Southwest D.C. Is Making Major Development Moves
1. The $3.6B Wharf development will roll out Phase 2 and celebrate the five-year anniversary of Phase 1's opening on Oct. 12, helping to solidify the area’s transition from a fish market to a growing dining and entertainment hub in Southwest D.C. It will feature celebrity-run restaurants, such as Gordon Ramsay’s Fish and Chips and Philippe by Philippe Chow. Additionally, it will also include Amaris, a 12-story luxury condo building with a $12M penthouse. The development is led by Hoffman-Madison Waterfront, a joint venture of Hoffman & Associates and Madison Marquette.
2. Waterfront Station II, a 400K SF mixed-use development, is under construction near the Waterfront Metro station and The Wharf. It is being developed by Hoffman & Associates and designed by architect Torti Gallas, with interior designs by Hickok Cole. It will feature a performing arts center and AppleTree Public Charter School, an early childhood care facility. It will also include several indoor and outdoor amenities such as a roof terrace, a swimming pool, a coworking space and a fitness center. The apartments are scheduled for completion in winter 2023.
3. The Bellevue area, in between Southeast and Southwest D.C., is seeing new projects designed to create a more family-friendly atmosphere. These include a dog park at Oxon Run Park that will begin construction after October and Bald Eagle Recreation Center, a place for athletic activity geared toward all ages, which will undergo significant renovations in November.
4. The Buzzard Point neighborhood will soon welcome DC Central Kitchen, the nation’s first community kitchen, which is moving to The Michael R. Klein Center for Jobs & Justice. The 36K SF facility will provide job and learning opportunities for area residents and help support the city’s re-emerging hospitality industry.“Our new home will allow us to triple our capacity, providing the healthy food and job training opportunities that our community needs more urgently than ever before,” DC Central Kitchen CEO Michael Curtin Jr. said in a release.
5. In November 2020, Balfour Beatty was awarded a $127M contract from JV MPDC LLC, a joint venture between Lowe Enterprises and Mitsui Fudosan American Inc. to renovate the historic Randall School in Southwest D.C. The redevelopment, called Museum Place, is an arts campus and residential apartment building with 492 units on a 50K SF site. Rubell Museum DC is scheduled to open at the property on Oct. 29 and will feature the Rubell Family Collection and other contemporary art.
6. Although redevelopment plans for the Bard DC on 501 I St. SW were put on hold in 2020 due to the pandemic, they are now moving forward helmed by the Erkiletan Development Co. and Shakespeare Theatre Co. The project, branded as The Bard, will soon feature 25K SF of rehearsal space, a costume and production shop, and office and educational spaces. It will also feature 12 housing units for actors.
7. The D.C. Zoning Commission last month refused to hear a proposal from Mill Creek Residential to develop an 11-story, 207-unit residential tower at the site of the Disabled American Veterans headquarters at 807 Maine Ave. SW, near The Wharf. At the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 6D meeting on Sept. 12, the group said the development may have a negative impact on the area due to the size of the build-out and an increase in traffic. Members of both the Zoning Commission and the ANC want the developer to work with locals to create more affordable units to benefit the neighborhood.
