Edens, the development firm that built Union Market, isn’t quite finished with Northeast DC’s warehouse district. The company this week submitted plans to the DC Zoning Commission outlining a mixed-use project next to the popular food hall, continuing the transformation of the neighborhood off Florida Avenue from an industrial area to an upscale residential and commercial community.
The project, located at 1270 Fourth Street, is slated to include between 420 and 520 residential units in an 11-story building, along with 39,000 feet of ground-floor retail. The building would sit just west of Union Market, replacing several food wholesalers that populate the area, although renderings suggest the brick facades of the warehouses that sit there now will be adapted into the new building’s design.
A statement of support filed by Edens refers to the project as an exercise in “place-making.” The firm writes that it is “creating both a vibrant living and shopping experience on an underutilized parcel.” Edens also plans to include a “unique public space” in the development, along with as many as 500 parking spaces, though such a large parking lot would serve overflow from Union Market.
Edens says the project will take about two years to build once the Zoning Commission signs off, though there’s already plenty of “place-making” going on in that wedge of Northeast DC these days. Besides this venture Edens is also a partner in a 216-unit building called Gateway Market Center, which is slated to open next year two blocks from Union Market. There are also two hotels and other mixed-use developments under construction in a half-mile radius.
Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.
