Phase I: Fort Totten Square

Lots of people have asked and now we know the Fort Totten Square Walmart will have its grand opening on October 28, 2015. Operating hours will be 6:00 am to 12:00 midnight.

As for the other retailers, Subway and Five Guys have signed leases. Subway’s signs are up. Five Guys is waiting for permits from DCRA. At last week’s LRCA meeting, the developers announced they are in negotiation to fill the two remaining retail spaces. Pending successful negotiation, the space on the corner of 3rd Street and Riggs Road NE will be a new “restaurant” concept by a local owner. Restaurant is in quotation marks because it will not be a sit-down restaurant exactly, but there may be tables outside. They have not publicly revealed what the new concept is, but they did say we are sort of a test market for the concept.

The other space, which will be between Subway and Five Guys, on the corner of Chillum Place and Riggs Road NE will be a non-restaurant use. They declined to elaborate what that use will be, but they made a previous announcement, so make of that what you will.

Phase II: Townhomes and retail

Phase II site

In previous posts, we mentioned there is a second phase to the project, which will be located across the street from the first phase. The developers and District officials are still negotiating the purchase of District-owned land adjacent to land already owned by the developers on the southeastern corner of South Dakota Avenue at Riggs Road NE. The District-owned land has to go through the public disposition process.

Originally the plan for the combined parcels was for more rental apartments with retail. The plan was changed to approximately 160 to 170 for-sale townhomes and roughly 27,000 square feet of retail because the developers now believe the market favors for-sale homes over more rental units in the neighborhood. One reader asked how they could possibly fit that many homes on the property. The answer is that the current conceptual plan calls for approximately 150 back-to-back townhomes and  approximately 20 loft townhomes. Back-to-back townhomes are exactly what they sound like, so more homes can be packed on the site. This is just a conceptual plan and it may change, so there are no renderings or real site plans to provide, except for those filed with the Office of Zoning. The publicly filed documents are available on the Office of Zoning’s website by searching case number 17606E.

At last week’s LRCA meeting, the developer said he thinks negotiations will be settled in a month or so. We do not know if he was speaking off the cuff, but if he is correct, then more details will be forthcoming soon. In the interim, remember we asked about community benefits. If you have additional thoughts about that, let us know in the comments.