Roadside's Next Addition To City Market At O Moves Forward
The City Market at O development has transformed the Shaw neighborhood and won national awards in the process, and now the planned condo building across the street, which Roadside Development considers an extension of the project, has taken a big step forward.
Roadside and Dantes Partners received approval from the Zoning Commission last week to build an 85-unit condo building at 1336 8th St. NW.
With the approval, Roadside project manager Kevin Bednoski said the developer will begin drawing up construction plans and getting ready to break ground in Q1 of 2018. He expects the project to take 15 to 18 months once construction begins.
"We’re ecstatic to take this large step in the next iteration of our project," Bednoski said of the approval.
The plan, which Roadside and Dantes submitted in November, calls for 85 condos, six of them located in separate townhouse units along 8th Street. The townhouse units will be roughly 2,200 SF, while the building's one-bedroom units range from 500 to 700 SF, and its two-bedroom units range from 700 SF to the 1,400 SF penthouse. Twenty-six of the units will be affordable, with half those set aside for people making 50% of area median income and the other half for 80% AMI.
The 98-foot-tall building's ground floor will feature about 3,500 SF of retail. Bednoski said Roadside is in talks with potential tenants, and he expects to fill the space with food and beverage uses.
Roadside won the bid in 2014 to develop the DC-owned land, previously used as the parking lot for the Immaculate Conception Church. As part of the agreement, Roadside will provide a free 1,500 SF ground-floor office for the church in the new building and 25 permanent parking spaces at the City Market at O garage.
The City Market at O project transformed the old O Street Market into a major mixed-use development, anchored by a Giant grocery store, that includes 640 residential units, a 182-room Cambria Suites hotel and nearly 100K SF of retail.
The new condo building will have a rooftop deck and outdoor patios, but residents will also have the option to access City Market at O's amenity package.
"We're going to leverage the existing infrastructure we've built across the street," Bednoski said. "We view this as a sister building and an extension of City Market at O."
As part of the deal, Roadside is making a $25K contribution to the Kennedy Recreation Center and donating $100K to a fund to promote retail for the Shaw neighborhood.
"When we come into a neighborhood like Shaw, where we've spent the last decade working, we’re there not just in name only," Bednoski said. "We’re there with our people and resources to invest in the long-term success of the community."
Roadside had been planning another development in the neighborhood at the historic Grimke School, but its deal with the DC government fell through in December. The developer got a big win last week when Wegmans signed on to anchor its redevelopment of the Fannie Mae HQ on Wisconsin Avenue in Upper Northwest.
