18 Apartments Proposed to Restore Contributing Historic Building in Navy Yard

• August 23, 2019

by Nena Perry-Brown

A vacant building with ties to two neighborhoods may soon be restored as residential.

Coba Properties has filed a zoning application to restore and add a story to the vacant property at 716-718 L Street SE (map) to create an 18-unit apartment building. 

The existing property, which sits just inside the Capitol Hill Historic District in the Navy Yard neighborhood, consists of a three-story contributing building. Zoned NC-6, at least half the ground floor area is required to be used for retail or service, but Coba Properties is seeking a special exception to deliver an all-residential structure.

"The Subject Property is isolated and not in an area of the NC-6 zone that will generate enough pedestrian traffic to support active retail and service establishments," the application explains. Also, because applicant believes the footprint of the building would make an elevator prohibitive, having ground-floor residential will enable the project to deliver three required accessible apartments.

There will be duplex penthouse units with private roof terraces and units, along with a bike storage room, on the cellar level. The majority of the apartments will be one-bedrooms, with one studio and a few two-bedrooms. Teass\Warren Architects is the designer.

A zoning hearing has not yet been scheduled; it is unclear whether there will be a Historic Preservation Review Board hearing, although a previous application last year would have demolished the existing buildings except for the L Street façade.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/18-apartments-proposed-to-restore-contributing-historic-building-in-navy-ya/15794