Development Corp. Pushes Skyland Sale

Officials at the NCRC said their proposal, too, would offer urban-style streetscapes, pedestrian walkways and attractive civic gathering spaces. But they said the big-box store was key to attracting restaurants and additional national retailers.

The project had always been envisioned as strictly retail, NCRC senior development manager Ted Risher said, because residents of Hillcrest and other nearby neighborhoods for years have clamored for better shopping opportunities.

But the city's sizzling housing market, and Mayor Anthony Williams's ongoing push for new housing and new residents, may mean that apartments would be a good addition, city officials said.

"Certainly residential is not offline -- if it would fit and the community would want it," said Stanley Jackson, deputy mayor for planning and economic development.

Spaulding said community groups would not support housing at Skyland if it meant less parking for the retail establishments or if it would otherwise make retailers lose interest. "Our concern is maximizing our retail opportunities," he said. "Folks out here are just starving for retail."

The NCRC and Burka's group exchanged a series of increasingly tense letters throughout May and June. The NCRC wanted Burka to show financial breakdowns of how he would finance his project, feasibility studies, and lists of interested developers and banks.

Burka said he could not provide such information unless he knew the NCRC was willing to pursue the joint venture. He also said the deal would require the NCRC to give up control of planning the project, and that the corporation's already-inked deal with a development team would have to be thrown out and rebid.

"We gave Mr. Burka and Ms. Greene plenty of opportunities to deal with us. We were prepared to negotiate on terms, we were prepared to negotiate on price," the NCRC's Risher said.

"They haven't produced anything, except for letters asking us for more time."

Now, the dispute is likely to be decided in D.C Superior Court, when a judge hears the revitalization corporation's petition to force the property owners to sell for the assessed value of their land.

Burka, Greene and their attorneys have said they will continue to fight. Burka said Skyland is fully leased and does a good volume of sales, albeit mostly of cheap food, alcohol and discount goods that never make it into the Sunday circulars.

"Skyland does a lot of business because it serves the community," Burka said.

His attorney, Deborah Baum, said the property owners' willingness to attempt the redevelopment themselves could make it difficult for the NCRC to triumph in court.

"How can they say that taking this property from private owners . . . is necessary to achieve a public purpose," Baum asked, "when they [the owners] are willing to do it themselves?"