The future of Washington’s downtown neighborhoods is on display in the new CityVista complex — and the view is a vertical one.
When completed later this year, the three separate buildings of this northwest complex will add to the high-rise buzz of the Mount Vernon Triangle, where city planners are counting on increased density to create a thriving 24-hour neighborhood. With 685 condos and apartments sitting on top of 130,000 square feet of retail space, CityVista residents need only hop on an elevator to go to a restaurant, work out at the gym, shop for groceries, make a bank deposit or fill a prescription.
CityVista sits on the site of the former Wax Museum, where the city’s National Capital Revitalization Corp. picked a private development team to build the new $200 million vertical neighborhood. The project fills a full city block bounded by L and K streets to the north and south and 4th and 5th streets to the east and west.
Condos start at the $300,000 level. The first residents took occupancy a year ago and amenities have been added in recent months. A new Safeway, which includes a pharmacy, opened in September. There are also a SunTrust Bank, Starbucks and Bergmann’s Dry Cleaning in the grocery, as well as a separate hardware store and a restaurant that are already attracting big crowds. Since the Safeway opened with hours from 5 a.m. to midnight, CityVista has added new round-the-clock street life to an area that was previously largely occupied by parking lots.
Nearby are hundreds of other new condo units and older apartment buildings, but CityVista brings the first new retail to the Mount Vernon Triangle area between New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts avenues. The latest addition is a new branch of Busboys & Poets, a café and political salon. Its Friday happy-hour crowd last week included a mix of couples, singles and families arriving on foot, by car and by bicycle.
Busboys owner Andy Shallal admitted he was a “little nervous because during construction, there was nobody walking by.” But the crowds are coming, and the spot filled up Saturday for an Obama fundraiser. He said he is enthusiastic about the neighborhood’s future.
“It makes sense from the perspective of urban planning,” he said. “People want to walk to work from where they live and where they eat and where they shop. It’s nice to have that kind of density to support the businesses below.”
