Roundup: New York Ave Project Canceled, Sales Start in Capitol Riverfront

• May 20th 2010

by UrbanTurf Staff

Here’s a quick rundown of interesting real estate stories making headlines this week:

• The District’s Office of Planning has published a 70-page plan to revitalize Mount Pleasant Street, the neighborhood’s main commercial thoroughfare which has largely stagnated as nearby Columbia Heights flourished. Reaction to the new plan is hopeful, if justifiably skeptical. See what DCmud and Housing Complex have to say.
   
• Local celeb-developer Jim Abdo’s ambitious project at the eastern end of New York Avenue near the border with Maryland has been tabled indefinitely, according to The Washington Business Journal. The reason? Yep, you guessed it: tight credit and fragile economy. Arbor Place, as it was to be called, would have spanned 16 acres and cost over a billion dollars. For more on the original vision, see this Washington Post article from 2005.
   
• Capitol Quarter, the community of new townhouses in Capitol Riverfront, will begin pre-sales of its second phase this weekend. Actual building of the second phase is slated for later this year and will add over 100 homes, doubling the size of the existing community (which sold out in April).
  
  Capitol Quarter developer EYA has been busy lately — both its Chancellor’s Row development in Brookland and Old Town Commons in Alexandria kicked off pre-sales this month as well.
   
• Mortgage rates fell further this week from last week’s already-low 4.96 percent. The rate on a 30-year fixed now stands at 4.83 percent, the lowest it’s been since all the way back in November.

Finally, here are UrbanTurf’s three most popular posts of the last week in case you missed them:

1. DC Buyer: Soon-to-Graduate Law Student Looking for First Home
2. The Low Interest Rate Program You Probably Haven’t Heard About
3. Deal of the Week: The Enemy of the State Coop

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/roundup_new_york_ave_project_canceled_sales_start_in_capitol_riverfront/2090.