Status, as of March 2014:
At
Capitol Quarter, both phases of the project are now complete, bringing to the neighborhood approximately 138 market-rate townhouses, 76 workforce-rate units, 13 Section 8 ownership units and 86 subsidized rental units. The final units were completed in fall 2012.
In total, the entire Capper redevelopment project is projected to have more than 1,500 residential units, including 707 public housing rental units (the same number it had before the redevelopment). Approximately 300 of these are in the now-completed
Capper Seniors #1 building and at
400 M Street, with 86 more in Capitol Quarter.
Another 39 units will become available as part of the 195-unit
Bixby apartment building at 7th and L SE that will be finished in 2016, and perhaps in 2016 construction will begin on the 171-unit building at 2nd and L on
Square 769N. The rest will be in mixed-income apartment buildings (and perhaps a condo building) planned along
Canal Park.
Office buildings totaling more than 700,000 square feet will also eventually be built, at
250 M Street and on the site of the
old Capper Seniors building at 7th and M; this building was demolished in 2007 and replaced with a temporary surface parking lot. There will be ground-floor retail in the office and apartment buildings.
This stitched-together overhead view, taken in March 2006, shows the entire Capper/Carrollsburg site, from the Southeast Freeway at left to the block south of L Street on the right. All of the public housing buildings had been vacant for at least a year at the time of this photo, but all were finally demolished during 2006. The Capper buildings between 4th and 5th Street were demolished in late 2004. You can also see the under-construction
Capper Seniors #1 at rear left. The
Canal Park will replace the school bus lots in the foreground. (03/06)
The same view, four years later. All original Capper buildings are now demolished, and completed Capper Seniors #1 and
400 M are visible, along with most of the first phase of the
Capitol Quarter townhouse development. (3/5/10)
On June 26, 2007, the DC Housing Authority held a ceremonial groundbreaking for the redevelopment of Capper/Carrollsburg, with a large group of people wielding shovels on K Street just west of 4th Street. From left: Brian Allan Jackson of EYA; Franklin Smith, chairman of the DCHA Board of Commissioners; former Capper/Carrollsburg resident Kivette Abraham and her daughter; Ward 6 council member Tommy Wells; Michael Kelly, DCHA Executive Director; Leslie Steen, the District's Housing Chief; Leila Edmunds, director of the DC Department of Housing and Community Development; and Anthony Waddell, Director of Public Finance at the DC Housing Finance Agency. (6/26/07)
DCHA commission chair Franklin Smith speaks to the assembled crowd; at far right is a graphic showing how the affordable housing units are integrated into the townhouses so that from the outside all the differing income-level units look the same. (6/26/07)
DCHA executive director Michael Kelly gave an energetic talk highlighting how Capper's redevelopment includes a one-to-one replacement of every unit of public housing that was demolished. (6/26/07)
On a typical hazy and humid Washington summer day, Ward 6 council member Tommy Wells wryly made reference to the "hottest housing market in the country" while the audience fanned themselves and hoped to feel some of the air-conditioning inside the tent. (6/26/07)
The tent erected in the EYA parking lot for the groundbreaking festivities. (6/26/07)
While six people with shovels can move some dirt, it's probably a good thing that the heavy machinery is on standby. (6/26/07)
Looking south into Capper/Carrollsburg down 3rd Street from under the Southeast Freeway overpass, the only view that many Capitol Hill workers and residents have ever had of the Cappers and Near Southeast. (05/03)
The same location, in September 2012, with the new townhouses constructed at left and all other Capper buildings long since demolished. (9/9/12)
While looking forward to the changes that are coming to the Cappers, it should not be forgotten that this neighborhood had been home to many people for many years, and those people had to uproot themselves. Views of the southwest corner of 4th and K in May, 2003.... (05/03)
... and again in August, 2004 highlight the loss of an resident who took great care with their yard. (08/04)