Update on the Jair Lynch V Street & 15 Street Redevelopment Project

Tuesday night Jair Lynch Development Partners convened a community meeting to provide an update on their project at V and 15th Street. This new, 95-unit development is tied to a renovation already underway at Paul Laurence Dunbar Apartments (formerly Campbell Heights), a senior community on the same lot as the new building site.

Last time we heard from Jair Lynch, they had gone before the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) and some changes were pending. Tuesday night we got to see a side-by-side comparison of the old and new design. Click here for the full presentation. Here are some of the updates:

• changing the glass to brick ratio to reduce the amount of glass. This is accomplished by taking four feet off the width and removing a section of the windows, as well as adding more masonry (brick)
• on the ground level, adding punch windows, which are windows that have a row of masonry between them, rather then a window wall all the way across.

With these changes, the project has received conceptual approval from HPRB, which allows Jair Lynch to move ahead with the rest of its applications.

Schedule for 2012

• In February they will go through another design review with HPRB and they will then convene a community meeting to report back.
• At the end of April/beginning of May they will submit the application for building permits. If that goes as planned permits would likely be received in September.
• Over the summer they will begin their general contractor procurement efforts.
• Construction would begin in October and take 16-18 months.
• October – December would be the loudest part of construction because it will involve excavation for the two levels of underground parking. Jair Lynch has elected to use a drilling mechanism rather than the (excruciatingly loud) option of driving the steel piles into the ground. They mentioned that drilling will cost up to $100,000 more than pile driving, but taking into consideration the proximity of neighbors on all sides, including the church, they felt this was a reasonable cost to incur.
• The excavation, sheeting and shoring will take about 1.5 months and then a crane will be erected.
• The concrete structure will take about 1.5 – 2 months to build.
• Outside and inside work will take place simultaneously after that.

Once a contractor is selected we will know more about things like traffic. It is up to the contractor to provide a traffic control plan, and to determine where loading and unloading will take place. There will be community meetings about these issues, and there will be a superintendent on site whose contact info will be available to the community.

Some more info on the project:

This project does not use any District or Federal funds.

Jair Lynch Development Partners says they make an effort to require as much DC-based and union hiring as possible, and that they have a responsible contracting policy with their equity partner. They will advise the contractor that workers should not plan to park on the street or on site.

The subdivision of lots has already taken place, but they do not yet know what the address of the new building will be. The entrance will be on 15th street and the address could range from 2003-2099. There is a covered walkway between the two buildings, which fulfills a zoning requirement allowing the new building to occupy maximum floor area ratio, but there will not be shared access between the two buildings.

There is no retail planned for the site, which is zoned R-5-D.

They do not anticipate any zoning variance requests.

The height of the new building, which is 90 feet, is by right.

The driveway for both buildings will have its entrance on V Street between the new building and Portner Place. Parking for the new property will be underground and right now there are 48 spaces in the plan (32 spaces are required), but that could change after the structural engineering review. They intend to maximize the number of bicycle parking spots available as well. Right now there is one bicycle spot each for half the units, but they hope to add more after the engineering review. Parking for Dunbar residents will be on a surface lot behind the building. Before a decision is made about where and how the driveway goes in there will be meetings with DDOT office of public space.

Jair Lynch expects to hold community meetings every couple of months throughout the process, or more often as needed.