With First New Apartments In 14 Years, Friendship Heights Looks To Shed Its Elderly Reputation

D.C. Council Member Matt Frumin remembers a comment that stuck in his head about the perception of Friendship Heights among young people.

It came from a respondent to a study that D.C. conducted in partnership with the Urban Land Institute in 2021 aimed at reimagining the neighborhood. 

"One of the participants said, 'I don’t want to go to Bethesda because I’m worried I’ll bump into my parents. I don’t want to go to Friendship Heights because I’m worried I’ll bump into my grandparents,'" Frumin said. "There is an element of a naturally occurring retirement community in this area, but it can be way more than that."

Part of the reason the neighborhood has gotten this reputation is because it has had no new multifamily development since 2010, making it difficult for young professionals and families to move into the area, several local leaders and developers said Thursday at Bisnow's Future of Friendship Heights & Chevy Chase event. 

"No other neighborhood in the entire region has had zero apartments delivered in 14 years, that’s unheard of," Chevy Chase Land Co. CEO John Ziegenhein said at the event, held at his firm's 2 Wisconsin Circle building. "We need housing, we’ve got to push for housing. We’re a big believer in affordable, that’s going to be a major component."

New housing is finally on the way in the neighborhood, which straddles the D.C.-Maryland border around Wisconsin Avenue, with Tishman Speyer, Donohoe Cos., Urban Atlantic and Federal Realty Investment Trust all advancing projects.

The neighborhood now has 1,350 new homes planned to deliver in the next five years, with 200 of them affordable, according to a new report from the Friendship Heights Alliance — a nonprofit launched last year to support the area's growth. The group was set up by leaders from D.C. and Montgomery County. 

Tishman Speyer's project, the redevelopment of a dying mall that was foreclosed on early in the pandemic, was the first to break ground, and its crane now towers above the neighborhood's busy Wisconsin and Western Avenue intersection.

The redevelopment is set to bring 320 new apartments, with 40 of them affordable for those making 50% to 60% of the area median income. It is expected to deliver in mid-2025, Tishman Speyer Senior Director Mustafa Popal said at the event.

"The neighborhood is transforming, delivering more residential, and [we're] capitalizing on a lot of the fundamentals here: the Metro access, the walkability, there’s still good retail," he said. 

Donohoe has three projects moving forward in Friendship Heights — at 5500 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 5151 Wisconsin Ave. and 4201 Garrison St. — that are planned to total about 630 units, 10% to 15% of that affordable. Donohoe Senior Vice President of Development Jad Donohoe said that of the neighborhood's 3,000 existing multifamily units, only 28 are designated as affordable.

“We can and must do more, not just for the people who don’t live here today, but to support the kind of street life, the kind of retail we all say we want," he said. "We need additional units and affordable units to make that work."

Federal Realty received D.C. Zoning Commission approval early last year for a 310-unit apartment project at 5333 Wisconsin Ave. NW, a redevelopment of the Friendship Center retail complex. The project, now going through design approvals, will reduce the property's retail footprint from 120K SF to 12K SF, Federal Realty Vice President Geoff Sharpe said. 

"It's very much reflective of what we see as changing retail dynamics and the real demand for multifamily," he said. 

Urban Atlantic in September secured construction financing for a 93-unit affordable senior project, an addition to the Lisner-Louise-Dickson-Hurt Home in Friendship Heights. Urban Atlantic Managing Partner Vicki Davis said that in addition to affordable rental properties, it is important to create accessible homeownership in expensive neighborhoods like Friendship Heights. 

"It’s really important for us to think through a balance of product type and a balanced way to get density that includes everybody at every level," Davis said. 

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has pushed for several years to spur more housing in the upper Northwest D.C. area which includes Friendship Heights. In 2019, when she released her goal for 12,000 affordable units to be built across D.C. by 2023, she targeted the Rock Creek West area as the top contributor with 1,900 new units. 

Since then, Rock Creek West has only added 230 affordable housing units, according to D.C.'s dashboard tracking its progress toward the housing goal — even as the District overall has reached 99% of its total 36,000-unit goal and 81% of its affordable unit goal. 

D.C.'s new comprehensive plan, which Bowser signed into law in 2021, set an overall vision for the city that included building more housing in upper Northwest. And in February the Office of Planning released the Wisconsin Avenue Development Framework, a more detailed effort to implement the comprehensive plan's vision. 

Frumin said building more housing is critical to make Friendship Heights an attractive place to live for people of all ages, not just senior citizens. 

"I want a place where it is attractive to residents in a relatively large radius around it. Some of that’s about serving the seniors in the area, but a lot of it is about serving the families, making sure there are things that draw families to the area and give it dynamism," Frumin said. 

Montgomery County is also moving forward with a Friendship Heights Sector Plan to update a 1998 plan for the Maryland side of the neighborhood. Montgomery County Council Member Andrew Friedson said the county has passed other initiatives to build more housing, such as a tax abatement for projects around Metro stations.

"The challenge is we have an environment where young people can’t afford to live here, not only in Friendship Heights but really anywhere in Montgomery County," Friedson said. "It’s a huge challenge that we have, so we want to build those types of communities and the vibrancy that comes with it. We need to have a lot more housing."

Somerset Development Co. partner Anya Kamara, who grew up in the Friendship Heights area, said past zoning policies have "created a closed club."

"Without allowing development, without allowing housing, we’re basically telling the community that we don’t want new members," she said. "It’s a very backwards way of thinking."

While a number of projects are now moving forward, Friendship Heights does have a series of large surface parking lots that haven't been eyed for development. When asked by an audience member about these lots, Frumin said they are a "giant elephant in the room around Friendship Heights." 

"The challenge is what becomes of the western bus garage, and the Lord & Taylor site, which is a giant parking lot. Those two places together represent an enormous opportunity to make a positive difference," Frumin said. 

The sites are controlled by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, Frumin said, adding that the region needs to help the transit system get on more stable financial ground so it can advance development in Friendship Heights. 

"We need to strengthen WMATA and give it security so it can turn in earnest to the planning for those sites, which today represent a lot of concrete and asphalt, but in the future could be something really great," Frumin said.