Park Service Opposes Hunting Terrace Building Project

Critics Fear Damage To Historic Vista

The National Park Service has told Alexandria officials that it wants them to reject a developer's plan to build a 14-story building in the city's southeast corner, on a plot of land that juts into the Potomac River, near Old Town and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

The plan, proposed by Arlington-based IDI Group, calls for the redevelopment of Hunting Terrace, a 116-unit apartment complex in the Hunting Creek area. IDI, whose president and chief executive is prominent developer Giuseppe Cecchi, is seeking permission to erect a 150-foot building in an area with a 50-foot height limit. In exchange, Cecchi has promised to buy nearby Hunting Towers, which has 530 rental units, and maintain it as "workforce" housing -- but as condominiums, not rentals.

Park Service officials say the building, if allowed to be constructed, would damage the vista of the path that George Washington rode from his Mount Vernon home.

"The proposal at hand is significantly flawed and should be rejected," wrote David Vela, superintendent of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, in a letter distributed at a work session last Thursday at which city officials discussed plans for the site.

The renderings presented by city staff members depict tall buildings looming over the Wilson Bridge and the George Washington Parkway.

IDI officials were not permitted to speak at the meeting, which was billed as a work session at which city staff members could brief planning commissioners on the plan.

Alexandria officials also criticized the proposal. "The massive scale is overwhelming," said Arthur Keleher, a member of the city's Board of Architectural Review.

"It will change the skyline," board member James Spencer said.

In an interview, Carlos Cecchi, vice president of IDI and son of the chief executive, said that the height is not as dramatic as the renderings depict and that the buildings most visible on Washington Street would be 50 feet high. Only buildings farther back on the parcel would rise to 150 feet. The development would include 367 luxury condominium units, many with sweeping views of the Potomac River.

"The commanding views will generate top dollar, and that will let us save the tower," Cecchi said. He said IDI would use the money it makes to do a condominium conversion at Hunting Towers, in the same way the firm handled a conversion at Parkfairfax. There, renters were offered financial help to become condominium owners, and many did so.

The Virginia Department of Transportation bought the two complexes -- Hunting Terrace, which has garden apartments, and Hunting Towers, a set of 1940s-era nine-story high-rises -- when construction on the new Wilson Bridge began in 2001, because it needed some of the land to widen the Capital Beltway at the bridge approaches. The state bought the two properties for $96 million and used about one-third of the land, then put the remainder up for resale.

Last year, IDI bought Hunting Terrace for $25 million with plans to tear it down for redevelopment, and executives told residents they intended to buy Hunting Towers as well, saying that money made on that parcel would subsidize affordable units in Hunting Towers. That plan was attractive to many residents who worried about the loss of affordable housing in the city. The two complexes together comprise the second-largest parcel of affordable housing in the city, after Southern Towers on Seminary Road.