Showing posts with label Eisenhower East. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eisenhower East. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Hoffman Towers Will Stand Tallest, Despite Being Two Stories Shorter

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Fifty-three years ago, an entrepreneurial young man known as “Dutch” – Hubert N. Hoffman – purchased 71 acres of land that was at the time swamp-scrub-trailer-park landfill, now the continually expanding Eisenhower Valley in Alexandria, Virginia. More than 5 decades after predicting a 35-story building for the site, heirs predict construction could begin as early as this year for a complex that could reach 33 stories - the tallest high-rise in the DC-metro area.

As reported by the Washington Post in 2006, Hoffman paid $200,000 - “every nickel” to his name - a small fortune amassed by trudging through the ranks; from a lowly rank in the back of a bakery, to become a successful agent at New York Life. The payment didn't seem to match the parcel, and onlookers scoffed at what appeared to be a risky financial move for Hoffman. “My learned friends, other developers, assured me I would lose my family,” he told the Post.

Why blow it all on one place? According to Hoffman, the real estate salesman “promised that the Beltway would be coming through.”

He was right. The Capital Beltway was included in the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 and today it cuts right into the Eisenhower Valley, just south of Hoffman's land, and loops itself into the Eisenhower Avenue Connector interchange.

Hoffman kept his land, his family and his dream – to build a “35-story skyscraper on the site."

The Hoffman Company/Hoffman Management - the development company founded by Hoffman - has been developing a mixed-use “urban center” known as the Hoffman Town Center across 56 acres in Eisenhower East for the last decade. Upon completion, the area will contain approximately 7m sf of built area (orange buildings on the master plan below) and includes commercial, residential, and hospitality enterprises.
The signature built element of HTC - The Hoffman Towers - is comprised of 3 towers of mixed-use residential/retail, rising up from block 11 and 12, with big-name tenant Harris Teeter in the ground floor of block 11. An additional 17,000 sf of retail will be incorporated, including "pockets" of 200-sf spaces. The grocer will take up two stories and approximately 50,000 sf. First phase of construction will need to be completed before December 31, 2013 as Harris Teeter has a legal agreement to assume the space on or before that date.

Approximately 1200 residential units will be spread across the 3 towers, including a percentage of affordable housing.

The rendering shown here is the most current design - by architect DCS Design - submitted by the Hoffman Company to the City of Alexandria. Original plans were for two mirrored 24-story towers; new plans are for a three-tower configuration, tiered in height (33, 28 and 22 stories).

Although the tallest tower will be 33 stories, two shy of Hubert Hoffman's vision, and also of Monday Properties' 35-story office building underway at 1812 North Moore in Rosslyn, it has been designed to stand 396 ft from the ground up. Monday Properties' building design is 390 ft tall. However, the Eisenhower Valley sits at approximately 18 ft above sea level, and Rosslyn 80 ft above - this means that the Hoffman Towers will claim the crown of the tallest high-rise inside the Beltway by a mere six feet, with a structure that is one-seventh the height of the Burj Khalifa, but will reach a skyline height approximately 55 ft below 1812 North Moore, thanks to a low-lying valley locale.

Although structural heights in the DC-metro area are scrutinized, Eisenhower East combined with the Carlyle Neighborhood is increasingly building up, as well as building out, thanks to generous amounts of land. Development is further spurred by the proximity of the Beltway, the interchange, and the Eisenhower Avenue Metro stop.

The area is home to significant public and private sector organizations, among them the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the U.S. Federal District Courthouse, as well as a massive 22-screen AMC theater, fringed with national retail chains.

The Towers will sit adjacent to the Metro stop – which currently spits passengers out into parking lots - and will be boxed by new access streets including Port Street, Anchor Street and Dock Lane (which cuts through the towers). Port Street can be blamed for delays with site plan approval. Gwen Wright, Development Division Chief with the City of Alexandria confirmed that negotiations are currently taking place between the Hoffman Company and the owner of private land that falls into the future Port Street area. The Hoffman Company could not be reached for comment.

