Wilkes Company Plans 401-Unit Mixed-Use Development in NoMa

• October 15, 2014
• 1 Comment

by Lark Turner

Rendering of planned NoMa project.

The Wilkes Company plans to build a 401-unit mixed-use development in NoMa, according to a planned-unit development filed Wednesday with the Zoning Commission.

The company has long been planning a development at 300 M Street NE (map), currently occupied by a surface parking lot. They initially floated an academic park for the space, and previously considered a 350-unit development for the site.

The new 110-foot building would have two levels of underground parking totaling 175 spaces; 9,000 to 12,900 square feet of ground-level retail; walk-up residences on the first story; and residences upstairs. Hickok Cole Architects is designing the building.

As for the type of units that the project will have, the zoning documents state that the residences along M Street will have a loft-like, “townhouse vernacular” with porches and individual entries.

Wilkes, operating as M Street Development Group with Square 772 Development Group, proposes constructing the building to LEED Silver standards.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/wilkes_company_plans_401-unit_mixed-used_development_in_noma/9100

1 Comment

1. skidrowedc@gmail.com said at 6:54 pm on Thursday October 16, 2014:
   If one can get past the basic fact of a PUD--that the developer wants to build a significantly larger building than current zoning allows--this is a great design. (I can get past it easily enough, but if I were an immediate neighbor, I might feel differently.) It shows an awareness of its context that's as admirable as it is unusual. The lower scale on M Street with the embedded "townhouses" is a smart move that will help the building mesh into the existing residential community on M Street and south and east of the site. A stronger marker of the axis of Abbey Place (across M Street at the middle of the block) would help further. Possibly the deflection edge of the angled middle mass at floors 6-8 marks the axis, but it's a bit subtle and starts too high to have much impact. These architects have a good track record of thoughtful choices of materials, colors, and details. Note NoMa's NPR building, or the new CSIS building on Rhode Island Avenue, both Hickok Cole creations. Apartment buildings usually have more budget pressures than institutional-user offices, but there is great cause for optimism for this project.