This Sunday we toured the just-renovated Ledroit Place condo building at 1907 3rd St NW. All of the units are now for sale and the top-floor units come with terraces with breathtaking views.

The building is open again this Sunday if you wish to see some of the views yourself.

If you missed Tuesday night’s civic association meeting, never fear! We have copies of the Howard University housing presentation, which focuses on the two proposed dorms the university wishes to add on campus along 4th Street NW.

HU Housing Presentation

Additionally, we also have a draft of the executive summary of the campus plan.

HU Campus Plan – Draft Exec. Summary

This is just a draft, mind you, and the university expects to submit its final campus plan proposal to the Zoning Commission by the end of June. We have been assured that we will receive a copy of the full proposal before the university submits it to the Zoning Commission.

Even though the university will submit the proposal by the end of June, we will have to wait until the fall until the Zoning Commission holds hearings and votes on the proposed plan.

We will post more, including the final draft of the full plan, once these documents become available.

Howard University will present details of its draft campus plan at Tuesday’s meeting of the LeDroit Park Civic Association. The university is required to submit a plan every ten years and the university is currently finishing its draft that it will submit to the Zoning Commission in the coming months. This is your chance to learn about the future of Slowe Hall and Diggs Hall, as well as future dorms on 4th Street and buildings along Georgia Avenue.

Tuesday, April 26 at 7pm in the basement of the Florida Avenue Baptist Church, 623 Florida Ave (enter on U street)

Also on the agenda:

• Park update— it’s nearly finished!
• Vote to support the liquor license application of Shaw’s Tavern
• Nominating committee for the coming civic association elections

All neighbors are encouraged to attend.

DC developer Neighborhood Development Company bought the vacant apartment building at 1907 3rd Street and is nearly finished renovating it. The building, which sat vacant and blighted for years, was finally auctioned off last summer and is being turned into a 12-unit condo building called Ledroit Place.

The condo building’s open house is this Sunday from 1pm to 5pm.

Here is what the building looked like two weeks ago:

That southern façade is just begging for a mural.

Here is what the building looked like on May 1, 2010:

Big improvement, right?

This is the first big project to open in the neighborhood since we moved here in May 2009 and we’re glad to see that one of the biggest eye sores is finally returning to productive use.

WMATA owns three vacant lots on the 700 and 800 blocks of Florida Avenue NW on the east end of the U Street corridor.  The agency has just put the lots up for sale for the fourth time in 9 years.  Judging by the brief sales window and by developer JBG’s previous hefty offer, we suspect the lots will be sold for a mixed-use development quite soon.

First let’s revisit this 9-year saga.

Act 1

The agency acquired the lots decades ago to build the Green Line and the lots have remained vacant, save for weekend flea markets, ever since.  The agency first tried to sell the lots in 2002 and tentatively set a deal with Howard University in 2003. The university already owns the lot occupied by the CVS and its surface parking lot on 7th Street between Florida Avenue and T Street NW.

Act 2

Litigation brought that Howard deal to a halt and WMATA offered the lots again in 2007.  Banneker Ventures LLC, infamous for its park contracts, won that round and aimed to lease the land for redevelopment into apartments and retail space.

Act 3

Then came the recession and the agency lost patience with Banneker’s inability to get financing for the deal.  Last year the WMATA board voted to end its engagement with Banneker and put the lots out for bids yet again.

U Street land barron JBG offered WMATA $11.5 million, by far the highest offer, to buy the lots.  The agency recently determined that in Act 3, none of the bids were “technically compliant” and so no sale could be completed.

Act 4

Now, nearly nine years after the agency first tried to dispose of the lots, WMATA is requesting sale offers again.  These will be due May 2, leaving a 3-week window for offers.  We assume (and hope) this fourth act is a formality so WMATA can properly sell the land to one of the third-round bidders.

* * *

Despite these delays, there is some good news as to what must go on these lots.  WMATA’s RFP for the lots mandates a mixed-use development in compliance with the Office of Planning’s DUKE Plan:

WMATA parcels should be developed to include active, ground floor arts and retail with offices and residential above. Preference may be given to projects which include specialty restaurants, a small-format anchor and/or a cluster of retail shops, small clubs, and/or museum uses themed to the African American culture and experience of the district.

