250 Units, a Food Hall, and an Eye-Catching Entertainment Venue Planned For Fort Totten

• September 5th 2018

by Nena Perry-Brown

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Fort Totten is getting a lot of attention from developers this year, and now an older project is picking up where it left off, albeit with a very eye-catching detail. 

The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation is seeking zoning review for the mixed-use Art Place Fort Totten. The development team has filed applications for a second-stage planned unit development (PUD) review and a modification of the first-stage PUD first approved in December 2009. This was first reported by Next Stop...Riggs Park. 

The next phase would bring apartments, retail, artist housing, a children's museum and grocer to the approximately 5-acre site between South Dakota Avenue and 4th Street from Ingraham to Kennedy Street NE (map). This site, termed "Block B", would be improved with two buildings: at least 210 apartments above 50,574 square feet of retail on the west side of 4th Street; and a structure fronting South Dakota Avenue with 30 artist live/work units, a 11,498 square-foot grocery store, a 24,931 square-foot children's museum, and a 152,162 square-foot "family entertainment zone" (FEZ) with a food hall at South Dakota Avenue and Ingraham Street.

The FEZ looks unlike anything that has been included in a new DC development in years. The circular building, that appears blue and illuminated in the renderings, would house an innovative artist collective, and would host festivals, free children’s programming, music performances, and lectures.

Along with the 491,000 square feet of development, the applicant is also proposing to close 4th Street NE to traffic, creating a curbless woonerf which could be activated at the southern end. There would also be 765 surface and below-grade parking spaces.

As originally approved, Building B was envisioned as a three-story building containing all of the aforementioned components, plus recreational and meeting space for seniors and an 1,100-space parking mandate, but no residential component. Now, there will be multiple buildings straddling 4th Street, replacement housing for existing Riggs Plaza tenants would be accelerated, and the parking has been adjusted downward based on the amended zoning requirements.

The Modern at Art Place apartment building next door on South Dakota Avenue is the first building completed as part of the PUD. Some Riggs Plaza residents have already relocated into this building. Perkins Eastman is the executive architect of the development while Studio Shanghai is the design architect.

The applicant has been holding small community meetings since May and expects to present to the ANC 4B this month; the plans were presented at the ANC 5A meeting earlier this month.

Construction on the new phase could begin as early as the first quarter of 2020, with completion expected in the third quarter of 2022. An additional second-stage PUD application for either Block C or D will likely be filed in 2024 after Block B has been open for two years; an application will be filed for the remaining parcel by 2030.

Correction: The article previously stated the grocery store square footage as 23,800; it will be 11,498 square feet in a double-height space.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/250-apartments-a-food-hall-artist-housing-and-a-woonerf-the-amendments-to-a/14402.