A Haven Grows in Hyattsville

Hyattsville was experiencing a renaissance even before the city held a reception to welcome Rockcastle to town. Longtime residents tend to resent descriptions like redevelopment. They prefer to describe what's going on as a belated discovery. The town, as Mike Franklin, owner of the eponymous Franklins, puts it, is finally "coming into its own." Regardless of what it's called, there's some serious revitalization underway.

Three blocks north of Rockcastle's place, and two blocks north of Franklins, developers are transforming 21 rundown acres along Route 1. This spring, developer EYA plans to begin selling "Arts District Hyattsville." It is building 300 rowhouses of brick and sheet metal, plus about 200 condos. The new three- and four-story buildings will offer, all total, as much as 30,000 square feet of restaurants, shops and doctors offices.

The plan is to return downtown Hyattsville to its splendor of the early to mid-1900s. Some have compared the project to the urbanized small-town feel of Alexandria, though people in Hyattsville cringe at that analogy: Alexandria to them is too well-scrubbed and cute, while Hyattsville is more eclectic and gritty. It's a concern that the developers understand and have embraced. "We're not trying to do Alexandria," says EYA executive Aakash Thakkar, in a reassuring voice. "We're trying to do something cool and funky and Hyattsville."

And in pursuit of that authentic Hyattsville spirit, the developers even plan to rehab the city's old, glass-fronted Lustine Chevrolet showroom, where sharp-finned Bel Airs and gleaming Corvettes, were once displayed. When EYA finishes, the former automobile showroom will be a community center with lounge, fitness center and art gallery, Thakkar says, and EYA hopes to find local artists to create sculpture for a courtyard and paint a mural on one of the showroom walls.

Hyattsville is ripe for this kind of redevelopment. It boasts two Metro stations, an urban mood and a diverse population of (for now) 15,000 residents. Mayor Bill Gardiner counts among his neighbors Jamaicans of Indian ancestry, political refugees from Sri Lanka, a white Jewish family and a World War II vet who's lived there for 50 years. Rockcastle calls Hyattsville a town of immigrants and former hippies, and Gardiner doesn't disagree. "A lot of people ended up in Hyattsville because they couldn't afford Takoma Park," the mayor says.

Housing prices have only recently begun catching up to the housing boom, but they're catching up fast. Rockcastle estimates that his investment has already doubled. He bought the building for $350,000 and has put another $150,000 into the renovations, he says. If he decided to sell now, he thinks he could get more than $1 million.

In keeping with its ambitions to become an artists' mecca, Hyattsville has awarded a contract for Renaissance Square, a 44-unit artists' housing project on Jefferson Street. Artists who move in will get subsidized housing and, in return, are expected to volunteer 10 hours a week to teach kids about art.

And there are other signs of new life. The city is working on a deal with the YMCA for a full-service, $6.2 million building, complete with indoor pool. At University Town Center, about a mile from College Park and near Hyattsville's Prince George's Plaza Metro station, the city is getting a 16-story, 910-bed student housing building with a rooftop swimming pool. Construction crews also are about to break ground on a 14-screen movie theater, an eight-story condo building whose first floor will be retail space, and a 21-unit loft-type condo building. The Town Center just signed a lease with Safeway for a "lifestyle" store meant to compete with Whole Foods, says Tim Taylor, the center's vice president of leasing.

The Gateway Arts District has run into some roadblocks. A few months ago, the county's effort to rid the Route 1 corridor of small used-car dealerships was blocked by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. The small car dealerships, the court ruled, could not be pushed out without compensation when they'd been operating there for years.

Francis isn't worried. "Our strategy from the beginning has been let's do three or four anchor projects to set the tone . . . and the market will follow." In fact, he points out, the Gateway vision has aimed, from the beginning, to take advantage of the area's burgeoning identity-- that of a destination for artists priced out of the District.

So in Mount Rainier, for example, Brooke Kidd has seen her Joe's Movement Emporium, a community performing arts center, flourish. In addition to myriad educational and production services, Joe's also provides space to two African dance companies, the Balinese Gamelan Orchestra, a modern dance troupe and a classical Thai dance company. Nearby, the research-oriented Latin American Folk Institute has also been offering workshops in Peruvian percussion, salsa flamenco and Afro-Cuban jazz. Several nationally acclaimed artists live and work next door in the town of Brentwood, including Ray Kaskey, who did the 24 bronze, bas-relief panels for the National World War II Memorial; Steve Weitzman, whose public art includes a sculpture in front of the National Zoo; and Martha Jackson-Jarvis, who created the glass mosaic at the Anacostia Metro station.

And now, Francis points out, "we've got projects like EYA and others following our model."

The momentum is swinging their way.

Though he just moved into the Machen building recently, Rockcastle's experience is closer to camping out than cutting-edge urban living. Renovations, even for architects, can take longer than planned. "I stumbled through a few confidence artists and less-than-reliable contractors before finding trustworthy and engaging crafts-oriented folks interested in what I am trying to do," he says.

Still, the mahogany paneling he saved is about to be laminated into stiff boards for built-in bookshelves and window seats. And in his dining room, the patch of leftover wallpaper -- an old ivy pattern that whispers of button-up boots and potbellied stoves -- remains, complete with the water-damaged tear down the middle. Rockcastle plans to paint a distant landscape inside the tear, emphasizing each fragment of the wall, allowing each to tell its individual story.

And he's already thinking about the rowhouses he wants to build next door. They would line up alongside the Machen building, but they would be three stories tall -- the better to configure space that's much more flexible, and thus much more appropriate, for the artists he has spent the last 30 years working to help.

Darragh Johnson is a writer in The Post's Style section.