Photo Tour Part 3: Apartment Construction

Most of the new residential buildings under construction in Southwest are rental apartments - the only condo building currently under construction is VIO at District Wharf. Above is a photo of 301 M, which is the rental apartment building furthest along, aside from District Wharf, by The Bernstein Companies. Since these pictures were taken in early August, progress has been made on the buildings, especially Valo, the chosen marketing name for the apartment project attached to the new St. Matthews at 222 M Street, developed by Trammell Crow Company, High Street Residential, Meadow Partners, and CSG Urban Partners. A few more floors have been added to the building since the below photo was taken. Advertising went up last month for Valo, a Finnish word meaning light or glow.

Valo apartments at 222 M Street.

Another project making progress is the two-building addition to The View at Waterfront along M and K streets from Mill Creek Residential Trust. Both buildings are mid-rise structures with a concrete base and wood-frame construction above. 

New M Street building at the View at Waterfront.

Meanwhile, the Riverside Baptist Church project at 7th and I streets by PN Hoffman is still a hole in the ground. Construction began earlier this year and won't be complete until 2019. The most recent addition to the construction list was 1399 Maryland Avenue at The Portals, a 373-unit apartment building which started a couple months ago by Republic Properties.

Tower crane at Riverside Baptist site.

Groundbreaking for Riverside Redevelopment

Construction has begun on a new Riverside Baptist Church and a multifamily rental building at 680 I Street. Back in December, demolition started on Riverside, where some of the façade will be used in the new church building. The church will be located at the corner of Maine Avenue and 7th Street while the 173-unit rental building, developed by PN Hoffman, will be at 7th and I streets. About 10% of the apartment units will be set aside as affordable housing for households earning up to 50%, 80% and 100% of Area Median Income. There will be space on the ground floor of the apartment building for community-serving uses, such as a daycare center. 

This is the first multifamily project to start construction in 2017. Other multifamily projects that are likely to start this year include The Kiley on 4th Street apartments, 1399 Maryland Avenue apartments at The Portals, 1319 South Capitol apartments, Peninsula 88 condos and Riverpoint apartments & condos. According to a press release, construction is expected to be completed at 680 I Street by late 2018. 

Rendering courtesy of PN Hoffman

Signs of the Times

Part of the exterior of Riverside Baptist Church is being removed in preparation for demolition (a demolition permit was submitted back in September). The stone exterior will be reused in the new church that will be constructed at the corner of Maine Avenue and 7th Street. In addition to the new church, a 173-unit apartment building will be built at the intersection of 7th and I streets by PN Hoffman. About 10% of the apartment units will be set aside as affordable housing for households earning up to 50%, 80% and 100% of Area Median Income. There will be space on the ground floor of the apartment building for community-serving uses, such as a daycare center. 

During construction, Riverside patrons will be worshiping at Jefferson Academy Middle School. Jefferson is also hosting AppleTree in a temporary trailer while a new home for the charter school is built at District Wharf. The new Riverside Baptist and apartments should be completed in 2018. Other multifamily buildings that are expected to start in 2017 include 1399 Maryland Avenue and The Kiley on 4th. Over 680 units in three projects started construction in 2016 – 301 M Street, St. Matthew’s, and View at Waterfront.

Signage is now up for Eliot on 4th, the 365-unit apartment building at Waterfront Station. Leasing is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2017.

Renderings courtesy of PN Hoffman

Demo Permit Application Filed for Riverside Baptist

A demolition permit application was filed last month for Riverside Baptist Church, located at 6th Street and Maine Avenue. Back in March, the Zoning Commission approved the PUD for the site, which will be redeveloped with a new Riverside Baptist Church and a 173-unit apartment building. The church’s location will shift south to the intersection of 6th Street and Maine Avenue while the apartment building will be located at 6th and I streets. About 10% of the apartment units will be set aside as affordable housing for households earning up to 50%, 80% and 100% of Area Median Income. There will be space on the ground floor of the apartment building for community-serving uses, such as a daycare center. 

Construction on the project is expected to start before the end of the year with completion in 2018. 

Rendering courtesy of PN Hoffman

Riverside Baptist Redevelopment Gets the Nod from Zoning Commission

Last week, the Zoning Commission took final action to give approval to Riverside Baptist Church’s consolidated PUD. A new sanctuary for Riverside will be built at 7th Street and Maine Avenue while PN Hoffman will build a 7-9-story rental apartment building with 170 units at 7th and I streets. About 10% of the units will be set aside as affordable housing for households earning up to 50%, 80% and 100% of Area Median Income. There will be space on the ground floor of the apartment building for community-serving uses, such as a daycare center. 

The main issue that held up Zoning Commission approval was funds proffered to help attract a daycare facility. The developer offered $25,000 to help attract a daycare provider, but the ANC wanted flexibility to use the funds for other potential users if a daycare center ultimately didn’t occupy the Riverside site. The Zoning Commission was uncomfortable with this open-ended solution and asked that the developer come back before the Commission with a different recipient of the $25,000 in the event a daycare center provider was not found. With PUD approval now in hand, the project is scheduled to start construction in the fourth quarter of this year.

