A First Look at the Nearly 500-Unit Project Planned at DC's Reservation 13

• December 22nd 2023

by UrbanTurf Staff

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In November 2021, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that DC had selected two teams to redevelop the remainder of the District-owned site known as Reservation 13 at the former DC General Hospital/homeless shelter (map). Now we are getting a look at what one of those teams has in mind. 

Donatelli Development, Blue Skye Development and GTM-DC Architects have filed large residential plans with the city for two parcels around 20th Street and Independence Avenue SE (map). 

Plans call for two new residential buildings:

• Parcel B1 will be an eight- or nine-story residential apartment building with approximately 350 residential units. 
• Parcel B2 will be a mixed-use building with 144 apartments and approximately 14,000 square feet of ground floor retail.

Building B1 will front Independence Avenue and 20th Street, and Building B2 will front Burke Street, 20th Street and 21st Street. The two buildings will be separated by a 24-foot wide private drive connecting 20th and 21st Streets. 

In addition to the two new buildings, the development team will create new space for a park dedicated to Robert F. Kennedy, parking for St. Coletta of Greater Washington, as well as streetscape enhancements and various sustainable design features. They will also develop another three parcels as part of their agreement with DC.

Donatelli Development and Blue Skye are not the only developers with plans at Reservation 13. A development team led by Frontier Development and Hospitality Group, BRP Companies, A. Wash Associates, USP, and H2 Design Build was picked for Bundle 2, a diagonal array of three parcels totaling over 275,000 square feet of space.

There would be approximately 1,000 rental units built under this proposal, of which the majority would be affordable. This proposal also includes a hotel with 150 extended-stay suites and 60,000 square feet of retail, including a grocery store. The team also got permission from Relisha Rudd's family to name their proposed central park after the seven year-old girl who went missing from the DC General shelter seven years ago.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/a_first_look_at_the_nearly_500-unit_project_planned_at_dcs_reservation_13/21813.