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Developer scraps community center in HOPE VI project
(Published online July 17, 2006)

The D.C. Zoning Commission tonight unanimously approved the elimination of a community center from redevelopment plans for the sprawling East Capitol Dwellings public housing project, with the site to be used instead for 12 additional market-rate townhouses.

More than 3,000 persons have expressed interest in purchasing homes in the new Capitol Gateway Estates, developers told the commission, and all of the homes planned along the north side of East Capitol Street already have been sold at prices beginning at $240,000.

Prices for townhouses on the south side of the street, where the community center was to be located, begin at $370,000 and detached single-family home prices in the development begin at $500,000.

The $162 million redevelopment, on a site that abuts Prince George's County in Maryland, is partially federally funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's HOPE VI program. The program is intended to redevelopment dilapidated public housing projects into mixed-income neighborhoods that permit former public housing tenants to return and provide services to help them become self-sufficient.

More than 600 families were relocated from public housing that was demolished to make way for the new housing. Shadd Elementary and Evans Junior High schools, located adjacent to the development site, are among schools being closed this fall by the D.C. Board of Education due to low enrollments.

Representatives from the D.C. Housing Authority and private developers who are partnering on the project with the government agency told the zoning commission that many of the 226 single-family homes currently under construction will be ready for occupancy beginning in August and September of this year. The entire redevelopment is expected to be completed before the end of 2007.

A building containing 152 housing units for senior citizens already is completed on the site and has been fully occupied since July 2005. Construction of rental units and a planned commercial area, expected to be anchored by a supermarket, has not yet begun.

Developers said they have been unable to secure commitments from commercial tenants for the site, a prerequisite for obtaining financing for construction. A day-care center that was to be housed in the community center will be included in the commercial area when it is built, according to the new plan.

Copyright 2006 The Common Denominator