Looking south down 17th St.

If you’re not familiar, the area surrounding the corner of 17th and Carpenter Sts. is a strangely barren wasteland, bereft of houses and full of dog poo. Half-million dollar homes sit a block away to the north, east, and west, while both sides of 17th St. and the entire northwest corner sit empty, owned by various city agencies.

Northwest corner

In the past decade, the RDA has requested proposals for development four times, most recently in April. The first time, almost ten years ago, a partnership of Universal Companies and SOSNA won the development rights. SOSNA opted out of this partnership after a couple of years, but Universal held onto development rights until they were taken away several years later by the RDA. About two years ago, a second RFP was also won by Universal, which again lost development rights, this time after one year. A third RFP was awarded to no one, and we are still waiting to hear who will win the fourth.

The RDA has reduced the applicant pool to a short list of three, one of which is, you guessed it, Universal Companies. That’s right, the developer who held the development rights for most of the past decade, and the same one that lost those development rights twice before is one of the finalists to develop this land. On the plus side, there’s no historic cinema on the lot.

Western side of the street, looking south. One lonely building sits on the corner.

The development rights were to have been awarded last month, but according to the RDA, a developer has still not been chosen. All three developers have proposed single family homes, offered at market rate prices, and one of the developers has a small commercial aspect as a part of their plan. Obviously, we don’t have renderings or anything like that- they are all hush-hush until the RDA gets around to making their decision.

This round of proposals is strictly for the 18 consecutive lots on the eastern side of the street. The RDA says that an RFP should be coming out for the west side and corner lots in a few months. Clearly, the conversion of these empty lots into new houses will bring an influx of new people into the neighborhood and put more eyes on the street. And maybe invigorate Christian St. and Washington Ave. at the same time. In a neighborhood where development seems to be everywhere, it’s amazing that these lots have remained undeveloped for all these years. It seems the time has come to build.

Just please RDA: Anybody but Universal. Two strikes and you’re out.