West End Neighbors to Developer: ‘Uh, You Can Leave Now’
Equity Residential/Neighborhood Development Group's plan
Oh the gall! The sheer impudence of it all!
This is just a funny little tidbit I read this morning. As I blogged in late September, West End neighbors are in an uproar over the city's selection of developer Equity Residential to transform the Stevens School downtown.
The locals wants the building redeveloped into something extra special to reflect the fact that Stevens, with its amazing history and location, is deserving of more than just the usual classrooms-to-bedrooms treatment.
Equity Residential has proposed apartment living. Boo! BooooOOOOoooOOOooo! say the locals, who are pushing for a hotel.
And one West End leader, ANC commissioner Asher Corson—who also happens to be Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh's spokesperson—took it upon himself to essentially dismiss the developer, despite the fact that the company had already been awarded the contract, according to the Washington Examiner. I've never heard of any neighborhood leader offering such a confident 'adieu!'
[Corson] sent a letter to Equity executive Greg White Monday night urging him to bow out gracefully.
"The deal is dead," Corson told The Examiner. "At this point, there's nothing left to talk about. Hopefully, this will give the city and Equity an out."
...Equity, which markets its apartments to young singles, canvassed no support because many neighbors saw the project as a "luxury dorm," Corson said.
(For some reason, as I read this, reality televisions lines—"Please pack your knives and go" and "You are the weakest link, goodbye!"-–keep echoing in my brain.)
Naturally, Equity Residential says it continues " to look forward to meeting with the community."
2:39 pm
Interesting that residents alwasy seem to think they know what the right answer is... Funny how economic reality is usually not a part of that "right answer"!
12:44 am
Dave, I don't think it's too much to ask for residents to have some say in what is done with public property in their neighborhood's. That is what Fenty promised us when he ran. It's not like we are talking about a private site owned by private interests. Economic reality has nothing to do with closing schools and giving them away to your friends. I would rather the school sit vacant than building something nobody in the community wants only to enrich a gigantic public REIT (Equity Residential). Economic development comes when you create the environment for business to thrive, not by giving away public valuable assets for nothing in return.
Also, it is now June 2010 and the deal has still not moved forward an inch, as far as I can tell. In fact, the Fenty administration hasn't even made a public announcement about the project AND nothing has been submitted to the Council for approval. Only time will tell for sure what is to come of this ill-fated project. I still think the deal is dead.