Ten Reasons To Buy Real Estate in Anacostia

1. The most reasonable real estate prices in the Washington Metropolitan area.

2. Large houses offering great views of the city, Anacostia River & Monuments.

3. Easy access to major thoroughfares (I-295, I-395, I-95, B/W Pkwy), less than 10 minutes to downtown DC and Washington's National Airport.

4. The small town community feel (Washington, DC's own Harlem).

5. DC's focus on making the Anacostia River a "world-class waterfront" and the redevelopment of Anacostia Park which will offer a workout facility, swimming pool, walking, biking and running trails, tennis and basketball courts, amphitheater, picnicking, boating & river-rowing fun.

6. A new class of diverse & upwardly mobile professionals moving in everyday.

7. New reasonably priced (some below market-value) luxury Condos, Apartments & Townhouses being developed.

8. New businesses; art galleries, banks, restaurants, retail, the new Anacostia JazzNSoul Cafe (Anacostia's own Blues Alley) & Anacostia's first full-service real estate company, Anacostia River Realty.

9. The adoption of the name, "River East" by residents & the riddance of the name, "East of the River" along with its negative connotations.

10. The overall positive buzz about the "renaissance" of Anacostia

The East of the River Specialists. Call For All Your Real Estate Needs!

A L’Enfant Plan for the Anacostia River Waterfront

Taken from: http://beyonddc.com

Tsarchitect and GGW have a cross-post up detailing and critiquing a plan by a group called Build DC to radically reinvent the Anacostia waterfront. The plan would introduce a fully urban street grid to both sides of the river, reclaiming for urban development land currently occupied by parking lots and empty fields. The plan would completely stitch together neighborhoods east and west of the river currently separated by a mile or more of wasteland. The river itself, which is wide but shallow, would be narrowed and channelized, with an elevated esplanade on each bank a la the Seine in Paris. Instead of the region’s forgotten and polluted stepchild, the Anacostia could be its crown jewel.

Obviously before such an ambitious plan were implemented a lot of details would have to be worked out. Is it really necessary to narrow the river, or bury every rail line? How would we pay for it? So on. These aren’t easy questions, but this isn’t a plan that’s supposed to be implemented tomorrow; it’s a 100 year vision for gradual change. We can start with the District government’s own Anacostia Initiative and go from there.

The East of the River Specialists. Call for all your real estate needs!

D.C. Council Approves 3 Anacostia Development Deals

Washington Business Journal - by Jonathan O’Connell

The D.C. Council approved deals for three real estate projects east of the Anacostia River on Oct. 6, in an effort to continue improving neighborhoods — during the credit crunch that has shut down private construction financing.

The biggest deal is for Bethesda-based Donatelli Development Inc.’s $78 million housing and retail project planned for the corner of Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road NE. The project includes 325 apartments available to people with an income 60 percent or below the area median, 45 market-rate townhomes and retail. Construction could begin in the first half of 2010.

Two other projects in the far eastern end of D.C. are setting the table for the city’s planned redevelopment of dilapidated public housing at Lincoln Heights and Richardson Dwellings.

In one, Denning Development LLC, Urban Matters Development Partners and Beulah Community Improvement Corp. will build 56 new homes on Eastern Avenue and Dix Street NE. The other is a $5.4 million office-retail redevelopment of the abandoned Strand Theater, for which D.C. will foot about 60 percent of the cost.

Donatelli’s development would constitute the first major investment in the Benning commercial corridor in years, but it has drawn criticism from transportation advocates and some residents for not providing a right-of-way that would allow a future road to reduce traffic congestion. Preserving the right-of-way would have cut into the size of the development. However Cheryl Cort, policy director at the Coalition for Smart Growth, a D.C.-based group that advocates for smart growth in the region, said the city ought to have required the right-of-way after contributing 4.85 acres of Metro-accessible land for the project.

“We are deeply disappointed that the city made such a shortsighted decision to give away the parcel without reserving room for this valuable future street connection,” she said. “It’s the city’s own land. Why wouldn’t it better address the long term needs of the community?”

But Councilman Kwame Brown, D-At large and chair of the Economic Development Committee, said residents of Ward 7 — where he lives — wanted to see progress at the intersection. He said Donatelli had agreed to the largest community benefits package he could remember. It includes space for local retailers, internship opportunities for local youth and a partnership with the Ward 7 Arts Collaborative, a nonprofit organization. “The residents of that community that have been waiting for development for 20 years,” Brown said.

D.C. Deputy Mayor Valerie Santos, whose office picked the development teams, issued a statement praising the council passage of the three deals.

“Together they’ll create several hundred jobs, better retail amenities and new housing in downtown Ward 7, Lincoln Heights and Deanwood,” she said.

Brown withdrew a fourth land deal, a $193 million project to build two office buildings and a new fire station in Southwest. Mayor Adrian Fenty picked a five-member team for the project consisting of CityPartners LLC, Potomac Investment Properties LLC, Adams Investment Group, Paramount Development LLC and D.C. Strategy Group LLC.

Brown spokesman Mike Price said the bill was held because the developers did not have signed agreements to hire city-certified small businesses or hire District residents.