Over the past decade, the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C., has undergone a major transformation. The nearby 14th Street corridor saw homeless shelters transformed into condos and laundromats become restaurants. The adjacent U Street corridor followed suit, with new music venues attracting young crowds, prompting residential developers to move in to the up-and-coming neighborhood.
REI Uline Arena
Outdoors outfitter REI wasn’t even planning to open one of its rare flagship stores in the District when it set out on a D.C. real estate search more than three years ago.
It was thinking of doing something perhaps a little larger than its nearby suburban stores — Greater Washington had been a good market for the Kent, Washington-based brand, after all — but not a flagship, of which there are only four others in the country.
The Development Wave on NoMa’s East Side
While the west side of the NoMa metro in Northeast DC is already built up with glassy apartments, hotels, a Harris Teeter, and other retail, the east side of the tracks—next to the station’s M Street NE entrance—remains mostly untouched. Within a few years, though, it will look dramatically different. Trammell Crow and its wholly owned subsidiary, High Street Residential, filed plans with the DC Zoning Commission on Tuesday for the 2.4 acres abutting the tracks, and Douglas Development’s conversion of the old Uline Arena, a.k.a. the Washington Coliseum, has been underway for months. Here’s a rundown of what’s coming.
Huge NoMa project replaces ‘insular’ site with ‘true mixed-use
NoMa is no stranger to residential-over-retail projects, but one massive and complex development proposed on Tuesday announces itself as “true mixed-use,” the overhaul of an industrial, “insular” parcel with hundreds of residential units, a hotel, retail and open spaces.
High Street Residential, a wholly owned subsidiary of Trammell Crow Co., has partnered with the Dorr family, owner of the Central Armature Works at 1200 Third St. NE, to redevelop the 2.5-acre NoMa site. High Street will oversee the project, while the Dorr clan, which contributed the property to a trust last summer, will play an undefined role.
Douglas Development to Move HQ to Uline Arena
Douglas Development Corp will be moving its corporate HQ from Chinatown, the neighborhood whose revolution it spearheaded, to the developer’s Uline Arena project in NoMa when it opens later this year.
Douglas principal Norman Jemal broke the news at Bisnow’s Future of Northeast DC event yesterday, just a few blocks from his future office. Douglas will occupy between 12k and 15k SF, Norman told us after his panel, as the company has outgrown its offices at 7th and H streets NW.
“Just like everyone else, what worked for us 15 years ago doesn’t work for us today,” Norman says.