The Latest on Douglas Development’s Mount Vernon Projects

January 19, 2011
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by Andrew Siddons

At last night’s Mount Vernon Square Neighborhood Association meeting, Douglas Development’s Paul Millstein presented details about the firm’s upcoming apartment projects at squares 450 and 451, which lie between 6th and 7th streets, and respectively straddle the north and south sides of New York Avenue in Northwest.

As previously reported by The Triangle and Housing Complex, an apartment project will be built on square 450, and square 451 will be the site of a new office building.

The new residential building on the southeast corner of square 450 — the former A V Italian Restaurant location next to the Eritrean Cultural Civic Center — will be a 200-unit apartment project that Millstein described as “really nice but small.” In addition to the apartments, he said there will be ground level retail and restaurants, including the Waffle Shop and Hodges Sandwich Shop, which will move from across the street. Millstein said that construction on apartment project would begin within the next 12 months, and Douglas aims for completion a year after construction begins.

As for the western section of square 450, nothing has been finalized. “It could be office, it could be residential, it could be a hotel component,” Millstein said. “We have no prospective tenants there yet.”

Squares 450 and 451. Courtesty of Google Maps.

A 300,000 square-foot office building will be built on Square 451, as well as potentially 100,000 square feet of residences. (According to the Washington Business Journal, this office building will be the new headquarters of the American Association of Medical Colleges. Millstein wouldn’t deny this report, but wasn’t ready to make an announcement either.) Millstein did say that the future tenants of the building will be able to move in by the third quarter of 2013, or early 2014 at the latest, and that in the coming days, Douglas hopes to apply for a permit, so that they can build on the alley that will be the approximate boundary dividing the building’s office space from its residential units.

As for the businesses displaced from square 451, Millstein said that Douglas will find a new home for the District Crossfit gym, but that two auto garages on the same street will be razed. Other establishments on that block will be moved and integrated into street-level retail with the buildings’ historic facades preserved.

“We like the old buildings with the new buildings growing out of them, like the Spy Museum and the Atlantic Building,” Millstein said, noting that the preserved facades would be a feature of both projects.

These two parcels are not the only sites that Douglas Development has plans for in the neighborhood.

On the site of a parking lot across from Busboys and Poets, at 450 K Street NW, Douglas has a 220-230 unit apartment project in the works with Kettler. Millstein confirmed that it would likely have 5,000 square feet of retail, and like the projects above, construction is expected to begin within 12 months, and completion is scheduled for within the year following that. On the Northwest corner of 6th and L Street NW — where there is currently a rundown townhouse with an empty lot to the north — Douglas is planning a 40-unit apartment project, with units averaging around 630 square feet. The zoning and legal requirements for the property aren’t ready, but Millstein said that he hoped to have more news for neighborhood residents within 60 days.

And what would these new residential projects be without some new retail to complement them? Douglas wants to find a new tenant for the corner of Mount Vernon Square at 7th Street and New York Avenue, but is being very selective. The ideal tenant would be upscale-but-not-too-upscale. Millstein cited an Apple Store or a bar and restaurant like P.J. Clarke’s, which opened on K Street in October, as the type of tenants they are looking for.