Not yet, but someone who should know said "the cake is baked. |
Approval's not the biggest hurdle. Once it's cleared, there's financing. On the GDS front, no major donations have been announced. Sidwell will clearly win the facilities race -- larger campus, quicker and much less expensive consolidation process.
Meanwhile, another couple hundred new apartments will come on line in Tenleytown -- closer to the Metro and presumably with lower rents -- before the project at the Volvo site even breaks ground. Like Sidwell's lower school relocation, these commercial projects will also involve adaptive reuse of existing buildings (where WAMU and Krupin's/Murasaki used to be) and require minimal (if any) zoning relief. Hard to believe that with these units, in addition to new apartments at Cathedral Commons, 5333 Connecticut, Tenley View, and Park Van Ness all within a mile or so of the GDS site, that there will be demand for another 250-300 units with a scenic view of a 1200 student PK-12 campus. |
I would love to live walking distance to my DC school. |
There will be plenty of demand for any new housing proposed for upper NW DC.
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Not in a 500 SF apartment you wouldn't! |
Said the person who knows nothing about RE markets or finance, but who has seen Field of Dreams.... |
The GDS development will be oriented toward a more upscale demographic, not really in competition with the reheb projects you mention. |
There would be a lot of demand for semi-affordable rental housing in the Janney-Deal-Wilson cluster for those going public. |
The rehab projects (which are going to be 225 units of Class A residential) will be a preferable alternative for AU law school students who might otherwise have ended up at the GDS site. Throw in the recently-built Cathedral Commons (137 apartments) and the approximately 600 luxury rental units currently nearing completion at 5333/Park Van Ness/Tenley View and you're talking about over 950 new units in the same submarket before the GDS project (approximately 250 units) get financing. Even if GDS's developer switches to condos (which messes with the revenue stream for the school which, supposedly, was the raison d'etre of this whole plan), it's unclear there's sufficient demand for more small expensive units in this area. Especially at a site where there will be a clusterf*ck of traffic at least once every school day. The affluent empty nesters GDS hopes to attract will not find this project attractive. |
Cathedral Commons is basically becoming a high-end dorm for well heeled AU students. Not sure how many of such projects Upper NW needs. |
Name a residential building with high vacancies. |
It seems that the GDS PUD development is being slow tracked. They just signed two year leases at the former Maartens site with a bike shop and a specialty used car dealer. |
Anything different than previously expected? |
When will the GDS vibrant mixed use plans be approved? |
2018 at the earliest, if ever.
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