Blagden Alley Micro-Units Get No-Parking Approval

• February 24, 2015

by Lark Turner

Rendering of proposed Blagden Alley development.

After months of back and forth with the Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA), micro-unit developer SB-Urban received approval Tuesday to proceed with its 121-unit project on Blagden Alley.

It was the last major hurdle for the development at 90 and 91 Blagden Alley (map), which has already received approval from the Historic Preservation Review Board. The project, designed by architect Hickok Cole, was held up for months due to concerns over its lack of parking. SB-Urban changed the building’s address to ensure its residents would not be eligible for residential parking permits (RPPs) and plans to offer residents bikeshare and carshare memberships, along with other measures designed to eliminate the need for cars.

The company is at work on a similar project, also with no parking, in the Patterson Mansion on Dupont Circle, and a third with little parking for the Latham Hotel in Georgetown. Both those projects have already received the necessary BZA approval to move forward.

All three projects will consist exclusively of furnished micro-unit rentals. SB-Urban representatives have repeatedly said they are targeting a millennial consumer who will move into the units with a suitcase, a laptop and little more. Leases will be a minimum of 90 days, but the company expects the leases to be in the 7-8 month range, on average. The Blagden Alley project may even supply a continental breakfast to its residents.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/sb-urbans_no-parking_blagden_alley_project_gets_zoning_approval/9566