Demolition began last week on the Hunter's Ridge Apartments in Landover to rid the county of the rundown complex and make way for a gated townhouse and condominium community.
The project, which is being developed with private funds, fits into County Executive Jack B. Johnson's Liveable Communities Initiative, which includes cleaning up aging, crime-ridden garden apartments.
Jack B. Johnson took the controls at the demolition with developer John Pyles, left, and Tim Ward at his side.
(Photos Larry Morris -- The Washington Post)
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"There is more to be done in terms of revitalization, and some of these communities have outlived themselves," Johnson said. "When you transform this neighborhood, you create a safe environment for our citizens."
The new complex, called the Fountains at Landover Metro, is being developed by county businessmen John Pyles, president of Washington Management Development Inc., and Gary S. Murray Sr., managing member of Landover venture capital firm Human Vision LLC.
The Fountains at Landover will have 308 units. Condominiums will sell for about $300,000 and townhouses for about $400,000. The complex, which is scheduled to open in 2006, will offer a shuttle service to the nearby Metro station.
After a news conference announcing the development project, Johnson donned a hard hat, mounted a crane and knocked down the first bricks. While applauding the demise of Hunter's Ridge, Johnson paused to remember its better days, when it was called Stratford Woods and he was living there with a roommate while studying law at Howard University more than 30 years ago.
"It was a good place to live for a college student," Johnson said. "It was a good, safe environment. . . . My car was never broken into. Things have sure changed."
The revitalization of the site is a measure of change in the county's inner suburbs, which are filled with similarly dilapidated complexes, many of which were built in the 1960s and '70s.
For the past decade, many of these complexes have deteriorated, and Prince George's political leaders complain that they have become magnets for crime. A few years ago, the county began shutting down Hunter's Ridge and forcing residents to move.
"We have to realize that urban aging has come to the suburbs," Murray said. "The land that is available [for building] is under apartments. We think this is a model of bringing quality homeownership to a community. We want our young professionals to be here -- our workforce, our teachers."
Pyles said reducing crime was part of the motivation behind the Fountains project. In 1993, a decade before the county began closing sections of the complex, the county Police Department was called to the apartments 1,722 times.
"Projects like this may not be the only solution, but they are one solution to a serious crime problem that affects our communities and our businesses," Pyles said.
Del. Joanne C. Benson, a Landover Democrat, said it was important that the Fountains will be built in a less affluent neighborhood.
"These two men could have decided to invest their money anywhere, but they decided to put it inside the [Capital] Beltway," she said.
Hunter's Ridge, which was built in the mid-1960s, contained about 550 units that had been deemed unfit for habitation. On a recent afternoon, windows were broken or boarded up, moss grew on bricks, soggy blankets were strewn on the ground and weeds were showing through snow.
Alice Robinson, who lives across the street from Hunter's Ridge, also remembers the apartment building's better days and has mixed feelings about its destruction.
"It's a plus for the county because it takes blight out of this community, but we have people living [in this area] that cannot afford the community they are building," she said.
Pyles said the loss of affordable housing at Hunter's Ridge will be balanced by the demolition and redevelopment of the neighboring Glenmore apartment complex. It is slated to become an apartment community for low-income residents and is being developed with federal, state and county bonds and tax credits.
