Construction on the Solaire Silver Spring II luxury apartment project in the Ripley District is targeted for a Nov. 1 start, according to Charles Nulsen III, president of the project’s developer, Washington Property Co.

The building will be located next to the current Solaire Silver Spring at 1150 Ripley St., near the Metro tracks.

Plans call for up to 420 apartments, approximately 18,000 square feet of retail space and six levels of aboveground parking.

In order to facilitate the parking, the company received a height exemption of about 70 feet for the project.

“We didn’t add any more building area,” Nulsen said. “We just were not able to make the economics of the building work unless we pulled the parking up and [provided] the trade-off, in addition to creating a public facility, which we did in [building] Progress Place.

“We’re also restricted in the first floor to create a community retail [space], which has its challenge[s] because that building is not on Georgia Avenue,” he added.

The original thought was to put a niche grocery store on the first floor, Nulsen said, mentioning MOM’s Organic Market as an example.

“That didn’t work out, primarily because of the visibility of the location, and so we shifted to what we consider to be kind of an urban market/food hall that’s really become kind of successful and popular,” he said. “It’s a Union Market in a much smaller space, but it’s destination driven, community driven and very fun.”

Similar types of halls are operating in cities such as Denver and Nashville, among others, offering a variety of products.

“We are negotiating currently with an urban market provider who has done this up and down the East Coast, a national company who will provide consulting services, tenants and management services once it’s up and running,” Nulsen said, noting that this company is already operating in the District of Columbia.

Once underway this fall, construction of the building is expected to take 30 months. This will be the fifth Solaire-branded apartment community in the company’s portfolio.

Top, rendering of Solaire II’s proposed retail entry. Click to enlarge drawings below. Renderings courtesy Washington Property Company

As featured on sourceofthespring.com