First Phase of Rhode Island Row Ready For Occupancy in October

• July 13, 2011
• 11 Comments

by Andrew Siddons

Rhode Island Row

If you’ve driven on Rhode Island Avenue over the last year or so, you may have noticed that sprawling parking lots near the Rhode Island Avenue-Brentwood Metro station have given way to construction sites, which are nearly looking like places where people might live and shop one day.

UrbanTurf recently spoke to Vicki Davis, president of Urban-Atlantic, who is developing the Rhode Island Row project, a large mixed-use project at 919 Rhode Island Avenue NE next to the Red Line station. Davis said that starting in October, the first of the project’s 274 rental units will be ready for occupancy, and that potential tenants will be able to start looking at apartments in mid-August.

“We are planning on having our leasing staff start temporarily on site starting then,” she said. “We’ll be doing pre-marketing and hard-hat tours.”

Split between two buildings (north and south), the apartments will be delivered in 30 to 40-unit phases, with subsequent deliveries scheduled for December, January, and March. (All of the units are expected to deliver by Summer 2013.) The first apartments will be in the north building located on Rhode Island Avenue, twenty percent of which will be offered at below market rates.

Rendering of completed Rhode Island Row.

The two buildings will also have 70,000 square feet of retail between them, although the first establishments won’t open until next March. For now, Urban-Atlantic is staying mum about potential tenants, waiting to make an announcement about retail offerings until the end of the year. However, the developer has reached out to the neighborhood for retail suggestions through the Rhode Island Insider blog. If these recommendations are taken into account, there will be sit-down restaurants, a coffee shop, a grocery store, a dry cleaners, and a mix of retail other than clothing and shoe stores.

In between the project’s two buildings will be a road with three lanes of street parking, a pedestrian median, and sidewalk fronting retail. This section will include 42 parallel parking spaces, that will add to the north building’s 168 public parking spots. (A new 212-space Metro parking garage is also scheduled to open in August.) The north building’s garage will also include a public electric-car charging station. Both residential buildings will offer green roofs, with planting boxes designed to absorb rainwater to prevent runoff and help with insulation. The north building will have a rooftop terrace with fire pits and seating areas, and the south building will include a pool and fitness center.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/first_phase_of_rhode_island_row_ready_for_occupancy_in_october/3795

11 Comments

1. Will Gist said at 10:48 am on Wednesday July 13, 2011:

   As a property owner in this community, this project is a big plus… I don’t think we need another grocery store… just cool retail and good restaurants to choose from.

   Will

1. Diana said at 11:08 am on Wednesday July 13, 2011:

   There was talk of a Trader Joe’s coming here which would be great. Like Will, i am excited for this to open!

1. Les said at 2:48 pm on Wednesday July 13, 2011:

   I’ve heard the community would like a Bus Boys & Poets at Rhode Island Row. This area desperately needs better retail.

1. PleasantPlainer said at 4:45 pm on Wednesday July 13, 2011:

   Trader Joe’s kind of makes sense rather than a super market, as there is a Giant a stone’s throw away (if you’re a good thrower)...

1. Eric K said at 8:43 am on Thursday July 14, 2011:

   Looks like a good project. I also notice that the comments in this post have 2 of the 3 things always rumored to be part of a new development: Trader Joe’s and Bus Boys & Poets. Only rumor we need now is a Whole Foods and we’ll be set.

1. Ward 5's Partical Son said at 11:07 am on Thursday July 14, 2011:

   I honestly feel that another Bust Boy’s in the city will be too many.  It takes away from the neighborhood feel and makes it too commercial.  Maybe a similar establishment but not the same name.  How about something that is unique to the area?  Also while a Trade Joes would be great I’m not sure if our neighborhood is ready for 3 buck chuck and fancy cheese.  What would be great in this space is a little bike shop something like the one of 14th and Q in which folks can get tune ups etc and find out about the use of bikes.

1. Josh said at 11:27 am on Thursday July 14, 2011:

   We need a Walgreens or other quality drugstore—NOT another CVS—so we can actually get a prescription filled somewhere that is decent.

1. Les said at 3:17 pm on Thursday July 14, 2011:

   The Bus Boys & Poets in Hyattsville on Route 1 will be opening next week! In no way will it detract from the newly established Arts District on Route 1. BB&P is considered a flagship for the historic U Street corridor. Rhode Island Row needs more than a drugstore as its anchor. BB&P will help establish a sense of home for everyone who lives there or for those in transit. So far the Route 1 corridor is just a lot of liquor stores, storefront churches, and used car lots that serve no one. This area needs a lift to promote better retail from Rhode Island Row to Hyattsville. DC needs as many BB&P’s as it can get!

1. deq said at 8:36 am on Friday July 15, 2011:

   it’s very strange to me that there are no storefronts facing rhode island avenue.

1. Les said at 9:31 am on Friday July 15, 2011:

   @deq I agree, it is strange. But, I think the idea is to make it a contained unit, an isolated island!  Also, not having storefronts facing Rhode Island will help deter crime. That’s my take on it.

   I will be so happy when they have the bridge to go from the 4th Street side, across the Metropolitan Branch trail to the Metro station side. That will help with crime on the MetBranchTrail and provide greater conveniences for the residents in Edgewood.

1. PleasantPlainer said at 5:11 pm on Tuesday January 24, 2012:

   Now all they need to do is move out all those big box retailers and develop the top of that hill with some nice parks and more residential. And some retail. But that Home Depot so close to a Metro makes no sense. That retail can go across RI Ave in all that industrial wasteland along the tracks…

Join the discussion