A triangular plot of land near Union Market has been eyed for multifamily development for over eight years, and the team behind it just took a major step toward realizing that vision.
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The developers of 301 Florida Ave. NE, planned for a Flatiron Building-inspired design with 115 affordable housing units and ground-floor retail, have secured the financing needed to start construction.
A partnership between The NRP Group and Marshall Heights Community Development Organization closed on a financing package with funds from a series of sources, according to documents filed with the D.C. Recorder of Deeds and confirmed by an NRP spokesperson.
DCHFA issued $47.6M in tax-exempt bonds, collateralized by Bank of America, and underwrote $32.3M in federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits. The project also received $33.1M from D.C.’s Housing Production Trust Fund, $6.5M in state LIHTC funds and another $3M from DC Green Bank.
The project, expected to cost $110.8M, is now fully funded, the spokesperson said. Construction is expected to start early next month and finish in June 2026.
The partnership filed a Planned Unit Development application for the project in late 2021. That PUD was approved by the Zoning Commission one year later.
These plans represent the second attempt to build multifamily on the site.
The first was in 2016 when a development partnership between Ditto Residential and Zusin Development proposed a 56-unit market rate development for the parcel, then occupied by a Penske truck depot and a liquor store. The project was intended to add more family-sized housing — with units up to four bedrooms — to the city. The PUD approval was appealed in July 2016, and then the appeal was dismissed in 2017, and the developers ended up putting the site on the market in 2021.
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The latest plans, designed by architecture firm PGN Architects, now part of Michael Graves, call for a 12-story development with a penthouse and 2,700 SF of ground-floor retail. Half of the units are reserved for residents making at or below 50% of the median family income, and the other half are for those making up to 30% of the median family income.
Amenities are set to include a children’s playroom, gym, computer lab and library and conference room, and all units are designed with either external or “Juliet” balconies, according to the PUD filings.
The project will be branded as Emblem, according to a DCHFA spokesperson.
The site is in one of the most highly trafficked locations in a neighborhood that has been exploding with residential development. It’s at the intersection of Trader Joe’s, Foulger Pratt’s Press House and Trammell Crow’s three-building Armature Works complex. It is also directly in front of a planned new entrance to the NoMa Metro station — plans that were funded in the budget earlier this month.
NoMa has been the District’s fastest-growing residential neighborhood. Just last year, several new developments opened, including Monument Realty’s 321-unit SoNYa, Carmel Partners’ 500-unit The Hale and Grosvenor’s 260-unit The Margarete. MRP Realty’s third phase of its 1M SF Washington Gateway project, 254-unit The 202, delivered this year, and Skanska’s 275-unit Ozma and Aria Development Group’s 388-unit The Florian are expected to open this summer.
Across the street from Emblem, Ranger Properties’ 110-unit The Lanes delivered last year. The building was sold at a foreclosure auction last month to Silver Spring-based HH Fund for $38.3M.
Across the city, the partnership between NRP and Marshall Heights Community Development Organization is planning another all-affordable development on another tightly bound lot in Navy Yard, Bisnow first reported in October. The 127-unit project is moving through the Zoning Commission’s PUD process.
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