Category Archives: Cafritz Art Place at Fort Totten

Something needs to be done about sidewalks on Galloway Street near Fort Totten metro station

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Feb 23 Galloway path 5

This is the ice covered path on Galloway Street pedestrians are supposed to use

Once again, we are writing about the sidewalk path on Galloway Street by the Art Place at Fort Totten construction site. The north sidewalk on Galloway Street between South Dakota Avenue and 4th Street NE was closed for construction and jersey barriers were placed in the road to create a sidewalk path for pedestrians because there is not another sidewalk on the opposite side (south side) of the street.

The problem is that after winter storms, this path is not cleared in a timely manner. Because there is not another sidewalk, pedestrians either have to traverse an icy path or walk in the street. Doing either is dangerous. We had this same problem after January’s wintry weather and wrote about it then. We took pictures of the ice covered path around 6:05 pm Monday evening.  Also notice in the pictures that several jersey barriers have been knocked down.

We submitted a 311 request yesterday to have the path cleared of ice, just as we did last month.

It strikes us that there might be a bigger problem requiring a better solution.

(1) On a broader level, perhaps the transportation management plan that developers are required to submit should also include plans for inclement weather if they are not already required to do so. DDOT has rules about closures of sidewalks for construction, which is why these jersey barriers were erected in the first place. Even in cases in which the sidewalk remains open during construction, there should still be something in the transportation management plan to ensure that developers clear the sidewalk in front of their projects.

With respect to this specific project, maybe a complete sidewalk structure needs to be constructed on the north side of Galloway rather than just having the jersey barriers in place since it appears they can be knocked down easily and the construction team has made no effort to upright them to form a complete path, nor has the construction team made efforts to diligently clear the path after winter storms. We emailed the construction team and developers both last month and yesterday evening regarding the condition of the path after submitting 311 requests.

If this is something that needs to be worked out between the developers and the District in terms of who is responsible for clearing the path and making sure the jersey barriers actually form a complete barrier, we hope that there is a mechanism to do so. We do not know the best solution; we are just thinking out loud about what might help.

(2) DDOT, WMATA, and the National Park Service should work together to implement the recommendations in the Fort Totten metro accessibility study (pdf) completed in 2011. One of the recommendations was constructing a sidewalk on the south side of Galloway Street between South Dakota Avenue and 4th Street. We know there have been conversations between DDOT and the Park Service to figure out how much land belongs to the District in order to construct a sidewalk. We do not know the status of that project or this study as a whole, as we understand funding is always an issue, but this should certainly be a priority for the District as Galloway is a primary access route to a metro station with three lines and several buses.

Construction is anticipated to last another three years. We really should not have to deal with this issue every winter.  We hope that the mayor’s office, DDOT, and the developers together can find a workable solution to this problem.

 

WaPo article on children’s museum

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When news broke a few months ago that the National Children’s Museum was seeking to return to DC from the National Harbor as early as 2015, we were immediately curious about what its potential return would mean for the anticipated children’s museum at Art Place at Fort Totten. Reporting on the National Children’s Museum challenge in returning to DC, the Washington Post provides this nugget:

One potential problem for the museum may be competition for money and philanthropic or business partners. This spring, lawyer and former board member Jane Cafritz plans to launch a mobile educational lab to serve schools, libraries and community centers in the District. She also wants to open the Washington D.C. Children’s Museum near the Fort Totten Metro in Northeast, on property owned by the family foundation of her developer husband Calvin Cafritz. This D.C. museum, she said, “will inspire children to discover and learn through hands-on activities so they may develop and acquire the 21st-century learning skills needed to succeed as citizens, workers and leaders.” And might she collaborate with the National Children’s Museum? “I would never say no.”

The timeline the Art Place team provided in its July 2014 update to the Zoning Commission indicated the children’s museum would be part of Building B, which would be constructed in 2019 at the earliest. As the Art Place team continues to revise and refine its PUD, it seems that the team is still very much committed to keeping the children’s museum in play no matter where the National Children’s Museum eventually decides to locate.

 

 

Icy sidewalks around Art Place construction site

Posted by nextstoprp in Cafritz Art Place at Fort Totten

We were surprised to find the sidewalks around the Art Place at Fort Totten construction site still covered in snow and ice last night. This is the first significant winter weather event since construction began in earnest summer 2014. We hope this is not what we can look forward to during the winter for the next few years of construction. If the sidewalks are still icy, consider submitting a 311 request for snow/ice removal.

Note January 8:  We received a 311 update at 2:30 pm stating that the area has been plowed and salted.

