Today on CityCast DC, Metro is planning to redevelop the Brookland Metro stop, but what
should the new version of the neighborhood look like? Considering that this project touches
on Metro, housing, parking, and retail, it is no surprise that people have strong opinions.
The Washington Business General Tristan Navarra has been covering it and he is here to tell
us what is in store. Oh, and after the interview, CityCast CEO David Plott will be joining us
for a conversation sponsored by Urban Pace about the new Kite House condos up in DC's
Tacoma neighborhood. They are part of the community known as the Parks at Walter Reed, and
it all sounds somehow both modern and historic, so stick around to learn more.
Today is Monday, September 18th. I'm Michael Schaefer, and here's what DC is talking about.
Hey Tristan. Hey Michael, good to talk again. Good to see you man. So it is looking like Metro wants
to redevelop a big chunk around the Brooklands, Catholic University Station, an area that's seen
actually a lot of change in the last decade. What are they doing? Why are they doing this?
Yeah, so Metro is kind of following up on a 10-year development plan that it released last year
that really focuses on some of those stations, especially kind of on the eastern portions of the
map that aren't really being used very well. So in this case, you know, it's literally just a
parking lot. It's a bus turn around. It's space that is in the middle of a very urban area that
could be a lot of other things. They are concerned about, you know, trying to generate more revenue
through some of the land that they own, so they're really taking a look at Brookland as the next
possible place to get involved in development. So we describe the area for people who don't know
it intimately. There's been, you know, a huge new development around Catholic, but the Metro station
is still has this open land, I guess, that is controlled by Metro and not really used for much.
Yeah, so if you're not familiar with the area, Brookland is in northeastern DC, central northeastern
DC, kind of an area where a lot of single family homes start to meet some of the commercial and
more urban parts of the city. The Catholic University campus is right there. There's a bunch of
kind of business development. There's a couple of streets that have a lot of shops and a lot of
kind of restaurants and stuff. So it's kind of a microcosm of DC, if you really think about it,
a lot of different kinds of uses all converge in one area, that is kind of quite right now,
but has seen a lot of change in the past few years. So what is Metro want to do? As you said,
they've got this sort of parking area, this kitchen ride, it's kind of suburban style. What do they
want to do to it? The Metro really looks at this as a place that could support a lot of housing
development. It is in their best interest to see the land developed as much as possible
into a revenue generating capacity beyond what it is right now. So they are envisioning
some kind of development of about 400 residential units, 400, 450. It's not a done deal. They
would need to find developers who would actually put together a plan, but that's generally what they
think is going to happen there. They think that a residential focus development would generate a lot
of new ridership in that station, and that would help them even more, especially as they face
the budget issues that they do right now. So 400 units, this would be in like apartment or condo
style organization? Yeah, almost certainly would probably be apartments. With retail attached on
the ground floor? I think that that's sort of an open discussion. They're kind of in the attitude
of, well, hand us a deal and we'll see if we can make it work. They probably would like to
entertain some kind of commercial use on that land. Commercial use would be profitable,
but what does the area support is the question? Right. So DC, which is housing is very expensive,
it gets more housing out of this metro gets in theory money from developing the thing and
riders from basically importing their ridership. There was a public hearing about this last week.
What does the public think? Yeah, so the meeting was held last Tuesday and really residents were
kind of all over the map. You have these kinds of hearings that are kind of a chance for folks to
talk about what they want to see there and people are kind of everywhere. There is definitely some
concern about congestion, how they're going to reorganize those bus lanes so that hopefully they don't
end up driving too much traffic into the neighborhoods around the station. Some folks would like to see
a grocery store, some folks would like to see bike lanes, some folks would like to see affordable
housing, some folks would like to see more walkability in green space, trying to meet all of these
needs. It's like trying to thread a needle while jumping on a trampoline. It's a great thing
about going to these hearings also because anyone who wants can stand up and be like, you know,
I'd like a bowling alley. Yeah, an archery range. Yeah, yeah. There are a lot of competing
desires in the neighborhood. And I assume having covered DC for a while that one of the sticking
points is people are worried whenever anyone talks about doing away with parking spaces.
Oh, yes. Oh, yes. There's a real debate at least in this neighborhood about how the parking
should be managed, right? So as I said, several folks are really interested in seeing a grocery
store here. And it could be a real possibility, a grocery store on top of a metro station in such a
dense area, but a grocery store means more parking. Inevitably, it's going to mean people
are wanting to get there by car. You had several folks at the hearing talk about, hey,
I think there's too many cars in this neighborhood already, but every one of them also had a car.
Metro theoretically thinks that having apartments on top of metro stations will discourage people
from driving is that true or not. Some places it is and some places it isn't. This is an area that's
kind of on the edge of the commercial cityscape of DC. So you're going to have people who are going
to need to get around on cars. It's going to be, it's going to mean traffic.
