CRE Close-Up: How a Historic Property Became a 1.8M-Square-Foot 'Urban Village' Innovative Construction Transforms 10 Acres in DC
By Lauren Shanesy
Driving down the busy Wisconsin Avenue in northwest Washington D.C., it would be surprisingly easy to miss the 1.8 million-square-foot mixed-use development that's neatly tucked behind a 1950s Georgian revival building.
The brick building sits atop the edge of a ridge line, a topographical advantage that allowed developers to strategically construct the mixed-use development, aptly named City Ridge, behind and below the historic structure. By lowering the elevation of the site through ambitious and innovative construction methods, they unlocked two additional stories of density while ensuring that the considerable 10-acre property still felt harmonious with the existing residential neighborhood.
"City Ridge is a collection of uses that sets up a unique community around a historic building," said Richard Lake, managing principal at Roadside Development, the company behind the project.
The development boasts 360,000 square feet of commercial space, including office, coworking, retail and D.C.'s first Wegmans grocery store; 690 residential rental units across six buildings; an exclusive "Ridge Club" amenity feature; and a significant amount of green space.
(David Madison Photography)
In an exclusive interview — presented in the series of videos below — LoopNet got a behind-the-scenes look at the $715 million project from Roadside's Richard Lake and project director Robert Wolcheski, along with lead architect Robert Sponseller, senior principal at Shalom Baranes Associates.
Beginning with the acquisition of the historic, former Fannie Mae headquarters site and continuing through four years of extremely technical construction, the three project leads detailed how they managed to create a 10-building project as a distinct community that is still closely tied to the upper northwest D.C. neighborhood in which it resides.
Preserving and Upgrading a Piece of History
Situated in an affluent part of the nation's capital and a residential neighborhood that flows into a 260-acre city park, City Ridge is anchored by a 112,000-square-foot historic brick building that notably served as the Fannie Mae headquarters for 40 years. A recognizable brick structure set back from the street with an expansive front lawn, the formerly gated, private headquarters was a core architectural feature of the community, but not a very functional one.
Roadside Development changed that. "This site was really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something special in Washington, D.C. You don't find 10 acres of development area in the District, let alone upper northwest D.C., which for the past two development cycles has had a high barrier to development and very little change," said Wolcheski. "We saw this as an opportunity to tap into a very strong demographic base, bring [to life] our vision for a dynamic mix of uses and enliven a part of the city that hasn't seen the same change and vibrancy that the rest of the District has witnessed in the past 10 to 15 years."
And for the architects, the challenge of rehabbing an existing building — which Roadside had officially designated as historic — was "one of the many aspects that made it compelling and interesting to us," said Sponseller.
Roadside purchased the building for $86 million in 2016, and began construction at the end of 2018, starting with the renovation of the former Fannie Mae headquarters. International Baccalaureate, a global education programmer that develops school curriculums, signed on as the building's singular office tenant in a 22-year deal.
The building's narrow width of less than 60 feet and ample windows made it viable for many different conversion options. "It was pretty easy to adapt and worked very well as an office building, and we were very fortunate that Fannie Mae took very good care of that building. It was in incredible shape," said Sponseller. "Some of the exterior had deteriorated slightly, and we had to update systems and insert some new mechanical and structural items, but the roof is original, very little had to be done with the brick and it was a steel structure," which made the construction process easier, he added.
The real construction challenge lay underneath the building.
Carving Out DC's First Wegmans
After working on 23 grocery store projects, including three prior Wegmans' locations, Lake knows that no mixed-use project is complete without food retail.
A Wegmans store is a "market maker," he said, so the grocery chain was Roadside's first call when they won the project bid.
"It's not bad to have Wegmans be your walkout basement," Lake said. And for some City Ridge residents, that's exactly where the Wegmans is — 40% of the store is underneath the historic office building, while the other 60% is new construction on the ground level of one of the multifamily properties.
Putting the grocery store underneath an existing building was no small engineering feat. The original basement was only 14 feet high, but Wegmans required 22-foot-ceiling heights, so the team had to lower the foundation by eight feet, all while holding up the building for a year of construction work, in what Sponseller said was the "largest technical challenge we have ever had as an office."
