Month: September 2018

Silver Spring, MD

The Pointe View at Aspen Hill project hosted a topping out ceremony on Wednesday, September 26th in Silver Spring, MD. The milestone was marked with a catered lunch to thank the many tradesmen and women who are working on the project. The event also included speeches from Pennrose’s Regional Vice President Ivy Dench-Carter, Maryland DHCD Assistant Secretary Matthew Heckles, Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett, Montgomery County District 4 Councilmember Nancy Navarro, and HOC of Montgomery County Executive Director Stacy Spann.

Situated on approximately five acres, Pointe View at Aspen Hill will offer 120 mixed income apartments for seniors. Of the 120 apartments, 108 units will be allocated for residents at 30-60 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI). It is comprised or 61 one-bedroom and 59 two-bedroom apartments. Located behind an existing church on the property, the building has been designed as a four-story wood frame L-shaped structure. The exterior will incorporate brick and cementitious siding into the facades to be consistent with the surrounding multi-unit buildings and will feature decorative trim accented with large tapered columns.

Building amenities will include a computer room, a game room, a community room, a fitness center, and a salon. Along with the building amenities, there will also be an outdoor patio area with seating and a walking path around the complex. Residents will be within close proximity to retail, health care resources, and the county’s largest senior center.

Topping Out Photos

Richmond, VA

Ground was broken on Tuesday, September 25th for the Jackson Ward project in Richmond, VA. The Harkins team joined our client CPDC, our architect Grimm + Parker Architects, and many local officials to celebrate this monumental day.

Jackson Ward is the second phase of a three-phase mixed-income, mixed-use project in Richmond. Situated on the site of the former St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, this project redevelops a site that has been vacant for many years to bring together a portion of a historic neighborhood scarred by the construction of a highway. There will be 154 affordable housing units in three newly constructed buildings and in a former convent that still stands on the property. The three new buildings will be traditional wood frame construction, and the convent will go through an adaptive reuse for commercial space. The new buildings are meant to fit in with the height of the convent building and two-story buildings on the block’s southeast corner.

Jackson Ward Senior Homes will offer 72 units for low-income seniors who are moving from Fay Towers, an aging apartment building down the street. Jackson Ward Multifamily Homes will offer 82 units of mixed-income based housing and market-rate rentals. It will consist of studios and one-, and two-bedroom apartments. The 2.5 acre development will also include 6,000 sq. ft. of commercial space and 71 on-site parking spaces. This commercial space will be created through the adaptive reuse of the former convent, which was originally associated with Richmond’s first African American Catholic Church.

This project is the result of HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration Program (RAD). Established in 2011 and launched in January of 2013, RAD is designed to preserve and improve the country’s stock of affordable rental housing by allowing public housing agencies and owners of HUD-assisted properties to convert units to project-based Section 8 programs. CPDC’s work to move residents from Fay Towers is the first in Virginia to use RAD’s “transfer of assistance” provision, which enables public housing authorities to create better housing in new locations.

Groundbreaking Photos

Members of the Harkins team, Grimm + Parker Architects and Timmons Group pose for a photo as they break ground.

by ABC Chesapeake Shores

Harkins was honored to receive four awards at the ABC Chesapeake Shores Excellence in Construction awards banquet. The awards program celebrates the best in merit shop construction in the Annapolis and Eastern Shore areas and was held on Thursday, September 20th at the Hotel at Arundel Preserve.

The three projects that won Awards of Excellence were Brightview Annapolis in the Healthcare $25 to $50M category, Greenwood Village in the Renovation $4 to $8M category, and Homes on Johnsons Pond in the Residential Multifamily category. Brightview Annapolis is a new 165-unit senior living community in Annapolis, MD, featuring 24 memory care units, 52 assisted living units, and 89 independent living units for Brightview Senior Living, with Hord Coplan Macht. Greenwood Village is the complete rehabilitation of 20 townhomes in Cambridge, MD for Green Street Housing, with Architecture by Design. Homes on Johnsons Pond is a new 63-unit affordable apartment project in Salisbury, MD for Homes for America and Osprey Property Companies, with Architecture by Design.

Harkins was also recognized with a Diamond STEP Award. Diamond is the highest level of recognition in ABC’s Safety Training and Evaluation Process, and recognizes companies for the outstanding quality of both their safety program and their safety record. Through ABC’s national Safety Training and Evaluation Process (STEP) program, participants are rated on 20 safety program components, including management commitment to safety, employee participation, use of personal protective equipment, and record keeping. Harkins has been participating in the STEP program for over 20 years, and this is the third year in a row that we’ve received the Diamond level award.

The Harkins team was joined at the banquet by our owner and architect reps from Brightview Senior Living, Hord Coplan Macht, Homes for America, Architecture by Design, and Green Street Housing.

The group with their awards at the ABC Chesapeake Shores Excellence in Construction banquet.

Washington, DC

The Harkins team attended the ribbon cutting of Deanwood Hills on Tuesday, September 18th in Washington, DC.

