The Hazel, Howard University Duke District, 8th and W Streets NW, Washington, D.C.

Howard University has started building on a campus parking lot it first put up for redevelopment in 2022. The Hazel, an 11-story, 525,000-square-foot apartment building at 8th, 9th and W Streets NW in Shaw, broke ground on Oct. 29, 2026, with a development team of Lowe, Affinius Capital, FLGA and Davenport Group. HKS is the architect and Whiting-Turner is the general contractor.

It’s the first major piece of the Duke District, Howard’s plan to redevelop several university-owned parcels at the north end of Shaw next to the main campus. The building is named for Hazel Scott, the pianist and civil rights figure.

Project Scope

The Hazel sits on the 1.85-acre former East Towers parking lot, which Howard is leasing to the developers under a long-term ground lease. The program is 504 apartments, from studios to two-bedrooms with dens, including 40 affordable units. About 15,000 square feet of retail goes on the ground floor, and 246 parking spaces go below grade.

The design splits the building into wings, and the signature move is a rooftop pool with a partial glass bottom suspended between them over W Street. A 25-foot-wide public plaza will run along W Street from 8th to 9th. Residents get a club room, a fitness center and a rooftop patio.

The capital stack is worth a look. Barings and its C-PACE affiliate, CounterpointeSRE, arranged a $214.1 million hybrid construction facility, and the DC Green Bank joined CounterpointeSRE on $90 million of C-PACE money tied to energy efficiency and resilience. JLL arranged the loan package. The team expects to finish in the fourth quarter of 2028.

Why It Matters

Universities sitting on surface parking near transit are one of the few sources of large, assemblable land left in close-in D.C. Howard isn’t selling. It’s leasing the ground and keeping a long-term stake, which is the structure more institutions are reaching for as they try to turn real estate into steady income without giving up control of land next to campus.

The financing is the other story. C-PACE at $90 million on a single multifamily building is a big slice, and pairing it with a senior construction facility from the same lender group shows how far the tool has moved from small retrofit loans. The release also says 30% of the project budget is going to Certified Business Enterprise firms, a commitment that will shape the subcontractor bench Whiting-Turner pulls from.

If The Hazel leases up on schedule, the rest of the Duke District gets a lot easier to finance.

Project Team & Details