On May 14, 2008, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (“DMPED”) issued a 48-page Request for Expressions of Interest (“RFEI”) for the Redevelopment of the Hill East Waterfront, or “Reservation 13,” as it is still called by many. 

The property is a 67-acre site on the Eastern edge of Capitol Hill where the former DC General Hospital is located. 

The purpose of the RFEI is “to identify Developers who have the creative vision, demonstrated experience, and organizational and financial capability to redevelop the Hill East Waterfront as a vibrant, mixed-use urban waterfront community, and as a model for sustainable development” (the RFEI can be downloaded from the Hill East Waterfront Redevelopment website.

According to Genevieve Hanson, who works in the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, responses to the RFEI are due by October 31, and a developer will be selected by the end of January 2009.  Further negotiations between DC Government officials and the developer that is selected could take another 9 to 16 months, and the redevelopment could commence by the Spring of 2010, according to Ms. Hanson.

Currently, a number of buildings on the site are being used, mostly to provide public health and human services to low income and vulnerable populations.  In what used to be wings, or annexes of the once institutional DC General Hospital campus, there’s a TB clinic, STD Clinic, Detox Unit, and the Medical Examiner’s Office.  The Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency holds a long-term lease to a 7-story building on the site, which includes a right to surface parking for 60 cars in the vicinity of the building.  The DC Government is also using vacant space on the property as “swing space” for agencies like the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.

Under the Redevelopment Plan, the majority of the existing public health uses will be consolidated in a new publicly-owned facility to be constructed on “Parcel L” of the property, which is located on the DC Jail side of Massachusetts Avenue (See RFEI p. 11).  All other District uses will be relocated by 2012, according to the Plan.

There is currently a homeless shelter for women on the site – the Harriet Tubman shelter, which houses about 100 women.  During the 2007-08 hypothermia season, the District operated an emergency homeless shelter for approximately 100 men, and an emergency shelter for homeless families in the old DC General Hospital.

This year, the District has fully committed not to operate the men’s homeless shelter or emergency family shelter at DC General during hypothermia.  The women’s shelter will move from the cafeteria to the building that was used last year for the men’s hypothermia shelter called “Building 9.”  It will remain open 24 hours a day so the women won’t be forced out onto the streets during the day as they were from the cafeteria building.

The “Hoya Clinic,” a primary care provider affiliated with Georgetown University, has asked the District for permission to use the wing within the DC General Hospital building that was used for homeless families during the hypothermia season last year, to operate a primary care clinic to meet the primary care needs of children during evening hours.  The Department of Human Services continues to use the space as “swing space” for up to 17 homeless families in need of emergency shelter, but has committed not to use the Hospital for emergency shelter for homeless families during the coming Hypothermia season.

There will be a public meeting to discuss the Hoya Clinic proposal on Monday, September 8, at 6:30 p.m. on the 4th floor of the DC General Hospital Building.