Deanwood Hills transformed a blighted vacant property into 150-units of affordable housing. The site is a two-acre former trash-transfer facility located in the neighborhood northeast of Benning Road between Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue and the Maryland line. The apartment building includes a mix of studios and one-, two-, and three-bedroom units. Fifty of these units replaced public housing at Lincoln Heights and Richardson Dwellings, while the remaining 100 were offered as affordable to DC residents making 60 percent of the area median income.

Amenities include a cyber cafe, a fitness room, a game room, and bike storage and racks. The building has reflective roofing and paving that is lightly colored. In addition, 60% of the roof is covered with a green roofing system and the other 40% is occupied with roof mounted HVAC condenser units.

This project has greatly improved the public space around the area with new sidewalks, tree plantings, street lights, a playground space, and widening of an existing paper alley.

Ribbon Cutting Photos

Members of the Harkins team (from left to right): John Adams, Tom Whitehouse, Jeff See, John Kim, Mike Ebrahimi, Sam Hashemi, Gary Garofalo, Greg Pearson, and Mike Mallow.

Baltimore, MD

The Harkins team attended the groundbreaking of the Paca House Renovation and Addition on Tuesday, September 18th in Baltimore, MD.

Under the redevelopment plans, the Paca House project will include a mix of rehabilitation and new construction that will double the affordable square footage of the building. The current five-story building, which was an adaptive reuse of an old firehouse and an adjoining building, will be expanding into an L-shape in the alleyway next door. A large podium addition will also be added in the rear of the building. The units will be converting from 106 units to 92 units of housing for homeless veterans, homeless city residents, seniors, and persons with disabilities. Nineteen of the units will be reserved for homeless veterans and veterans will be given preference in 63 more units in the building. Of the 92 units, there will be 41 efficiencies, 41 one-bedroom apartments, and 10 market-rate apartments. Although the number of available units will be decreasing, the new apartments will be larger, have more modern amenities, and will eliminate the out-of-date Single Room Occupancy units.

Amenity spaces in the building will include an outdoor courtyard, two community rooms, two resource rooms for on-site resident services, laundry facilities, free Wi-Fi, and a large lobby. The on-site resident services will include case management, counseling, and referrals to the nearby Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

The building will meet Enterprise Green Community Standards for energy efficiency and incorporate a photovoltaic system on the roof.

Groundbreaking Photos

by ABC Metro Washington

We are pleased to announce that Harkins was awarded an Excellence in Construction award at the ABC Metro Washington Awards Ceremony on September 13th. St. James Plaza received the judges’ top scores in the Mixed Use under $50 million category. Joined by our client AHC Inc., our architect Cunningham|Quill, and several members of the Harkins project team, we attended the awards ceremony held at The Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner.

St. James Plaza transformed property previously owned by the St. James United Methodist Church and the Bi-District Office of the Northern Virginia Methodist Church into 93 new affordable apartments. The affordable rental apartments are a mix of efficiencies, one-, two- and three-bedroom units at rents ranging from 40% to 60% of the Area Median Income. The church moved its place of worship to an adjacent property, and the office building moved to a new location in the area as well.

The structure is comprised of five stories of wood frame construction above two levels of underground cast-in-place concrete construction. It includes underground parking, a fitness center, and a community room for residents. Additional amenities include a space for providing early childhood services to children living in both the affordable building and the surrounding community.

St. James was also recently awarded EarthCraft Platinum certification for its green design and energy efficiency characteristics. The platinum certification is the highest rating level awarded by the EarthCraft Multifamily New Construction Program. To qualify, multifamily buildings must demonstrate green building design and construction methods, with proper site planning, resource-efficient building materials and systems to enhance indoor air quality and water conservation. Certified properties have energy-efficient appliances and lighting, and provide basic educational programming on green living for residents. Certified projects are typically more durable, energy efficient and less costly to operate.

Silver Spring, MD

The Harkins team attended the ribbon cutting of The Sanctuary, a Mt. Jezreel Senior Housing project on Saturday, September 8, 2018 in Silver Spring, MD.

Located behind the fully operational Mt. Jezreel Baptist Church, The Sanctuary offers 75-unit mixed income senior living units with 12 units set aside for veterans. The three-story wood frame building features brick veneer and Hardie cementitious lap siding, an asphalt shingle roof with red standing seam metal details, scored concrete patios and sidewalks, landscaping, and planters.

The apartment mix is made up of 56 one-bedroom and 19 two-bedroom units at rents ranging from 40% to 60% of the Area Median Income. The units include Energy Star-certified kitchen appliances, high-efficiency lighting, individually controlled HVAC systems, carpeted floors, vinyl flooring, vinyl windows, metal clad two-panel doors, chrome finishes, shaker style cabinets, laminate countertops in the kitchens, and cultured marble vanity tops in the bathrooms.

Amenity spaces for residents include a cyber café, a library, a grandchildren’s room, a fitness room, a wellness suite, a community room, and laundry rooms on each floor.

This is Harkins’ first project with the owner, Mission First.

Click here for local news coverage and to hear Harkins VP Dave Miller speak at the event