No Scarcity Of Suitors For Walter Reed Site

The Pentagon's proposal to close Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Northwest Washington could touch off intense competition for a rare prize: more than 100 acres in a city where real estate values are soaring and space for new development is scarce.

Barely a week after the Pentagon said it planned to close the 96-year-old hospital between Rock Creek Park and Georgia Avenue, real estate brokers, D.C. planners, developers and politicians were laying claim to the property, a sign of the complicated discussions that ensue when the federal government pulls up stakes.

The 113-acre complex is in the middle of an increasingly affluent neighborhood convenient to downtown and also is near the burgeoning commercial area of Silver Spring -- factors that argue for dense residential, retail or office development. But it is also a historic place, where war heroes and presidents have recuperated, and its redevelopment could trigger a preservation fight. And as a federal property, its decommissioning as a military hospital would be governed by tight restrictions, such as that the campus must first be offered to other government agencies.

D.C. officials and neighborhood residents also would want a say.

"What's attractive about Walter Reed is its size," said Thomas R. Maskey, a senior vice president at Peterson Cos., a Northern Virginia developer of mixed-use projects. "There's not 113 acres anywhere around here that's going to be available. The size allows you to do a lot of different things that can really have an impact."

With congressional review of the Pentagon's base-closing plan ahead, it could be years before Walter Reed closes, and it may not happen at all if local officials succeed in blocking the proposed transfer of hospital staff to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda and Fort Belvoir in Fairfax County. And it could take years more before a plan for the property took shape.

"There's a lot of legwork that has to be done before you can break ground and start redeveloping a site," said Tim Ford, executive director of the Association of Defense Communities, a nonprofit group that tracks base closings and redevelopments across the country. "Just getting the land from the federal government is tough."

The Washington region is no stranger to the federal government rearranging its land use, but the aftermath isn't always consistent.

The Cameron Station military base in Alexandria was quickly redeveloped into a mostly residential neighborhood after it was closed in the late 1990s. The District, in contrast, has been in a protracted debate over the fate of the federally operated and largely defunct St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Southeast. The 40-acre Southeast Federal Center was turned over to the District -- sort of. It is being redeveloped as a new headquarters for the Transportation Department, with some of the property slated for a private housing, retail and office development.

Walter Reed, based on its size, history and location, would probably pose an even more complicated development problem. Ford said that when the military vacated its prime piece of real estate in San Francisco's Presidio, for example, there was a "constant battle" among residents, developers and D.C. officials before a compromise was reached to keep part of the 1,480-acre site as parkland and use other parts for commercial space.

Developers said there would be no shortage of interest or ideas for the Walter Reed campus, which brokers said is worth $80 million to $100 million.

Developer John Shooshan of Arlington, who has done office buildings and housing projects, said that because Walter Reed sits in a mostly residential area, bordering Rock Creek Park, it could be developed into a combination of single-family homes, condominiums and apartments.