New development is finally on its way to Braddock Road.
Almost a year and a half after the city of Alexandria adopted a new vision for a redeveloped, high-density neighborhood by the Braddock Road Metro station, officials with Erkiletian and the Jefferson Apartment Group broke ground on a 206-apartment building just a block from the Metro station.
The real estate developers are the first to break ground in the neighborhood since the adoption of the Braddock Road Metro Station Small Area Plan, which the city drafted as a guideline for developers to improve a 70-block region in neighborhoods east of the Metro station.
The City Council envisions Braddock Road as an urban neighborhood similar to the kind of development that surrounds Metro stations in neighboring Arlington County.
“Certainly for us as the leaders of the city, this is something that we ourselves envisioned, that we wanted here at this location,” Mayor Bill Euille said. “It’s transit-oriented development, the right type of development to have.”
In two weeks, developers will demolish a 60-year-old storage facility on Payne Street that had been used by the U.S. General Services Administration, clearing the way for construction of the six-story apartment complex, which will be called the Asher. The building is scheduled for completion in 2012.
Developers were able to secure a $40.5 million loan from US Bank and $7 million in equity from Federal Capital Partners of D.C. for the project.
The framework is already in place for a high-density neighborhood at Braddock Road, according to the city’s plan, though many more improvements are needed for the area to become more livable. For example, the neighborhood still needs a grocery store, Euille said.
But the City Council is hopeful that the groundbreaking is a sign of an economic turnaround, the beginning of a new surge of construction after a lengthy recession.
“Things have been pretty much on hold in the city and regionwide,” Euille said. “Hopefully this will be the economic engine that will spur further development.”
