April 23, 2012 | 3:07 PM | By

D.C.’s Vacant Luxury Housing Development

There are plenty of examples of how developers and entrepreneurs have profited and driven gentrification near the H Street NE corridor. But here’s an example of an investment gone awry. Work began on Capitol Hill Oasis before the housing market crashed. Now 7 years later, the luxury housing project remains empty and half-built. The Washington Post reports on why the project faltered, including financial and construction troubles.


Every day, neighbors walk past, many wondering what has become of Capitol Hill Oasis. The billboard behind the chain-link fence still promises a “private elevator,” parking and “gourmet kitchens.” But the site is silent, except for the occasional sound of a rock crashing through a window, 10 of which are now boarded up.

“Look at what it’s done to the neighborhood,” Steve Robertson, 56, a D.C. Corrections officer who lives several blocks away, said one afternoon. “It’s going to sit there? They knock down whatever. They do whatever they want. What about the people who live around here?”

Read more at: www.washingtonpost.com