RIVER PLACE – A ROSSLYN LANDMARK
By Jeffrey T. Spangler

 If real estate is all about "location, location, location", then River Place is a truly unique space on the Potomac.  In these four cooperatives, you can wake up to a view of the Mall and downtown Washington, then pass the Iwo Jima Marine Corps Memorial on the way to your car, all in the shadow of the curvaceous twin Westview towers which dominate the District of Columbia's skyline.

 Originally named Arlington Towers, these apartments were part of the postwar buildup of the early 1950s, and became home to many military personnel  serving at the recently built Pentagon, but with no place to live nearby unless they were the generals and colonels who lived at Fort Myer.  The site was literally at the end of the line– next to the turnaround for the trolley line from the District– four lone towers amid a tawdry mix of pawn shops and gas stations.

 River Place now has 1720 residential units in four ten to twelve-story brick buildings which were converted to four cooperatives in the early 1980s.  It is home for a richly diverse and cosmopolitan residential community in the heart of Rosslyn, together with a number of small businesses.

 College students and working singles are a large proportion of River Place residents, but it is also a family-friendly community.  Children attend the excellent Arlington County public schools as well as some private schools.  However, the high proportion of efficiency units limits the number and size of families.

 To serve the residents' needs onsite, there is a convenience store, a hairdressing salon, a laundry and dry-cleaner, a fitness and entertainment center, a swimming pool and a children's playground.  The entire Ukrainian embassy staff lives here, and a consortium of Lutheran colleges maintains a Washington Semester campus complete with housing for student interns.

 The Towers were a "first" in many respects:  the first and largest air-conditioned multistory apartments in the country, with rush hour bus service every four minutes, and the largest shopping center within an apartment development, including the largest drugstore in the Washington metropolitan area.  These Towers were also the first buildings to rise above the trees on Washington's western skyline, advertised as the "Portal to Gracious Living" across the Arlington Memorial Bridge.

 Arlington Towers were touted as "luxurious living unheard of less than a decade ago, within the budget of everyone."  This "imposing $25,000,000 apartment project" originally had 1684 units and "a modern shopping center on the premises, even including a gas station."

 Between half and three-quarters of the units were efficiencies which rented for $80 per month, with one-bedrooms for $102.50 and one of 60 spacious penthouses for $215.  Today, $80 will cover the monthly rent for an outdoor parking space, and units sell from $135,000 for efficiencies to $435,000 for the penthouses.

 This landmark development became the home of "swinging singles" who dined at restaurants on the premises and danced on the outdoor terrace with the Mall as a backdrop.  In the mid 1980s, River Place studio apartments were promoted as "the perfect housing for Washington's single professionals ["Yuppies"] who want it all– luxury, value, amenities, views and a great close-in location."
 
 River Place is built on over thirteen acres of land which is owned by an estate and leased to the River Place Owners Association.  The "OA" is the overall governing organization composed of representatives from the Boards of Directors of the four cooperative housing corporations which own the North, East, South and West buildings.  The percentage of owner-occupants has risen from an investor-dominated low of 8% to a current level of 20-25%.

 Redevelopment proposals for River Place have included the recent competition for the Montreal Expos baseball franchise, in which River Place was perhaps the most challenging option among several other sites.  In 2003 it was an alternative site for a convention center now set for Pentagon City.  In 1993 the coop owners rejected an offer of $64 million for each building from Lincoln Properties of Texas.  Arlington County planners also rejected a hotel plan from Leona Helmsley, the "Queen of Mean" from New York City.

 A challenge to redevelopment is opposition by the unit owners, who were solidly against the baseball proposal, as were some adjoining property owners in Rosslyn.  The principal concern of owners is receiving fair market value for their interests, and owner-occupants are reluctant to give up their prime location on the Potomac.  A vote of 80% of all owners is required for any major changes.

 The River Place Owners Association has formed a Redevelopment Task Force to chart the future course for their landmark.  In their view, the ideal approach would be a team consisting of the Estate, the Owners, an outside developer and a financial institution.  Formulating any plan would require upfront costs of $1-2 million, either from very unpopular owner assessments or from other sources.

 Before any redevelopment of River Place, there needs to be a team, a plan, acceptance by the Owners and some deep pockets to proceed.  Until those things are in place, River Place will continue to be what it has always been– a great place to live in the heart of the nation's capital.

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Jeff Spangler is a Pennsylvania native who has worked in Washington and enjoyed River Place apartments from October 2003 through October 2010. He gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the people who provided information for this story.  Copyright is donated to the public.

