There's still time to sign up for our Urban Revitalization Summit & Schmooze this Wednesday at the Angelika Film Center at Mosaic in Merrifield, where you'll hear Mill Creek Residential Trust's Chad DuBeau weigh in on the challenges of reviving urban communities. Chad (snapped this morning), a vet of Trammell Crow before joining Mill Creek in 2010, says that high-density revitalization projects require patience, since infrastructure and suitable land tracts aren't always readily available. And job growth around a development is also key, Chad says, as projects simply aren't viable without it.
Part of that patience is phasing out parts of a development as economics dictate, Chad tells us, like Mill Creek is doing with its Avenir Place at Dunn Loring Metro(rendering above). The firm, which will deliver the first residential units there this summer, decided to phase the project's retail development to allow the market to improve, as well as to allow time for more infrastructural improvements. (Judging by the sports car in the rendering, economic recovery is either in full swing, or mid-life crisis.)
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