Vacant Hill East building near RFK Stadium up for redevelopment

This spring, an RFP, or request for proposals, will open for the redevelopment of the former Eastern Branch Boys & Girls Club, a vacant, 80-year-old building located in Washington, D.C.’s Hill East neighborhood. The zoning for the site is RF-1, which allows buildings with at least 60 percent residential space. The building can also become a school, place of worship, or clinic.

The site, located at 261 17th Street SE, is only a couple blocks away from the Stadium-Armory Metro station and one-and-a-half miles away from the RFK Stadium.

Washington Business Journal reported that the 31,028-square-foot building went through an RFP process before in 2014 after the D.C. government purchased the building for $20 million in 2010.

While the former Eastern Branch Boys & Girls Club building is not a historic landmark, the previous RFP asked for the building to be repurposed rather than demolished.

After finding a developer team for the project, composed of Dantes Partners and The Menkiti Group, the redevelopment was met with opposition from the local community. According to the Washington Business Journal, the plan was to add two stories to the building and create a 100 percent affordable housing building. The RFP was canceled in 2015.

• District to offer another try at redeveloping former Boys & Girls Club in Hill East [Washington Business Journal]