Wright estimated that a site plan will be approved by the end of the summer. If a general contractor is awarded shortly thereafter, construction should be able to take place before the end of 2011, and the first phase (of two) should in that case be completed in 2013. Wright says the city is currently trying to facilitate negotiations in order to move the project along, as it is viewed positively. “We are excited,” said Wright. “It’ll be a game changer for the Eisenhower Valley.” For the past few years, the Hoffman Company has been in cooperation with the City of Alexandria's Office of Planning & Zoning.

Hubert Hoffman might not be around to see it, he passed away in 2002, but it's happening, skyscrapers are rising out of the Eisenhower Valley. The Towers may not be 35 stories, but they aim to have a better story to tell, to be the tallest high-rise building (from the ground up) in Metropolitan DC. At least for awhile, 396 feet may send builders skyward.

Update: A previous version of this story was published May 25 which did not address from-the-ground-up heights.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Unforgettable: The New Alexandria Skyline

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The forgettable glimpse you see of Alexandria today as you whiz by on the beltway could one day be transformed into a striking world of glass towers, reaching upwards of 30 stories into the northern Virginia skyline. A new mixed-use project, pending approval, would create a defining skyline for the City of Alexandria, add a revitalized metro entrance at Eisenhower Avenue and create over a million s.f. of retail and residential on what is currently a surface parking lot. Hoffman Towers, the residential and retail portion of Hoffman Town Center, will go for review before Alexandria's various planning entities throughout April. The future building sites are on the 11th and 12th block of Eisenhower Avenue next to the metro station.

The Hoffman Company's creatively named Hoffman Towers will deliver an estimated 1,200 new rental apartments and upwards of 70,000 s.f. of retail, likely to include a 50,000 s.f. Harris Teeter grocery store. The plan for Block 11 is one massive building with two towers: the east tower will reach 22 stories and the west tower, adjacent to the metro, will rise 31 stories. The west tower will measure in at 370 feet in height, making it one of the tallest building in the DC area. Five levels of below-grade parking will provide over 700 spaces. A surface parking lot will also remain on part of the block to serve the grocer - apparently state utility power lines overhead render the site unusable for construction. Block 12 will also house a behemoth, a 28-story building with nearly 800 below-grade and surface parking spaces.

Designed by Davis Carter Scott Architects, the towers received a bit of a beating from the Design Review Board (DRB) in July and November 2009. The DRB critiqued the massing of the buildings as "boxy" with all three towers at the same height and commented on the problems with the depth and frontages of proposed retail. Particularly problematic was the design for the Harris Teeter, which planners described as not being "fully integrated with the project or the Eisenhower East neighborhood" because the store faced inward, rather than fronting a main street. But since then, the developer and architects seem to have made sufficient changes to warrant a DRB approval and move forward with planning review.

The planning staff report describes the updated design as "slim, very tall towers" of masonry and glass. Though originally designed to be broader and shorter and uniform in height, the planning staff requested for a less boxy design. To avoid the "plateau" appearance, the new articulation provides a gradual step down in building height as the block moves away from the Metro. Staff said the buildings will be a "symbol of the transformation of the Eisenhower valley."

In exchange for height and density exceptions, the developer is providing 50,000 s.f. of residential space for upwards of 50 units of affordable housing. Additionally, Hoffman will donate $3.3 million to the city's affordable housing coffers. The developers have agreed to aim for LEED certification or a similar standard set by the Green Globes program.

Hoffman recently reached an agreement with WMATA on the Eisenhower Metro improvements. The development rights for the station belong to the Hoffman family, who in 1978 gave to WMATA the property that became the Eisenhower Metro. WMATA will handle station improvements through existing grants. Hoffman will redesign the area on the surface, including reworking the bus and taxi circulation and relocating the Kiss & Ride lot. Design and construction of Eisenhower Station Square, a large open public space adjacent to the new and improved Metro station, will be a joint effort.

New skyline, new residential, new metro, oh my! It sounds too good to be true, and odds are the project is a long way off. You can continue to blink as you pass Alexandria on your commute.

Alexandria Virginia real estate and development news
 

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