses.