Overview Capitol Quarter/JD's Photos Capper Apartments/Photos Capper News Items
Status, as of July 2008:
At Capitol Quarter, first-phase sales of 61 market-rate townhouses are complete. Twenty "workforce"-rate houses have also been reserved, with another 32 yet to be offered. There will also be in this first phase 8 Section 8 ownership units and 39 subsidized rental units. Another workforce-rate unit lottery should be scheduled sometime in summer 2008. Capitol Quarter's second phase, which is not expected to begin until after 2010, will include another 60 market-rate units, 39 workforce-rate units, 17 Section 8 ownership units, and 47 subsidized rental units.
Office buildings totaling more than 700,000 square feet will also eventually be built, at 250 M Street and on the site of the old Capper Seniors building at 7th and M; this building was demolished in 2007 and replaced with a temporary surface parking lot. 250 M has its zoning approvals but is waiting until 30% of the building is leased before starting construction; there is no timetime as yet for the office buildings at 7th and M. There will be ground-floor retail in the office and apartment buildings. In 2007 the Zoning Commission approved temporary surface parking lots, to last no more than five years, on the three blocks along Canal Park where the new apartment buildings will be built and on the old Capper Seniors site. It's not expected that these residential projects will begin before 2010. Construction of the development is proceeding from east to west, starting with the blocks between Fifth and Fourth streets. Plans for a new community center at Fifth and K streets are not moving forward as of now.
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This stitched-together overhead view, taken in March 2006, shows the entire Capper/Carrollsburg site, from the Southeast Freeway at left to the block south of L Street on the right. All of the public housing buildings had been vacant for at least a year at the time of this photo, but all were finally demolished during 2006. The Capper buildings between 4th and 5th Street were demolished in late 2004. You can also see the under-construction Capper Seniors #1 at rear left. The Canal Park will replace the school bus lots in the foreground. (03/06) 
The same view, 10 months later, this time a single shot with a wide angle lens (so the angles are a bit different). All Capper buildings are now demolished, except for the Community Center and the tall red-brick old Capper Seniors. You can also see the completed Capper Seniors #1 and the under construction Capper Building #2. Alas, the school buses are still in place. The three cleared blocks have since been paved over for parking for a few years, before becoming apartment buildings (probably not before 2010). The other blocks make up the footprint of the Capitol Quarter townhouse development. (6/24/08)  |
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On June 26, 2007, the DC Housing Authority held a ceremonial groundbreaking for the redevelopment of Capper/Carrollsburg, with a large group of people wielding shovels on K Street just west of 4th Street. From left: Brian Allan Jackson of EYA; Franklin Smith, chairman of the DCHA Board of Commissioners; former Capper/Carrollsburg resident Kivette Abraham and her daughter; Ward 6 council member Tommy Wells; Michael Kelly, DCHA Executive Director; Leslie Steen, the District's Housing Chief; Leila Edmunds, director of the DC Department of Housing and Community Development; and Anthony Waddell, Director of Public Finance at the DC Housing Finance Agency. (6/26/07)
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DCHA commission chair Franklin Smith speaks to the assembled crowd; at far right is a graphic showing how the affordable housing units are integrated into the townhouses so that from the outside all the differing income-level units look the same. (6/26/07)
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DCHA executive director Michael Kelly gave an energetic talk highlighting how Capper's redevelopment includes a one-to-one replacement of every unit of public housing that was demolished. (6/26/07)
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On a typical hazy and humid Washington summer day, Ward 6 council member Tommy Wells wryly made reference to the "hottest housing market in the country" while the audience fanned themselves and hoped to feel some of the air-conditioning inside the tent. (6/26/07)
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The tent erected in the EYA parking lot for the groundbreaking festivities. (6/26/07)
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While six people with shovels can move some dirt, it's probably a good thing that the heavy machinery is on standby. (6/26/07)
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Looking south into Capper/Carrollsburg down 3rd Street from under the Southeast Freeway overpass, the only view that many Capitol Hill workers and residents have ever had of the Cappers and Near Southeast. (05/03)
The same location, in January 2007, with every Capper residence now demolished. You can also see the changes outside the Cappers, with the new Department of Transportation headquarters building now looming at right, and even the improved streetscape on 3rd south of M visible, as is the Anacostia River. (01/11/07)
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Overview Capitol Quarter/JD's Photos Capper Apartments/Photos Capper News Items
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