Washington Business Journal
by Alex Koma
November 2, 2021
The stage is set for the redevelopment of a huge chunk of Hill East’s Reservation 13 now that the District has picked development teams to manage the transformation of a combined 11 acres of the property.
Donatelli Development and Blue Skye Development won the opportunity to build on one parcel, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Tuesday, expanding onto a site adjacent to their existing residential buildings on 19th Street SE.
And a team led by the BRP Cos. and Frontier Development and Hospitality Group is getting a crack at the other piece of the property, a diagonal parcel running from Independence Avenue SE to Massachusetts Avenue SE.
Taken together, the two proposals should bring more than 2,300 homes, 85,000 square feet of retail and a 150-room hotel on 11 acres, just a fraction of the 67-acre District-owned property located near the Stadium-Armory Metro station and the D.C. jail. The city has been working to redevelop the site since 2002 in an effort to breathe life into an area that has been home to a variety of federal and local government buildings, including the old D.C. General Hospital.
The latter building’s conversion into the city’s main homeless shelter slowed the process, but Bowser’s efforts to build new replacement shelters around the city has allowed redevelopment talks to ramp up in recent years. Bowser’s desire to eventually gain control of the nearby RFK Stadium site for redevelopment into new housing — and perhaps a new football stadium — has added further urgency to discussions of Hill East's future.
“In Hill East, we’re creating new opportunities for D.C. residents,” Bowser said in a statement. “We know that Washingtonians need jobs and housing, and that’s what we are delivering in Hill East. These projects move us another step closer to reaching our goal of 36,000 new homes by 2025, and we are proud to be delivering more than 760 deeply affordable homes to the Hill East community.”
Donatelli and Blue Skye, who beat out a partnership of the NRP Group and Argos Group for their parcel, plan to build a total of 1,068 new homes on 5.09 acres. That includes “356 deeply-affordable units, 356 middle-income units, and 356 market-rate units” as well as 74 for-sale units, sitting above 25,000 square feet of retail, according to a release.
The affordability mix represents a different figure than what the team submitted to the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development last fall. The developers then included a pitch for 907 total units, 272 of which would be affordable. Now, the unit mix is closer to the recommendations from the Washington Interfaith Network, which has long advocated for one-third of each product type to be the standard for a mixed-income community at Hill East.
The Donatelli-Blue Skye team will also build a linear park along Independence Avenue named for Robert F. Kennedy, meeting one of D.C.’s requirements that bidders nod to the politician’s legacy.
For the other parcel, BRP and Frontier beat out two other teams. One, led by Blue Sky Housing Paramount Development (no relation to the aforementioned Blue Skye) and Felice Development Group, envisioned a Home Depot and a new headquarters for Special Olympics, Inc. anchoring a mixed-use project. Another, led by Jair Lynch Real Estate Partners, would’ve brought a new sports and recreation complex there alongside new housing.
The winning BRP-Frontier team, which also includes H2 Design Build, Broughton Construction, A. Wash & Associates, U Street Parking and former D.C. councilwoman-turned consultant Yvette Alexander — is proposing more than 1,200 units for its 6.3-acre piece of Reservation 13. The unit mix includes “407 deeply-affordable units, 334 middle-income units, 500 market-rate units, and five units reserved for building superintendents,” according to the release. Of those, 125 will be for-sale units to be built by the Menkiti Group.
The new housing will sit above 60,000 square feet of retail and alongside a 150-room hotel to be managed by Donohoe Hospitality. The development team also plans to name a playground on the site after Relisha Rudd, the young girl whose 2014 disappearance from the D.C. General shelter increased calls for its closure.
The D.C. Council will ultimately need to review land disposition deals for the parcels, likely meaning construction is still many months away.