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DC North has an update on U Street’s newest major project: A hotel at the corner of 13th St., where the Rite Aid currently sits.
After community push-back, developer JBG has agreed to chop off a floor, dropping down from ten to nine—-though it maintains that anything less than that, and the project would be financially “unfeasible.”
The proposed hotel would be a four-star operation with a spa, fitness center and upscale restaurant. It will be managed by another company, which JBG is currently hunting around for.
I’m feeling a little bit of deja vu here.
Just a mile or so north in Adams Morgan, developer Brian Friedman has (had?) been trying to build a hotel on top of me—-well, where I, my Washington City Paper co-workers, and Pacifica Radio currently have offices. (Actual location: The corner of Euclid and Champlain Streets.)
Friedman planned to turn the First Church of Christ, Scientist, as well as our building behind it, into a boutique hotel. His proposal was met with opposition when neighborhood groups objected to the building’s proposed height.
Neighbors on Wallach Pl directly south of the U Street project have complained that that “structure would tower over them and block out their sun,” the article states—-though it rather hilariously corrects “that, as the sun comes in from the south, loss of sunlight would not be an issue since the hotel would be located to the north of Wallach Pl.”
One stake-holder who has reason to cry is Rite Aid, the corner’s current anchor: The convenience store “would be moved inside the hotel” a JBG representative states in the story. “The corner spot would likely go to the restaurant.”