If you haven’t been down Cecil B. Moore Ave. in South Kensington recently, you may struggle to place yourself given the massive changes to the area. One of the biggest differences is due to the first two phases of Avenue V, a project we first covered back in 2018, brought to us by the Riverwards Group. As you can see below, Phase I is complete and Phase II is getting very close to the finish line. Let’s stroll along the perimeter of 1649 N. 5th St. to get our bearings straight.

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Aerial of the site shows Phases I & II along with an Oklahoma-shaped lot
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View across N. 5th St. shows Phase I of the project
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Current view of Phase II, looking south from 5th & Cecil B. Moore
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Original plans for Phase II show how project look has shifted
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Current view of the site on the right, with Phase II wrapping up on the left
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View looking west from Germantown Ave. shows lot on the left, with Phase II on the right

As you may have gathered by now, thanks to the wonders of Civic Design Review, we now know what’s in store for Phase III. Plans previously called for a similar menu as Phase II, which included nearly 150 units across multiple buildings, most of which were quadplexes. We originally believed these were to be for sale, but it appears based on the project website that these are in fact rental units. Given this shift, it makes sense to us that this final phase has also received a bit of an update. Now we can expect 200 HDO Architecture-designed units over six floors, with parking for 51 cars and 92 bikes, along with some artist studio space to boot. Let’s check out how the site plans have shifted and what’s to come below.

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Previous site plans on left showed multiple buildings, with the new site plans showing pivot to one larger building
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Aerial looking east shows how new building will interact with previous phases
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View of building looking east from N. 5th St.
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An alternate angle at sunset

This is quite a clever plan for this unusual lot. The existing buildings limit what’s possible, but we applaud the developers for squeezing so many units onto this IRMX/RM-1 zoned lot. While we are rarely fond of surface parking, we understand that the parking minimums mandate inclusion if one wants to avoid a trip to the Zoning Board of Adjustments. And if you thought that 200 additional units was a lot, this is just a part of the story for this intersection.

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Just north across Cecil B. Moore, no action yet
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330 Cecil B. Moore looking southeast from the corner of Germantown Ave.

Previously, we told you about two other mixed-use projects slated nearby. While we didn’t see any movement at the office/residential proposal north of Cecil B. Moore that we told you about in 2019, we did see another project close to completion. Just across Germantown Ave., 330 Cecil B. Moore Ave. is nearly wrapped. This project we covered in 2020 will bring an additional 42 apartments and two retail spaces to the area. As we said, this stretch of surface lots and industrial buildings is going through quite the reinvention – and there’s so much more to come.