More Development Coming to H Street NE

The new development on H Street, NE will be a mixed-use project to include new homes and retail on the 10,800-square-foot city-owned lot at 1300 H Street in Ward 6. It’s the former site of R.L. Christian Library, which opened in 1982, but has been vacant for two years and is now a brownfield site. After reviewing six proposals submitted in August, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development awarded proposal rights to redevelop the site.

The new development will be a 30-unit residential building with 8,000 square feet of retail and 17 underground parking spaces with an industrial-style exterior.  Six of the 30 units will be reserved for affordable housing, ideally for artists and social entrepreneurs. The retail will include a local food market from Arcadia and 10 retail incubators for local merchants.

Rise Development, a subsidiary of WestMill Capital Partners, is one of the partners of the new development on H Street. The owners of that company also are involved in Fundrise and Popularise. 

Fundrise allows the public to invest in real estate without going through a large financial institution or purchasing a whole property. The new development on H Street will likely be offered as an investment opportunity on Fundrise to promote this new public-private neighborhood development model. In fact, this is the first government-owned land in the country to allow local residents to directly invest in the development.

Popularise is an online crowdsourcing platform that will give DC residents the ability to voice their opinions about the new development on H Street. The site also provides a place for developers to interact with the community and gauge support for ideas.

Now that a proposal has been selected, be on the lookout for new development on H Street.