City Council

There were public concerns about the massing, height, and construction hours for the newly approved development at 701 N. Henry Street. Behind those criticisms though was a recurring theme: many residents of the city’s historic Parker-Gray neighborhood are unhappy with the new density coming to their neighborhood.

Before it was part of the trendy Braddock neighborhood, with Metro adjacent coffee shops and bars, the Parker-Gray neighborhood was a historic black community formed as a haven for former slaves after the Civil War and solidified into a distinct center of Black life in Alexandria during segregation, according to the Washington Post.

(Updated 6/24) A new mixed-use development featuring a ground-floor daycare facility is scheduled to go to the City Council for approval this Saturday (June 20).

There’s extensive redevelopment underway at the northern end of the Braddock neighborhood just south of Potomac Yard. A seven-story residential building with ground-floor retail and the aforementioned daycare is planned for the very northern point of that neighborhood on a triangular lot at 1200 N. Henry Street.