While ECA was on break there has been tons of exciting news within the Edgewood and Eckington communities. Here's an honest attempt to recap the happenings over the summer. Feel free to suggest events that were left out.


New Trees Coming to Edgewood: This fall Edgewood will be getting 27 new trees through a partnership with local non-profit Casey Trees and ECA. The trees will be planted in the Edgewood park located at 4th & franklin st's NE. A subsequent blog entry will follow with more details.


Summit at St. Martins nears completion: The long anticipated and often time contentious development located on Tst in the Eckington community will soon be completed. The development is in its final stages, landscaping and paver's are now being installed. When its all completed the apartments will boast a library, cyber cafe, gym and roof top decks. A viewing will be held sometime this fall. For more info visit their site http://thesummitdc.com/index.htm

Edgewood Gets a Brewery: This is great news for beer enthusiast and small business supporters in the community. The micro brewer will be called "Chocolate City Beer" and will be located just off the MBT. The brewery will have the capacity to produce 150 kegs a month in the beginning. Chocolate City Beer will add a new business to the community and give new life to a historic building. Heres the link to the Prince of Petworth blog on the brewery http://tinyurl.com/2gxvs7u

Chancellor's Row at St. Paul's Breaks Ground: The 230 home community situated on the grounds of St. Paul's college in Edgewood broke ground yesterday and it's already selling fast. Over the last couple months the development has sold 22 homes making it the fastest selling community in the region. Despite EYA's marketing of the development as a Brookland community it is with out a doubt a new edition to Edgewood. The community will have 28 affordable housing units, 13 to be completed in phase 1. Edgewood Civic is the beneficiary of amenities from the development through a process that was not vetted or negotiated through our executive board. For more info on the community visit EYA's site http://www.eya.com/Chancellors_Row_at_Brookland_Metro.

Still No Grocer at Rhode Island Plaza: Months after Safeway bailed out of the Edgewood community residents are still without a grocery store. Other than the building being gutted there has been no movement at the site. I know... Its disappointing right! ECA will remain an advocate and active participant in the negotiations for a new grocer in the shopping plaza.

Edgewood Featured in the Times: The Washington Times recently covered the Edgewood community in a article on D.C neighborhoods. The article highlights the active civic life within the Edgewood community as well as it's reasonable home prices.Great to see this advancing community showcased in a positive way. ECA board member Jioni Palmer and neighborhood note taker Michael Henderson were both quoted in the article. Check out the complete article here http://tinyurl.com/39ddtxj

 
Rhode Island Station Upgrade: Although its not in our direct community the Rhode Island station development is a project to watch. The development will consist of rental units and ground floor retail.  Construction is moving at a rapid pace it only took two days for them to plow down all the trees on the property and they were off from there. WMATA has chosen to use Bethesda based Bozuto management to develop the site. The plans are available in our development section.


A Win for the Residents: Maybe a win is a understatement. The long battle to have the negligent owner of 329 Rhode Island do something with his property may be over. After the much appreciated persistence of former neighbor Steven Conn the abandoned building was eventually tagged blighted by the city. Shortly after the building was ruled blighted the owner engaged in talks to sell the building he found a developer and sold the property. The new owner has some lofty ambitions for the location. He plans on bringing high end condo's to the neglected corner of 4th & Rhode Island. How high end? Well the condo's will range from $250,000-300,000, with a rooftop deck and ground floor retail. We will keep the community in the loop on specifics as they come.

Well that sums up the major events over the summer for the Eckington and Edgewood communities. We look forward to sharing more great news in the future.