Art Place at Fort Totten gets financing

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Good news for the Cafritz team. The developers of Art Place at Fort Totten secured a $115.8 million construction loan from Prudential Mortgage Capital Company for the project. The first phase will bring 520 rental units (of which 121 will be below market rate) along with a fitness center, restaurants, and retail to the neighborhood. From Prudential News:

“The scale and design of this property coupled with the longstanding commitment of the borrower to serving Washington, D.C., will make this a dynamic development for the Fort Totten community,” said Alex Viorst, a principal with Prudential Mortgage Capital Company’s affordable housing business. “When this property is completed, it will bring high quality market rate and affordable housing to the community, along with new commercial and retail opportunities for neighborhood residents.”

Added Lata Reddy, vice president of Corporate Social Responsibility at Prudential and president of The Prudential Foundation, “We are pleased to partner with Prudential Mortgage Capital Company on this important investment. For many households, transportation and housing are the two largest expenditures, and this project will lessen both burdens on its residents. Prudential is focused on helping working families provide for their basic needs, so projects like Art Place are a perfect fit.”

“The Foundation is committed to building a strong community for Washington area residents,” said Calvin Cafritz, Chairman of the Board of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. “Art Place will be an important catalyst to the Ft. Totten neighborhood creating a new vibrancy with the addition of residential apartments, shopping, restaurants and a new fitness center while providing 121 apartments as affordable with long-term income and rent restrictions.”

Detours: Northbound South Dakota Avenue closed between Hamilton & Ingraham next 5 weeks

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For the next 5 weeks, South Dakota Avenue northbound lanes will be closed between Hamilton Street and Ingraham Street. On weekdays, the northbound lanes will be closed from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm and on the weekend from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm. The righthand southbound lane will remain open.

Drivers traveling northbound South Dakota will detour east onto Hamilton one block to come down Ingraham and back north onto South Dakota. Drivers traveling west on Hamilton cannot turn north onto South Dakota. Drivers traveling west on Ingraham cannot turn south onto South Dakota. And drivers traveling south on South Dakota cannot turn east onto Ingraham.

Construction workers for Art Place at Fort Totten are installing a junction box on Ingraham so that the street can be extended west of South Dakota. Utility lines under Hamilton will be moved to Ingraham.

Unfortunately, this means people living in the 500 and 600 blocks of Hamilton and Ingraham will see a lot more vehicle traffic. Pedestrians should also be aware that drivers are also using the alleys to get around the detour, so exercise caution. Construction trucks are also currently detouring onto Hamilton and using neighborhood streets.

Timeline for additional phases at Art Place at Fort Totten

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At the request of the Zoning Commission, the Cafritz team provided a timeline for the remainder of the Art Place at Fort Totten development.  Recall the development will be constructed in multiple phases.  Construction recently started on Building A (1st phase), a mixed use building slated to have 510-550 residential units and over 100,000 square feet of retail.  Building A is expected to be complete in late 2016/early 2017.

Anticipated construction start dates and uses for remaining buildings

Early 2019:  Building B – Children’s museum, additional retail, community recreational uses

Late 2023:  Building C – Residential building with approximately 400 units

Mid-2024:  Building D – Arts and community uses

These anticipated construction dates and uses are subject to change as the Cafritz team assesses the viability of potential uses.

View the full letter, which provides some background information about getting Building A off the ground: Art Place Status – Phasing Plan

 

 

Street closures around Art Place coming soon – Plan accordingly

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Street detour signs for Galloway, Hamilton, and 4th Street NE surrounding Art Place at Fort Totten are now up.  Road and alley closure signs and barriers are visible behind the chain link fence.  Plan accordingly.

  • Hamilton Street will be closed between South Dakota Avenue and 4th Street.  Pedestrians who are used to taking Hamilton to the metro station should plan to take Galloway Street.  Drivers will not be able to turn west onto Hamilton from South Dakota.  Galloway is the detour route.  Residents in the 500 & 600 blocks of Hamilton initially might see more traffic as drivers also detour east onto Hamilton.
  • 4th Street between Galloway & Hamilton will be closed to traffic.  Drivers can instead detour through the alley behind Aventine Fort Totten.
  • Drivers who are used to parking along Galloway, Hamilton, and 4th Street should make alternate plans.
  • Drivers who are accustomed to using Galloway and Hamilton as shortcuts to travel west of South Dakota probably will be better off avoiding the area altogether and taking Riggs Road instead.

The impending street closures are a good sign that construction is in fact finally starting.  According to Elevation DC, at last month’s Bisnow development event Jane Cafritz indicated construction would start this month.  She has been marketing the project heavily in recent weeks.  Construction is expected to take 30 months.

