Petra Development, which purchased the Pearson's Liquor parking lot at 2430 Wisconsin Ave NW two years ago, has expanded the planned number of residential units from 6 to 27, using roughly the same planned building height and footprint. It will be developed as apartments rather than condominiums. Petra settled a lawsuit with Pearson's Liquor (see prior article) last December over a Right of First Refusal to buy the parking lot, and they filed a flurry of permits, drawings and studies with DCRA in July 2019 to get the project underway and get a shovel in the ground very soon.
Petra initially planned for 6 luxury residential units on three floors above ground level retail but submitted plans for 27 apartments in the same 4600 square feet of space per floor plus the 3600 square feet of retail. Considering walls and common areas, that translates to a range of 387-517 square feet per residential unit, with about 1/3 studios and 2/3 small one bedrooms. The roof plan includes a common-area roof deck plus about 600 s.f. of interior space. The current plans appear to exceed zoning limits on lot occupancy, total building area, parking and rear lot setbacks, though it is early and likely that adjustments and negotiations are in progress. There is no indication yet whether a zoning variance and Board of Zoning Adjustments hearing will be required.
Petra Development's principal, Rashid Salem, appears to have dropped the original architect, the Akseizer Design Group, and is going with his in-house architect Neal Hodgson with Petra Design Studio as the lead designer. No timeline for completion has been disclosed yet, but I'd say give it year if they are lucky and persistent. It is challenging to get a ground-up project built quickly in DC these days with all the re-development in progress. Glover Park is expanding quickly - 225 units next to Trader Joe's at the Glover House, 40 units planned at the Georgetown Carpet space, and now 27 units sprouting from a parking lot! And all those people will want to eat at our restaurants and shop in our stores.....
See preliminary design specs below:
