Konterra Fits 'New Urbanism' Trend
By Ovetta Wiggins
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
In six months, Prince George's County will preside over the opening of National Harbor, one of the biggest and most luxurious hotel and convention centers on the East Coast: a $2 billion marvel of work and play space on the banks of the Potomac River.
Lurking in the wings is another project that could trump National Harbor, this one planned for the northern end of the county near the Montgomery County line.
Konterra, as it is known, will be even bigger and more expensive than National Harbor. Planners envision the $3 billion development occupying 2,200 acres in Laurel and featuring luxury single-family houses, townhomes and condominiums, hotels, a business park and swanky retail, office and entertainment space.
Developers hope to have their plans approved next year and break ground in 2009.
The project is being planned in phases: Konterra and Konterra Town Center.
When the first phase is completed in 2011, it will resemble Reston and Bethesda, with sidewalks and outdoor cafes. "It is seen as a more lively kind of environment," said Steven Adams, supervisor of urban design for the county's planning department. "Sometimes suburban living is characterized as sterile. This provides a neo-urban kind of place."
Like National Harbor, Konterra exemplifies a growing tendency in Prince George's to retool land-use plans in an effort to get developments to group office and retail space, housing and restaurants into single communities.
The concept, sometimes referred to as "new urbanism," has been around since the early 1980s but has just started to take hold in Prince George's. At least six such developments are in the works in the county, and others are on the drawing board.
"These projects offer county residents an opportunity to have an urban experience within a suburban context," said Kwasi Holman, executive director of Prince George's County Economic Development Corp.
New urbanism projects that are planned or proposed include one near the Greenbelt Metro station. Another is the Woodmore Towne Center, a proposed 245-acre project at the Capital Beltway and Route 202 in Glenarden that would house the county's first upscale grocery store.
A third, University Town Center in Hyattsville, is under construction. Planners say it will offer students who already live there a vibrant town center with outdoor cafes, stores and a children's museum.
And at a 362-acre former industrial site in Bowie, plans are underway for Karington, which county officials describe as a classic example of new urbanism. When completed, the development will have a private school and an annex to Prince George's Community College. The development also will have a conference center, two hotels, a lake and estate homes.
Each of these developments has attracted nationally prominent builders, some of whom have never done business in the county before.
Konterra, which will sit near Interstate 95 along the planned intercounty connector corridor, is one of the largest and most ambitious new urbanism developments under consideration. Officials are reviewing the master plan, which includes a town center anchored by three department stores on 753 acres. Single-family homes, a golf course and a business campus will take up some of the other 1,447 acres.
Kingdon Gould III, the District-based developer of Konterra, plans to use his project to address residents' longtime complaints about the lack of upscale shopping and dining options in the county despite its being a mecca for the region's black middle class.
"We plan to bring quality to Prince George's County and a lot of new jobs," said Hillary Cahan, Konterra's project manager.
"We're looking for Konterra to spur economic development in Prince George's County like Columbia has spurred it for Howard," Holman said.
Some county leaders say that "new urbanism" has been embraced by the county for years but that it has taken longer for developers to come on board. "I think for so long we were viewed as a bedroom community," said John Funk, a division head in the Planning Department.
Funk and Andre Gingles, an attorney for Konterra, said that for such projects to work, the government has to support them, developers have to embrace them and the market has to demand them. Gingles said the "synergies are just starting to come together" in Prince George's.
They had not in the past.
In 1990, County Council member Thomas E. Dernoga (D-Laurel) chaired a task force on new urbanism, but nothing came of the meetings, he said.
"We sometimes do a lot of lip service," Dernoga said. "In this case, I think it took a while for the economics to catch up with the idea in Prince George's."
Dernoga said that developers with subdivisions in the county have tried to sell their projects as models of new urbanism but that the projects lacked the key components needed to fit the model. "With new urbanism, you create a community," he said. "You build a system of streets, mixing in some retail . . . giving it a town feel. You have a Main Street."
Holman said projects such as National Harbor and Konterra will make Prince George's attractive to employers and young professionals, who like an urban style of living.
"These places offer what the county has been looking for -- housing, offices and an entertainment component -- all in one place."
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