340 Florida Avenue NE, a mixed-use residential and commercial project that will include about 200 housing units, went before the Zoning Commission Monday, which is expected to take a final action on the project.
The development, to be known as Gateway Market Center, promises to further change the look and feel of the warehouse district that Union Market has already helped revitalize.
Developer EDENS notes that 25,000 square feet of ground-floor retail is in the plans, including an as-yet-unnamed specialty grocer and a number of restaurants. Some 20 percent of the total number of apartments – whose combined footprint is about 153,000 square feet – will be offered at affordable rates to occupants earning 80 percent of Metro D.C’s Area Median Income, which is $107,500 for a family of four. Among the planned amenities for residents are a central courtyard with distinct green, cooking and lounge areas; parking for 72 bikes; and SmarTrip cards and car-sharing subsidies for all of the project’s initial crop of residents.
Approved by ANC 6C last year, the original proposal for 340 Florida Ave. NE included a hotel and office space, but after the Zoning Commission and the Office of Planning expressed concern, developers withdrew both.
Bethesda-based SK + I is the architect of record for Gateway Market Center. Seeking what public documents have described as its “industrial aesthetic,” SK + I has made several changes to the development’s massing in order to balance a contemporary look with the site’s roots.
Where the National Archives are today – Constitution Ave and 9th Street NE – was once the site of DC’s Central Market, which was relocated to the parcel bounded by Florida Ave. NE and 4th Street NE in the 1960s. It’s here where Union Market now stands and Gateway Market Center is slated to.
EDENS, based in Columbia, S.C., is developing not only Gateway Market Center but also the adjacent eight-screen Angelika Film Center, slated to open in 2015.
Amy Rogers Nazarov is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist with more than 25 years experience as a staff reporter and a freelance writer, covering technology, adoption, real estate, and lifestyle topics from food & drink to home organizing. Her byline has appeared in Cooking Light, The Washington Post, Slate, Washingtonian, The Writer, Smithsonian, The Washington Post Express, The Baltimore Examiner, The Sacramento Bee, Cure, The Washington Times, Museum, and many other outlets. She is a member of the American Society of Journalists & Authors and tweets at
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