Proposal Calls For 26-Unit Apartment Building To Replace Columbia Heights Rowhouses
A group of two-story rowhouses in Columbia Heights could soon be torn down to make way for a new, four-story apartment building.
A developer filed an application with the Board of Zoning Adjustment Tuesday for a 26-unit project near the intersection of 11th Street and Park Road NW.
The project would be built on both sides of the RedRocks pizzeria that sits on the corner, but the property does not include the restaurant and renderings include RedRocks' sign. The site is roughly five blocks from the Columbia Heights Metro station and three blocks east of the Giant grocery store. Other restaurants within two blocks on 11th Street include The Good Silver, Meridian Pint, Bad Saint and The Wonderland Ballroom.
The application was filed by Heights Holdings LLC, working with Cozen O'Connor attorney Meridith Moldenhauer and PGN Architects. Moldenhauer said the LLC is controlled by David Edwards Construction, a small residential developer.
The developer assembled four rowhouse properties from individual owners to create the site. It bought the two properties on 11th Street in late 2016 for a combined $1.5M, and it acquired the two Park Road properties earlier this year for a combined $2M. Moldenhauer said the developer did not try to acquire the RedRocks property on the corner.
"They have a great local restaurant providing a community service," Moldenhauer said of RedRocks. She said she expects the community will support the proposed development.
The project would include 20 one-bedroom units in the basement and on floors one, two and three, ranging from 338 SF to 694 SF. It would also include four larger, two-level units with space on the fourth floor and the penthouse: a 1,534 SF three-bedroom unit, two two-bedroom units of 1,083 SF and 1,620 SF and one 985 SF one-bedroom unit. The developer is proposing to include no off-street parking in the project, though it does have a 253 SF bike room.
The development fits within the density allowed by the site's MU-4 zoning, but the developer submitted the BZA application to seek exemptions from a parking requirement and a rear-yard requirement.