But so right now, this Kiss and Radlot and so on, how busy is it? How much should we use it?
As metro stations go, this one is pretty well used, but there's just a lot of potential to increase
the ridership. They're thinking tens of thousands of new riders a year if that site is fully built out.
I mean, you've covered this for quite a while. Who do you think would wind up living there?
I mean, I can imagine a scenario where it's a lot of students from Catholic and they will then walk
to campus and not be taking the metro too and fro because they'll be going to campus.
Yeah, well, it's probably going to be a lot of Catholic students, a lot of recent grads,
a lot of young professionals. It's going to be folks who maybe have ties to the area or maybe looking
for something a little bit quieter than Noma or maybe Yard, but it's by and large is going to be
kind of young renters. I think it's interesting to look at this specific development,
kind of as a microcosm of all of DC and some of the issues that it's facing. You know,
there are fourth generation, fifth generation folks who have lived a few blocks away from this site
for years and they have been mind blown by the change in the past couple of years. There are
a lot of new to DC people who feel like this area is way underutilized. This is a city that's
changing a lot and there are a lot of competing kind of interests. I think the best outcome will be
if everybody compromises a little and sees this site change into something, but something that's
respectful of the neighborhood and that's going to be a struggle.
So this is all happening against the backdrop of Metro facing this massive,
what is it, 175 million dollar deficit? Can you explain how these two things connect to one
another? I can imagine them making a case that this is very good for the bottom line.
Yeah, so Metro is really concerned about its long-term financial sustainability right now.
There's not a lot of signs that people are going to be coming back to work five days a week
like they used to. People are using the stations that the ridership is increasing. It's going
towards where it was before the pandemic, but things still have a long way to go and the long
term viability of Metro system really relies on them generating more riders. For years,
they've been looking at some of their stations and how they can find better ways to monetize that
land. So some of those stations have been easier to develop than others. What you're seeing is Metro
is trying to get a little more aggressive about some of those places where it holds valuable land
that could be used and also create housing that generates more riders.
So let me see if I understand this right. Back in the day when Metro was first created,
the authority, they got these large parcels of land around the stations because it was a time
when people assumed the model would be drive your car to the Metro, take the Metro downtown,
sort of suburban sprawl model. And since then, as a lot of these areas around stations have urbanized,
Metro has been able to kind of jettison some of this open land or sell it for quite a lot of money
that they can then plow back into Metro and turn these areas into like little downtowns. And
this is the idea of what they'd be doing in Brookland and a bunch of other places on this new list
they've come out with. Oh yeah, yeah. Metro has historically been
louded by the development kind of world for being really smart about transit-oriented development.
A lot of cities wish that they had the kind of system that we have along some of those areas of
the Orange Line corridor and the Silver Line where you see really dense development that does
gradually move into single and less dense housing. So Brookland is one of seven places that Metro
has listed for this kind of development. What do we know about the others? Yeah, so for the past
couple of years, Metro was really looking west, especially along the Silver and Orange Line
and Blue Line corridor is into Virginia. Most of those sites are pretty well built out at this point
or there's a good idea of how they're going to happen. Now there's a lot of Metro land
kind of on the eastern side of the map where there have been either complications or the market
hasn't really supported a lot of development or in a case like this one, the amount of change
that's happened over the past couple of years has meant, you know, what they would have developed
there 10 years ago versus what they would develop there today is very different. So this is one of
the sites that they're really targeting to develop sooner than later. They have several other
developments potentially in the pipeline because it would be basically the easiest to execute.
There is not a huge amount of infrastructure issues with the land. There's not a bunch of
difficult covenants. This is an area similar to the Tacoma lot where they're in the middle of
a project right now. They have a pretty easily usable swath of land and they're not using it
that heavily right now.
Tristan, thank you so much for being here. Yeah, thanks again, Michael.
And listener, don't go anywhere. In just a second, we've got a segment sponsored by Urban Pace
with CityCast CEO David Plott's in conversation with the developer of Kite House at the parks.
Hi, I'm CityCast CEO David Plott's here to bring you the first installment of our monthly
house and homes segment presented by Urban Pace real estate. Today, I'm here with Jonathan Quince,
the developer of Kite House. Kite House is a beautiful condo building up in Tacoma, DC,
really close to Rock Creek Park. I have been watching this development at the parks at Walter
Reed for years. I'm so excited. I'm really excited to talk to you, Jonathan. Welcome to CityCast.
