The future of the largely unused parking lot next to Northeast D.C.'s Deanwood Metro station is becoming clearer.
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The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has selected Northern Real Estate Urban Ventures and Nix Development Co. to develop the 1.1-acre site in Ward 7.
The project, which isn't yet financed, is planned to include 169 mixed-income residential units with ground-floor retail. The site would also include a new 20K SF DC Public Library location next door, for which DCPL has already allocated $24M.
The 169 units are poised to be roughly 50% affordable. Although the site is currently a parking lot, development isn't planned to include commuter parking for the Metro station. Cunningham Quill Architects is the architect, and Bozzuto Construction Co. is the general contractor on the project.
“We're celebrating this opportunity — an underutilized parking lot that needs a fresh start,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said at Monday's announcement, joined by District and Metro officials and the development team.
“We're going to turn it into a vibrant hub for housing and amenities right here in Ward 7.”
WMATA put out a request for proposals for the Deanwood site in June, encouraging developers to come up with plans that would include new housing and neighborhood-serving retail up to 275K SF.
The RFP garnered proposals from three other development teams, according to WMATA’s release: Mosaic Development Partners JV LLC, Gragg Cardona Souadi LLC-Foundation Housing Inc. and The NHP Foundation.
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The winning team said in its own release that it expects to break ground on the project in 2027 and deliver it in 2030.
“This project incorporates thoughtful placemaking components to ensure connectivity to and from the Deanwood Metro Station and the surrounding neighborhood. Our team will work with the community to complement existing and planned development while creating a vibrant neighborhood and community of choice for Ward 7 and the District of Columbia,” Nix Development President Raymond Nix said in a release.
Previous projects that Northern Real Estate Urban Ventures has partnered on in D.C. include the John and Jill Ker Conway Residences in NoMa and Mary's House for Older Adults in Southeast. Nix Development has worked on multiple Deanwood projects, including Dix Street Residences and Providence Place.
The Deanwood site is part of WMATA’s 10-year Strategic Plan for Joint Development, which it released in spring 2022. The plan says the transit system had more than 550 acres at 40 Metro stations that could total 31M SF of new mixed-use development.
Seven of the resulting projects have broken ground, and five have been completed.
In addition to Deanwood, WMATA put out three other solicitations last year for Metro-owned sites at Eisenhower Avenue, North Bethesda and Capitol Heights.
UPDATE, APRIL 21, 9:15 P.M. ET: This article has been updated to clarify the parking plans at the development as well as one of WMATA’s development solicitation sites.
