Wal-Mart is about to begin building one D.C. store on Georgia Avenue Northwest and is making major strides toward opening another across town on East Capitol Street.
East Capitol Dwellings, on East Capitol Street near the Maryland border, had become notorious for drugs and prostitution when the D.C. Housing Authority won a $30.8 million federal HOPE VI grant to redevelop the property into a mixed-income neighborhood in 2000.
Most of the housing has since been rebuilt, but the housing authority has long promised its residents there that it would open a grocery store, in this case a Wal-Mart that would sell a wide variety of groceries.
The housing authority, along with development partner A&R Cos., submitted an application to the city Tuesday for zoning changes that would allow the construction of Capitol Gateway Marketplace, a shopping center with a 130,000-square-foot Wal-Mart store, a wellness center and a sit-down restaurant on the north side of East Capitol Street.
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