Minority Developers And Partners Say Three Quarter Billion Dollar Blue Line Corridor Effort Is Special To Their Hearts

Story and Photos By Raoul Dennis

Lloyd Blackwell had just stepped off the podium Feb 28 where he was explaining that the last time anyone was talking about big new things in this neighborhood The Drifters were being played on the radio.

Blackwell is President of Harambee Development. His firm is developing The Epiphany at 6500 Central Avenue. The mixed-use development will feature 112 residential units and 4,300 square feet of retail. He was joined by other local developers who similarly believed that the time has come to take an active role in restoring and upgrading quality of life along the Blue Line Corridor. After 15 years of work and planning, the project is soon to come to fruition.

“I'm a long time resident of Seat Pleasant, Maryland. Been there for 60 years, and I'm spearheading an affordable housing project in the Addison Road Metro,” he said. “I've owned apartments for 20 years but, as I mentioned, they've been around since 1959. I had a thought that we could get federal funding to do workforce housing [for blue collar workers and their families]. But the big emphasis was on market rate, which encourages gentrification. I'm not having that. I've been around a long time. I know what the problems are.”

Brandon Bellamy is CEO of The Velocity Companies, the organization developing Hampton Park, a mixed-use development featuring 400 residential units, a hotel, 100,000 square feet of retail, and over 100,000 square feet of office space. Bellamy also grew up in Prince George’s. He agrees with Blackwell saying a mixed use strategy is key to success.

“You cannot just have affordable housing. You also need market rate. You cannot just have market rate. You also need affordable housing,” Bellamy says of the importance of not leaving seniors behind while also creating a compelling location for young people to buy in and raise families. “You have to think about how the pieces work together and really be a community and think of that from a development programming standpoint. You have to think of how you're going to finance it and get well-intended, well-intentioned economic developers moving into the market, that can also be helpful. That's what we're doing. You look at my contemporaries and my peers that were on this stage today. They're thinking similarly.”

It was that similar thinking that brought Jacqueline Alexander to the table. Alexander is the regional vice president of development with The Community Builders an organization that works to build, develop, and maintain stable homes for people of all incomes. It partners with local stakeholders to expand community resources. Community Builders promotes minority and women-owned businesses to create jobs and build local wealth.

“It's an exciting opportunity to partner with Mr. Blackwell on his project to really be part of his vision, to create workforce housing and opportunities right across the street from Addison Road to Metro stop,” Alexander says of being brought into the project by Blackwell.

“Mr. Blackwell brought us in. He had met with some other developers, for-profit developers, and they just were not able to align their mission and their focus. We were introduced to each other through one of our partners. It was a true alignment of really just focusing on bringing change and transforming the community, and doing it with workforce housing as the foundation of our collective efforts,” she says.

Alexander says the decision to join Blackwell resonated with her team at The Community Builders because it resonated with them.

She says of Blackwell: “He said: ‘you know what? I'm going to invest here at this TOD. I want to make sure that people from Seat Pleasant can stay in Seat Pleasant, and so people in Prince George's County can stay in Prince George's County.’ And what better place than right across the street from the metro?’ Yes, that resonated with us.”

Alsobrooks Honors Bishop Maclin

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks reminded the audience of the one person who envisioned and sparked the launch of the 15 year effort: Bishop Anthony Maclin of the Sanctuary At Kingdom Square.

“There is one partner who is not here. And I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the contribution he made--Bishop Anthony Maclin. When I was a prosecutor, Bishop Maclin came to my office and said ‘I have a vision.’ I didn’t really know what he was talking about but he explained ‘we’re going to develop this. We’re going to bring beautiful amenities here.’”

But in order for Maclin’s vision to become a reality, the hotel across the street from the site, a haven for human trafficking and drugs, needed to be addressed.

