Friendship Heights Alliance Launches Updated Market Report
Media Contact:
Rachel L. Davis
202-510-1450
rachel@friendshipheights.com
Friendship Heights Alliance Launches Updated Market Report
With Development Updates & Discussion on Housing Needs
WASHINGTON, DC, JULY 25, 2024 — New data about the Friendship Heights neighborhood shows a place in transition, with exciting change on the horizon centered around hundreds of new housing units. The Friendship Heights Alliance released its 2024 Market Report at a Bisnow event last week focused on the neighborhood.
The first update since 2022, the Market Report tracks leasing across sectors (office and retail), as well as development trends, demographic statistics, and more. In a neighborhood where no new residential development has occurred since 2010, Friendship Heights is set to deliver over 1,350 new homes over the next five years, including more than 200 dedicated affordable units. The report also noted the opening or expansion of 24 new retail establishments, including The Heights Food Hall, the Dog Coop, Nailsaloon and more.
“Friendship Heights is a neighborhood of opportunity, with exceptionally strong fundamentals,” said Executive Director Natalie Avery. “It represents enormous economic development potential that will be fully unlocked as it becomes a much more vibrant, inclusive, and walkable urban place. The Market Report highlights both the challenges and the enormous opportunities that lie ahead.”
The report outlines nearly a billion dollars of private investment coming in Friendship Heights in just six new development projects. The neighborhood is also home to the District’s first Housing Production Trust Fund investment in Ward 3, bringing 93 units of deeply affordable housing to the Lisner-Louise-Dickson-Hurt Home in partnership with Urban Atlantic.
“Here in Friendship Heights we have an opportunity to do a lot more housing,” said DC Ward 3 Councilmember Matt Frumin at the Bisnow event. “We don’t want to fall into camps where some people are pro- and anti-development; we need to have conversations with folks to shape projects in a way to have maximum support. That’s the way you get it done.”
The Alliance is poised to shepherd the neighborhood’s evolution from a regional shopping destination to a much more housing-abundant, walkable, and dynamic place.
“If we want to build those types of communities and the vibrancy that comes with it, we need to have housing and a lot more housing and affordability at every level,” said Council Chair Andrew Friedson at the Bisnow event. “In Montgomery County, we’re really trying to change the narrative; we have to view housing as the economic infrastructure that we have to build communities.”
“The reason people want to live here is because it’s an amazing multi-generational place,” said Natalie Avery with the Alliance. “In order to make it even more walkable and enjoyable, we need an urban design plan for this entire area. And as we welcome more residents across life stages and income levels, we need to also build the civic infrastructure needed for communities to thrive. The Market Report shows that the foundation for such investments are strong and that there’s work to be done to ensure Friendship Heights can live up to its potential.”
The Alliance is taking a leadership role in improving public spaces, leading economic development initiatives, activating empty spots, building community, and bringing people together at dozens of creative events each year. View the 2024 Market Report, which was created in partnership with Stover & Associates, with design by Alley Squash, Co.
About the Friendship Heights Alliance
The Friendship Heights Alliance envisions a more vibrant, dynamic, and inclusive future for Friendship Heights, with diversity in housing opportunities and retail experiences, and a people-friendly public realm. This place-focused nonprofit coordinates the community building needed to reinvigorate Friendship Heights, focusing on the commercial corridor along Wisconsin Avenue from Oliver Street in Montgomery County, Maryland, to Fessenden Street NW in Washington, DC. The Alliance is a 501(c)6 nonprofit created in 2021 to focus on public space management and coordination; increase collaboration amongst property owners in both Maryland and Washington, DC, as development continues; promote the neighborhood; and engage with residents and businesses. For more information or to get involved, contact hello@friendshipheights.com, visit friendshipheights.com, or follow the organization on Instagram @FriendshipHeightsAlliance.
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