DC to Dispose of Land Across from Anacostia Metro for 18 Workforce Townhouses

• July 22, 2020

by Nena Perry-Brown

On Tuesday, the DC Council approved disposition of a site across the street from the Anacostia Metro station to facilitate development of 18 for-sale townhouses.

The disposition would sell the 27,024 square-foot site at 1004-1018 Howard Road SE (map) to Howard Road Community Partners for $1; DC purchased the land from WMATA in 2014 for $1.55 million. The site still has a WMATA easement and Metrorail tunnels beneath.

The Council commissioned an appraisal that valued the property at $1 for the development on the table, or $1.2 million on the open market. Under RA-1 zoning, the site allows for detached or attached dwellings up to three stories or a multi-unit building.

A 2018 solicitation only received one proposal, and the developer has stated that multifamily isn't feasible at the site due to the WMATA tunnel underneath. A DC Council committee report concludes that the city overpaid for the site, although the lack of responses to the solicitation makes the current proposal a good deal. "The most charitable analysis of the purchase would be that the District effectively subsidized Metro in order to put land to more productive use," the report states.

Of the townhouses planned for the site, three will be affordable to households earning up to 50% of area median income (AMI), three for households earning up to 80% of AMI, and 12 for households earning up to 120% of AMI. Each will have three bedrooms, 3.5 baths and a garage, and eight of the units at 120% of AMI will also have balconies.

The development team includes ASSET Management Consulting and H2DesignBuild.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/dc-disposing-of-land-across-from-anacostia-metro-for-18-workforce-townhouse/17098