The second phase of a major development in historic Anacostia is working to break ground quickly to accommodate the timeline of a D.C. agency that will be its largest tenant.

The project, known as MLK Gateway, is taking place at the intersection of Good Hope Road and MLK Jr. Avenue SE, and will include retail and office space. Developer The Menkiti Group has the support of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission representing Anacostia, Fairlawn, Fort Stanton, and Hillsdale as it gets ready to submit its application to the Historic Preservation Review Board.

ANC 8A has voted to conditionally support the second phase of MLK Gateway, so long as the developer continues to engage ANC, Historic Anacostia Preservation Society, and residents.

Moving forward with Phase 2 comes less than a year after The Menkiti Group held a ceremonial groundbreaking for its first phase in January. The D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development will lease 55,000 square feet of space in the development.

Since the project is within the Anacostia Historic District, the development needs the historic review board’s approval of the design, including building materials. Commissioner Tyón Jones, who represents 8A06, says that the Historic Anacostia Preservation Society supports the project, though wants to ensure that it uses building materials in line with the historic district.

“When developments happen, there are big, flashy, glass buildings that usually come along with it. And we wanted to make sure that the development project kept to our historic standards and kept a more modern, low-tone development, but brought an upgrade to the community,” said Jones.

If the developers get approval from the historic board, they’ll need a permit before they can break ground on MLK Gateway Phase 2.

On July 7, The Menkiti Group attended an ANC 8A meeting with an unexpected ask: a letter of support to begin Phase 2 at MLK Gateway.

“I was really surprised that they were coming to us asking for something,” says ANC Commissioner Hanna Baker of 8A07, who thought the developer was going to provide an update on Phase 1. “I wasn’t aware that they were starting the development of the second phase of the project.”

Brian Burke, Menkiti’s executive vice president for development and finance, says that the Department of Housing and Community Development “needs to be in by summer 2022. So the project is really on a fast track because of that.” So far, DHCD is the only Phase 2 tenant with an approved lease, per Burke — developers are planning a mix of office and retail space.

“We probably would have preferred an August meeting [with the Historic Preservation Review Board], but they don’t have any August meetings so we had to rush to get to the July meeting to meet our timeframe. I understand it’s a quick turn around, and we apologize for that,” says Burke.

Baker, the 8A07 commissioner, says that, “in general, as a community, we’re not used to seeing phased projects move this quickly.”

On July 19, the D.C. Council voted to approve DHCD’s lease for the space. The agency has already been located in Anacostia since 2009. “We’re thrilled at the opportunity to stay in Ward 8 and witness first hand efforts we make every day to make D.C. a more affordable place to live, work, and play,” DHCD Director Polly Donaldson said in a statement. Last fall, Mayor Muriel Bowser signed an order that requires city agencies looking to lease new space to give priority to offices in wards 7 and 8.

DHCD will be a part of Phase 2 of MLK Gateway, which is proposed on vacant lots located directly across from Phase 1.

Menkiti has two different concepts for the second phase. One of the concepts incorporates adjacent property currently owned by prominent D.C. developer Douglas Jemal, which Menkiti is trying to acquire.

If Menkiti does not buy the land, Burke says the company will be “targeting community-serving retail, whether that’s restaurants [or] small-format markets for the ground level … With a smaller project, we may or may not have additional office space” beyond what DCHD has already leased.

Jones says MLK Gateway will bring “some type of small grocer here in Anacostia. There’s nowhere here right now — except a convenience store or some small pop up that comes around,” he says. “Second, we’re going to get another possible small restaurant. Just basic amenities that everywhere else in the city enjoys regularly … And lastly, we’re going to bring a business that will be the largest single employer, right here to Anacostia.”

He’s talking about Enlightened, Inc. a minority-owned cyber-technology company. The company will occupy a two-story, 20,000 square feet office space as part of Phase 1. Enlightened, Inc. is promising to bring 150 employees from its downtown D.C. location to Anacostia.

Phase 1 of MLK Gateway is scheduled to be completed in January 2021.

Longtime residents and employees at businesses just a couple blocks away from the MLK Gateway site say they still have a lot of questions about the forthcoming development, and some are concerned about being pushed out.

Ward 8 resident Ras Brown is worried about a lack of information about MLK Gateway: “The fact that I have no info —that’s the basic expectation. There’s no pushing of information about the development,” Brown says.

The construction site is bare with no banners, images, or information about the tenants or what residents can expect within the development. (The Menkiti Group website does include information about development plans.)

Ward 8 Resident, Mia Hammonds wishes that the development included affordable housing. “I’ve lived in D.C. my whole life. I work down the street [of the development], and I can barely afford anything East of the River,” Hammonds says. “$895 is the lowest cost East of the River — that’s going into a bad neighborhood where there is a lot of violence … But if you want to go to these places they’re building right now like Skyland, it’s $2,000. I pay $1,435 at Skyland right now.”

A delivery driver for neighborhood staple Mama’s Pizza known as Mama Tee says she too would like to see the development include subsidized housing.

“I’ve been on the Section 8 subsidized housing and voucher program lists since 2002. I would like to see them open up low-income housing for us over here,” she says. “I would like to see the apartment buildings over here, that are luxury, accommodate at least three or four [low income] housing families, you know what I’m saying. That’s what we need over here,” she says.

However, Jones, the ANC commissioner, says that MLK Gateway will create a balance with already-forthcoming housing. “The projects that we’ve seen here, East of the River have been housing projects,” he says. “We have to have that balance of economic development here East of the River to balance out housing.”

Burke, of The Menkiti Group, says the project’s commercial focus is reflective of what community members want. “We’re not bringing new housing units to the market that might be higher priced than what’s there currently,” says Burke. “We’re really focused on the fact that this is bringing in a lot of the neighborhood amenities that the residents have asked for as well as, job opportunities that they’ve also asked for.”

The Menkiti Group has a community benefits agreement with the Advisory Neighborhood Commission. The agreement commits to job opportunities, including workforce development opportunities for residents during construction, Enlightened Inc. providing training programs and job placements for residents, and Menkiti’s foundation providing training to residents to obtain real estate licenses. Menkiti also pledges to provide up to $10,000 of value in light carpentry and painting services to elderly residents living in historic homes as a way to reduce displacement.

Jones says it is better to work with Menkiti rather than not. “We can wait and we can say no to everything that comes to us and we can suffer and have to drive west of the river to get basic amenities and not be a part of the development team,” he says. “Or we can make sure that we are part of the project and get down to make sure that the development looks like us, feels like us, and is inclusive of us, of people, our people.”

Mama Tee, when talking about the amenities promised as part of MLK Gateway, says “I think it’s awesome, if it’s for us.”