Renderings courtesy of PN Hoffman

Riverside Baptist PUD Vetted by ANC

At last Monday’s ANC 6D monthly meeting, PN Hoffman presented their plans for a mixed use development at the site of Riverside Baptist Church, located at 7th Street and Maine Avenue. Plans call for a 7- to 9-story, 164,000 SF rental apartment building on the north end of the site with approximately 170 units, ranging in size from 450 to 1,500 SF. There is space on the ground floor for community-serving uses, such as a daycare center. On the south end of the site along Maine Avenue, a new two-story sanctuary for Riverside will be built. 

Some changes have been made to the design from Geier Brown Renfrow (GBR) Architects and Studios Architecture since the PUD was filed several months ago. The top two floors of the apartment building are now slightly more transparent. The church’s design has also been revised – there is now a richer level of materiality. 

During the presentation, Bao Vuong from PN Hoffman stated what the community benefits are for the project, including the following: 

• A total of 10% of the Gross Building Area will be set aside as affordable housing at various levels of Area Median Income (AMI): 

• 2% for up to 50% of AMI 

• 6% for up to 80% of AMI 

• 2% for up to 100% of AMI 

• Along 7th Street, there will be 1,700 SF of private space available for public use with bench seating, landscaping, and a water wall, which will serve as a gateway to The Wharf development to the south.  
• The intersection of 7th and I streets will be reconfigured and simplified by the removal of the median that currently exists, as well as the addition of more crosswalks and a parking lane on 7th Street. 
• Residents of the apartment building will not be eligible for Residential Permit Parking (RPP) spaces. 
• The developer will work with a resident group to determine which neighborhood-serving uses should be placed on the ground floor – $25,000 will be set aside to help subsidize a daycare operator in the space, or other tenant type chosen by the resident group. 
• In addition, residents have requested that the developer install a dog park within the property to minimize the amount of dogs in the surrounding neighborhood; PN Hoffman is exploring the idea of placing a dog run on the roof of the apartment building. 

After some discussion, the commissioners voted unanimously to support the conceptual public space design, but deferred support of the consolidated PUD until their November meeting. The reason for the delay is that the commissioners would like PN Hoffman to draft a construction management plan for the development since it is located across the street from Jefferson Academy and AppleTree’s temporary home (AppleTree used to have facilities at Riverside and Amidon-Bowen, but moved to trailers on Jefferson’s campus last year). In addition, there was some concern about whether a one-time $25,000 subsidy would be sufficient to allow low-income children to use the proposed daycare facility. The PUD hearing is scheduled with the Zoning Commission on November 30.

Above rendering is of old design, courtesy of PN Hoffman

Riverside Baptist Redevelopment PUD Filed

A PUD was filed earlier this month for the redevelopment of Riverside Baptist Church at 7th Street and Maine Avenue. Back in October, representatives from PN Hoffman presented their plans for the project, which includes a new sanctuary for Riverside facing Maine Avenue and a 7 to 9-story, 170-unit rental apartment building along 7th and I streets with ground floor retail. Approximately 14 of the units will be set aside for households earning up to 80% of Area Median Income. Not many changes have been made to the project since October. One change that may happen is the addition of four units and an indoor amenity space to the penthouse level. These changes assume that the Zoning Commission will adopt the recommended changes to the Height Act that allow for penthouses to be habitable. A hearing will be held later this year and if all goes well, construction will begin sometime in 2016 with completion in 2018. 

View south on 7th Street

This is the second church in Southwest that PN Hoffman has partnered with to do a mixed use development. Construction is underway down the street at 6th and M streets on a new St. Augustine’s Church and 525 Water Street, a mixed income condominium building that will deliver in 2016. Neither of these projects are a part of The Wharf, although PN Hoffman is one of the developer partners for that project.

Renderings courtesy of PN Hoffman

Riverside Baptist Proposes Mixed-Use Redevelopment with PN Hoffman

Over the past seven years, Riverside Baptist Church and Wharf developer PN Hoffman have been in discussions about redeveloping Riverside, located along 7th Street from I Street to Maine Avenue. Riverside has been in Southwest since 1857 and in its current building since 1968. Its current congregation has about 125 members with about a third of them being Southwesters. The current building has about 12,000 square feet of space on two levels, including the basement, with a large setback from Maine Avenue and its main entrance faces a parking lot. It is an aging property where maintenance costs now outweigh costs for ministry services, so the church began exploring their options back in 2007. The redevelopment of the church property will allow Riverside to remain in Southwest, but in a new building and with an endowment. This arrangement is not new in the neighborhood. In addition to Riverside, other houses of worship have partnered with developers, include St. Augustine’s, St. Matthew’s, and Westminster Church is starting the process now. 

