Plans Change for Housing Near Bridge
Developer Offers Fewer Units in Mix of Luxury and Affordable Apartments

By Brigid Schulte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 31, 2006

A developer who has promised to preserve hundreds of units of affordable housing on Alexandria's desirable waterfront unveiled a new scaled-back proposal last week.

Giuseppe Cecchi originally sought to buy two properties on either side of South Washington Street: Hunting Towers and Hunting Terrace, aging apartment complexes along the Potomac River near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

He planned to raze the Terrace and build 400 units of luxury condominiums in two 15-story high-rises. With the money he made from that project, Cecchi promised to refurbish the 500-plus units in the Towers, keep prices affordable and sell the units as condos for the local workforce.

But he has been able to acquire only the Hunting Terrace property and, despite court action, is unlikely to be able to bid on Hunting Towers for at least two years.

Cecchi acquired the Terrace from the Virginia Department of Transportation for about $25 million earlier this year. But he balked at the $85 million that VDOT wanted for the Towers -- he had bid half that amount -- and took the agency to court to demand a fair-market-value appraisal.

VDOT instead decided to take the property off the market. Agency officials explained that they will offer it for sale again when the bridge is finished, to command a higher price.

Officials from VDOT and the Federal Highway Administration have said that money from the sale will help offset the cost of the $2.4 billion bridge project, and in angry letters have chided the city of Alexandria for "downzoning" the property to encourage affordable housing.

VDOT paid $95 million for both properties in 2001.

Cecchi said he and VDOT officials have been meeting all summer to try to reach a mediated solution. Cecchi made his final offer in an ultimatum and asked for a response by Aug. 15. When no response came, Cecchi said he needed a new plan.

So last week, at a meeting of Hunting Creek stakeholders -- residents, landowners, government officials and other interested parties -- Cecchi made a new proposal. He still plans to raze the crumbling Terrace, but instead of building only luxury units there, plans to build a mix.

To satisfy city planners and the National Park Service, he will abide by an 80-foot setback along Washington Street and plant a landscape buffer. Just behind the buffer, he now plans to build three five-story buildings of affordable workforce condos. Those 116 new units, Cecchi said, replace entirely the existing affordable units. And the five-story height complies with Old Town zoning rules mandating that buildings be no higher than 50 feet.

Just behind the affordable housing buildings, Cecchi proposes to build a street, Hunting Creek Lane, and across that street construct three high-rise luxury condos with underground parking and views of the river across South Washington Street. But instead of his original plan for 400 units rising 15 stories, the new concept calls for 300 luxury units. And Cecchi proposes to "tier" the buildings, beginning at five stories, rising to nine and finally reaching the top at the 14th floor.

Because of the high-rises, the plan remains controversial. Zoning regulations for the area call for the 50-foot height limit to be exceeded only when an "extraordinary" contribution is made to affordable housing. So Cecchi still has a number of hoops to jump through.

Cecchi said the new plan removes much of the uncertainty and skepticism that residents had about their future. "It was justified skepticism," Cecchi said in an interview from his high-rise offices in Rosslyn. "With the Towers, we cannot guarantee anything. But with the Terrace, we own it, we control it. And we are making an exceptional contribution to workforce housing right there."

At the meeting last week, some stakeholders were indeed concerned about the height. But Cecchi, who had rolled out his plan to residents at a barbecue the previous evening, received qualified support from many of them. Some elderly residents have lived in the apartments for decades. The complexes date to the 1940s.

"I hope he makes a bunch of money and we have a place to stay and nobody gets upset by what they put up," said Towers resident Chuck Benagh, head of a new tenant group, Alexandria Coalition for Hunting Towers. "I would trade the height for affordable housing, but I know there's going to be a lot of opposition. But if some plan doesn't go through, what we might end up with is nothing across the street and nothing here, too, and seeing our places turned into million-dollar condos."

Lewis Simon, who lives at the Terrace, said he and others are disappointed that the number of affordable units has dropped from more than 500 to 116. "We think VDOT is responsible for that," he said. But he said he and others are concerned that no one has defined what "affordable" means. Current Terrace residents pay $900 to $1,100 a month for rent, utilities included. And although Cecchi's plan calls for the new affordable condos to be offered for sale first to Terrace residents, Lewis is concerned that some elderly residents won't be able to afford them. "I'm worried they're still going to be displaced," he said.

Ardith Dentzer, who for years has fought for affordable housing as head of the Hunting Towers Residents' Association, said residents are weary of the fight. After opposition to Cecchi's new project was voiced at the meeting last week, she said she worried that residents would have a difficult time convincing others that the Cecchi plan is "an amazing deal."

The proposal now goes to the city's Planning Commission, whose staff has begun to review it.

Cecchi said that when the Towers property comes up for sale again, he will attempt to acquire it and preserve at least one of the two boxy Towers as affordable housing, even though others have derided them as ugly.

"Sometimes the beautiful things are not the good thing," he said. "First responders should live close to where they work. I am very concerned about the depletion of urban workforce housing. Normally, I'm like every other developer -- develop a beautiful property and make money. But here we have an opportunity to do something different. I live here. This is something for everyone's quality of life."