Builder floats 10-story plan for 14th and U

By Katie Pearce
Current Staff Writer
November 14, 2007

If a local developer's plans move forward, a 10-story residential building could land on the busy intersection of 14th and U streets across from the Reeves Municipal Center.

In the corner where a McDonald's now anchors a disparate mix of shops and restaurants, developer Georgetown Strategic Capital, working with architects Eric Colbert and Associates, has proposed a 75- to 100-foot-tall residential building that would include ground-floor retail, an affordable-housing component and parking spaces.

The project is still in its conceptual stages and would potentially impact a complex mix of properties, retailers and landlords on the 1900 block of 14th Street and the 1400 block of U Street, including a group of historic buildings. The proposed boundaries of the project, sources said, extend from the Ruff & Ready Furnishings store at the corner of 14th and T streets to the Extra Space Storage warehouse at 1420 U St.

"It's huge," Rob Halligan, president of the Dupont Circle Citizens Association, said of plans he saw for the building.

The architect, Colbert, unveiled early designs last week at a meeting of the Cardozo-Shaw Neighborhood Association and will meet with Dupont Circle groups this week. A November notice shows the concept filed with the Historic Preservation Review Board.

Phil Spalding, a U Street-Columbia Heights advisory neighborhood commissioner who saw the plans at last week's meeting, said "the room seemed about 50/50 on the general idea of the development." Spalding said "some very telling comments" from the community revealed concern over increasing population density at an already bustling corner and the project's synchronicity with the Greater U Street Historic District.

The entire project area falls within the historic district, according to Richard Busch, president of the Dupont Circle Conservancy. "The conservancy is going to be looking at how this fits in the neighborhood,"
he said.

Some of the buildings on the corner, including the row houses on U Street that house restaurants like Coppi's and Utopia are considered contributing structures to the historic district and are subject to stringent preservation laws. Halligan said the early plans work around facades that are historic.

Meanwhile, the project could potentially absorb the buildings considered non-contributing, such as those housing retailers like Taco Bell and Foot Locker on 14th Street. Sources said the project would not include the Salvadorian restaurant El Paraiso at 1916 14th St. Bobby Srour, who with his father owns the Domino's building at 1926 14th St., as well as a nearby parking lot, said he has been in discussions with the developer. "I think it's a great idea," he said of the concept, which could coherently organize a now-random cluster of retail within walking distance to the Metro.

He confirmed that the developer has proposed buying 100-year leases of available properties. But Srour predicted complications: There are a lot of landowners involved,and it could be difficult to get a unanimous agreement, he said.

One D.C. company, the Jenco Group, owns a bulk of the corner properties, from the Foot Locker building on 14th Street over to the Utopia building on U Street.
Reports have linked Georgetown Strategic Capital and the Jenco Group for a potential redevelopment project in Arlington. Marvin Jawer, president of the Jenco Group, declined to comment on the proposed development.

Scott Pomeroy, head of the Midtown Association, said this is the only major development proposal he has seen recently for the prominent corner, although he recalled an early 1990s plan from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities that suggested a 75-foot building for the site. "When you look at the intersection of 14th and U and the massing you have around there, it makes reasonable sense," he said.

Sources said the developer, with some minor exceptions, plans to work within the existing zoning laws for the block. "They're asking for very little zoning relief," said Halligan.

Halligan noted that the quick forward momentum of the plans surprised him. "Frankly, I was a little disturbed when I found out that [Colbert]was calling this a ˜conceptual pitch", he said. "They're already in front of HPRB. That's not a conceptual pitch, that's a ramp-up." Phyllis Klein, who lives in an alley row house that sits directly behind the project's proposed area, wrote in an e-mail to The Current that she and her family support improving conditions on the block. But, she continued, they have early concerns about vehicular flow and safety issues and preserving light and air" for the nearby residents.

Bob Meehan, a Dupont Circle advisory neighborhood commissioner, also addressed the potential impact of parking and traffic. Plans show that the building could use the residential, one-way T Street for access to its parking garage.

If I were living on T Street, I would oppose having this 100-foot building use parking access on T Street, Meehan said, suggesting 14th Street as a more viable parking entrance.

Colbert, the project's architect, declined to be quoted for the article, and he said his client, Bob Moore of Georgetown Strategic Capital, is now out of the country. The architect presented plans to the Dupont Circle Conservancy last night and will meet with the Dupont Circle advisory neighborhood commission tonight.

Catty-cornered from the massive proposed project, another corner of 14th and U streets is also ripe for redevelopment. The existing vacant historic building at 2001 14th St. will be completely redone, according to Spalding, while a three-story modern addition next door will increase commercial space.

The joined buildings will lease at an average price of $55 per square foot, according to the property’s broker, Ken Noroozi. He said the buildings are designed to house a restaurant and lounge with an outdoor terrace spot.

We're negotiating, but nothing has been signed yet, Noroozi said.