[RP TownTalk] EYA II (East side of US 1) update

[Melissa Avery]

big old goofie world - I had my first job working at Yes! about 1 million years ago.




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From: Dwight Holmes <dwightrholmes at gmail.com>
To: TownTalk <towntalk at riverdale-park.org>
Sent: Thu, February 4, 2010 11:34:56 AM
Subject: [RP TownTalk] EYA II (East side of US 1) update

If you're not on the Hyattsville HOPE list, where there's been a lively discussion of these issues, you may not be aware that the EYA develops have come to the Hyattsville City Council with a request to change the specs and design in order to make phase II (the east side of the road, where Busboys & Poets, Tara Thai and maybe Yes Organic Market, in addition to residential units would be).  Here's an article in the Gazette:


Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010
Restaurants hang on for eastern arts district project
Developers want changes to residences before retail goes up
by Elahe Izadi | Staff Writer

The long-awaited eastern portion of Arts District Hyattsville, where restaurants Busboys and Poets and Tara Thai have signed leases, is closer to becoming a reality, but developers want changes to the residential portion before retail can go up.
Bethesda-based developers EYA said the economic environment is making the project more and more difficult to complete and they need to get approval on changing the number and kinds of residences and switching to less expensive building materials in order to make the project more cost-efficient and easier to finance.
"We cannot develop the retail on the east side in a vacuum," Vice President of Development Aakash Thakkar said during a Jan. 18 Hyattsville City Council meeting. "Building out the rest of the east side is a condition the rest of the financers and frankly, we, ourselves, have placed."
Busboys and Poets, a restaurant and café that also serves as a community space, has locations in both Washington, D.C., and Virginia. The Hyattsville store would be its first in Maryland and one that developers say would make Hyattsville a destination in the area.
Although EYA developers spoke before the City Council, ultimately the approval of the county planning board is needed in order to make changes on approved detailed site plan. They're scheduled to appear before the board Feb. 25.
EYA wants to add a 198-unit building, most likely an apartment complex which could become a condominium, and make changes to the number, size and materials used on the townhomes.
"Yes, it's different to a degree, but in the overall scheme of things, our goal was to put forward something that is financeable," Thakkar told the council. "We believe it's both financeable, but as importantly, we do believe [the building materials] to be of the highest quality and something you can be proud of."
EYA wants to change the dimensions of some of the townhomes, get rid of a live-work unit and add HardyPanel siding to the mix of townhome building materials, EYA Vice President of Architecture Gregory Shron said.
The townhomes on the west side were built primarily with brick and sheet metal, and the changes to building materials and sizes could save EYA $10,000 to $15,000 on each unit, although that won't lower the costs of the homes for buyers, keeping them in the high $300's, Thakkar said.
EYA is currently looking to sign more leases on the east side, and businesses — such as Yes! Organic Market, which currently only has stores in Washington, D.C. — have expressed interest, Thakkar said.
If everything goes EYA's way, construction can begin on retail space in March and retailers can potentially move in as soon as October, Shron said, and construction on townhomes could begin in November.


      
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