The Palisades Safeway building, vacant since May 2019, will be demolished by May 22 and plans call for a senior living complex in its place rising to as many as six stories.

The developers, led by Trammell Crow, told the ANC 3D Commission on Wednesday night that they reconfigured the project to mitigate concerns of area residents. They said they increased open space, minimized frontage on MacArthur Boulevard, terraced the building and designated 4,000 square feet for retail.

While many residents have bemoaned the loss of the area’s only full service grocery store, getting a grocery of any description onto the site might take more than an ad for the proposed space, a mere third or less of what the Safeway occupied.

So far, only Streets Market, which operates a half-dozen sites in D.C., has expressed any interest, the developers said.

Commissioner Christine Warnke voiced concern about the loss of a “cost effective” grocery for people on a “fixed income”, contrasting the circumstances in the Palisades with burgeoning options along Wisconsin Avenue.

”We’ve had to proactively solicit grocers,” said Eric Fischer, Trammell Crow’s project leader. He said more interest has come from financial companies, such as banks and insurers.

“Retail is very complex right now. Safeway decided to leave,” Fischer said. “We are trying to create incentives for a market.” He said community interest in affordability was duly noted.

OROGENESIS ZONE: Builders are planning a six-story senior living complex on the site of the old Palisades Safeway (middle of this photo taken March 7, 2020), which closed in May 2019. Photo Credit: John Bray

The MacArthur site includes two zoning designations, one facing MacArthur for mixed use and a section toward the back for residential. Two buildings were outlined. The front building, which would house the retail space facing CVS, would be four to five stories, plus a penthouse floor, topped with mechanical infrastructure. It would house 115 to 120 units, mainly one- and two-bedroom units that would be rented or leased, with Balfour Senior Living as manager, according to the developers. They included in their presentation designs for farmers market space to wrap from 48^th Place onto MacArthur.

Plans were less clear for the second building, with one meeting attendee calling it the “mystery building.” It would be three stories, with parking under it. Fischer said it might be cottages.

Fischer declined to say what the units in the complex will cost. He said the mix of accommodations and market are still being calculated, with residents being drawn from within a mile or two of the building.

Fischer has described the project as one that would provide “memory care”, including people with Alzheimer’s. He said the project would not require a Certificate of Need from health care facility regulators.

A single access for vehicles is envisioned near V Street and 48^th Place. Fischer, noting that he lives nearby, said he anticipated that traffic from the development would have less impact than the Safeway. He said cars had been abandoned in the Safeway lot for months and that restaurants had used it for valet.

“We can’t solve all the parking problems in the community,” Fischer said. He said the design accommodations for local concerns came at “great cost” to the bottom line of the project.

The project timetable is fluid, but he said, “We are eager to get this underway. It is not productive to have this with a wooden fence around it. It is not pretty.”

A variety of issues are in play in the planning, including project density and setbacks, which could be matters of contest before city zoning authorities.

At the request of commissioners, Fischer said he would provide a description of what could be built on the site as a matter of right.

The height of the buildings — the structure would be far taller than the Safeway — garnered little comment, but some math and levity. Commissioner Troy Kravitz, eyeing the developers’ schematics, said it appeared the front building would be 50 feet, plus a 15-foot penthouse.

“Eleven feet,” one of the developers said of the penthouse.

“Eleven, plus four,” said another.

“That would get you to 15,” said a third.

“Indeed,” said Kravitz.

Commissioner Kravitz praised the developers’ work with the Palisades Citizens Association to identify and respond to concerns. But he said ANC 3D and the PCA have their own identities, the former given by law “great weight” before city agencies, and the developers should not conflate the two.