120 Senior Units and Community Market Proposed for Palisades Safeway Site

• March 5, 2020

by Nena Perry-Brown

The proposed development at the site of the former Safeway store in Palisades is coming into focus. 

Trammell Crow is engaging the community about a proposed two-building housing development for seniors at 4865 MacArthur Boulevard NW (map). A five-story building, at MacArthur Boulevard and 47th Place, would deliver up to 120 units with 4,000 square feet of retail; details on the second, three-story building at 47th Place and V Street are forthcoming. Perkins Eastman is the design architect.

Balfour Senior Living will administer the housing on the site, and the units will primarily be larger one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms. The site of the first building is zoned for mixed-use, while the site of the second building is in the R-1-B zone, requiring a zoning adjustment to permit the development.

In addition to the retail, the new design proposes 6,800 square feet of open space on the site and contemplates a streetscape along MacArthur which would enable the farmer's market along 47th Place to expand around the corner.

The community has expressed a strong preference for a market on the site, hence the retail, which will also have an outdoor plaza. The development team shared at an ANC 3D meeting this week that they reached out to Streets Market about taking over the space and that financial institutions have also expressed interest. 

"Highest and best use would probably be to put in a bank branch, but we know that's not what the community wants," Bill Brewer shared. The past couple of years have seen a wave of banks snapping up prime corner commercial space in DC. 

Demolition at the site is currently underway and is expected to be complete in May.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/120-plus-senior-units-and-community-market-proposed-for-palisades-safeway-s/16552