Parks and Recreation bid submitted for the WMATA Property at Albion Road!

Back in November 2018 I posted the article below which got the conversation going about this land being for sale:

http://riverdaleparkstation.blogspot.com/2018/11/is-land-behind-woodberry-townhomes-for.html

In January 2019 I posted an update as more information became available:

http://riverdaleparkstation.blogspot.com/2019/01/update-on-land-for-sale-and-rezoning.html

We received excellent support from the City of College Park and Town of Riverdale Park along with Prince George's County.

The outcry about any possible rezoning was so loud that the listing company updated the listing about the current single family zoning.

I am very happy to report that the Prince Georges County Department of Parks and Recreation submitted a letter of intent to acquire 6 acres of WMATA property at Albion Road on 2/20/19  (which was the deadline for bids on this property)

I am hoping that this bid, coupled with the declaration by both College Park and Riverdale Park that rezoning from R-55 would be almost impossible for any developer will result in a favorable outcome for the people who live in this area and care about this land.

It's now up to WMATA to choose the M-NCPPC bid, which is supported by the community and preserves a key part of the Prince George's County Green Infrastructure Network.

Thanks to all of the neighbors and government officials who assisted in this effort!

Bella Lifestyle Nail Salon and Spa - Opens February 15th

Bella Nail Salon and Spa is finally opening on February 15th.

They are having a grand opening event between 4pm - 6pm on Friday, February 15th.

From the Cafritz (now riverdaleparkstation.com) site:

"The long awaited Bella Nail Salon is now opening for business, and we’re here to celebrate! Join us from 4-6pm on Friday, February 15th in Bella Salon for small bites, champagne, music, and a giveaway drawing (which you can enter anytime on Friday). Follow our social media to stay up to date on this event! We can’t wait to see you there."


Update 2/21/19:  RouteOneFun noted this was delayed again to 2/22/19.  

Personally I think it will get delayed even further from 2/22/19.   Maybe early March?

Update 3/15/19:   As I just posted in my latest blog, the date is now set at March 24th.

Banana Blossom Bistro Opens next week

Banana Blossom Bistro is opening for dinner only starting next week.... and have been seeing it has already been serving folks on an invite only basis for the last few days.

I wrote about it in June of last year here:

http://riverdaleparkstation.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-town-center-of-riverdale-park.html

The Route One Fun Blog has an excellent and very detailed write up on the restaurant they published last week:

https://www.routeonefun.com/2019/01/vietnamese-banana-blossom-bistro-riverdale-park-allergy.html

I've traveled through a lot of Vietnam and really enjoy the food and will definitely check it out late this week. 

This is going to be right on the doorstep for the people who buy down in Building's 9 and 10, which are progressing very quickly.

Update on the land for sale and rezoning

As an update from my post back in late November:

http://riverdaleparkstation.blogspot.com/2018/11/is-land-behind-woodberry-townhomes-for.html

As I confirmed back in November 2018 this land IS for sale.

Since my last post, there has been a great deal of action from residents of Calvert Hills, the Town of Riverdale, Riverdale Park Station and University Park in order to stop any potential rezoning of this land.  (some of which I have been involved in)

The 6 acres is currently assessed at only $776,100... yet WMATA is asking just 2.1 million for the property.  The only way this asking price makes any sense whatsoever is if they can immediately rezone the property from it's current R-55 zoning to something with much higher density.

I realize Hyattsville Wire finally stumbled on to the story last night and posted there would be "steep odds" to keep townhomes from being built but I believe there are more "steep odds" to land actually being rezoned.

Rezoning land from R-55 to high density in PG county is no joke. 

Case in point:  The land that Riverdale Park Station was built on was originally zoned R-55.

The first action to rezone that property was started in January of 2004 followed by a 11 year back and forth between Calvert Hills, University Park and Cafritz with countless traffic impact studies and eventual sign off and approval by all neighboring areas.

If you want to read about the entire, messy and extremely expensive ordeal read over this 90 page document.   

https://www.mncppc.org/DocumentCenter/View/9704/Cafritz-Property-Standards-w-Signable-Storefronts

The only reason this land was EVENTUALLY rezoned is Cafritz had owned the property for generations and it was sitting there not doing anything for them and Calvin Cafritz Enterprises had unlimited time and resources to work to get this land rezoned.   Plus over the decade plus they were able to placate nearly all of the nearby residents with many various concessions (which are all laid out in that 90 page document)

I spoke with one of the women who lead the fight against Cafritz from University Park and she said by the time all was said and done most of the people who were originally opposed to development were actually vocal supporters, due to all of the steps Cafritz took to make everyone happy.

I seriously doubt any investor will want to pay 2+ million for a small and awkwardly arranged strip of hilly land and then go through a similar rezoning battle. 

If the land does end up selling to some unfortunately developer I hope they have a very deep pockets and a very long time horizon.

General RPS Updates

First the townhomes...

Yesterday Stanley Martin finally went vertical on the last two buildings in this development, buildings 9 and 10...

They had completed the foundations for these buildings way back in September.  The reason they gave for holding off construction for the last three months was some type of lumber issue, but it is my belief that they were holding off so these last two buildings would be completed during the spring/summer period when the real estate market is much more active.

Given that it usually takes 5 months or so once they go vertical I expect buildings 9 and 10 to be completed and ready to be moved in by late May or early June of 2019.

Currently 3 units still remain for sale from Buildings 7 and 8, along with one recent resale listing on Woodberry.  It's unclear on how many units are left from Buildings 9 and 10.


Bella Beach Nail and Spa:

Looks completed as of today:

The developer had announced that it would open its doors to the public on December 15th but obviously they must have encountered more delays.   It looks 100% ready to open I am thinking we will see it open in early January.

I also spoke with Denizens and they said they are still on track for a March 2019 opening.

The apartment I have been blogging about here is still on track to begin construction in January of 2019.. so next month.

This is the same 230 unit apartment in building 5 I have blogged about a few times over the course of the blog:

Here is my post from October 2017:
https://riverdaleparkstation.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-apartments-of-riverdale-park-station.html

Apparently all of the plans are the same (still 230 units and same design) and we will see if they begin construction next month as planned.   Retailers here are hoping for no more delays and the homeowners on Woodberry would like not to be looking at a giant, towering concrete slab for much longer so lets hope they start in January as planned.  Construction on this will take almost 2 years.  I will  post when the break ground.

Happy New Year!

Is the land behind the Woodberry townhomes for sale?

This sign sprung up on the open lot just north of Riverdale Park Station a few weeks ago.

The location of this sign is below:

This is very troubling for folks like me who own a townhome in Riverdale Park Station that is on Woodberry.  (The first 39 units located in Buildings 1-4)

We all have nothing but nature in our backyards and we were told by Stanley Martin that there was no chance of anyone ever building behind our units because the metro owned the land.  We were even charged lot premiums because of this fact

I verified that the metro does own this land...  see below:

This is from the public land inventory site at:
mncppc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=449e17560f0f477aa01ac66a4a95ae1d

Once I found that grid and parcel number I was able to get to get the tax record:

According to the records WMATA now owns the land and it was sold from Cafritz to WMATA back in 1989.

http://sdat.dat.maryland.gov/RealProperty/Pages/viewdetails.aspx?County=17&SearchType=ACCT&District=19&AccountNumber=2128098


Also strange is that the listing company, NAI Michael does NOT have any property listed at the location of the sign.

http://www.naimichael.com/properties.aspx

So maybe there is nothing to worry about here, but still the location of the sign is troubling. 

I called NAI Michael one week ago to inquire about the land and did not get a response even after leaving a message.

I am hoping someone with more time than I have can figure something out here.  The phone number listed on the sign goes straight to a messaging service.

November 28, 2018 at 7:16 PM

Another homeowner got confirmation from the mayor that the land is for sale.

Parking Deck FINALLY open

The parking deck construction started well over a year ago and was supposed to open months ago. 

The developer decided to make it 6 stories from 4 stories and also had some other things that held them up along the way so it actually did not open until 11/15/18.   

It is now open for parking and is free at this time.

I checked it out in the middle of the day today (Saturday) in what was a very busy day for Riverdale Park Station and in the massive 6 story structure there were 7 cars on the ground floor in total.  I think folks are accustomed to parking directly in front of the gym and on Woodberry for the gym and maybe don't know this parking is here or find it easier to park on the street vs a parking deck. 

One thing I found odd (other than how many spots this deck offers) is there is only one elevator on the far side and it only goes up to level 4, I am guessing because the top two floors were decided upon at a later date.

The apartment that is supposed to wrap around this parking deck will have 230 units and they are slated to begin construction in January of 2019.  It is supposed to take 2 full years to complete so it will be a long time before this parking deck is seeing any usage beyond a few cars.

Coolest thing about this deck is it is so massive that you can get some amazing views of Riverdale Park Station from the top of it...   

See some shots I took today below:

Hiker/Biker Trail now running directly down Rhode Island Avenue.

The Hiker/Biker trail fence between Buildings 3 and 4 finally came down today!

Now the trail runs directly down Rhode Island Avenue.   

I realized I posted this would occur way back in September as that is what I was told, but at least it finally happened as of today.  (11/9/18)

This is good for the folks who live on Woodberry as we don't have to worry about all the bike and foot traffic in the alley behind Woodberry anymore.

Also the folks taking the Hiker/Biker trail have a MUCH more direct route now.

Trolley Trail to Anacostia Trail - with dates!

Since I became interested in Riverdale Park Station in early 2017 I had been reading that the Trolley Trail would eventually be connected to the Anacostia trail in many articles. 

This is the first one I have seen that provides details on when it will actually occur.

Construction is slated to begin in spring of 2020 and it should be completed by the end of 2020.

See the link below for all of the details:
http://hyattsvillelife.com/sha-gives-update-on-trolley-trail-progress/

Retail Update

Still no new commitments and the only new commitment since I started the blog back in February of 2017 is Denizens.  At least the developer is saying the two small retail locations that were slated to be part of the apartment building are still planned to be built.  (there was talk over the summer of removing these retail locations)

Denizens opening has now been delayed until Spring of 2019 due to permitting issues.

For Bella Beach Nail and Spa they did not do any work that I saw all summer long.   They were working on it in the early spring and just started working on it again now, but not sure what the problem was for 4 months there... I moved the open date till December 2018 but no telling when they finally open.

For Hyatt House Hotel the developer is hoping this will still happen but it is definitely not going to be in January 2020 as planned.  I think the explosion in the number of hotel rooms within one mile of this location in the past year has something to do with this.  It is possible this will not move forward but hard to tell.

The good news is the existing retail here seems to be doing pretty well, even without the apartments.  I am in all of these places quite frequently and they all seem to be fairly busy.  Hope we get some new news on the retail front soon.