Rumor Mill: 10th & G Church Development No Longer Residential

Its my understanding that the ground floor wil still be used by the church — that was the crux of the deal to begin with, and the church plans to stay at that location — with soup kitchen — for many years to come. I think PNH just switched the upstairs portion to commercial from residential given the poor condo market, and low interest from the pre-construction PR blitz that was unleashed this spring.

Not really a surprise that they didn’t have a lot of pre-construction interest. On top of the current market, if you were willing to live on top of a soup kitchen i would think you would probably still want to wait a little bit until the construction is at least underway if not finished so you can get a sense for how its going to work.

I was one of the people who said early on it was a ridiculous assumption that people would want to invest their money in a home over a soup kitchen. Now, which for-profit business is going to want to lease space there? Who will want to work there? Who sold the church members on this idea? FOr that matter, who sold PN Hoffman on this idea?

I guess the residential market was still hot and PQ was still the place to live when this was orginally thought of. PN Hoffman might have been under the impression that people want in no matter what. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

not just a rumor, it’s a fact. hoffman people came to last month’s ANC2C meeting to get the blessing of the commissioners for this change. commissioner alex padro was taken aback by the change (hoffman people called it a minor change, he insisted that it was quite a major change) but in the end, all 4 commissioners agreed to support the change to office space for the floors above the church space. (amazing to see a 4-0 vote on ANYTHING in ANC2C).

IMGoph: Thanks for the info! I didn’t see any mention of the church development on the agenda (pdf), but it certainly was approved at the ANC meeting.

#3: I joined you in advocating that the whole concept was absurd. I remember how the “bleeding hearts” on this blog adamantly proclaimed that it was a great idea and that those of us who thought differently should get in touch with 21st century urban living. Looks like none of those folks actually supported the novel idea.

Why would anyone have any interest whatsoever to live above a homeless shelter or soup kitchen for a price comparable to all of the other luxury condos in downtown that are NOT on top of a soup kitchen?

hey realist, you’re operating a fallacy there. just because there’s a subdued market for condos doesn’t mean that the building failed as a residential building because of the soup kitchen. the building failed residentially because the market for expensive condos downtown is softer than the market for offices downtown. by your logic, i could place anything in the place of the soup kitchen below in a sentence, and claim that it’s because of that entity that the concept was “absurd”.

you’re probably right that it wouldn’t be people’s first choice, but to claim it’s the whole reason is quite false.

Sadly (because nobody likes not knowing), we will never know if it is a combination of a slow condo market and a soup kitchen, or just one of those issues, or some other issue, or some other combination of issues…but if I had $10 trillion dollars I would bet it all that it was because it was on a soup kitchen. The person/people that sold the church and PN Hoffman on the idea should receive whatever the greatest award for salesmanship is because they clearly could sell ice to the eskimos! This is an opinion of factors at play on this issue…it is not any type of position statement on the homeless, soup kitchens, etc., so no need for any attacks, please.

IMGOPH, if people were lining up to sign purchase contracts for the residential development then the builder would’ve delivered a residential building. Plus, who ever offered logic that it’s absurd to imagine an office above a soup kitchen?? Living and working above a soup kitchen are two entirely different endeavors.

Folks…this is why you need to make it to ANC meetings and you need to vote! The meeting was at the Chinatown Cultural Center and Alex Padro expressed surprise and concern but I think it would have been a bigger issue if folks who lived down here said something…

Not doing the I told you so but we unite and end the rule of Leroy Thorpe and his puppets.

As the chair of the Site Development Task Force for First Congregational United Church of Christ, let me say that we are immensely excited by the mix of uses anticipated for our new home at 10th and G. We look forward to running a model building without the loitering and vagrancy that have sometimes characterized our corner in the past.

The Dinner Program for Homeless Women is not a “soup kitchen” but rather a place of hope, good cheer and close community for people who have had a bad turn in life. The meals are nutritious and bountiful, prepared by a professional chef. Social services provided by highly qualified and experienced staff include linkages to housing, health care, mental health counseling, etc. Volunteers run computer labs and poetry writing groups. The new facility will have over 10,000 square feet with a restaurant-like dining room and space for social services programs. Our immensely talented architects have designed a beautiful and dignified space for people who have too little of either in their lives.

In PN Hoffman/ER Bacon our church found a partner who believes that, through good design and management, many people can successfully share the precious urban space that we all love. Hoffman/Bacon employees are regular volunteers at the Dinner Program. And Monty Hoffman dedicated the proceeds of his annual Golf Tournament this year — a whopping $50,000 — to the Dinner Program for Homeless Women.

We invite you to share in our church community (we meet now at 1 PM on Sundays at First Trinity Lutheran Church at 4th and E St., NW) as we anticipate demolition of the old building and creation of a place that celebrates work, hope and healing in the downtown.

ooo…She’s good!

Made me feel all warm inside, now I wanna volunteer.