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Exchange of e-mails in June of 2011 between a River Place resident and the author:

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Subject: Appreciated Your River Place History

    I've lived in River Place since April 2004 and also love it here. Really enjoyed reading your history online. I'm curious what your thoughts are on the extension of the land lease. The board of my building has never given a straight answer on what its plans or the OA's plans are with respect to how we will handle the land lease issue come 2022 when banks will probably no longer give 30-year mortgages. Clearly folks are thinking about it... but with so many units owned by investors that probably make more in rent per year than they paid for the units in the 80s and 90s, I'm wondering if they are simply fine with the idea of handing over their investment to the land owners in 2052 and walking away having made some good income over the prior 50+ years. The buildings are certainly continuing to make investments which don't suggest any consideration of letting them wither away... and Rosslyn certainly continues to grow. I've heard some say they believe that in 20 years or so when the next round of renovations are needed, folks will be pretty open to hearing from investors looking to buy us off the land early so they can have access to develop such a prime piece of real estate. I'm honestly at a total loss trying to guess what could come of River Place in the future and I'm interested in hearing your thoughts... if you have the time to share them. Thanks much.

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Author's response:
  
Thanks for contacting me on the RP piece, which I wrote years ago for the Rosslyn Renaissance magazine but it was never published.  I'm an attorney and registered patent agent with no special expertise on "proximate living" or cooperative/condominium law, but that won't stop me from having an opinion.  The RP situation is rather unique and interesting, and although I've never been clear on exactly what this long-term (100-year?) lease provides, that won't stop me from having an opinion.
 
I doubt that the lease will or can be "extended" because when it ends in 2052, the fee simple interest in the land reverts to the Wakefield Estate or Trust or whatever entity now holds the lease.  They are first and foremost developers and have a fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries to maximize the value of some of the primest real estate in the Nation.  Continuing to devote this land to a low-end residential use wouldn't make sense when it could be the site of another skyscraper (that word tells you how old I am) for offices and high-end condos.  The Estate has lots of time to make up its mind, but I wouldn't doubt that they are already pretty sure what they won't do with RP-- keep it as a great affordable housing option.
 
According to the folks at Landmark Realty who helped me with the article, the RP Owners' Association had or has a task force to plan for the day when the land underneath them legally disappears.  It seems logical to me that as the end of the lease approaches, the market value of the individual units will go down to zero.  Any such task force would be well-advised to retain experienced and independent real estate counsel to explain to them what the options are if they or the Estate do nothing.  That will keep everyone grounded with a worst-case baseline scenario on how to plan for The End.
 
If owners are looking for a White Knight to come in and save them from owning a worthless cube of air with no land underneath, that Knight needs to be able to persuade the Estate to sell to them, and the price will have to cover buying out the coop units and buying the land.  That will be a very large sum considering how valuable the land is for other uses.  That's why I wrote that only The Donald or someone even wealthier could even think of buying RP.
 
That's about the extent of my thoughts on the future of RP.  I'm now a poor man in my hometown of Hanover PA who wishes every day that he was back in Rosslyn but will likely never live there again unless it's under the Roosevelt Bridge with the homeless.  Let me know if you know of any work for such a guy.  Live every day at RP like it's your last.  One day you'll be right.
 
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The resident replied:

    Very well thought out take on the potential future at River Place. I'm with you about living in Rosslyn; it is amazing and I think that's why I don't care so much if I get kicked off the land in 40 years... I'll be in my 70s by then and it'll be time to move. Just reminds me that its more about quality of life (i.e. easy commute, beautiful views, and near all the action) vs. long term investment. I sincerely appreciate your time responding and for writing the article to begin with. In my honest opinion, Rosslyn often seems to treat River Place like a stepchild as it focuses on growth and modernization... so I can see why your history would get snubbed. River Place deserves some consideration as a historic place in Arlington. I also think investors at River Place are probably motivated to keep honest discussion about the land lease under wraps and out of the public eye, which would probably create more fear/misunderstanding driving the value down. I'm curious to see if there is a big rats jumping ship phenomena as that 30-year point approaches.

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The author's reply:

Agreed.  Rosslyn Renaissance is a very effective pimping operation for the developers who will control the land at the river's dogleg in Rosslyn zoned for highest density.  That's not to detract from the good things they do like the Farmers' Market and free summer flicks, but they do it as PR for JBG and others.  The County Board will extract some token reward for the community such as a limited-hour pay-per-view observation deck at the now-on-hold Central Place or some "affordable housing" elsewhere, but not at River Place.
 
I'm a recovering liberal, but I've come to feel that Board needs some of the "diversity and inclusiveness" they cherish so much, like a mandatory minority seat or two, as many counties here in PA require by statute.  They do almost everything well, of course, but their sanctuary stance on the thousands of illegal aliens known to inhabit Arlington impresses me as an arrogant contempt for the rule of law by an elite group which is more enlightened than the federal government.  Why not be brutally honest and just say that we need these folks to nanny our kids, make the beds in hotels and mow our lawns?
 
River Place is indeed historic, but that will not likely carry much weight with the owner other than to erect a stylish and interactive historic monument in the lobby of whatever behemoth building replaces RP.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  Living next to the big bucks is really better, if only for the tasty crumbs that fall from the table.