Furthermore, WMATA has requirements for design, too:

• Any building rising to the maximum permitted by-right height of 65 feet should provide a meaningful cornice at 65 feet. A one to one setback from the cornice should be provided for any building height above 65 feet (to a maximum of 90 feet) if requested through a planned unit development.
• Provide a minimum of 14’ ground level floor to finished ceiling clear height.
• Parking should be below grade. Please note that below grade parking will be limited by the presence of WMATA’s train tunnel directly below the Property
• All buildings are to be set directly on the front and side property lines.

The tops of the Green Line tunnels are about 30 feet below the surface, thus limiting the size of any underground garage.  Since the lots are with within 900 feet of two metro stations, the parking demand for any project will be low.

WMATA’s requirements are good in that they mandate design features that create vibrant streets.  Ground-floor retail (or cultural space) and the fact that the buildings will go up to the sidewalk are requirements that will enliven the sidewalk, especially at night.  Prohibiting above-ground parking will prevent unsightly parking decks and will limit the ability for projects to induce car traffic.

We hope this last round will finally get these vacant lots into productive uses that enhance, rather than detract from, the area.  With Progression Place and the Howard Theatre already in the works and with Howard Town Center just a few years off, these blocks are slated for some much-needed rejuvenation.

Draft Campus Plan

Representatives of two large projects of local interest will appear at Thursday’s monthly meeting of ANC1B.

First, Howard University will give a short presentation of its draft campus plan (right). The university is finishing up the draft that it intends to submit for public review and Zoning Commission approval in the coming months. The draft we’ve seen shows positive steps for development along lower Georgia Avenue.  We will post more details later this week.

Second, the city and its architects will present the concept design for the renovation of Cardozo Senior High School.  The historic school building opened at a time when girls and boys were separated within schools.  As a consequence, the building has two small gyms, rather than one adequate gym.  The architecture team proposes appending a new gym to the west side of the building and partly burying it into the hillside.  Burying the structure into the hillside allays residents’ previous objections to any additions that would obstruct the spectacular views from Clifton Street NW.  The roof of the gym will serve as a parking lot and may provide a fireworks view (not launching!) platform for future Independence Days.

Two liquor licenses are on the agenda, too:

• Sankofa Café, 2714 Georgia Avenue NW – New tavern. “Live entertainment and a Summer Garden. Total seating is 86. Total occupancy load is 136. Summer garden 40 seats. Hours of operation: Sunday-Thursday 7 am-2 am, Friday & Saturday 7 am-3 am. Hours of sales/service/consumption of alcoholic beverages: Sunday-Thursday 5 pm-2 am, Friday & Saturday 12 am-3 am. Hours of live entertainment: Sunday 6:00 pm-2 am, Thursday through Saturday 6 pm-1 am. Summer Garden hours of alcoholic beverage sales/service/consumption: Sunday 12 pm-12 a,. Monday through Thursday 3 pm-12 am,Friday & Saturday 12 pm-12 am. Summer Garden hourse lf live entertainment: Sunday 6 pm-9 pm, Thursday through Saturday 6 pm-9 pm.”
• H2 LLC Voluntary Agreement

The monthly meeting of ANC1B will be Thursday at 7 pm at the Reeves Center at 14th & U Streets NW.

This is the second in a series on the Scurlock photo archive.  Read the first entry.

During the Jazz Age of the 1920s and later into the 1930s, U Street was dubbed the “black Broadway” as it featured such venues as the Lincoln Colonnade (now the Lincoln Theater), the Howard Theatre, and other clubs and restaurants.  In a segregated city in which blacks were excluded from most restaurants, theaters, and stores, U Street served as a refuge to catch a show and enjoy a meal.

This photo from the Scurlock archives was taken looking east at 7th and T Streets NW in 1939.

