D.C. picks Equity Res­i­den­tial to develop Stevens Ele­men­tary School

By Jonathan O’Connell | Sep­tem­ber 22, 2009

A devel­op­ment team led by Equity Res­i­den­tial has been cho­sen by D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty to develop the his­toric Stevens Ele­men­tary School, accord­ing to mul­ti­ple sources.

The choice con­flicted with the pref­er­ence of com­mu­nity groups, prompt­ing Coun­cil­man Jack Evans, D-Ward 2, to try to get Fenty to reconsider.

Accord­ing to sources, Fenty’s eco­nomic devel­op­ment team, led by Deputy Mayor Valerie San­tos, selected Equity Res­i­den­tial team to develop Stevens from a group of three final­ists. Equity part­nered with D.C.-based Neigh­bor­hood Devel­op­ment Co. and Hickok Cole Archi­tects and plans to develop the school into mul­ti­fam­ily housing.

Com­mu­nity groups pre­ferred a plan by the Pee­bles Corp. of Florida to turn the build­ing into a lux­ury hotel by the Mor­gans Hotel Group Co.

A neigh­bor­hood leader, Asher Cor­son, said the selec­tion of Chicago-based Equity Res­i­den­tial was “com­pletely baf­fling” and “100 per­cent anti-community development.”

“This is the worst-case sce­nario,” said Cor­son, who is an Advi­sory Neigh­bor­hood Com­mis­sioner in the area and pres­i­dent of the Foggy Bot­tom Asso­ci­a­tion. Both the ANC and the neigh­bor­hood group backed the Pee­bles bid. “This is lit­er­ally the worst pos­si­ble result.” read full article»

Coun­cil­man Kwame Brown, D-at large and chair of the eco­nomic devel­op­ment com­mit­tee, sharply crit­i­cized the selection.

“I think that is a slap in the face for all the peo­ple in the com­mu­nity who spend their nights and evenings and week­ends to go over the plans,” Brown said. “And to have their input ignored is unacceptable.”

Brown, a pos­si­ble may­oral con­tender, said he would not sup­port a project that seemed to go against what res­i­dents wanted. “It doesn’t fall in line with what the com­mu­nity then it’s going to be very hard to get it out of the coun­cil,” he said.

City and indus­try sources say Fenty planned to announce the selec­tion at 4 p.m. Tues­day, but before the announce­ment Fenty’s team briefed Coun­cil­man Jack Evans on the selec­tion and Evans — whose ward includes Stevens — was not pleased. No selec­tion announce­ment was held.

Cor­son, who serves as press aide to Coun­cil­woman Mary Cheh, D-Ward 3, said Evans told him of the selec­tion Tues­day after­noon and vowed to do every­thing he could to get the mayor to reconsider.

“Valerie San­tos actu­ally called Equity Res­i­den­tial and told them they got the con­tract for the Stevens School, and Jack Evans basi­cally expressed that the neigh­bor­hood would be incred­i­bly angry and basi­cally stepped in and asked the mayor and [City Admin­is­tra­tor] Neil Albert and Valerie San­tos to post­pone the announce­ment,” Cor­son said.

San­tos was not imme­di­ately avail­able for com­ment. She is sched­uled to go before the D.C. Coun­cil for con­fir­ma­tion Thursday.

A top aide to Evans, Jeff Coudriet, said the coun­cil­man was indeed unhappy with the choice and was explor­ing alternatives.

A hotel “clearly seemed to be the pref­er­ence of the ANC and the neigh­bor­hood asso­ci­a­tion. And the word on the street is that that the selec­tion is not,” Coudriet said.

Evans had not pre­vi­ously endorsed one team or another. “I think he’s kind of tried to avoid that and allow Valerie Santos’s office to do what they do,” Coudriet said.

Another ANC, Rebecca Coder, said all three plans were viable but that the com­mu­nity pre­ferred hav­ing a hotel in the neigh­bor­hood rather than a hous­ing devel­op­ment that seemed catered to col­lege stu­dents and not long-term res­i­dents. She also said the Pee­bles hotel plan seemed to fit the neighborhood’s char­ac­ter bet­ter. “We liked it from a his­toric preser­va­tion per­spec­tive,” she said. “We also liked it from a height and den­sity perspective.”

Cor­son said he believed that Evans “is inves­ti­gat­ing whether it’s pos­si­ble to not give it to Equity Res­i­den­tial given that Valerie San­tos has given them a ver­bal con­fir­ma­tion that they won the project and whether that will open the city up to liability.”

He said the selec­tion capped off a deci­sion process that failed to include com­mu­nity input at every turn. Cor­son said Fenty’s office had ignored the community’s inter­est in keep­ing Stevens open, in offer­ing the build­ing to a char­ter school and in eval­u­at­ing all nine ini­tial bids for the project.

“For the lit­tle win­dow of oppor­tu­nity that we were allowed to give input, the neigh­bor­hood almost unan­i­mously backed one of the proposals…and there was vir­tu­ally no one that backed Equity Res­i­den­tial,” Cor­son said.