It was a tantalizing prospect. The news that Walter Reed Army Medical Center would close in 2011 had District residents and officials dreaming of the possible uses for the 113 acres of land located between 16th Street and Georgia Avenue in residential Northwest Washington.
Getting their hands on the land was always a longshot, however, and news organizations are reporting today that the Feds have lowered the boom on the idea — deciding instead to sell 34 acres of the property to the General Services Administration and the rest to the State Department. Mayoral officials and D.C. Council Chair Linda Cropp expressed skepticism about the government’s current need for the land, while Councilmember Adrian Fenty expressed a hope that development might be possible along the property’s periphery.
The Washington Business Journal, however, notes that the government has a pressing need for highly secure space, so it’s likely that whatever GSA and State end up putting there, the land will remain closed off and isolated from the rest of the city and its tax rolls. Too bad; with development in the works for parts of the Armed Forces Retirement Home and the McMillan Reservoir property, Washington could have made the Walter Reed land part of a sweeping reimagining of the heart of the city. Now, it seems, we’ll continue to have one more District fence to peer over.
Picture from Walter Reed website.
