Logan Circle Condominium Offered $500,000 for Air Rights, Some Want More

The owners' association of the Zenith Condominium (1439 1437 Rhode Island Avenue NW) has been offered $500,000 by an abutting developer for the right to build seven stories of condominiums over the Zenith's driveway. According to one person familiar with the offer: "Several owners are very unhappy with the proposed deal."

Worth half a million?

They feel the condo association should hold out for more money.

The owners' association has hired its own evaluator. The evaluator is scheduled to return an opinion in the next week.

The counter-party in the agreement are representatives of Madison Investments, who is planning to build an eight-story residential condominium at 1427-1429 Rhode Island Avenue, directly to the east of the Zenith Condominium. They hope to get the deal done before September 15.

According to a document circulated at an August 7 meeting of Zenith Condominium unit owners, in exchange for the $500,000 dollars, the Zenith condo owners will agree to sell 1,151 square feet of driveway area on the east side of the Zenith property and "grant... a seven-foot wide 'light and air' easement along the entire east property boundary".

In return, the developers of the new condo will "grant Zenith Association a perpetual, exclusive easement for the use of a gated, covered street-level vehicular accessway".

Over the accessway will be seven stories of residential space. The space above the accessway on each floor will be part of a two-bedroom apartment that will extend into the lot that the developers already own, according to drawings by the developers.

See the drawings (particularly, page 7 of 13), which were submitted to Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 2F/Logan Circle in March, here.

The historical preservation aspects of the project were approved by ANC2F at its meeting of April 10.

The blog District Source published articles about the progress of this development on March 29, April 14, and April 30.

14th & Wallach: ANC1B Unanimous in Favor

Madison Investments and allies completed their trip through the Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) system on October 3 when ANC 1B/U Street voted unanimously to support its projected mixed-use building at 14th and Wallach Streets NW.

From August 19 design committee meeting

ANC1B will produce documents in support of the development when it appears for consideration before DC's Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) and Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA).

Details about the nature of the multiple zoning reliefs and other contentious issues are available here.

Efforts at outreach

Sia Madani of Madison Investments made one last appearance before ANC1B to outline his efforts to get community sign-on to the project. Efforts included community outreach to, and soliciting letters of support from, "almost every single Wallach Place resident" and two neighborhood associations. Flyers about the project were also delivered to every house within a four-block radius of the project site.

Parking was a prime concern. As a result, future residents of the building will be restricted from getting residential parking permits. There will also be 36 spaces of bike parking.

Wallach Street residents also were eager to see commercial operations other than restaurants and bars on the first floor retail space. To that end, discounted rent for retail stores will be offered. There have been expressions of interest from two pet stores, a yoga studio, and a pilates studio. Members of the community urged Madani to encourage a hardware store to open.

Madani repeated the intention to own the building and rent out units, as opposed to selling it as condos.

"We're going to own this as an apartment building," he said.

Other locals on the project

Several attendees spoke up in favor of the proposed development. In addition, Commissioner Zahra Jilani (district 12), in whose district the development will be, read statements of support from other members of the community and ANC Commissioner Emily Washington (08), who was unable to attend the meeting.

Jilani also read a statement from the U Street Neighborhood Association. It does not support the proposal for a variety of reasons. They include the negative impact of the building's design and height on community space.

A member of the Shaw Dupont Citizens Alliance asked that the developers be extra vigilant in connecting with the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) on the issue of denying resident parking permits to building residents.

Of the twelve members of the ANC1B, seven were present to vote unanimously for the project. They were: Chair Tony Norman (10), Jeremy Leffler (02), Sedrick Muhammad (03), Ricardo A. Reinoso (05), Dyana Forester (06), James Turner (09), and Jilani.

14th & Wallach: +60 Apartments, 9 Parking Spaces, 5 Zoning Reliefs

Advisory Neighborhood Commission 1B/U Street will soon act on multiple zoning relief requests for a new multi-story, mixed-use building to be situated on the northeast corner of Wallach Place and 14th Streets NW. ANC1B Design Review Committee heard an initial presentation by the developer at its regular monthly meeting, held on Monday, August 19, at the Thurgood Marshall Center, 1816 12th Street NW.

Parking

How the Building Will Look

Wallach Place and 14th Now

Developers Madison Investments and PGN Architects told the committee that there will be only nine parking spaces for more than 60 apartments. To go ahead with so little parking will require special permission, or "relief", from DC's Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA). Under current rules, a developer might be required to provide more than 25 parking spaces. However, there are plans to change DC's zoning rules to eliminate this requirement as part of a major rewrite.

Sia Madani of Madison Investments told the committee that tenants are less likely to want a car, and more likely to require bike parking.

Some discussion at the meeting centered on requiring that tenants agree not to apply for a residential parking permit, perhaps as a term of their lease. No request was made by ANC1B to require this, and the developer did not offer to do so.

This is the second major proposed development near 14th Street in the last few months to have very little parking planned and to discuss the possibility of requiring tenants to pledge not to apply for a residential parking permit. At a recent ANC2F meeting, there was some discussion about whether such a requirement would be enforceable or even legal.

Other zoning relief

The building will require five separate zoning reliefs. Among other issues that will require zoning relief are building setback, total space usage, and the location and design of the loading dock.

The building setback as currently designed meets setback requirements in most respects, the developers said, except for one upper floor.

The loading dock was a matter of long discussion at the meeting. It might face 14th Street and present an impediment to vehicular and bicycle traffic.

The building height will exceed 100 feet, but will not require zoning relief. It will have retail space on the ground and second floors. Above that, there will be more than 60 new apartments (down from an initial plan of 75 smaller apartments), averaging about 600-650 square feet each. Thirty percent of these will be efficiency apartments, 50 percent one-bedrooms, and 20 percent two-bedrooms.

The developers told the committee that they plan rental units, not condos, and they are planning to be the long-term owners of the building.

"We are not looking to flip," Sia Madani said.

Next Steps

The presenters pledged additional community consultation. They said they had already consulted homeowners on Wallach Place, who were concerned about what type of retail establishments might inhabit the first two floors. A Wallach Place resident said the residents favored, for example, a hardware store, rather than a restaurant or a bar, in the building.

The developers will make an official presentation at next month's meeting of ANC1B's Design Review Committee. The meeting is scheduled for September 23 at 6:30pm at the Thurgood Marshall Center. At that time, the committee will vote on whether to recommend that the full ANC support the multiple zoning relief requests.

The full ANC will then vote on the matter, probably at its following meeting, scheduled for October 3 at 7pm at the Reeves Center (U and 14th Streets).

Both meetings are open to the public.

ANC Commissioners present at the meeting were Design Review Committee Chair Tony Norman and Zahra Jilani. Norman is the Commissioner from district 09, and is also the chair of ANC1B as a whole. Jilani is the Commissioner for district 12, in which the planned building is located.

UrbanTurf has also written about this meeting.