Howard University Partners With Rock Creek on $62M Mixed-Use Development
By Keith Loria March 10, 2022 12:35 pm
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Howard University is teaming with Rock Creek Property Group on The Oliver, a $62 million mixed-use development adjacent to the school’s Washington, D.C., campus.
Located at the corner of Georgia Avenue and Fairmont Street, just two blocks from Greene Stadium, the site is intended to better connect the university’s alumni and development offices to on-campus activities.
“The Oliver’s exterior architectural design will create an activated street level with storefront glass, masonry that complemented the red brick seen through campus, greenery to help bring the corner to life, and up-lighting to highlight the striking facade,” Jenna Jacobson, Rock Creek’s director of development, told Commercial Observer.
The five-story, 140,000-square-foot building will consist of 93 residential units, approximately 41,000 square feet of commercial space and below-grade parking.
“In designing the apartments at The Oliver, we thought carefully about how our future residents will use the space in a post-COVID world,” Jacobson said. “Increased flexibility in the residences and how the building is used is key.”
Programmed features include built-in desks in every residence, movable kitchen islands for prep, work and entertaining; GigE, high-speed Wi-Fi; what the developer is calling a “work-from-home-center;” an advanced air-filtration system; and a indoor-outdoor penthouse lounge with a retractable wall.
Howard will be leasing the entire commercial space to house the university’s office of development and alumni relations, office of university communications and other administrative functions.
“We are elated to see this vacant building transformed into a new facility that will improve strategic operations and simultaneously build on the momentum of community development in the Pleasant Plains neighborhood,” Wayne A.I. Frederick, president of Howard University, said.
Rock Creek expects to break ground on the project later this month.
Keith Loria can be reached at Kloria@commercialobserver.com.
