EYA Acquires DC Land for Fort Totten Project
By Keith Loria June 22, 2020 4:51 pm
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Bethesda developer EYA has teamed up with the District of Columbia to develop Riggs Park Place, a public-private partnership that will bring 90 new townhomes, a mixed-use senior apartment community, affordable dwelling units and a retail component to Washington, D.C.’s Fort Totten neighborhood in Ward 4.
As part of the partnership, EYA has acquired four acres at the corner of Riggs Road and South Dakota Avenue. The price was not disclosed. Paramount Development will serve as EYA’s development partner, while JBG Smith (JBGS) is providing some of the land and serving as an equity investor.
EYA will break ground on the first phase of the project in July, which will consist of townhomes, followed by the residential-over-retail building sometime in the next two years.
“It’s bringing new, high-quality home ownership to the Fort Totten neighborhood,” Aakash Thakkar, EYA’s executive vice president, told Commercial Observer. “Across the street at Riggs Road, JBG did a big project with Walmart and apartments. And across South Dakota Avenue is a new project called Art Place at Fort Totten.”
Located in Northeast Washington, D.C., the property is situated near the Fort Totten Metro station where lots of new developments are coming in, including retail and a new library being built adjacent to the site.
According to Thakkar, the Fort Totten neighborhood has historically been a home ownership one, and this project mixes that element with the mixed-use core being developed.
“There seems to be a strong amount of multi-housing rentals being built, but there’s a strong demand for for-sale housing for a whole spectrum of buyers,” he said. “There isn’t very much supply in a townhouse or single-family-attached format.”
He cited the public-private nature of the project and its revitalizating impact on the neighborhood as being key to the project’s success.
