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.

Construction Update

The Hiker/Biker trail fence between Buildings 3 and 4 is supposed to finally come down before the end of the month... so the trail will go directly through the neighborhood and not behind Woodberry anymore! 

The Village Green is finally green.  It will be interesting to see what they put here.  The developer said nothing will be physically installed/built on the Village Green until 2019.  They have started building a sidewalk around the Village Green and are going to put some trees in there as well.

For the townhomes, Building 7 and 8 are finally just about completed with some folks in the homeowners group saying they are having closings even in Building 8 in late September.  Appears most of Building 7 is already closed and folks are moved in.

The foundation of building 9 is completed but they still have not actually starting building on it... They still have NOT started digging for the building 10 foundation. It is looking like they will be ready to start building up for building 9 within the next week or so.  Usually by now they would have already started building up so not sure what the hold up is for building 9.  This is going to push the completion of the last townhome till at least till March or so..  (just my guess)

The Parking Garage is completed.  The garage is supposed to open by the end of this month.

Construction on the apartments is not going to begin for at least 90-120 days according to the developer.   So they will not start on the apartments until first quarter 2019.  The garage is supposed to open and be in use by the end of this month.

Finally the paving in Riverdale Park Station is completed, all except for the roads down by the new townhome buildings (7,8,9,10).  Finally having paved roads after living here 15 months without them is great.

On November 1st the homeowners of Riverdale Park Station finally gain control of the homeowners association as the development is > 70% sold.

Hyatt House Hotel at Riverdale?

Just noticed that within the last two months the "Stay" tab at the top of the Riverdale Park Station website has been removed.

June 13th 2018:

Today:

On the Discover tab the hotel is still listed... but still I wonder if something is up here.

If the hotel really was going to open for business at the beginning of 2020 as the website had said on the "Stay" tab (before it was deleted) they would have to be at least broken ground by now.  Instead they built a large parking lot on the hotel building site...

I reached out to both the Hyatt House developer and the Riverdale Park developer and will let the blog know if something is up or they just deleted this tab by mistake.

Update:
The developer will reevaluate if Hyatt House is still economically viable for this area sometime in the future. 

First resale attempt in Riverdale Park Station

The third unit in building 1, which is a Parker model very similar to the one we bought just got listed at $512,900.

See it here:
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/4504-Woodberry-St_Riverdale_MD_20737_M57915-05694?view=qv

Will be curious to see at what price this sells and how quickly to judge how well the community is doing.

The new properties from the builder are selling fast but until you have a resale it's hard to know the actual price they will move at.

Price and Sales Update

Another $5000 bump in price for all three models in early June.

Good to see prices still rising even this late in the game.

Building 7 (Units 60 -74)  only has 4 units remaining...

This is the sign before they removed it a few days ago in order to install the sidewalk.

Building 7 will be having it's closing next month (in August).

Building 8 (Units 75 - 89) only has 5 units remaining...

Building 8 will have it's closings in late September/October timeframe.

For building 9 and 10 they just started digging for the foundation but those have not been released for sale as of yet.
UPDATE:  A reader informed me that they just opened these two buildings up for sale yesterday. (7/21/18)

At least they have broken ground on those now...  In the bi-weekly update from the developer they have moved the completion date for building 9 and 10 to the second quarter of 2019.

Unrelated side note is Jersey Mike's said they needed more time for hiring and training and would not open until 8/1/18.

Sales going really strong here and it is looking like not too many of these units will actually make it into the MLS...  I am thinking maybe a few Dawson's may still be for sale into the winter and that will be it as far as completed units go.

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The pricing history on the smallest floor plan (Dawson) has been:

12/9/16:               $415,000
1/22/16:               $425,000
3/2/17:                 $430,000  
3/28/17:               $440,000
6/5/17:                 $443,000
11/5/17:               $440,000
6/1/18:                 $445,000

 The pricing history on the middle floor plan (Parker) has been:

12/9/16:               $440,000
1/22/16:               $450,000
3/2/17:                 $455,000
3/28/17:               $470,000
6/5/17:                 $473,000
10/1/17:               $483,000
11/5/17:               $470,000
6/1/18:                 $475,000

 The pricing history on the largest floor plan (Cassidy) has been:

12/9/16:               $465,000
1/22/16:               $475,000
3/2/17:                 $480,000
3/28/17:               $495,000
6/5/17:                 $518,000
8/25/17:               $537,490
3/1/18:                 $543,000
6/1/18:                 $548,000