Meetings

Blagden Alley Association Meeting
7:30-9pm; Thursday, June 28, 2007
905 M Street, NW

Susan Linsky of the Roadside Development Corporation will be giving an update on the O Street Market project. From previous projections, the City Vista Safeway should be open before Giant Supermarket at 8th & O Street NW temporarily closes during the construction of the new mixed use project that will include a new larger Giant supermarket, condominiums and "parking."

NOTES:

Armond Spikell, aspikell ]at[ roadsidellc.com, of Roadside Development, accompanied Susan Linsky, and gave a presentation that featured a skeletal plan of the development planned at the O Street Market/Giant plaza. Roadside Development has received approval from the Historical Preservation Review Board [HPRB] to make modifications to the Historic O Street Market shell that stands now on the corner of O & 7th Street NW. The current Giant supermarket uses less than 34k sq ft, the new Giant market will have about 58k sq ft of customer shopping space.

The new project is in fact scheduled to last at least 18 months but no longer than 2 years due to an agreement with Giant's parent company Stop & Shop. The project is expected to begin as early as August 2008.

About 18% of the residential component on the site will be affordable "senior" housing units. There will also be mid- and market-rate rental apartments, mid rate and luxury condos and a hotel. The development is expected to include some street level retail spaces along O Street as well as within the development along 8th Street once 8th Street is restored as a thoroughfare. The P Street side of the buildings will have a residential looking facade. A hotel was incorporated into the plan to attract a wider variety of restaurants to the vicinity.

There will be ample parking. The current site contains approximately 100 parking spaces. The planned site will contain surface and two levels of underground parking that will create more than 700 spaces for parking.

The aesthetics of the multi-building development is still in the theoretical stages and will need to be presented to the HPRB before being finalized.It will comply with seveal of the District’s requirements for LEED points which support a sustainable environmentally friendly design and also is more attractive to financial lenders.

Truck entrance and exit will be restricted to 9th Street and will allow even 18 wheelers to turn directly into (and drive directly out of) the B2 parking garage two levels below ground without making convoluted turns on 9th Street as large vehicles do now when they connect to Giant's loading docs.

The project is planned to require contributions from the District in the form of TIF, tax increment financing, grants that make the multi-level sub surface parking and green environmental standards to be incorporated into the site. Mr Spikell said Shaw’s Giant should be nicer than their latest store in Tivoli.

UPDATE: Mayor Fenty will attend the July Blagden Alley Association meeting, time and place TBA. Bring questions regarding how the City will support this project.