Despite decades of plans for a grocery store at the Capitol Gateway site near D.C.'s eastern border with Maryland, the land has sat empty for years. (Photo and illustration by George Kevin Jordan/G. Edward Johnson)
Three generations of Kevin Bryant’s family lived in the East Capitol Dwellings apartment complex in Southeast before it was demolished in 2003 to make way for a revitalized neighborhood. Despite promise after promise from city leaders, they’re still waiting to see something built in its place.
“What was the purpose of displacing so many families?” Bryant asks, recounting that his grandmother moved into what was once the city’s largest public housing development back in 1956. “We are working class, tax-paying residents who are a part of the city as well. We deserve the same opportunities as other parts of the city.”
Bryant, who has since bought a house just a few blocks away in Marshall Heights, calls it “hurtful” to see the property sitting fallow, as plans to build a long-desired grocery store and commercial corridor remain as far off as they were when his family was forced to relocate.
He’s certainly not alone in that frustration. The project, known these days as “Capitol Gateway Marketplace,” has bedeviled four different mayors and a slew of other government officials over the years. (And its status was one of the most popular subjects Ward 7 residents touched on when The 51st conducted a survey a few months ago.)
The future of the development has been tied up in court after Mayor Muriel Bowser attempted to seize the site, which is controlled by a private developer and the city’s own housing authority, via eminent domain in 2022. But there is some light at the end of the tunnel: city officials say the court has finally given them the green light to assume ownership of the property and begin marketing it to potential developers.
This is perhaps the most important step forward for the project in years, and yet it also provides no guarantee anything will happen there anytime soon. It will likely fall on the next mayor, presumably Democratic nominee and Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, to try and bring it over the finish line.
“Folks are trying on this, but trying is not good enough for me,” Ward 7 Councilmember Wendell Felder, who also grew up in the East Capitol Dwellings, told The 51st. “A lot of neighbors, including myself, have waited for far too long.”
The demolition of the dwellings, which were dilapidated and marred by crime, touched off the debate about the site’s future in the early 2000s. But the current logjam is attributable to plans hatched by then-Mayor Vince Gray to bring Walmart on as a tenant to anchor the development back in 2012. The D.C. Housing Authority maintained partial control of the site (since it owned the public housing complex), and the Baltimore-based A&R Development was set to build the store and associated apartments.
So Bowser tried a different tack, launching the eminent domain process and signing a preliminary deal with Giant to open a new store on the property. Four years later, however, that deal has fallen apart and the city’s plans are still mired by legal issues.
In short: D.C. struck a deal with Walmart to end the lease, and intends to use those funds to purchase the land. A&R claims it deserves a cut of the sale for the money it spent preparing the site for development; the city argues that DCHA deserves to get paid, not the developer, arguing the company forfeited its interest by failing to build anything after so many years. Meanwhile, DCHA has also argued for a higher valuation of the land, frustrating some that one part of the District government was seemingly fighting another.
To make matters even more complicated, A&R argued that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development also controlled part of the site, since the East Capitol Dwellings were demolished as part of a federal program allowing for the redevelopment of public housing. HUD agreed and, alongside the developer, brought the case over to federal court in February 2024, further delaying the proceedings.
HUD eventually gave up any interest in the property, sending the case back to D.C. Superior Court. But A&R has continued to argue that the city is inappropriately trying to cut it out of the transaction and insisting HUD should remain a part of the case. PNC Bank has also stepped in on A&R’s side, arguing it deserves a larger share of the proceeds in order to satisfy its obligations to the bank.
“Through this scheme, HUD, the District, and the DCHA try to leave [A&R] holding the bag,” the developer’s attorneys wrote in a March filing.
But the District’s lawyers argue A&R’s “failure to complete the development, and its decision to let the property lay fallow indefinitely, jeopardized the health and safety of District residents,” and so the city is well within its rights to seize the property.
Nina Albert, Bowser’s deputy mayor for planning and economic development, says the court recently ruled that it agrees with those arguments, and so “we now own the land, free and clear.”
“We're back out into the market, trying to look for a new operator and grocer or or other kind of retailer that wants to take up those 11 acres,” Albert told The 51st.
This doesn’t mark the end of the legal saga—there’s still a fight left over how much the city will pay for the land and who gets a cut of the profits—but it would be the largest step forward for any movement at Capitol Gateway in years.
“It’s gonna happen,” Bowser assured attendees at a meeting of the Northeast Boundary Civic Association, convened just a few blocks from the property, on Monday. “I wish we were finishing [before I leave office], but I feel like we’re on the path to get there.”
The mayor said there’s about $27 million in the budget set aside to pay for the land and manage improvements there, and Felder says he’s doing what he can to ensure the city is ready to act if and when it gets a new developer on board.
The councilmember admits that the city’s slowing economy has made efforts to land a new grocer for the site “challenging,” but he’s optimistic that the arrival of a new stadium at the RFK campus (just over a mile away) will reignite interest from the market.
“If we can unlock Capital Gateway, I think it has the potential to significantly transform that entire area and support the RFK redevelopment as well,” Felder said, noting that Prince George’s County is working on a major redevelopment around the nearby Capitol Heights Metro station.
Albert similarly feels there’s more momentum around the project than there’s been in years. She says the city has tried to revise its plans to make the project more attractive, allowing for more housing to be built over top of the retail component of the development and more aggressively showcasing a tax incentive program meant to lure more grocers east of the Anacostia.
“We're going to be looking across the spectrum, and trying to find somebody that can be the anchor around which we can develop the rest of the retail strategy,” Albert said, noting the city has specifically been targeting chains that operate smaller stores instead of larger companies like Walmart.
The city is now soliciting a new round of public input on some of these design changes, a step Albert says is necessary since it’s “been over 10 years” since officials last did so. But Felder isn’t thrilled about it.
“How many more community meetings will our neighbors have to go to, or how many surveys are they going to have to fill out, for the District to be serious about bringing neighborhood-serving amenities to that community?” Felder wonders, in a rare bit of criticism for his political allies.
Lisa Kaminsky, who bought a home a few blocks from the property back in 2015, says she's only gotten limited answers when she’s pressed city officials for updates. (Although, for what it’s worth, she has been similarly unimpressed with efforts from both Felder and his predecessor, Gray, who she says was “missing in action” for years as he dealt with health issues.)
She decided to buy in the neighborhood because it was one of the rare places in the city she could afford, and there was the promise of a grocery store opening within walking distance of her new home – a truly rare feature in the highly car-dependent ward. But she and her neighbors still have to drive into Maryland to get groceries or rely on Amazon deliveries. And she can’t understand why some other grocery chain isn’t eager to pick up this business instead.
“Maybe we can’t afford a million-dollar house somewhere else in D.C., but there’s a lot of middle-class people here and we still can’t get a decent grocery store,” Kaminsky said. “And with the Strand failing, I'm worried that that's going to discourage other businesses from even considering opening in our community without more action here.”
The project may prove to be a test of Lewis George’s ability to deliver on her promises to bring more amenities east of the Anacostia River. (Specifically, she’s said she’d explore the idea of publicly owned grocery stores if the private market can’t fill the void.) Felder, who recently tagged along with the presumptive next mayor at a listening session in the ward, says he’ll try to make sure Lewis George doesn’t forget about Capitol Gateway.
“She's been very supportive during my time on the Council, so I'm confident that Ward 7 will be a priority for her,” Felder said.
Alex (he/him) is a senior reporter for The 51st who has spent his career covering local government, politics, the criminal legal system and more in the D.C. area. He was raised in Northern Virginia, graduated from Virginia Tech, and lives in Shaw.
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