Looks like there's trouble in paradise again when it comes to developing the McMillan Sand Filtration Plant. The 25-acre development will go before the D.C. Council next Monday to consider extending the project by five years, from December 2016 to December 2021, reports The Washington Post. D.C. Auditor Kathy Patterson told the Washington Business Journal that the project will not start from the very beginning, but that a second bidding process to choose the developer for the project must occur. The first bidding process, which was focused on finding developers to design the master plan for the site, resulted in the city choosing Vision McMillan Partners, a team formed by EYA, Jair Lynch Development Partners, and Trammell Crow Company. Because the second bidding process did not occurred, Vision McMillan Partners assumed the role as developers as well as the first right to buy the parcels of the property. In a letter Patterson wrote to D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson on October 19, the deal between the city and Vision McMillan Partners has changed enough over the years to warrant a new bidding process.
The $750 million project is considered "one of the most significant, highly anticipated, and vigorously discussed developments the District has seen in some time" by Trammell Crow Principal Adam Weers. The 2.1 million-square-foot project will feature 279 apartments, roughly 1 million-square-feet of office, 146 townhouses, a roughly 53,000-square-foot Harris Teeter, 6.2-acre central park, and 17,500-square-foot community center, as reported by the Washington Business Journal. Critics of the project deem the redevelopment too dense and likely to create too much traffic. The site was previously used as a sand filtration site, but was closed in the mid-1980s and has been vacant and inaccessible to the public ever since.
Mcmillan Site_Mendelson 10-19-15
· The process to choose the developer for McMillan was flawed, D.C. auditor says [The Washington Post]
· McMillan opponents have their ammunition as controversial $750M project returns to D.C. Council [Washington Business Journal]
· All McMillan coverage [Curbed DC]