City Ridge

City Ridge Overview

The c. 1958 Fannie Mae Friendship Heights headquarters was purchased in late 2016 by developers for approximately $89m. Its redevelopment to a mixed-use project termed "new urban village" and named City Ridge includes new residential units, retail and office space. The 10-acre project incorporates historic, 228k square foot colonial-style buildings once referred to as “Versailles West” by the Wall Street Journal, plus vacant land where new apartments will be constructed.

Developer

Roadside Development with North American Sekisui House (NASH of Japan, a full subsidiary of SEKISUI HOUSE, Ltd, Japan’s largest homebuilder and leading diversified developer)

Architect

Shalom Baranes

Landscape Architect

Michael Vergason Landscape Architects, Ltd.

Civil Engineer

VIKA Capitol, LLC

Contractor

Whiting-Turner

Sub-Contractors

Berkel and MD Fabricators*

*Awarded the 2020 Washington Building Congress Craftsmanship Award for foundation lowering beneath the historic structure.

LEED Certification

LEED V4 for Neighborhood Development Gold

*The first DC project so designated

Status

Under construction. Groundbreaking in Dec. 2018. The commercial portion of the project topped out in late May 2021. Of the six residential buildings, the first topped out in November 2020, with the rest topping out by May 2021.

Residential Type

Six residential buildings offering 687 residential units, all expected to be for-lease at Upton Place (4000 Wisconsin). While there had been early hope for a condominium component, published planslimit residential to the 687 units at 4000 Wisconsin, all of which are designated rental apartments on the Donohoe website.

Commercial Anchor Tenants

Wegman's
The International Baccalaureate (nonprofit)*

*The IB signed a full-building lease, relocating from 7501 Wisconsin Ave. NW in Bethesda.

Retail tenants include Kindercare and two restaurant spaces.

Delivery

City Ridge is expected to fully deliver from the third quarter of 2022 through early 2023. Commercial portions of the project, including Wegman's supermarket, are on-track to deliver mid-2022. The residential components are slated to deliver last; the expectation is for late 2023.

Address

3900 Wisconsin Avenue NW Washington DC 20016 (Commercial)

4000 Wisconsin Avenue NW Washington DC 20016 (Residential-Upton Place)

Location

The City Ridge site is located south of Upton Street NW and north of Rodman Street NW, at a ridgeline that separates the two stream valleys of Rock Creek Park to the east and Foundry Branch to the west. between Tenleytown and McLean Gardens in Northwest Quadrant of the District of Columbia.

City Ridge will offer three entrances for vehicles: two on Wisconsin Avenue and one on 39th Street NW. A pedestrian entrance will be located on 39th Street.

Highway Plan

Project Media Gallery

City Ridge Project Details

Plans for City Ridge were revised in May 2018 and refined until the groundbreaking at the end of 2018. The City Ridge project will now include a 150 room hotel, 652 residential units, 153k square feet of retail and 62,000 square feet of office space. The original Fannie Mae building will become the new home of Wegmans supermarket.

Both Roadside Development and NASH have individually developed similar projects in the past, Roadside with City Market at O and Cityline at Tenley, and NASH with Bellevue Station Block B in Denver, a partnership on Wardman Tower condos here in DC and Westlake Steps (partnership) in Seattle.

Fannie Mae vacated the 10 acre property at 3900 Wisconsin, relocating to their new site at 1100 15th St NW. Technically, the 3900 Wisconsin property is located in Tenleytown, not Friendship Heights, also the location of Sidwell Friends School, sited across Wisconsin Avenue from 3900. Sidwell purchased a portion of the Fannie Mae property to add to their school campus.

City Ridge will combine new construction with the adaptive reuse of the existing 1956-58 and 1963 office wings, as well as maintain and reprogram a landscaped front lawn setback from Wisconsin Avenue. While the site currently functions as a single-use campus, the new development will be organized around a pedestrian-oriented street grid with multiple buildings and uses. Parking and service areas are located in a below grade structure. The Project also incorporates open spaces, including use of the front lawn, creation of a village plaza area with restaurants and cafes, multiple courtyards and pocket parks, rooftop spaces, and a potential connection to Glover-Archbold Park.

Nine mixed-use buildings, (eight new), totaling about 1,088,000 square feet GFA with an estimated 652 residential units and approx. 62k SF of office space will be built and/or renovated. Included will be approx. 1,400 below-ground parking spaces and required loading and bike parking facilities (710 + parking spaces are required, plus 300 long-term bicycle spaces and 100 short-term bike spaces). Nine loading bays and three loading spaces are built into the design. When completed, the entire mixed-use development will offer a Wegmans grocery store, multi-family residences, a theater, a health club, restaurants, offices, and a hotel, as well as below-grade parking.