 

 

Gym for Art Place at Fort Totten?

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XSportsFitness has listed a location coming soon to Fort Totten, specifically at South Dakota Avenue & Galloway Street NE.  That of course is the location of the Art Place at Fort Totten development.  The website states that in addition to cardio equipment, the gym will offer a number of amenities such as group fitness classes, pool/whirlpool, sauna, basketball court, personal fitness training, tanning salon, and children’s play area. 

We know that the brokers for Art Place have been targeting a gym (the team has publicly stated interest in a gym and a gym has been pictured in all of the renderings).  We have seen businesses prematurely announce upcoming locations on their websites in the past only to backtrack (here’s looking at Carolina Kitchen/TKO Burger), but we are still posting this here since it is on the company’s website and the representative we spoke to on the phone confirmed that they are in the beginning stages of opening a gym in that location.  One more item to check off our neighborhood wishlist!

Updates from SMD 5A08 Meeting: Art Place and Metro shortcuts

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Art Place at Fort Totten

At last night’s SMD 5A08 meeting, we heard a few updates regarding Building A at Art Place at Fort Totten.  The construction team is waiting for final approval of the traffic control plan to start construction.  The entire site will need to be fenced off before they begin relocating the utilities underneath Hamilton Street NE, which will be permanently closed.  Once construction starts, there will be jersey barriers along the north side of Galloway Street NE so that pedestrians can access the metro station.  That means there will no longer be a parking lane for cars on the north side of Galloway.  The bus stops on both sides of Galloway should remain accessible during construction. 

The architect mentioned one change that they are proposing to the residential parking.  As approved, the residential building is to have around 344 residential parking spaces in a structured garage.  The team proposes to reduce that amount by 80 spaces, dropping 1.5 floors of parking, to reduce costs.  That leaves around 264 spaces for 520 units.  The building will have 141 affordable units (of which 98 will be reserved for seniors), enough to relocate the residents of the Riggs Plaza apartments.  The residential apartment building is slated to have a senior work room/quiet area for seniors, rooftop pool and barbecue area, and fitness room.  In adidtion to retail tenants, Building A will have space for an ANC 5A office, and possibly a daycare center.  They are still working on executing leases with retailers.   

National Park Service Environment Study on Improvements to Paths between Gallatin and Galloway Street NE

The deadline to comment on the National Park Service options for improvements to the paths between Gallatin and Galloway is May 2, 2014.  Visit the project website by clicking here.  In addition to commenting on the specific options, individuals can share anything they wish about the paths.  The official from the NPS emphasized that this is an environmental study, so when they evaluate the comments, they will do so with an eye towards the impact any proposed action would have on the native plants and trees and experience of the park.  He also noted that the NPS does not yet have funding to implement any particular plan, but this environmental study is the first step in determining what they want to do and how much to budget for it.  Commissioner Angel Alston noted that there might be an opportunity for partnership to fund implementation and maintenance of any proposed plan.  The commissioner asks that people print out their comment so that the ANC has a record of the comments (a “print this page” tab will appear once a comment is submitted).  The ANC will vote on a recommendation at the next ANC 5A meeting.

Construction starting on Art Place at Fort Totten this month

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Thanks to ANC 5A08 Commissioner Angel Alston, we received a construction notice for Art Place at Fort Totten.  The notice states construction will start in early to mid-March on the first phase of the project, which will consist of 520 rental apartments and approximately 100,000 square feet of commercial space.  Foulger Pratt was selected as the general contractor in November 2013.  Recall that this project will close Hamilton Street and create a new roadway on Ingraham Street.  Accordingly, construction will begin with the relocation of the utilities on Hamilton Street.  Excavation will begin after the utilites are relocated.  Keep an eye out for signs of street and alley closings and parking restrictions, particularly for Hamilton Street and 4th Street.  Construction is anticipated to be complete by 2016.  Updates will be provided by the commissioner.  As an aside, we are hearing positive news about potential retailers lined up for the first phase of the project.

Construction notice below:

Art Place Construction Notice

Art Place Construction Notice

Another neighborhood feature in WaPo

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UPDATE at bottom of post

“Will this ugly, spottily developed yet transit-accessible District neighborhood ever be improved?”

That’s the thought posed in the latest Washington Post article about the neighborhood called “Fort Totten site in for major makeover that has community, city support.”  The piece, written by practicing architect and University of Maryland architecture professor emeritus Roger K. Lewis, focuses on the current look of the neighborhood.  The author appears to write from the position of most people who zip through the neighborhood along the major corridors of Riggs Road NE, South Dakota Avenue NE, New Hampshire Avenue NE, or Eastern Avenue NE, or who get a glimpse of the neighborhood from the metro.  From that perspective, the neighborhood appears to be a sea of low-slung red brick dotted with industrial warehouses.