“He said to me that if you work with me to help clear this area of some of the crime, then we can make this something beautiful,” Alsobrooks said. She explained that Maclin worked with the hotel owner and management. He then led his congregation to go door–to-door at the hotel to aid those who were stuck in a cycle of drugs and trafficking and who wanted a new path in life. “Instead of condemning those who were involved in prostitution and human trafficking, they went to them and said ‘how can we help you?’ In the end, Bishop Maclin ended up hiring a number of individuals who lived in that hotel to work at the church,” Alsobrooks said.

Others in the neighborhood are very ready for the coming change that was initiated some 15 years ago. Dr. Baruch Ben-Yehudah, owner and CEO of Everlasting Life Restaurant, has been a part of the Capitol Heights community for 28 years.

“We are very excited about our continued growth and the expansion here at the mall,” Baruch says. He has been involved in the community discussions around the effort from the start. “We are a very strong selling point especially when you look at what we are doing now and that so many [customers] are still reaching us despite the traffic and construction and other obstacles. So we maintain a pretty loud voice at the table.”

He says the plan to work with a team of developers is much better than the traditional method of land being bought and managed without community and local business involvement. “We look forward to a great partnership with the other businesses that are coming here,” Baruch says.

“It will have nothing but wins for us,” he says when asked how he believes the new development will impact his restaurants.

A Piece Of History

Omar Karim of Banneker Ventures is developing Park Place at Addison Road Metro. It will include 193 residential units, 11,000 square feet of retail and 10,000 square feet of community space. Banneker Ventures partnered with Amazon who poured $20 million into the project.

“We are excited to announce that more than 35% of the jobs and contract dollars that will be created will go to MBE firms,” Karim said.

“We thank Amazon and all our partners for their trust in us and for investing these funds in this transformative TOD project along the Blue line Corridor in Prince George’s County.”

Amazon also partnered with Wash & Associates. Anthony Wash of A. Wash & Associates, is launching a development that will feature 173 total residential units. He talked about the added allure that history brings to the occasion.

“Today is historic for many reasons,” he began. “On this final day of Black History Month, I want to give acknowledgement to Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks who also happens to be the county’s first Black woman county executive. I want to give acknowledgement to the first Black governor of the state of Maryland, Wes Moore. And I want to thank so many people and member of the executive office. I want to thank Angie Rogers, Expand Prince George’s, DPIE and so many others [who made this historic moment possible and easier to achieve].”

10 Years From Now

For Brandon Bellamy, the answer to the question about what the Blue Line Corridor will look and feel like in ten years is easy.

“This area is going to be thriving. I think it's going to be a hip area,” Bellamy says. “I think it's going to have a lot of entertainment energy. I think it's going to be a more walkable community. I think with that, you're going to get a lot more diversity of neighborhood services and retail that I think people can really appreciate. I think it's going to be a really cool place. You can look at what's happening in downtown Largo, you start thinking about that. What Silver Spring looks like, you start thinking about that. You will get that same energy here.”

He says his project and others will create a ripple effect.

“I think our project was one of the projects that really kicked off and catalyzed development that was visible on Central Avenue. I think that, so goes this project, so goes the other projects. You think about development pushing east from DC and we've pushed west and that's going to create a rebounding effect that I think is going to uplift District Heights, Seat Pleasant, Fairmont Heights, Capitol Heights. That's what we want.”

Blackwell agrees that younger people will be encouraged to stay in the county or even come back.

“It's going to be inclusive,” Blackwell says. “It's going to be families coming back to this area. Right now, this area inside the beltway is aging. Now, we want to bring the young people back---let them live, work, play. What I'm finding is a lot of the young ones are now moving to Charles County. Now, Charles County is becoming majority Black. We want to bring them back.”

The action, says Alexander, is simple: “We need to make sure that Seat Pleasant and Capitol Heights and Largo and this portion of Largo are not left behind. Use your voices. Let the county executive, let your councilpersons know what's important for you, and let them know that you're tired of being left behind.”