Well, I didn’t see this coming. After everyone and their mother attended the pre-bid conference for redeveloping the Bruce Monroe School site on Georgia Avenue—now happily occupied by a large, if bland, park—only one partnership actually got together a bid for the site, Michael Neibauer reports. The proposal, from townhouse specialist EYA and Georgia Avenue specialist Neighborhood Development Company, features townhouses, multi-family residential capacity, ground-floor retail, and, of course, the school.

The low bid number makes sense, though, when you consider the voluminous request for proposal, which required not one but two plans for the site (one being a scenario where the school was relocated offsite, which sent Bruce Monroe parents and advocates into a tizzy), as well as a substantial down payment. Unless the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development decides there’s something dramatically wrong with EYA-NDC’s bid, Bruce Monroe may have its developer.