Upton Place Overview

Upton Place On Wisconsin

“Upton Place on Wisconsin” will offer 687-689 for-lease apartments above roughly 100,000 SF of retail space and an 825-space underground parking garage adjacent to City Ridge. The residential breakdown is asa follows;

455 apartment homes in the 6 story East Tower
234 apartment homes in the eight-story West Tower.
The apartment units were designed by SK+I Architecture.

Amenities include a fitness center, 3 courtyards, rooftop entertainment space, outdoor cooking areas, 2 pools, co-working space, and various active social spaces for gathering and events.

DONOHOE

Partnership

Donohoe and Aimco, a national apartment owner, formed a joint venture for this project.

Aimco (Apartment Investment and Management Company) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust. As of December 31, 2020, the company owned 27 apartment communities comprising 6,342 apartment units in 12 states and the District of Columbia.

Aimco traces its roots to The Considine Company, formed in 1975 by Terry M Considine, the Chairman and CEO of Apartment Income REIT, and a former Republican politician.

Aimco was incorporated on January 10, 1994.
On July 29, 1994, the company became a public company via an initial public offering.
In 1994, Aimco acquired Homecorp, a management company with 5,300 units based in Montgomery, Alabama.
In 1996, Aimco acquired Walters Management Company and the J.W. English Company.
In 1997, Aimco acquired National Housing Partnership Incorporated, which owned 87,659 apartments.
In October 1997, Aimco acquired 8,175 apartment units from Winthrop.
In 1998, Aimco acquired Insignia Financial Group in a $910 million transaction.
In 2000, the company acquired Oxford Realty Financial Group, which owned interests in 36,662 apartment units, for $314 million.^[11] Also in 2000, the company acquired the Oxford Tax-Exempt Fund for $206 million.
In 2002, Aimco acquired Casden Properties, founded by Alan Casden. The $1.5 billion acquisition included 17,383 apartments, including 6,356 conventional apartment units located in Southern California and 11,027 affordable apartment units in 25 states.
In 2003, the company was added to the S&P 500 index. It was removed from the index in December 2020.
In December 2020, it completed the corporate spin-off of Apartment Income REIT Corp.

Source: Wikipedia

Community Engagement

DCOP documentation and representative local print coverage for the 3900 Wisconsin Avenue 'Fannie Mae Redevelopment' project. Highlight and click titles to activate links.

Council Of The Whole

Committee Report December 17, 2019

Report on Bill 23-251, the “Abandonment of the Highway Plan for 39th Street, N.W., S.O. 18-41885 Act of 2019”

On April 4, 2019, Bill 23-251, the “Abandonment of the Highway Plan for 39th Street, N.W., S.O. 18-41885 Act of 2019,” was introduced. Bill 23-251 would remove “paper” streets of 39th Street, NW between Upton and Rodman Streets in Ward 3.

2019 Donohoe Acquisition 4000 Wisconsin

Committee Report December 17, 2019

The Donohoe Cos. stopped the potential foreclosure 4000 Wisconsin Ave., taking the first step toward its redevelopment to a mixed-use project.

The company negotiated acquisition of the debt in order to proceed with plans they submitted in 2017, prior to the departure of Fannie Mae.

2017 Donohoe Plan

DCOP November 5, 2017

Final Design Submission

Final design submission April 2018

ANC 3C

Roadside proposed development was permitted by zoning, so zoning relief was not required, just submission of a large-tract review application.

In February 2018, ANC 3C made large tract review comments and recommendations to OP, outlining concerns from McLean Gardens residents relating to increased traffic, parking issues and a proposed truck entrance with proximity to their property.

The developer was urged to place a resident-only gate at the 39th Street entrance to discourage neighborhood cut-through traffic by people going to the nonresidential portions of the new development, but Roadside declined the request.

It was also requested that Roadside include larger residential units with 3 and 4 bedrooms and 20% affordable IZ housing for the project. The developer responded that 3 bedroom units would be included, and declined to increase its affordable housing component from the 8-10% required.

Fannie Mae Redevelopment Design Details

Interior design details for 3900 Wisconsin Avenue Redevelopment' are not yet available. The gallery below depicts exterior design elements revised in the April 2018 final submission by developers.

CITY RIDGE