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The CityMarket at O Street is a huge mixed-use project that will include more than 600 residential units, 87,000-square-feet of retail, and a colossal new Giant Food Store, partially inside the old market building at the corner of 7th and O Streets. At least this is the description that’s recorded on Roadside Development‘s website. It’s possible the group’s made adjustments. The plan has been sitting up there for a while.
Last fall, I wrote about the CityMarket project. Since then, I’d heard developers were struggling to find funding.
The project seems crucial to the continued rejuvenation of Shaw. There’s no great supermarket in the area—-nothing like the new Safeway in Mt. Vernon Square, the Harris Teeter in Adams Morgan, and the Giant up in Columbia Heights. The current O Street Market shell is an eyesore. And the parking lot at the site is just an empty, underused space.
The D.C. Council clearly recognized the importance of the project and yesterday agreed to fork over $1 million to Roadside Development to help with financing, according to the Washington Examiner. It’s not surprising that Roadside could get politicians to do its bidding, considering how the group’s thrown around money in the past. But in this case, I certainly think the project is worthy of support. Here’s what the Examiner reported:
Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans introduced the emergency resolution, which authorizes Mayor Adrian Fenty to grant $1 million, from any available source, to Roadside Development to get the project at Seventh and O streets Northwest moving. The grant was originally tied to revenues derived from parking meter rate increases. But Fenty and the council are bickering over how to spend the revenue, leaving O Street hanging, Evans said.
This project seems