The X2

Dirt is being moved at the site of Flats at Atlas Phase II in Carver Langston; at least for utility works.  The original Flats at Atlas building opened in 2012 with 257 units and 3,450 square feet of retail. The new building, Phase II, is located at 1676 Maryland Ave NE, just east of the current site. There is an empty lot there at the moment. A joint venture with Kettler & Westbrook Partners acquired the current building and the adjacent lot for $95,000,000 almost exactly three years ago. Phase II is expected to add another 325 units and be 5 stories tall, with no new retail. This second building has always been planned to accompany the original building, so many of the amenities like on-site parking deck were built to accommodate the total number of apartments. They will also share the circular drive area on Maryland Ave.  I have yet to see renderings or a site plan for Phase II, but there was an ANC meeting about two years ago outlining the outer rim la...

Carver Langston has a new mural! The narrative features an abstract sort of geometric nature theme, switches to a sunglasses-decked woman representing Northeast DC, transitions to a male historical figure, then to a montage of pencils, an image of hands on a typewriter, then finally returning to the geometric nature theme to cap it all off. It's lovely, bold, colorful, and we deserve more murals like this in Carver Langston. But there's just one thing about this one... As you may know, on paper, Carver Langston is really two neighborhoods. Carver is the triangular shaped part of the neighborhood north of Maryland Ave NE, going up to the Arboretum. Langston is the part of the neighborhood south of Maryland, going down to Benning Road. Carver's namesake is a person most of us learned about in elementary school, George Washington Carver . Carver was one of America's top intellectuals and inventors of the early 20th century. Langston takes its name from the ...

Carver Langston now has a second Capital Bikeshare station. A new station opened yesterday at the corner of 17th Street and Maryland Avenue Northeast. This is the second station for Carver, with the first being a highly trafficked 14 dock station at Starburst Plaza. The new station has 19 docks and is closer to the residential center of the neighborhood. It's adjacent to Aldi Food Market and near Hechinger Mall (Safeway, Ross, Modell's, Payless, etc). Thank you Capital Bikeshare!

Douglas Development is redeveloping an existing building at 1151 Bladensburg Rd NE into offices and retail. The development will be 18,000 square feet, with roughly an even split between office space and retail. The retail portion will be divided into two separate spaces, similar in size. The office portion will occupy two floors on the southern part of the structure. There is a parking area planned for the roof of the building, accessible through the alley. All told, there will be 17 off-street parking spaces on site. I previously heard this property was going to be converted into residential, but looks as if those plans have changed. Renderings of 1151 Bladensburg Rd NE via Douglass Development . The last operating tenant of 1151 seems to have been Lin's Enterprises, LLC, doing business as Columbia Wine & Liquors, which closed shop some time before I moved to the neighborhood.  1151 Bladensburg is the first building I took a photo of after moving to C...

Metro/WMATA enters a new phase next week, starting Sunday June 25. Long debated structural changes are coming and we'll have to adjust to the new normal of less service and higher fares. Whether the performance rates improve will be one of the big questions, but Friday morning's Red Line meltdown was *not* a good omen. Here are some of the biggest changes.  Biggest news for Carver/Benning Rd/H Street NE : Bus fares for regular routes, including the X2 and X8, will now be $2.00 (up from $1.75).  The X2 bus will run additional late night service until 4 AM, daily. Late night service will include ~30 minute headways. Metrorail will close at 11:30 PM on weeknights (M-T). Sunday rail service will end at 11:00 PM.  Friday and Saturday night rail service will close at 1:00 AM. Minimum and maximum rail fares during peak hours will be $2.25 and $6.00, respectively.  Minimum and maximum rail fares during non-peak hours will be $2.00 and $3.85 respectively....

Foreground: Site of new Flats at Atlas addition. Background: Existing building. Kettler, a Virginia-based real estate development and property management company,  recently purchased the Flats at Atlas apartment building located at 1600 Maryland Ave NE. The Flats development was always planned to have two phases. The first was built and currently has 257 rental units, an interior parking garage, and a small retail component on the Bladensburg Rd side. Now Kettler is starting the process of adding a second, adjoined building. All we know so far is that the new building will have five floors and 325 units, amenities similar to those of the first building, and will share a common driveway roundabout and parking deck with the existing building (it was originally built for the combined capacity). The new building will fill out the block bound by K Street, 17th St, Maryland Ave, Neal St, and Bladensburg Rd. The lot where the new structure will exist is currently occupied by t...

Rendering of 1625 Benning c/o Valor Development. Valor Development is looking to construct a 303 unit apartment building across from Hechinger Mall on Benning Road NE. PGN Architects are the architects for the project. A. Morton Thomas and Associates are acting landscape architects and civil engineers. Bozzuto will ultimately mange the property. The "Valvaere" would be located at 1625 Benning Rd NE, consolidating nine parcels including what is now Trinidad Baptist Church and attached surface parking lot. The Valvaere will actually be comprised of two buildings; a nine story, 90 foot tall building facing Benning Road, and a 3 story, 38 foot tall building facing 16th St NE. About 7,000 sq ft of ground floor retail is incorporated into the plans. 100+ on-site parking spaces would be provided in a below grade parking lot. There will be over 100 bike storage spaces as well, protected, inside the building. Bird's eye view of Benning Rd. Rendered with Google Earth©...

Location of new residential building; 1700 block of Benning Road NE. New signage has appeared advertising a new residential tower in Caver Langston. 1701 H Street is a planned 180 unit building with retail that will exist at the corner of 17th St and Benning Rd NE. This is across 17th St from Hechinger Mall and about halfway between the Starburst Plaza and 19th Street DC Streetcar stations. The developers seemingly want to capitalize on an association with "H Street," or the Atlas District, which is nearby. I'd have little to say about this if most of the building didn't front on 17th Street and Benning Road. Even then, this was really much ado about nothing until I read this  recent, and somewhat infuriating interview , including this gem. For many years, Scott says, there was only Foggy Bottom and the West End, Georgetown and the upper Northwest. “And you had poverty everywhere else,” he says. “DC, for the first time, is developing neighborhoods and su...