Red brick semi-detached homes dominate the homes closest to Fort Totten metro.  Older detached single family ramblers dot the edges around Eastern Avenue and Kennedy Street.  Split level semi-detached homes occupy a few side streets.  A few recently built four-story detached single family homes can be found off Kennedy Street behind the gas station.  A little farther away from the metro are more semi-detached homes giving way to a greater concentration of older detached red brick single family homes. At the furthest edge of the neighborhood are the new Comstock homes, consisting of detached single family homes and townhomes of various shades of brick that complement the older neighborhood homes.

New Comstock Homes

Several older flat roof, boxy red brick apartment buildings dot the neighborhood. The newest apartment build in the neighborhood, Aventine at Fort Totten, received a makeoever last year, going from a muted pale yellow to a brightly colored melange of oranges, greens, and blues, with a bit of brick and stone treatment, and lots of new landscaping.

That brings us to the heart of the Washington Post article, the planned Art Place at Fort Totten project.  Across the street from the Aventine sits what is left of the Riggs Plaza Apartments, described in the article as “architecturally undistinguished, cookie-cutter apartment buildings.”  Five Riggs Plaza apartment buildings were razed last year to make way for the beginning phase of Art Place at Fort Totten, a planned unit development (PUD) being developed by the Cafritz Foundation. The author’s question at the top of the post serves as a launching point from which he can then describe Art Place as a transformative project for the neighborhood that is supported by the community (according to Cafritz representatives).

The article discusses the changes afoot to create more of an urban form and add density to a neighborhood that some describe as a suburb in the city.  These changes include the city’s reconfiguration of the South Dakota Avenue and Riggs Road intersection and the city-financed razing of the strip mall that cleared the land on which mixed-use development Fort Totten Square is currently being constructed.

Art Place, which according to the author will see construction begin in the next few months,* is another piece in the creation of a better urban form.  The project will be a mixed-use, higher density project in an otherwise relatively low-density neighborhood.  The author praises the renderings of the first phase, which will consist of retail, community activity space, and apartments, with some reserved for seniors and residents displaced from the Riggs Plaza apartments, as “an uncompromisingly modern ensemble of street-facing edifices that will be functionally and aesthetically unlike anywhere else in the neighborhood or in nearby Prince George’s County.”  The author notes that one corner will feature a triangular shaped building, while the front of the buildings along South Dakota Avenue will avoid the appearance of a single block mass typical of many newer builds in the city.  Designs for subsequent phases of the project, which will potentially consist of additional housing and retail, new public library, children’s museum, and office space, are still on the drawing board.

One could quibble about the term revitalization used in reference to this project and an established neighborhood.  However, there is no question that if the project includes retail and amenities that the community desires (i.e. not on the level of a Walmart), then the project will indeed be greatly supported by the community.

*According to the article, Cafritz representatives stated construction will begin in a few months.  That statement leads me to an aside, which is that the choice to focus on the Cafritz project in particular is an interesting one.  Maybe that focus will drum up interest from an anchor so that the project gets financing.  We know a bid for a general contractor went out earlier this year in May, with Cafritz representatives stating that one would likely be selected by the end of July.

Updated 8/27/13 with the following aside:

My aside at the end of the post squares with one of the reasons I had a real hesitation about soliciting a Walmart for the Fort Totten Square site.  Of course the community will support mixed use development that brings quality retail.  One thing the author is correct in noting is that development in the neighborhood is spotty.  That is the precisely why I thought bringing in a retailer with Walmart’s reputation was a move that would make getting other development (and actually getting quality ancillary retail in FTS as well) an uphill climb.  That’s not to say we won’t eventually get retail and amenities that will meet the needs of many people, just that it’s a task.  As we see, the Art Place project right by the metro still features vacant lots, as construction of Fort Totten Square proceeds.  Eventually something will go there and undoubtedly there will be those who will say that Walmart was the catalyst for development coming to the neighborhood, forgetting the years the Art Place project was stalled because of Walmart’s pending arrival down the street.  I realize there will be plenty who will patronize the Walmart, even community residents, so this is not a point about whether DC residents shop at Walmart.  It is a point about the uncertainty of having a Walmart as the first major development in the area.  A related point that I might flesh out more in an actual post is that I think some of the issues we are having (and why we have a Walmart coming in the first place) relate to the demographics (real and perceived) of the neighborhood.