They also excavated a 40-foot-deep hole that would become a 1,300-space parking garage running underneath the development for store customers, visitors and multifamily residents. A new tunnel built into the ridge next to the building hides the delivery trucks and loading area for Wegmans.
"At a great expense, we buried all of the loading for the entire 10-acre project below grade. We created an access point for loading trucks to come down underground, which dramatically reduces the interruption and the noise issues [for residents] that you have with loading," said Lake.
Digging down to install the Wegmans underneath the former Fannie Mae building and working with the slope of the ridge allowed the team to create a new street level that's below the grade of Wisconsin Avenue, in turn unlocking 300,000 square feet of additional usable space.
"We recreated the ground plain, so all the buildings are actually starting 20 feet below the Wisconsin Avenue elevation," said Lake. "The genius of Robert [Wolcheski] and his team was figuring out how to get 90-foot-tall buildings to measure 70 feet under the existing zoning of D.C. It was a shortcut way to get an additional two stories added to the site without going through a zoning process." The zoning process to get approval for taller buildings would have likely added an extra three years to the project timeline," he said.
This approach wouldn't have been possible without the sloping topography of the ridge site, which allowed for the new street level to still be above ground.
"Even though we were going down 20 feet under the existing building, the rest of the site was dropping off so that we were essentially still above grade. So, we're lower than Wisconsin Avenue, but relative to the adjacent grade of the hillside, we were still above ground in the light and air," said Sponseller.
From Gardens to Gyms, a Diverse Array of Amenities
In addition to the 82,000-square-foot Wegmans (106,000 square feet total including their back-of-house and loading space), and International Baccalaureate in the historic building, City Ridge is also home to a 40,000-square-foot Industrious coworking facility, local fast-casual restaurant CAVA Group's corporate headquarters, a 30,000-square-foot Equinox gym, a 15,000-square-foot Kindercare Daycare and 20,000 square feet of curated restaurants.
These include Tatte Bakery and Cafe, Taco Bamba and King Street Oyster Bar, as well as a new concept operated by celebrity chef Michael Mina and additional service retail.
"All of our office was 100% pre-leased before we finished the project, and our retail was about 97% pre-leased. It's uncommon for that much commercial space to deliver pre-leased in an environment like this," said Wolcheski.
The project's 690 residential units are spread out across six buildings, each with unique amenities, including coworking lounges, a golf simulator, a rooftop pizza oven, a greenhouse and herb garden, a makerspace and a private playground. The Ridge Club is a membership-only club for those who live or work in City Ridge, with a rooftop pool and movie screen at the central 14 Ridge Square commercial building.
The six buildings' collective amenities are accessible for any City Ridge tenant, not just those that live in one specific property. "It's almost like resort-style living, where every day you can choose your own adventure to match your mood and match your interests," said Wolcheski.
The buildings fall under one of four brands — The Branches, Botanica, Crescendo and Coterie — each with its own distinct character and design aesthetic.
"When you have a 10-acre site, it's a challenge to not make all the buildings look the same, not to make all the landscaping look the same, and to really have different personalities come through," said Lake.
The developers hired different interior design firms to establish the character of each building, with unique materials and color palettes. The Botanica building, for example, is meant to be more organic and natural since it's the closest to Glover Archibald Park, incorporating warm, earthy colors, textures and tones through both the common areas and unit fixtures.
Alternatively, the Coterie building, which is the only building visible from Wisconsin Avenue, has a "very unique and iconic exterior architecture," said Wolcheski, referencing its sharp triangular footprint. "It really lent itself to a boutique hotel kind of vibe. When you enter that lobby, it's a little moodier with richer leathers, darker materials, and that same aesthetic is brought through the unit finishes as well."
The 690 units feature 226 unique floor plans, many of which appeal to families, with a larger-than-usual apartment size of 921 square feet on average. Half of the units have private outdoor space with terraces and balconies. "We view that outdoor space as an extension of the home," said Wolcheski.
Sustainability That Challenges the Status Quo
In addition to private balconies and rooftop gardens on the residential buildings, public outdoor space, including the sprawling front lawn, makes up 40% of the project. "That is incredibly rare for a development project inside the city," said Wolcheski.
