Yesterday, I reported that the tower crane assembly for the 7340 Wisconsin Avenue development is now scheduled for April 13, 2024. Today, we are taking a look at the excavation work and other preparations that have been made at the former gas station property so far. As you can see, that work has advanced very quickly.
Surprisingly, the former Pines of Rome and Tommy Joe's properties are no longer part of this project, as they had originally been assembled with the Exxon station for a bigger lot by former landowner Douglas Development. The gas station property sat vacant for many years, but current developer Greystar has moved swiftly once approvals and environmental remediation were out of the way.
I don’t believe this development ever included the Pines of Rome and Tommy Joe’s site. Those were always tied to the other property on the west side of the block, which is fully approved for a 25 story high mixed retail, apartment and office tower being developed by Washington Properties, whose small HQ is in a building on that site.
ReplyDeleteReally hope the Wash Prop project gets off the drawing board soon. The pedestrian ROW along Hampden and especially East Ln are absolute trash. Redevelopment is badly needed.
ReplyDeleteI doubt the developer will build a tower with a large speculative office component in this environment. I suspect we will see a revised proposal with more apartments, or condos replacing most if not all of the office portion of the project. Perhaps Washington Property will retain a portion for their HQ somewhere in the bulding.
ReplyDeleteIt is my understanding that no architects in the DC area are currently designing new spec offices buildings at this time. Of course a new corporate HQ might sign up for space in a new tower, but with so much vacant Class A space available, even this seems unlikely for a new building.
This is also true for the laboratory research building that was approved across the street from Harris Teeter. I read that the developer of that caper missed the window for new health science facility’s if they are not part of a larger campus of similar buildings. Seems odd that a location so close to NIH would not draw a big laboratory research draw.