As a veteran-focused apartment complex, Lucille & Bruce Terwilliger Place sets the bar higher for affordable housing in Washington, D.C.’s market and has earned a 2023 CoStar Impact Award, as judged by a panel of local industry professionals.
The site at 3445 Washington Blvd. in Arlington, Virginia, was being used for the American Legion Post 139, a membership group of veterans primarily from World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. In 2016, Post 139 decided to redevelop the 1940s-era facility into 160 units.
Along with one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, all of which are designated affordable, Terwilliger Place includes a designated space for Post 139’s new center. It also has amenities designed to support veteran needs, such as counseling spaces.
Thanks to its unique focus and a campaign by the developer, Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing, the $80 million project attracted a spate of philanthropic and affordable housing funding. Ron Terwilliger, a multifamily developer and national advocate for affordable housing, gifted $1.5 million to the project through the Terwilliger Family Foundation, resulting in the project’s name, which was chosen in honor of Terwilliger’s parents. More than 50 donors joined Terwilliger, including Amazon, which provided $1 million. Virginia Housing awarded a $24 million low-income housing tax credit, as well as a direct permanent loan, an affordable-housing-specific loan and a grant for pre-development work. Arlington County provided an $11.5 million loan.
In addition to pumping much-needed affordable housing into the D.C. market, Terwilliger Place can serve as a replicable strategy for developing more housing dedicated to veterans, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough said at the development’s opening in July. The project can serve as a blueprint for other veteran-serving organizations, many of which are located in aging facilities ripe for redevelopment.
About the property: Located in Arlington’s Virginia Square neighborhood, Terwilliger Place is less than a mile from the Virginia Square and Clarendon Metro stops. The interior was designed by veteran-founded Determined by Design.
What the judges said: According to Mara Olguin of Dweck Properties, the property “reflects a new model of multifamily development focused on elevating lives. Much more than affordability, the project artfully combines philanthropy, creativity, heart and a commitment to veteran support as the fabric to create ‘community.’”
They made it happen: Richard Rodriguez from Post 139; J.D. Bondurant from Virginia Housing; Anne Venezia from Arlington County; Ed Delany from Capital One; Deb Burkart from the National Equity Fund; Ryan Tully from CBG Building Co.; Michael Benson from S.L. Nusbaum Realty Co.; Ted Kalriess from KCM; Joanna Borowska from DCS Design; and Kia Weatherspoon from Determined by Design all played significant roles in this project’s development.
