The Grays Went Like Hotcakes, and Folks are Still Hungry
The lobby. (Lydia DePillis)
Want to live in the Grays on Pennsylvania Avenue SE, the 118-unit apartment building with the District's newest Yes! Organic Market in the bottom floor?
Too late.
The building opened back in May, and was completely leased up in September. Now it's got 200 people on the waiting list.
I'd like to say it proves the strength of the residential market east of the Anacostia River, but this is a totally affordable building, priced for people making 60 percent of the area median income or below (which is still a respectable $43,500 in these parts). And the few times I've been by, the grocery store hasn't looked particularly busy.
Still, the pace is impressive, and may bode well for market-driven development down the line.
4:11 am
Wait, I'm confused – is the building essentially rent controlled to be accessible to people at 60% of AMI? At first I thought that was the case, but then you say it's a good example of "market-driven development," which obviously would not be constrained by affordable housing rent controls. Could you perhaps clarify?
6:21 am
Hi Stephen,
Right, so I was actually trying to distinguish the Grays from market-driven development. Since the city kicked in $12 million in equity, and in return required the units to be 100% affordable--not to mention $900K to bring the Yes! market--it's clearly NOT market-driven. But I think it's possible that other developers might look at that strong demand and say hm, maybe people would be willing to pay a little more to live in this kind of building, and start similar projects without massive subsidies.
Make sense?
Lydia