DCHA Takes Step Forward On Long-Delayed Plan For 1,000-Unit NoMa Redevelopment
The D.C. Housing Authority is moving forward with the long-awaited redevelopment of its NoMa headquarters into over 1,000 new residential units.
DCHA's board voted this week to sign a ground lease for the 1133 North Capitol St. NE property with the development team of MRP Realty, CSG Urban Partners and Taylor Adams Associates, the Washington Business Journal reports.
The agency expects to execute the lease by June. The deal comes more than five years after the DCHA selected the development team in November 2014. Its closing has been delayed due to issues over the percentage of the project that would be designated as affordable housing.
The latest plans indicate the project will have at least 200 of its 1,000 units set aside for those making up to 60% of the area median income. The plans had previously called for a new DCHA headquarters to be built as part of the project, but it now plans to use the money it receives from the ground-lease deal — more than $67M — to construct a new headquarters on another site that has yet to be announced.
During the five years the deal has been stalled, a host of new development has moved forward on the blocks surrounding the DCHA site on the western edge of the NoMa neighborhood.
Skanska this year completed its 326-unti RESA NoMa building directly across M Street to the north. Across North Capitol Street, Toll Brothers in October received Zoning Commission approval for the 1,100-unit redevelopment of the Sursum Corda housing community. Two blocks south, at North Capitol and K streets, D.C. in 2017 selected MRP Realty to build 806 units on a 3.5-acre parking lot site that formerly housed the Temple Courts apartments.
The NoMa Business Improvement District has worked with the District Department of Transportation to recommend streetscape changes to improve the walkability of the North Capitol Street corridor that connects these major developments. MRP Realty's Bob Murphy told Bisnow in January the area will change dramatically over the next decade.
"It's great real estate," Murphy said of the DCHA site. "As you watch NoMa start by the Metro with [ATF's headquarters] and Constitution Square and move toward North Capitol, it's substantially filled in. DCHA is really the last whole block left on the east side of the street."
