Hill East Boys and Girls Club Development is back on track – Here’s A Rare Look Inside– Photo Essay

Hill East Boys and Girls Club, 261 17th Street, SE, is back on the track and headed for redevelopment.

To enter though the door, you sign a waiver absolving the city government of responsibility and don a mask to protect against mold. Flashlights are provided by DMPED.

Through the door, you enter the building’s lobby.

Stepping out of the lobby on the north side of the building you’re immersed in gloomy stairwells on the way to the lower level.

On the lower level on the north end of the building lies the empty swimming pool.

Headed through what was once maybe a locker room toward the basketball court on the south end of the building.

The basketball court. Note the basket of copper pipes collected by metal thieves who have recently broken into the building. (Separate post on this to follow.)

Back down stairs on the south side of the building to the lower level, the group came upon the creepy single light in the building – a dim florescent – leaving city engineers puzzled.

Back up stairs, through rooms filled with debris.

To the auditorium and theater on the north end, above the swimming pool.

Up more stairs on the north end to an unprotected opening to the roof, with the floor below slick with moisture and pigeon droppings. Neighbors say swarms of mosquitoes arise from pools of water on the roof.

Moving back to the south end of the building, an upper floor gallery wall displays the signatures of basketball greats Michael Jordan and Shaquile O’Neal…and actor Tom Cruise who filmed scenes for “Minority report” nearby.

The wall opposite the famous autographs show one of several murals decorating the walls which speak to the former activities of the facility.

Upper floor, south side. Pool table with pool balls long gone to a private collection.

ANC6B Commissioner Daniel Ridge (in helmet) and DMPED C0-Project Manager Dion Townley discuss steps going forward in the RFP process after the tour.

Hill East Boys and Girls Club Development is back on track – Here’s A Rare Look Inside– Photo Essay

By Larry Janezich

Friday afternoon, ANC 6B Commissioner Daniel Ridge and two DMPED Project managers, Dion Townley and Anna Shapiro, led a group of nearby neighbors on a tour of the just-begging-to-be-developed Hill East Boys and Girls Club.  Last September, during a Hill East walk-about by the Mayor http://bit.ly/2cl30XW, Bowser pledged to work with CM Allen and the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) to move the stalled project forward.  A previous effort by the Department of General Services (DGS) to redevelop the building failed owing in large part to unhappiness in the community that the plan did not include mixed housing.  That was the direct result of DGS’s standard 25 year lease limitations which precluded private financing, leaving Low Income Tax Credit Housing financing as the only option.  Under DMPED, the lease can be much longer; the land for the Hine Development was leased to Eastbanc for 99 years.

Co-Project Manager Anna Shapiro told the group that there are no preconceptions regarding how the building could be repurposed, but, “DMPED is in business of creating jobs, economic development and affordable housing.  We need to leverage the economic value to do the renovation.”  She added, “If there is historic value we’ll work with Historic Preservation.”

According to CM Charles Allen, the new development scheme will unfold under the provisions of the “OUR Request for Proposals” (RFP) procedure.  DMPED anticipates two public meetings – one in late January and one in late February to receive input from the community.  DMPED will then write and release an RFP in March or April.  After four to six months for review – during which ANC6B would weigh in with its recommendation – DMPED would make a selection.

After the tour, Ridge said he was not wedded to the idea of converting to a housing project and speculated that a community center along the lines of Hill Center would add a lot to the community.  Former ANC Commissioner Frances Campbell, long active on this issue, is pressing for the project to be developed into senior and affordable housing, both of which are becoming scarce in Hill East.