Thank you, David. I'm excited to talk to you too. Jonathan, Kite House is on the site that was
originally Walter Reed Army Medical Center, right? So how does the parks at Walter Reed
community pay tribute to that history? So honoring the history of the site was probably our core
design philosophy. It drove every decision that we made before we even commenced designing
any of the buildings that were on site. And that begins with both the overall
massing and design of the buildings right down to the material selections. What goes on the exterior
of the buildings down to how do the windows look? And then this philosophy extends through
to the use of open space to maintain the views of the historic buildings that were correctly
honoring them as the landmarks that they are in the city. It is such a beautiful spot in the city.
I'm so glad you guys are building there. So Jonathan, you were talking before we started
taping about the garage at Kite House and how proud you were of the garage. People are not usually
proud of the garage. Why are you proud of your garage? It's probably the accomplishment I'm
most proud of. And that is that we actually reuse the existing below grade garage underneath
the Kite House. And by reusing the garage and not constructing a new garage, we've embodied
the same amount of carbon as you would by taking 10,000 cars off the roads for a year.
That's amazing. With Kite House specifically, what size apartments are we talking about? What is
the price range of those apartments? David, the residents are one to three bedrooms and they're
priced from the mid-300s to just over a million dollars. Some of the units are eligible for the
district's affordable housing program. And so for any of your listeners who are interested,
I would strongly encourage that they reach out to the district's housing authorities and see if
they're eligible for an affordable unit. So what are some of the benefits to living up in the
parks community? What are the best spots to hang out or grab dinner at?
I think that the campus has some amazing open spaces. It's unique in DC. The great
law in particular is a historic element that has survived from the original hospital. And we
are really lent into that as our events space for the campus. There is year-round programming that's
hosted up here, including concerts. We have theatrical performances in holiday celebrations.
And then smaller scale events like our complimentary yoga classes that are offered spring through
the fall. We're only half a mile from Tacoma and the Tacoma mattress station and the fantastic
downtown that is Tacoma. And then I think in terms of the dining in particular, we have a bunch
of really exciting restaurants coming to the campus. I particularly love ramen. I'm very excited
for when junior opens any day now. That place is great. And then of course nothing beats the
convenience of having all foods at your front door as well. How big is the great law on?
I actually don't know. It's about the size of a football field. Oh my god. That's enormous.
Aside from the cool neighborhood, why should city cast DC listeners choose to buy at Kitehouse
specifically? So all the residents have particular sophisticated finishes. We have
Herringbone backsplashes, borsher appliances, one-plane flooring. And then the design element that I
particularly enjoy is there is an abundance of natural light within the residences. We have lofty
six foot windows. And then most of the residences have either a private terrace or a private balcony.
And then outside of your residence, but within the building, we still have some great amenities.
There's a hospitality inspired lobby with a separate co-working space. There's a premium fitness
studio with a separate yoga and meditation room. There's a club room that's outfitted with some
soft seating, cafe tables, library. And then that club room actually opens up onto our outdoor
entertaining terrace, which has its own dining area, grill stations, lounge seating, and a great
location for hosting an outdoor party. So if our listeners want to learn more about Kitehouse,
where should they look? The first place they should go is to kitehousedc.com. And then if they're
interested in the parks at all to read generally, then they can go to the parks dc.com. We have our events
going to there. Perhaps if you're in the market to rent a unit instead of purchase a unit, we also
have links to other housing that's available. Jonathan Quince, developer of Kitehouse,
thanks for being here. Again, check out kitehousedc.com to learn more. We'll have that link for you
in our show notes as well. So you're just a click away. Thanks for listening. Thank you David.
If you want to learn more about Kitehouse, the parks that want to read or urban paste,
make sure to check out our show notes. They are doing a lot of cool work.
And before you go here is some quick news. Metro is delaying its plans to roll out automatic
operations for all trains because of safety concerns. Womata, that's the Metro Authority,
originally planned to make the switch this fall. Now it'll start with only automatic door
operation this fall and completely shift away from manual next year. The automatic system is said
to save time, money and energy, provide a smoother ride and improve safety. DC Public School nurses
are upset about a new system that puts one nurse in charge of every four schools. The District
of Columbia Nurses Association says this plan is stressful and ineffective. There are still
lower level health technicians in every school, but the nurses say schools will have limited
ability to care for the students without a registered nurse in each building. And lastly, a new
bill in Montgomery County would raise the base minimum wage for tipped workers. Currently
employers only need to pay moco tipped workers four dollars an hour before tips. If passed,
the minimum wage would increase at a staggered rate. The first increase would be to six dollars
in July 2024, then eight dollars in July 2025, and so on until it reaches the same value as standard
minimum wage. And that is all for today here on CityCast DC. If you enjoyed the show, tell someone
who's got strong opinions about Metro, parking or housing, which is to say everyone. We'll be back
tomorrow morning with more news from around the city. Bye.