Former Brookland Safeway to Become Shipping Container Condos

• September 23, 2016
• 7 Comments

by UrbanTurf Staff

Click to enlarge.

Residential developments planned out of shipping containers just keep popping up in DC.

Hinds Development and Travis Price Architects are taking a former Safeway store in Brookland and repurposing the site with four, two-bedroom apartments made out of shipping containers above retail space. The site at 1201 Franklin Street NE (map) was a grocery store in the 1970s, according to Price, and most recently used as a medical building.

The shipping container homes will have loft living rooms, private balconies and will be passively solar heated. The planned completion date is next year.

If you are keeping count (and we are), this project will make the third residential development made of shipping containers in DC. The first opened in Edgewood in 2014, and last month we covered a Shaw development made of sea containers.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/shipping_container_condos_planned_near_menomale_in_brookland/11712

7 Comments

1. Rob@Brookland said at 4:59 pm on Friday September 23, 2016:
   ...Being called to my attention that this location was a former grocery store site! ....This is great.....but with the ongoing increase of population (ongoing new homes/retail) in Brookland.....WE need ... and are overdue a reasonable ..... not overpriced grocery store (like Trader Joes).... Instead of a small Yes Market to shop. (with close too often outdated/overpriced food!) Why is that overlooked in our Brookland community?

1. MTania said at 5:11 pm on Friday September 23, 2016:
   I agree that Brookland needs a real grocery store. I was shocked to read we once had a Safeway! Well, we need one again - or a Harris Teeter. There are so many families and just people in Brookland who would really appreciate it because we need one. Right now, we have to go to Yes --- and No, their food is not always fresh. Other than that, we actually buy food at 7/11 and CVS! Somebody build a supermarket in Brookland.

1. Eponymous said at 5:26 pm on Friday September 23, 2016:
   I am not a fan of the Edgewood shipping container apartments, but this is a very very cool design. I do wish they were going for more density, but I'm guessing in that location they'd have to deal with zoning changes and, hence, the Brookland NIMBY machine.

1. EckingtonNEDC said at 5:46 pm on Friday September 23, 2016:
   AT First I was like "where?" Then I Googled the street. Never knew that a Safeway was at that spot and I've lived in Eckington NE; I"m one 1 block up from N. Capitol ST and Off RI AVE. You guys know that Yes! Organic in Brookland was a Safeway when I was in grade school, 70's/80's, then became a small store, then adult day care and now Yes! Organic? 😃

1. skidrowedc@gmail.com said at 6:09 pm on Friday September 23, 2016:
   Although twilight images must always be viewed skeptically (pretty much anything looks good with glowing windows and skies, and the actual architecture obscured in darkness), the renderings suggest a very cool design. But raising buildings up off the ground is completely discredited as an appropriate move in urban settings. It's disastrous to the street and pedestrian experience. Exposed parking is not compliant with D.C. Zoning for that very reason. I suppose Mr. Travis could seek a variance, but on what grounds? Instead, he needs to use his obvious talents to eliminate the problem in a fabulous way.

1. TBex said at 5:51 am on Sunday September 25, 2016:
   People who want a grocery store should note that both the MRP Realty site in Edgewood (on the site of the Big Lots/Foreman Mills stripmall) and the RIA DC development in Brentwood are actively courting grocery stores. It seems unlikely Brookland proper will do much better than that given its NIMBY machine. I hope one of those developments gets a Trader Joe's. Redevelopment of the Brentwood Giant someday would also be great.

1. BrooklandPedestrian said at 5:23 pm on Monday September 26, 2016:
   Love the general idea, but agree with skidrowe that the pedestrian experience looks terrible. Totally cut off from 12th Street and any connections with nearby businesses, and it looks like you have to wander through a dark parking garage to get to the retail.