Northwest One Redevelopment Plan

2 M Street under construction

2 M Street

The Northwest One redevelopment planning process began in earnest in the spring of 2004. At that time, the community began to organize to work with the District to deal with violent crime in the neighborhood as well as the threatened loss of affordable housing.

An official Steering Committee was created, comprised of senior District officials, community leaders and technical advisors. Towards the end of 2004, the community began the formation of a non-profit organization, the Northwest One Council Inc. to work closely with the District to develop and implement the plan. The project officially kicked off in June 2005 and the redevelopment plan was adopted by DC Council in 2006.

When approved in 2006, the plan originally included three properties:  199 units at Sursum Corda, 211 units at Temple Courts and 39 units at the Golden Rule Center. Each of the properties had failed two annual HUD Real Estate Assessment Center inspections and were at risk of triggering the foreclosure process that could have meant the loss of project-based housing subsidies, resulting in a loss of affordable housing in the District.

To begin implementing the redevelopment plan, households from both Temple Courts and the Golden Rule Center were relocated. The Golden Rule Center site was redeveloped into a 100% affordable 60 unit rental development called The SeVerna. Thirty of the units at The SeVerna are replacement units, where former Golden Rule and Temple Courts residents currently live. The second phase of The SeVerna is currently under construction with a total of 133 units of mixed-income housing that will include 48 units of replacement housing.

The Temple Courts housing project was demolished in 2008. The District, in partnership with the DC Housing Authority, will issue a Request for Qualifications to solicit developers to lead the redevelopment of the site.

Sursum Corda was originally included in the Northwest One redevelopment plan, and to that end, the District offered to purchase the housing complex as part of the New Communities Initiative. However, Sursum Corda Cooperative’s residents declined the offer and have continued working to evolve its own redevelopment plan working in partnership with the neighboring Northwest One plan.

Today the District continues to implement the Northwest One redevelopment plan. Solicitations are being issued for a variety of parcels in and around the Northwest One footprint. Development to date consists of 507 new residential units and 4,100 square feet of retail space.

The New Communities Initiative brings amenities to the community as well as housing. In 2009, the new Walker-Jones Education Campus opened. The facility replaces two former public schools – the Terrell Junior High School and Walker-Jones Elementary School. The new 125,000 square foot facility has capacity to accommodate 850 students and includes a 100,000 square foot K-8 school; a 20,000 square foot community recreation center; a 5,000 square foot library and new athletic fields and playgrounds. The school is one of the first LEED-certified green school buildings in the District and it includes a green roof that will be used to help students learn about ecology and sustainability. The facilities share resources such as common utilities, mechanical systems and maintenance. Completed by Forrester Construction, Regan Associates and Banneker Ventures, oversight of the project was managed by the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development in partnership with Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization, Department of Parks and Recreation, and District of Columbia Public Schools. It is part of an 8-year, $2 billion campaign to rebuild and modernize the District’s public school facilities and the first phase of the Northwest One New Communities project. The project created more than 150 construction jobs during its development.

Two major developments were completed in the Fall of 2014 as part of the Northwest One redevelopment: 2M Street, and the SeVerna on K:

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