Hecht Company Warehouse, New York Avenue NE (© Superbass / CC-BY-SA-3.0 / via Wikimedia Commons)

Hecht Company Warehouse, New York Avenue NE
(© Superbass / CC-BY-SA-3.0 / via Wikimedia Commons)

 From a reader:

Hey Titan,

Heard some scuttlebutt today! An officer with the DC Office of Planning mentioned at my civic association meeting today that there may be some changes happening at the Douglas Development-owned Hecht Warehouse on NY Ave NE.

Something about some zoning changes, maybe, that might finally get some business in there?… wasn’t able to talk to her about it further. It’s such a sweet building! Have you heard anything on your end? I think it would be a great place for a Trader Joes, or maybe that Eataly place that Mario Batali is supposed to be opening up.

While it’s probably a wee bit premature to speculate on Trader Joe’s or Eataly, the Hecht Warehouse is indeed progressing.  The warehouse, in the Ivy City neighborhood, faces New York Avenue. 

A recent Office of Zoning notice indicates that Douglas Development plans a high-density office building with ground floor retail.  Recently, the property owner applied to the Office of Zoning to request rezoning to allow additional height and density than currently allowed, for an office building with ground-floor retail:

The property that is the subject of this application consists of parts of Lots 7 and 804 in Square 4037 in Northeast Washington, D.C. (Ward 5), which is located at 1401-1535 New York Avenue, N.E.  The property is currently zoned C-M-2.  The Applicant proposes a map amendment to rezone the property to the C-M-3 Zone District in order to permit the additional height and density to accommodate a proposed new office building with ground-floor retail.  The property is currently improved with the former Hecht Company Warehouse, a landmark complex of buildings constructed between 1937 and 1994.  The project will require review and approval by the Historic Preservation Review Board.   

If granted, the rezoning would allow a maximum height of 90 feet, up from the current maximum of 60 feet.  In addition, the maximum-allowed density would rise to a 6.0 FAR (floor-to-area ratio), up from 4.0 FAR.

Last year, the Washington, DC Economic Partnership tweeted that the Hecht Warehouse site would be home to 459 residential units and over 200,000 square feet of retail.  That tweet was later deleted, with no official confirmation on whether it was accurate.

This zoning case, as noted on the application, “is of interest to ANC 5D.”  No word yet on whether the ANC Commission is aware of it or if they’ll discuss it at the next meeting.

We’ve reached out to Douglas Development for comment, and will update this post if we hear back.

This post is the result of a reader tip.  If you have a tip, let us know at titan@titanoftrinidad.com, or snitch anonymously using our online tip form.