George Washington University announced Friday that it has finalized a long-term lease agreement with a private partner for the redevelopment of the nearly three-acre vacant site of the former GW Hospital.
The parcel known as Square 54, to be developed by Boston Properties, is adjacent to the Foggy Bottom Metro station, where Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington Circle, I Street and 23rd Street converge.
The 842,000-square-foot project is expected to include several high-rises featuring office, retail and residential space, in addition to a new supermarket and 1,000 parking spaces.
The 60-year ground lease has Boston Properties paying $9.1 million annually to the university. GW spokeswoman Tracy Schario said the money would be deposited into the school’s $1.15 billion endowment to fund its core educational and research missions.
“It is one more cog in a wheel that will help drive the university’s future success, and I couldn’t be more pleased,” W. Russell Ramsey, chairman of the school’s board of trustees, said in a statement.
University President Steven Knapp said the project would benefit the entire community by creating a gathering place featuring street-level retail and a large grocery store.
But critics, led by the Foggy Bottom Association, continue to argue that the development is neighborhood overkill.
“Our overall concern over the past 20 years has been intensity of use of that small parcel of land,” said Joy Howell, the neighborhood association’s president. “It is a much greater intensity of use than we would have liked.”
GW won Zoning Commission approval for Square 54 last May, not long after the same body backed the school’s 20-year campus plan, which focuses taller and denser development on 16 neighborhood sites. The plan calls for the construction of 1.78 million square feet of academic, residential and commercial space.
“I can’t even imagine what the impact is going to be,” Howell said.
