33-story “iconic building” proposed for Hyattsville

While LifeSci Village, Percontee’s proposed community of homes, shops and research facilities in Calverton, waits for Montgomery County’s approval, they are turning to Hyattsville, where they’ve envisioned one of the most ambitious urban redevelopment projects in the region.

The existing Belcrest Plaza is a 1960’s-era garden apartment community built by the Gudelsky family. Percontee seeks to redevelop most of the 783-unit complex, behind the Mall at Prince George’s on Belcrest Road, into an urban neighborhood comparable to Reston Town Center or Bethesda Row.

The area around the Prince George’s Plaza metro station, has become a nationally-recognized example of Smart Growth. A case study of the adjacent University Town Center, a redeveloped office park, appears in the recently-published book Retrofitting Suburbia. Two luxury apartment complexes flank Belcrest Plaza. Across East-West Highway, a new hotel and an office tower are planned atop the Metro station.

At build-out, Belcrest Plaza’s thirty-five acres would have 2,750 townhomes and apartments, 200,000 square feet of office space, 55,000 square feet of retail, and space for a library and recreation center. Toledo Terrace and Toledo Road would become treed boulevards lined with buildings from five to seventeen stories, while a thirty-three story “iconic building” would sit at the corner of Belcrest Road and Toledo Road. “We want something … to send the signal that this is a vibrant area,” says Genn of the tower, which like the rest of the complex was designed by the Vienna-based Lessard Group. “The reason is to make a signature and a statement.”

While nearby garden apartment complexes are just renovating buildings, Percontee seeks to do tabula rasa, clearing the site and starting over. The redevelopment would happen in phases, starting closest to the new Post Park apartments on East-West Highway and moving east. In May, Genn told the Prince George’s Sentinel that it was “less cost effective to make repairs” than to build new. “We don’t feel it is the most responsible way to move forward by retrofitting … rather than by changing what is there.”

While community support for LifeSci Village is high, neighbors of Belcrest Plaza are less enthused. Current apartment tenants seem ambivalent about redevelopment. “It doesn’t come as a surprise,” one tenant told The Sentinel in May. “The owners and management have to stay up to date to compete.” At a meeting in August, residents from neighboring University Park complained about everything from pollution to the potential for gentrification. Current residents will be able to move to buildings on Toledo Place that will not be redeveloped. “We want to minimize dislocation as much as possible,” says Genn.

While Lambert says there will be “some provisions” for affordable housing, Prince George’s County has no requirements for how many units must be built at Belcrest Plaza. Percontee claims that the new community, with nearly four times as many homes as the original, could have fewer school-aged children because of its drastically different demographic make-up.

There was also some skepticism about the success of previous upscale development in Hyattsville. University Town Center has had difficulty filling its retail space and selling apartments; a mile away, the Arts District Hyattsville development (which JUTP visited in 2007) has stalled due to the recession.

Despite its large size, Belcrest Plaza is racing towards completion. Percontee will submit a full site plan for approval by Prince George’s County next spring, with construction to begin as early as 2012. Full build-out should take “ten to twelve years,” Genn says. “A lot of people have a general resistance to change,” responds Genn. “We believe big in Hyattsville and its potential. We do think it can be like a Bethesda Row or some of the great exciting places to be in the DC area. We see it as helping to stimulate more investment in the area.”

For more images, check out this photoset on Flickr.