Steve Burns
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON – (WMAL) Six years after the Walter Reed Army Medical Center closed, new life is getting breathed into the abandoned campus. D.C. officials Monday broke ground on The Parks at Walter Reed, an enormous new development at the old hospital complex that is set to include 2,100 new units of housing, retail spaces, offices, a hotel and conference center, and a new facility for the D.C. International School.
“We have 66 acres between Georgia Avenue and Rock Creek Park in a really prime location in our city,” mayor Muriel Bowser said at the groundbreaking ceremony. “Upper Georgia Avenue’s time has come.”
After deciding to close the hospital, the federal government declared the campus property as surplus after operations ceased in 2011. The District bought it for $22 million and took over the land last October.
Ward Four Councilmember Brandon Todd called the development “the single greatest economic development opportunity that the District of Columbia will see for generations.”
The first occupants at the site may be students from D.C. International. The school has already gotten started renovating a historic building on the campus they plan to use.
“They tell me that 775 kids could be here as early as this summer,” Bowser said. “That’s really fantastic news for a growing and successful school in our community.”
The Parks at Walter Reed, will create 3.1 million square-feet of residential, office, and retail space in #Ward4 ➡️ https://t.co/NJepqc4Pn4 pic.twitter.com/XqOF1A2BHV
— Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) April 24, 2017
The campus, sitting on 66 acres sandwiched between two busy corridors in Georgia Avenue and 16th Street NW, was the economic engine of the neighborhood for decades, but its surroundings have suffered since the complex was shuttered in 2011. Bowser said the Walter Reed development should change that.
“When people see shovels in the ground, when investors see opportunities here, we know that the remainder of upper Georgia Avenue will fill in as well.”
Copyright 2017 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (photo: Walter Reed Tomorrow)
