When the D.C. government started its hunt in early 2008 for developers willing to tackle 68 acres near the obsolete RFK Stadium along the Anacostia River, more than a few observers were skeptical that this slice of Hill East would ever be a thing.
At the time, then-Mayor Adrian Fenty called D.C.-owned Reservation 13 the “last major piece” of development along the District’s eastern waterfront, though the Great Recession temporarily derailed the appetite for a risky large-scale development opportunity.
Thirteen years later, Donatelli Development and Blue Skye Development delivered the first phase of what now seems like a no-brainer development. The Park Kennedy’s elegant apartment and retail building looks as though it has always been there, sitting above the entrance to the Stadium-Armory Metro stop.
But to arrive at this point, the developers had to win the new post-recession bid with the city, contend with the demolition of the former D.C. General Hospital, coordinate with…
Read the full story from the Washington Business Journal.