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We have referred to this area as the block of blight for its dilapidated buildings, copious litter, and frequent police arrests.  It turns out that some things never change.  Even when this photograph was taken, U Street was not uniform in character and the area around the Howard Theatre was considered downscale compared to the classier venues west on U Street.  (For more on U Street’s evolution, see Blair Ruble’s recent book, Washington’s U Street: A Biography.)

Pictured here at the corner is National Grill, which, like Harrison’s Café in LeDroit Park, advertised itself as open all night. The lighted vertical sign attached to the façade appears to read “LUNCH” and the pediment at the cornice bears the building’s name, “Scott’s”. (View a larger version of the photo.)

Just to the right (south) of National Grill is the S.W. Keys Luncheonette, whose vertical sign advertises coffee and waffles.  Just south of that is Harlem Cafe, located in a building that has since been replaced.

On T Street, just behind Scott’s Building and just before the Howard Theatre, you will see a sign that reads “BILLIARDS”.  That marks Frank Holliday’s pool hall, a popular gathering spot for Howard scholars, jazz musicians, and city laborers alike. Duke Ellington captured the scene at the pool hall:

Guys from all walks of life seemed to converge there: school kids over and under sixteen; college students and graduates, some starting out in law and medicine and science; and lots of Pullman porters and dining-car waiters.

Just beyond the pool hall, you’ll see the Howard Theatre sporting its original Italianate façade. The theater was later covered with plaster, which was only recently removed for the restoration project.

Today the last two buildings on 7th Street are a Chinese take-out and a tiny market.  One of the developers of Progression Place, the large development project underway on the block (rendering below), said that the late owner of these two buildings refused to sell to his development.  Progression Place will incorporate every building on this block except for these two.

If anyone is looking for a two-building restoration project, here is your chance!

Progression Place will include all but the gray and orange buildings.

Mr. Steve May relayed more details on Shaw’s Tavern at last night’s meeting of the LeDroit Park Civic Association.  The restaurant, slated to open in mid-June, will seat 65 – 70 people inside and 15 – 18 people on a sidewalk patio on the 6th Street front.  On Florida Avenue near the eastern end of the building, the restaurant will feature a special door just for take-out pizza orders.  (Click the image above for a larger version.)

Inside, however, the restaurant will feature a variety of entrées priced from $12 – $18.  Mr. May distributed a tentative menu.

The restaurant expects to stay open until 11:30 or midnight on weeknights and until midnight or 1 am on weekends.

As for the adjacent empty lot on 6th Street, Mr. May offered to buy it, but says the owner demanded $1 million, which is far too much for a vacant lot of that size.

While Shaw’s Tavern will occupy the first floor, the restaurant will rent out three one-bedroom apartments upstairs and expects to have them ready by May.

Howard University wants to add 1,300 beds on 4th Street, a new restaurant is coming to 6th St and Florida Avenue, the neighborhood watch seeks your input, and the conclusion of park construction are all agenda items at tonight’s Civic Association meeting.

The meeting is open to the public and all neighbors are encouraged to attend.

Tuesday, March 22 at 7 pm
Basement of the Florida Avenue Baptist Church
(enter on U Street)

The civic association will also take open comments from neighbors who wish bring up anything of neighborhood concern.

The building at the southeast corner of 6th Street and Florida Avenue (pictured above) may soon have a tenant. At Tuesday’s meeting of the LeDroit Park Civic Association, Mr. Steve May will discuss construction plans for a restaurant called Shaw’s Tavern. We don’t have the full details, but we are told it will be similar to Clarendon’s Liberty Tavern, which describes itself thusly:

Located in a historic building in the heart of Clarendon, The Liberty Tavern features modern American cuisine in its upstairs dining room and downstairs bar, along with a diverse wine list, creative specialty cocktails and a great selection of premium draft and bottled beer. Our comfortable ambiance is enhanced by warm, hospitable service, and whether you’re joining us for a round of drinks in the bar, a casual midweek supper with your children, or a special evening with friends and family, you’re sure to feel at home.

Attend the civic association meeting on Tuesday night for more details.  (7 pm in the basement of the Florida Avenue Baptist Church; enter on U Street)