The redevelopment of the Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg public housing complex in the Capitol Riverfront, stalled past its expected 2013 completion date by the recession and the sheer scale of the project, now appears to have new momentum, with the D.C. Housing Authority having secured financing for a 195-unit building on the site.

The news, first reported by JDLand and confirmed by Housing Authority spokesman Rick White, comes on the heels of another step toward new development in the project. The Housing Authority recently proposed to its board that it sell off a parcel in the newly hot neighborhood to a private developer for the construction of a market-rate condo building, and use the proceeds to speed up funding for the affordable housing needed to fulfill the agency’s commitment to provide replacement units for all the public housing lost when Capper/Carrollsburg was razed in the mid-2000s. That plan generated controversy among neighbors who thought its creation of separate low-income and market-rate buildings would violate the Housing Authority’s commitment to build a fully integrated mixed-income community, but it would also allow the replacement affordable units to be built more quickly after years of delay due to lack of financing.

The latest planned development, though, hews to the mixed-income model. The “Lofts at Capitol Quarter,” as the project at 7th and L streets SE is being called, will consist entirely of rental apartments, including 39 affordable units. Construction is expected to begin within a few months and last about 20 months. The building will take over part of a Nationals Park parking lot.

Of the 707 demolished Capper/Carrollsburg units, 515 replacement affordable units have been built. The two planned projects would take that number to 602, still 103 units short of the Housing Authority’s promise of one-to-one replacement.

Renderings from the Housing Authority