District and community leaders broke ground Monday on the first major development in decades slated for Georgia Avenue Northwest, a transit-oriented project of condos and retail its backers expect will become the gateway to a revitalized Petworth neighborhood.
The next stop north from booming Columbia Heights on Metro’s Green Line, the redevelopment of Petworth and the Georgia Avenue corridor was inevitable, District officials say. The $60-million Park Place project took years to unfold, community leaders said during the groundbreaking, but its quality was worth the wait.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Peron Williams, the area’s advisory neighborhood commissioner. “We’ve been looking for great things from this project.”
Park Place, a project of Donatelli Development to be built atop the Georgia Avenue/Petworth Metro, will include 156 condominium units — 20 percent “affordable” — and 17,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. Though located at the relatively pedestrian-unfriendly intersection of Georgia and New Hampshire avenues, developer Chris Donatelli expects his project to become a “destination.”
Ward 4 Council Member Adrian Fenty, who represents the project site and is a leading candidate for mayor, called Park Place a “legacy” project that “can be the impetus for development blocks to the north and blocks to the south.”
“It’s taken five years, but that’s what happens when you strive for greatness,” Fenty said.
On June 28, 2000, Mayor Anthony Williams announced his $111 million plan to build a new Department of Motor Vehicles headquarters at the Park Place site, arguing in a press release that Georgia Avenue “must be redefined as a corridor of neighborhoods anchored by commercial development.”
The DMV project was roundly rejected by the community.
“It would be selling the Petworth, Park View, Columbia Heights neighborhoods short to settle for something like the Department of Motor Vehicles,” Fenty said.
Williams, who backs Council Chairman Linda Cropp in the mayor’s race, was represented at the groundbreaking by a deputy. Last week, Williams slammed Fenty, claiming the council member has in seven years rarely approached him about pushing new Ward 4 projects. Fenty on Monday pointed out that he and the mayor worked collaboratively on Park Place.