Riverside and PN Hoffman took their seven–year relationship to the next level this evening and began the public engagement process, starting with a meeting in the basement of Town Square Towers with residents of the condo building. Town Square Towers is located across I Street from Riverside and will be impacted by the redevelopment of its neighbor. Present at the meeting were representatives from PN Hoffman, Riverside, and architects from Geier Brown Renfrow (GBR) Architects and Studios Architecture. Currently on the table is a mixed-use development with a new Riverside Baptist Church designed by GBR on the southern portion of the site closer to Maine Avenue and a 150-175-unit rental apartment building on the rest of the site, designed by Studios Architecture.

The new Riverside has been designed with two levels – the first floor will have a fellowship hall and office space while the second floor will contain the worship center for a total of about 11,400 square feet. At the corner of Maine Avenue and 7th Street, the main entrance will be transparent so passersby will be able to see some of the activity occurring inside of the church. This area serves as a threshold between the street, the parking garage, and the church. Materials used in the construction of the current church building, including stone, stucco, slate shingles, and stained glass will be carried over to the design of the new facility. There will be 40 garage parking spaces available for the church on Sundays and five spaces on other days. 

Meanwhile, the apartment building has been designed as “elegant and simple” to not take the focus away from the church building, which has been positioned on the prominent corner of Maine Avenue and 7th Street. The apartment building will step back in height from nine stories to seven stories closer to I Street and will serve as a "gateway" to the waterfront. Units will be designed to attract families, so no micro units are planned; however, unit sizes will be only slightly larger than what is currently being built in DC. More one bedroom with den and two bedroom units will be built. In addition, an affordable component is planned as mandated by Inclusionary Zoning. On the ground floor there will be space for a daycare center or other community-oriented use, but PN Hoffman feels that traditional retail would not be appropriate at that location. At the corner of 7th and I streets, the building will be pulled back further from the street to create space for a public plaza with a water feature, trees, and benches. The intersection will also be simplified by removing the island that separates traffic making a right turn onto I Street from 7th Street. 

A change of zoning will be required in order for the project to move forward as designed. A Planned Unit Development (PUD) application will be submitted in the next few months once the Small Area Plan has been completed by the Office of Planning, which has recommended up-zoning the church parcel. After going through the PUD process, it is expected that construction may begin sometime in 2016.

Rendering courtesy of PN Hoffman

Is AppleTree Vacating Southwest?

Currently, two out of seven AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School campuses are located in Southwest, serving nearly 80 three and four year-olds with a significant percentage of students being Southwest residents. After the end of this school year, though, both of those campuses will close. The Amidon-Bowen campus at 4th and I streets, in addition to the Riverside Baptist Church campus, located at 7th Street and Maine Avenue, will be closing. The charter school has been at Amidon-Bowen since 2008 and Riverside Baptist Church since 2005. AppleTree needs to leave Amidon-Bowen because there is demand for classroom space for DCPS children since enrollment is up at the school and Riverside Baptist Church may be redeveloped similar to St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church a block away. 

Riverside Baptist Church

In order to help AppleTree maintain a presence in Southwest, ANC 6D Commissioner Stacy Cloyd authored a resolution to urge the District government to allow the charter school to place a temporary trailer on the abandoned tennis courts at Jefferson Academy, located across the street from Riverside. A second set of tennis courts on the northwestern part of Jefferson’s grounds at 9th and G streets were renovated in 2012 thanks to the Washington Kastles Mylar World Team Tennis organization. There would be four modular classrooms to serve up to 40 children in the trailer. There is insufficient space currently inside Jefferson to house AppleTree since the Edgewood/Brookland Family Support Collaborative is opening a satellite office in the school building. The Collaborative currently has an office at St. Augustine’s, but the church building will be closing in June to make way for The Wharf project. 

Jefferson Academy from Maine Avenue

This trailer would be temporary, since AppleTree will be moving to The Wharf once phase one is complete in 2017. The main logistical issue is, though, that Jefferson Academy is scheduled to begin a multimillion dollar modernization in 2016, which could place AppleTree in limbo for a year between when they would need to vacate Jefferson and when they could move to The Wharf. At one point, AppleTree was considering purchasing the former Southeastern University campus building, but now the Shakespeare Theatre Company is proposing an actors' campus for that site.

At the April meeting, the commissioners debated the issue and added amendments to the resolution, which would explicitly state that AppleTree would need to leave the tennis courts once Jefferson’s modernization begins and the school would need to report back to the community their exit plan for the trailers after one year. Other concerns the commissioners had about the plan included where students will be dropped off and picked up, as well as where they will recreate. 

Present at the meeting to support the plan were representatives from AppleTree as well as Principal Natalie Gordon from Jefferson Academy. While Principal Gordon was generally supportive of AppleTree’s plan, she expressed concern that the charter school’s presence in the tennis courts should not interfere with, or delay for any reason, the planned modernization of Jefferson. The modernization was already delayed once and Gordon does not want the project to be delayed for a second time. The resolution was passed unanimously by the commissioners.