Best running routes in the area.

In the 2.5 years I have lived here I have experimented with lots of different running routes.   With the Trolley Trail and University Park nearby there are lots of good options for running.

Decent options I have tried are across the bridge into the Discovery District, through and around University Park and south on the Trolley Trail past Hyattsville and on the Anacostia Trail  (which is an extensive trail network)

My favorite run around here which has become my go to run and pretty much the only one I am doing these days is north on the Trolley Trail to Lake Artemesia.

Lake Artemesia is beautiful and the entire route only one major road needs to be crossed and the entire rest of the run is on biking/running trails.

That route is here:  (starting from the back trail entrance of Riverdale Park Station)

It's almost exactly 1.5 miles out to the lake and 1.5 miles around the lake then 1.5 miles back home.

The 1.5 miles both out and back on the Trolley Trail is flat and scenic:  

There are surprisingly few people on this trail considering how nice it is.   

Then once you get to Lake Artemesia you have 1.5 miles of this:

The trail system down at the Anacostia Trail is the only thing that even comes to this run around this area and currently you have to run along Route 1 for a bit to get from the Trolley Trail to the Anacostia Trail so it's a higher stress run since they are not connected.   As I posted a year ago eventually those will be connected, but not until 2020.   That article is HERE.

Anyway if you live in Riverdale Park Station or even University Park, Calvert Hills or Hyattsville try out this Lake Artemesia run route!


2/9/20 update:

Here is another running route that was submitted in the comments by a reader:

First pictures of Kelsey Montague's new Mod Pizza mural!

Mod Pizza in Riverdale Park Station just got a makeover.

Kelsey Montague’s team has been painting a wall mural yesterday (10/24/19) and today (10/25/19).

She has drawn these wall murals all over the world and you can see where they are all located here:
https://kelseymontagueart.com/world-map/

I stopped by a few times while this was being done as this is just two blocks from my house:

Wednesday at 7:00 PM  (had not started yet)

Thursday at 5:00 PM:

Friday at 9:30 AM:  (both Kelsey and Courtney working at the same time here)

Friday at 5:00 PM:  (They were just adding finishing touches here and finished before 6:00 PM)

Finished Product Pictures:   Note the details like the bear, trolley, bike and airplane.

Saturday 10/26 - 2:00 PM update-
From the Riverdale Park Station Instagram page:

Town Center of Riverdale Park continues to come together.

A lot has changed down in the Town Center of Riverdale Park since I first blogged about it over a year ago HERE.

Vietnamese Restaurant Banana Blossom Bistro has been open and is doing well and is my personal favorite place down in the Town Center of Riverdale Park.

Riviera Tapas Bar is open across the street as well and both seem busy and to be doing pretty well.

Gangster Vegan was announced by RouteOneFun on 6/14/19 as coming to Riverdale Park HERE.

Now 250 Texas BBQ announced they are working on getting a place opened at what was Dumm's Market.



Major props to RouteOneFun for getting this story well before everyone else yet again.  Not sure how Sarah is doing it!

If you want to know more about 250 Texas BBQ I recommend you check out her in depth article HERE.

I have tried their brisket both at the Farmers Market and at one of their Meadworks events and I am definitely a big fan.  The owners seem like generally nice people as well.  Great addition to Riverdale Park!

Riverdale Park Station Sold Out!

The last Dawson that was for sale by Stanley Martin just went under contract. (asking price was $475,562)

Riverdale Park Station is officially sold out:

There are still two Stanley Martin for sale signs and two MLS listings but I have confirmation from Stanley Martin that both of these units are under contract and just waiting for closing/settlement before removing them from MLS.

As a reminder, these are the different models in Riverdale Park Station:

(note:  square footage can vary by 10 square feet or so based on what external elevation was selected.)

Dawson :                   1873 square feet

Parker :                     2097 square feet

Cassidy :                   2256 square feet

Extended Cassidy :   2755 square feet

There was one more recent resale:

4502 Woodberry St (Parker) sold at $498,900 on 8/31/2019

These are the previous resales:

4504 Woodberry St (Parker)      =    Sold for $505,000 on 10/19/2018
4644 Woodberry St (Dawson)    =    Sold for $495,000 on 03/14/2019

Two potential resales are currently (or about to be) on the market:

4706 Van Buren St (Parker) :      Asking $525,000

4642 Woodberry St (Dawson) :  Asking $519,000

More good news is that Dawson and Parker that are owned by investors and were being rented to Stanley Martin to use for the models (4506 and 4508 Woodberry) were both offered out for rent at $2900 and $3000 per month respectively and both were rented very quickly at those prices.

In addition, another Parker down on Rhode Island was also bought by an investor and offered for rent at $3000 per month and quickly rented.   So currently there is nothing available for sale from Stanley Martin and also nothing available for rent.

Price and Sales Update

Only 4 units remain unsold.  Three Dawson's and one Parker.

Building 9 (the last unfinished building) will be completed by the end of September.   3 of the 4 units that are still unsold are in the last building.

They will also be closing the sales office in the first week of September.  (so less than 3 more weeks)

Stanley Martin actually sold the 3 model units back in 2017 and have been doing a rent back situation with the owners since 2017 so even those units are sold.

There is only one resale on the market right now. 

It's in building one and is a Parker and they are asking $499,900

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/4502-Woodbury-St_Riverdale_MD_20737_M63862-67202?ex=MD2510562932

So far there have been 2 other resales in Riverdale Park Station:

4504 Woodberry  (Parker)    =    Sold for 505,000 on 10/19/2018
4644 Woodberry  (Dawson)    =    Sold for 495,000 on 03/14/2019

Will be nice to have the sales office closed and the last townhouse building completed.

Full Presentation Regarding the Two Future Apartments.

As I have reported after they finish the first apartment that just had the groundbreaking last month (in around 2 years time) they are planning to build two more apartments down at the east end of Riverdale Park Station near the train tracks.

The developers were originally planning three buildings but instead opted for two taller buildings.

To prepare for today's presentation, they released a 29 slide presentation regarding these two new apartment buildings.

Everything from renderings of what the buildings will look like to different perspectives of the buildings to shadow studies are covered here.

A link to all of those slides is here.

As I have said this project is not slated to even begin for well over 2 years and if it even happens will be dependent on market conditions at the time.  But it is still interesting to see how it is all taking shape.

Tesla Supercharging Stations Now Open and Other Updates.

The 8 Tesla Supercharging Stations in Riverdale Park Station are now open and turned on.

This is a big deal for Riverdale Park Station as although there are more of these planned currently there is only one of these stations inside the entire DC beltway.  (and 2 just outside of it)

As you can see you have to be south of the Potomac, or out in Gaithersburg, Laurel or Annapolis to find another one of these that is active.   I am not sure why it is not showing up on their map yet as I confirmed it is active and working.

They turned on the station on Thursday 7/19/19 and I have seen 1-2 cars there pretty consistently the past 2 days so even though this is not being advertised it seems the Tesla owners are still finding it somehow.

This is another positive thing that puts this neighborhood on the map.

In other news, the townhomes in building 10 are completed and all those units that have sold have now been closed  (Only one unit in building 10 remains for sale).  So all that remains is building 9 which is nearing completion within the next month or so.

The apartment in building 5 did have the "official" groundbreaking on June 19th as I reported here, but although they had a ceremony for the groundbreaking they actually have not broken ground as of yet.  Will report when they start making progress there.

Apartment in Building 5 - Ground Breaking on June 19th

I reported back on May 15th 2019 that the 229 unit apartment in building 5 was confirmed to be breaking ground in June of 2019 in the post linked here

I still have not seen that reported anywhere, only the fact that the financing finally went through being reported by the Washington Business Journal in May.

I now have confirmation on a solid date in June.   The ground breaking is Wednesday, June 19th 2019.

Also good news is they plan to NOT have the hiker/biker trail blocked during the entire 18 month construction process of this apartment.  Goal is to get that opened very early in the construction process.

For the other two apartment buildings coming after the first apartment is completed  (building 8 and 9) surprisingly there was no change at all between the documents they submitted and my 2017 blog post about these apartments here.   The exact same number of units but two buildings instead of three.

Since those will not even begin construction for over two years from now they almost are not worth talking about yet as there is a possibility at that time it won't make economic sense to add another 630 apartments to this area.  I think a lot will depend on the occupancy rate of the first 229 units in building 5 on if the later apartment plans go forward.

Hair Cuttery coming to Riverdale Park Station.

It's not the most exciting retailer in the world but it is good that one of these empty retail spots is filling in.

Hair Cuttery is coming to Riverdale Park Station.  It will be next to the Jersey Mikes.  See the diagram below:

As I have been writing I have believed that as soon as the apartment building construction began these remaining retail locations would start to fill in. 

I reported here back on May 15th that construction for the 229 unit Apartment in building 5 has been confirmed to break ground in June 2019 (this month). 

As this apartment gets closer to being ready for leasing expect more retail to fill in.  Foot traffic is key and it is coming.

Victory for the community on the WMATA Albion Road Property

The story about the 6 acres behind the townhomes at Riverdale Park Station has a happy ending!

I found out the land was for sale back in November 2018 and posted about it here:

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

The entire surrounding community all worked together to get the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) bid done and I posted about it February 2019 here and thought this was the end of the story:

http://riverdaleparkstation.blogspot.com/2019/02/parks-and-recreation-bid-submitted-for.html

Then in April 2019 we found out that WMATA selected a developer bid OVER the M-NCPPC bid, I posted about that here:

http://riverdaleparkstation.blogspot.com/2019/04/wmata-property-at-albion-road-important.html

This was even though rezoning the property was a complete non-starter from all neighboring jurisdictions.

I am happy to say that the entire community pulled together yet again with all of the leaders from various levels of government along with community involvement were able to persuade the WMATA to change their mind and select the parks bid after all.

So much noise was made that even the Diamondback recently picked up the story on 5/19/19:

https://dbknews.com/2019/05/19/college-park-wmata-route-1-land-sale-community-garden/

This afternoon Prince George's County received a letter from Paul Wiedefeld (the CEO of WMATA) stating that in response from "numerous requests from local and state officials" that the WMATA has removed the Albion Road property from the market and is offering the land to the M-NCPPC at their bid price.

WMATA expects that M-NCPPC will be able to close on the sale of the property within the next 90 days and M-NCPPC plans to leave the land as green space.

Special thanks to Dannielle Glaros (PG county District 3 representative), Alan Thompson (Riverdale Park Mayor), Stuart Adams (president of the Calvert Hills Citizens Association), John Rigg (College Park City Councilmember), Patrick Wojahn (College Park Mayor) and Len Carey (University Park Mayor).  Additional thanks to all of the people who joined the Facebook group posted here and everyone in that group who wrote a letter.