It’s early days, but an intriguing multi-family from Wall Development Group and Square 134 Architects is in the works for the 1100 block of H Street NE, just across from
H&pizza.
The five-story mixed-use building, now under construction at 1115 H, will offer 16 condominiums starting in the $300,000 range, with four earmarked affordable housing and set to be priced below market value for buyers who qualify. “There is not a lot of condo product for sale on the Hill,” says Stan Wall, PE, Hill resident and principal of Wall Development Group.
It is also being designed to earn the LEED Platinum designation, an indication that sustainable building materials and practices are used in the $3.5 million project.
Sheridan Station was the first multi-family building in the District to earn LEED platinum status, and it has won accolades from the Washington Business Journal and the U.S. Green Building Council.
At 1115 H, some 2,700 square feet of ground-floor space will be earmarked for retail, says Wall. “The city has a preference for non-food” retail, he says “I definitely want it to be something unique and original to the H Street corridor.”
Overall square footage for the project is 16,300 square feet. There will be eight parking spaces inside. Wall, who does not own a car himself, hopes to spur owners’ increased use of public transportation by throwing in ZipCar and car2go memberships as well as SmarTrip cards with the purchase of each unit.
This is Wall’s first development project, but in his day job, as director of real estate and station planning at WMATA, he is no stranger to the particular set of issues and regulations that guide D.C. development.
“I was always on the public side of the table, and I wanted to try my hand at [development]” according to the principles of the
triple bottom line, Wall says. TBL is an emerging accounting framework that designs benefits for communities and for the environment (as well as profit for the stakeholders) into the creation of a successful development or other project.
To that end, one additional piece of 1115 H Street NE worth noting is its being used as a teaching tool of sorts for students at
Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering High School, at 704 26th Street NE.
Classes there “are using my building as a case study,” Wall says. Students have toured the site and examined the neighborhood context of existing and planned construction to create designs and renderings for their own visions of 1115 H Street. “They’re keeping journals about the process,” says Wall.
This is Wall’s second year partnering with Phelps, and he’s planning to offer first, second and third prizes to Phelps students for their work inspired by his foray into D.C. development.
This article has been updated to make the following corrections: the retail space is approximately 2700 square feet, not 8,186, and Wall is a D.C. resident but not a native. Elevation DC regrets the error.