The DC Properties That Received a March Madness Berth This Year

• March 27th 2017

by Nena Perry-Brown

It’s that time of year again.

On Friday, Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Office of the Deputy Mayor of Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) held the third annual March Madness event where several vacant properties released for development opportunities were announced. Below we preview some of those opportunities.

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Northwest One: 2 Patterson Street NE

As part of the New Communities Initiative, the surface parking lot at 2 Patterson Street NE (map) is being released for request for proposals (RFP) this summer as an off-site parcel in the Northwest One development. The 42,000 square-foot lot, zoned D5, can be developed by-right as commercial or residential.

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Lincoln Heights/Richardson Dwellings

This site is also under the New Communities umbrella, comprising 21 acres straddling the Division Avenue and Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue NE intersection. The RFP involves the redevelopment of the Lincoln Heights public housing development, with 440 residential units at 500 50th Street NE (map) into a mixed-income community.

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Eastern Branch Boys and Girls Club

The Eastern Branch Boys and Girls Club at 261 17th Street SE (map) is going to undergo the OurRFP process, whereby the community gets to engage DMPED in a series of conversations about what they would like to see developed in the neighborhood prior to developers getting a chance to compete for a site. The 11,125 square-foot site is zoned RF-1 and the 31,000 square-foot building on site can either be restored or replaced.

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Ward 8 Sites

Four separate sites, three of which are in close proximity to one another, are being packaged together in a single solicitation for offers by the Department of Housing and Community Development’s (DHCD) Property Acquisition and Disposition Division (PADD). The sites, at 1414 22nd Street SE (map), 1615 and 1637 V Street SE (map) and 2206 16th Street SE (map), range in size from 1,865 to 6,600 square feet and can be improved with either single or multi-family housing. The project, to be released on May 2nd, must include at least 30 percent affordable units for households earning up to 80 percent area median income (AMI).

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Alabama Avenue

PADD is also releasing 12,981 square feet of vacant land at 1444, 1452 and 1454 Alabama Avenue SE (map) for solicitation for offers on May 25th. The solicitation is looking for a multi-family building with at least 30 percent affordable units for households earning up to 80 percent AMI.

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High Street

On May 2nd, PADD is also releasing a 34,934 square-foot vacant lot that spans 2352, 2356 and 2360 High Street SE (map) for solicitation for offers. Three multifamily buildings used to occupy the site, which DHCD is looking to improve with single-family houses. At least 40 percent of the units produced must be affordable for households earning up to 80 percent AMI.

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East Potomac Swimming Pool

The Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) is putting the East Potomac swimming pool and pool house up for an RFP for a contractor in May. Hughes Group Architects is finalizing the design for a state-of-the-art competition pool and pool house that is fully accessible and LEED Silver on the 1.5-acre site at 972 Ohio Drive SW (map).

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Edgewood Recreation Center and Park

DPR is also releasing an RFP for a builder for the Edgewood Recreation Center at 301 Franklin Street NE (map). Moody Nolan Architecture is designing the facility, which will replace the current 2,000 square-foot building with a larger recreation center with DPR’s first rooftop farm.

The outdoor facilities on the 4.8-acre site will also be renovated and upgraded to include a community amphitheater, splash creek and outdoor fitness equipment. Construction is anticipated to begin this summer for a summer 2018 delivery.

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Fort Greble Urban Nature Center

DPR is taking a 1.3-acre site at 250 Elmira Street SW (map) adjacent to Shepherd Parkway to create the agency’s first net-zero building, the Fort Greble Urban Nature Center. Studio 27 Architecture has designed the educational facility; the project is being released for an RFP to secure a general contractor in June.

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Fletcher-Johnson School

The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME) is seeking to redevelop the Fletcher-Johnson School at 4650 Benning Road SE (map). The 15.26-acre site currently has an over-300,000 square-foot school building on the site; however, the land is zoned RA-1, allowing for residential apartments.

This spring, DME will hold conversations with developers and stakeholders to determine the best future use of the site in preparation for a summer request for offer (RFO).

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Winston Education Campus

DME is also releasing the Winston Education Campus at 3100 Erie Street SE (map) for an RFO next month. Although the 1.66-acre site is zoned for residential apartments, land use transfer stipulations mean that any future use must be either educational or recreational.

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The city also announced several other initiatives related to development and housing at the March Madness event:

• Next month, DMPED is launching a $3 million pilot program with the Neighborhood Prosperity Fund, which will award stopgap funding for the non-residential components in mixed-use developments located in census tracts with over 10 percent unemployment.

• The Launch Pad is a program administered by the Department of General Services to give local Certified Business Enterprises the opportunity to propose innovative approaches to development that could win grants of up to $10,000.

• DHCD is partnering with the DC Housing Authority, Department of Behavioral Health and Department of Human Services to release an RFP for affordable housing projects, awarding approximately $100 million from various funding sources. This RFP will be open from March 31-May 31, 2017.

• DHCD is also putting forth a request for applications to find an organization that can oversee and administer single-family house construction projects under the Single Family Residential Rehabilitation Program’s Critical Home Repair Initiative for low- and moderate-income homeowners who need to finance home repairs. Firms can apply from April 7-May 19, 2017.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/which_dc_properties_got_a_march_madness_berth_this_year/12376.