A Second Try for a Massive Mixed-Use Development off the Irving Street Expressway

• December 13, 2017

by Nena Perry-Brown

Aerial site plan

Earlier this week, an article outlined how the Irving Street Expressway came to have its current configuration. Now, the development team associated with a federally-owned surface parking lot and surrounding vacant space along the Expressway is hitting reset on plans for a mixed-use development there.

MIRV Holdings filed a zoning application on Monday to have the unzoned 5.5 acres bound by Irving Street, Michigan Avenue and the North Capitol Street cloverleaf interchange (map) designated as an MU-5-B zone. The map amendment would pave the way for a four-building development that will contain residential, hotel, office, restaurant, retail and conference center uses. The hotel buildings would be towards the rear of the site and residential-above-retail buildings will be along Michigan Avenue and Irving Street.The application cites the Future Land Use Map, which envisions the site, a short mile from McMillan Reservoir, as mixed-use with medium-density residential and moderate-density commercial use.

Previously approved aerial site plan

This isn’t the first time a mixed-use development was planned for the site; in December 2009, the Zoning Commission approved a map amendment that zoned the site C3A, as well as a consolidated planned-unit development (PUD) and a first-stage PUD. The consolidated PUD would have delivered a 336-room hotel with a restaurant and conference center along Irving Street and Michigan Avenue; a four-story building on Michigan Avenue with street- and cellar-level retail and 400 parking spaces; and a 200-space surface parking lot on the western portion of the site. The PUD would also have delivered two additional buildings with hotel or residential use atop 295 below-grade parking spaces along Irving Street.

After a series of extensions over the years, approval for the latter PUD is still valid and scheduled to expire at the end of 2018; however, the development team no longer wants to pursue this plan. Bisnow reports that the developers hope to break ground on the first phase within the next 12-14 months, beginning work on a 260-room hotel with restaurant and 3-5,000 square feet of meeting space.

MIRV Holdings is comprised of Buchanan Partners, H Street Community Development Corporation, Hospitality Partners, Pinkard Group and Perkins Eastman. The developers will share their plans with the community at the ANC 5E meeting on December 19th; a Zoning Commission hearing has not yet been scheduled.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/a_second_try_for_mixed-use_development_off_the_irving_street_expressway/13359