Park View, D.C.

(The Samuel J. Simmons NCBA Estates at 14th and Harvard St., NW)

Last week, ANC1A Commissioners Margaret Hundley and Kent Boese were invited to a meeting with National Caucus & Center on Black Aging, Inc. (NCBA) leadership about plans to expand the Samuel J. Simmons NCBA Estates property located at 14th Street between Harvard Street and Girard Street, NW. NCBA is an organization dedicated to the physical, economic, social and financial wellbeing of low-income African American senior citizens.

The Simmons Estates property currently provides 175 units of housing for seniors. The purpose of the meeting was to inform ANC1A about their plans to expand their Columbia Heights facility and request that the Commission provide a letter of support — which ANC1A will consider at their September 12th meeting.

Based on the information that NCBA shared, I’m very existed about this development. While there are still many details currently being worked out, here is the high level overview of the project proposal:

• The new construction would be entirely by-right and compliant with zoning;
• The project would create approximately 159 new units of housing for seniors at no more than 60% AMI;
• The project would eliminate the surface parking lot currently behind the building, and replace it with approximately 81 spaces of underground parking on two levels; and,
• There is a possibility that the new building could include approximately 5,000 sq. ft. of retail space at the corner of 14th and Harvard as well at NCBA’s main office.

It is too early to tell what the new building might look like, but NCBA provided the following drawings that help give a sense of the siting, massing, and relationship of the new building with the existing apartment building.

(The new building would be constructed along Harvard Street and behind the current apartment building. It would also create a green courtyard between the current building and the new building.)

(This drawing shows the location and massing of the proposed building along with its connection to the existing apartment tower.)

(One interesting feature of the proposed building is that in order to provide an entrance to the underground parking, DDOT will need to reopen the closed alley on Girard Street. Not only does this make the need for a new curb cut unnecessary, it will improve city services such as trash collection for all residents on the block.)

This entry was posted on August 27, 2018 at 10:10 am and is filed under Development, Housing. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Affordable housing, Columbia Heights, Senior Housing