Leaders of the St. Elizabeth East Redevelopment Project and area residents converged at the Old Congress Heights School located on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE to talk about the latest developments on Nov. 18, and the event offered a great deal of good news.
“It is a good day in ‘the soul of the city,’” said Monica Ray, nodding to the moniker many Congress Heights residents call their neighborhood.
Ray, president of the Congress Heights Community Training and Development Corporation, was one of a half-dozen speakers talking about the positive actions taking place at St. Elizabeths East campus.
One of the first mental health institutions in the nation, the campus has evolved over the past two decades to become an emerging site for residential units, commercial and entertainment activity and health and welfare facilities.
Located in Ward 8, sitting on 182 acres of land in the middle of Congress Heights, the campus is buttressed by Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE on the west and Alabama Avenue SE by the east.
There is already so much to offer at St. Elizabeths East, including: Sycamore and Oak, a retail village and entertainment space; R.I.S.E. Demonstration Center, a mini-convention hall; CareFirst Arena, home to the Washington Mystics and Capital City Go-Go; and Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center GW Health, the only comprehensive medical hospital in that part of the District.
There is more development on the horizon, which is why Ray was so enthusiastic on the cold, damp night of Nov. 16, as she met with residents.
“We are in a historic transition,” she said. “It is people who look like us developing St. Elizabeths East.”
Key Developments at St. Elizabeths
Jaspreet Pahwa, director of planning for the D.C. Public Library, shared highlights about the new Congress Heights Library, replacing the Parklands-Turner branch, located at a nearby shopping center.
“The Congress Heights Branch will be the first in the city to be close to a Metro station, the eastern entrance of the Congress Heights station,” said Pahwa, noting that residents requested this accommodation. “All people have to do is to leave the eastern entrance and they will walk right into the library.”
Additionally, she said there will be large areas dedicated to children’s books and materials, an adult reading room and a recording studio for young people.
“It was the young people who wanted the recording studio and we decided to accommodate that,” she said, emphasizing community engagement was critical to the process of bringing the library to St. Elizabeths campus.
Omar Karim, founder and owner of Banneker Development, said he plans to build two mixed-use residential developments in honor of celebrated civil rights leaders: The Martin and The Malcolm.
“They are two of my heroes,” said Karim. “The housing will be workforce rentals.”
Ray said the development on the new parcels, consisting of Karim’s building and the public library, will be massive and historic.
“If you link Parcel 6, 7, 8, 9 and 13 together, you have a property the size of The Wharf,” she said, referring to the huge residential and retail establishment on the banks of the Potomac River. “It is my understanding that no Black developer has land there. What we have here at St. Elizabeths are Black developers and other professionals developing this project. You don’t have anything else like this here in the country.”