The project is designated LEED Gold for Neighborhood Development, achieving the certification for the entire community, not just an individual building. It's the first development in Washington, D.C., and only the second project in the country to achieve the distinction. It also has a Fitwel certification, which measures the holistic wellness features of a project.
The development has a robust system for water retention. Six-foot-deep bioretention pits along the streets at the back half of the site, which are seamlessly incorporated into the landscaping, as well as 55,000 square feet of bioretention networks on the front lawn and on top of the historic building, and an additional 33,000 square feet of green roof vegetation that captures water from above, all retain stormwater onsite.
"Any water that's not being picked up by the bioretention or the green roofs then finds its way through a drainage system to two, 260,000-gallon cisterns that sit in our garage," Wolcheski said.
"We're then collecting and harvesting that rainwater and reusing it for irrigation purposes, and for heating and cooling for all of our commercial users."
(David Madison Photography)
In a move that reduced both carbon output and the project's construction timeline, Roadside mixed all of its own concrete on the empty one-and-a-half-acre front lawn. "That kept 8,000 concrete trucks off the road, which equates to quite a bit in CO2 reduction," said Wolcheski. "And we weren't waiting for a concrete truck to come from an off-site facility, which ultimately ended up saving us about six weeks during our construction process."
The proximity to Glover Archibald Park also influenced the site's landscaping and lush greenery. The team planted over 240 new trees and 200,000 plants and relocated three, 75-foot-tall, 600,000-pound heritage trees (defined as trees that are greater than 100 inches in circumference, which are illegal to remove in the city) from the construction site onto the front lawn.
"By putting nature in close proximity to where you live and what you experience every day, it reinforces biophilic design principles," said Sponseller. "In addition to the beauty of being along the park, we oriented the buildings in such a way that you would see the landscaping elements and green roofs as part of your daily routine — it's an immersive green environment, where amenity spaces are enmeshed in green gardens to reinforce health and wellness for all the residents."
Residential rooftops are lush with landscaping to match the surrounding tree lines and adjacent Glover Archibald Park. The Botanica apartment rooftop includes a working greenhouse and herb garden, named after Lake's mother Anna, and views of Washington National Cathedral.
(David Madison Photography)
Keeping Community at the Center
As a D.C. native, Lake said he has always been "enamored" by the site that now houses City Ridge. "My dad had a restaurant [around] here, so this is my old stomping grounds."
So, ensuring that he was building a community that would bring value to the area and be a positive addition to the neighborhood was paramount.
All three project leads attended monthly Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) meetings to speak to neighborhood residents and respond to their concerns regarding the project.
"We know a lot of people are concerned about change, and that's natural. The real question is, 'Is somebody going to hear my concerns? Are they going to take them into consideration?'" said Lake. "And we find that the process of engaging with the community really does provide a better project because these folks are actually stakeholders. They live here in this neighborhood and the last thing we want to do is alienate people. There have been accommodations [that came out of] that cooperation that lead to a better project."
Roadside commissioned a custom sculpture by local artist Zachary Oxman for the pubic front lawn, intended to represent and encourage the community coming together after the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The idea behind the nurture statue is that we felt like the world could use a hug, or the healing touch of a hand as we heal from this recent past," said Lake.
(Maxwell Mackenzie)
"We know a lot of people are concerned about change, and that's natural. The real question is, 'Is somebody going to hear my concerns? Are they going to take them into consideration?'" said Lake. "And we find that the process of engaging with the community really does provide a better project because these folks are actually stakeholders. They live here in this neighborhood and the last thing we want to do is alienate people. There have been accommodations [that came out of] that cooperation that lead to a better project."
One notable concern was the ever-looming irritation of additional traffic that such a large development could generate. The teams did several traffic studies around the site and the larger neighborhood, looking at common traffic jams and what was causing them, as well as the timing of the stoplights. The result was approval from the city to create two left-hand turn signals into the project, so cars wouldn't block an existing lane when turning into the Wegmans.
"The community is our customer; it is who we are serving. We're not just building a building for our tenants; we're building a building for the community to enjoy. And once a community takes ownership of your place, you've won," said Lake.