Frank D. Reeves Center

The Frank D. Reeves Municipal Building at 2000 14th Street, NW in Washington, DC’s Ward 1 is located within the U Street corridor, which has been a longstanding and historic hub of cultural, educational and commercial life for African Americans in DC. The area continues to be one of the city’s most flourishing destinations. The Reeves Center is named after Franklin D. Reeves, a lawyer and civil rights activist who worked for the NAACP, which is seeking to relocate its national headquarters to Washington, DC to this development. In late 2020/early 2021, the DC Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development released an RFP for the redevelopment of this project.

In 2023, the Reeves CMC team was selected by Mayor Bowser to develop this site.

As Mayor Bowser emphasized when announcing the selection of the Reeves CMC team, the redevelopment is an opportunity “to double down on our commitment making our prosperity more inclusive and preserving the history and culture of our community.”

The Reeves CMC team is comprised of:  The development team of CSG Urban Partners, Capri Investment Group and MRP Realty; the design team of Michael Marshall Design, PGN Architects and Bradley Site Design; and Smoot Construction as the construction partner.

The Reeves CMC team proposed a uniquely transformational project that:

1) Creates a living heritage respectful of the history of this community; 2) Establishes an open and welcoming public plaza honoring ties to civic pride, activism and the arts; 3) Proudly incorporates the new national headquarters of the NAACP as a substantial equity owner and 4) Achieves the objectives of the amended Comprehensive Plan, and the DC Code 10-801 affordable housing requirements.

Our team’s proposed 535,955 square foot reimagined Reeves Center includes:

• 108,000 sq feet of Class A office space, divided equally between the NAACP and multiple other government and non-government tenants
• 116-key residential hotel with modern design, larger spaces and unrivaled comfort
• 22,500 sq feet of retail to include local-area businesses and community nonprofits, space will be anchored with a new restaurant concept by Carla Hall of “Top Chef” fame and a Dave Chappelle Comedy Club
• 44,000 sq feet of arts, education and entertainment related programming, including Alvin Ailey, and new homes for the VIVA School, the Washington Jazz Arts Institute and Christian Tabernacle Child Development Center
• 322 units of mixed-income multifamily housing
• A 17,000 sq feet public plaza and 200 seat performance venue, named the Frederick Douglass Plaza and Marion Barry Jr. Amphitheater

Community and District benefits include:

• Focus on arts, youth and education
• 24,000 Frederick Douglass Plaza surrounded by restaurants and retail
• 200-seat Marion Barry Jr. Amphitheater for performances by area artists and lecturers
• Institutional, timeless architecture

In planning our RFP proposed response and redevelopment plan, our team knew it would be very important to communicate the project vision in a compelling way.

While planning the response to the RFP, the MMD architecture and branding team worked with our partners to design a number of deliverables to help tell the story of our plan for the redevelopment. But before doing so, most importantly, our team needed to ensure the community, the ANC, local businesses, and other key audiences were engaged from the very beginning. The team also initiated discussions with the NAACP, an equity tenant partner and additional tenant partners to include Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, VIVA School, the Washington Jazz Arts Institute, and celebrity chef Carla Hall. Community partners include Douglass Community Land Trust, Habitat for Humanity, Christian Tabernacle Child Development Center, and Think Local First.

As part of the effort our team sought community feedback in a variety of ways including weekly engagement meetings in front of the Reeves Center and at Ben’s Chili Bowl, where members of the development and design team set up tables to meet residents and visitors, hear their thoughts, and have conversations about the neighborhood and plans.  The team also reached out to local businesses to ensure their needs and concerns were being considered.

A half-century after the decline of U Street’s “Black Broadway,” our redevelopment plan reimagines the aging, massive Frank D. Reeves Municipal Building — and in doing so, revitalizes ties to the corridor’s Black Broadway history.

This project is culturally significant to the local history of Washington DC, the NAACP, and to the broader history of the nation.