A rendering of the planned development. (City documents)
A surface parking lot in the Fan is on the chopping block as a longtime local developer looks to bring new apartments to the neighborhood.
Charlie Diradour’s Lion’s Paw Development is planning to build a three-story mixed-use building at 400 N. Robinson St. The new building, if approved, would include 14 apartments above a ground-floor commercial space on a 0.3-acre plot that’s currently a surface parking lot next to a Starbucks.
Charlie Diradour
Developing restaurant and retail properties in the Fan has long been Diradour’s specialty, as his portfolio counts the buildings housing restaurants like Uliveto and shops like Deep Groove Records. He also has a presence on Arthur Ashe Boulevard with the En Su Boca and BigWife’s Mac n’ Cheese buildings, among others. He picked up 400 N. Robinson St. in 2016 for $1.4 million in a deal that included the Starbucks next door, which remains open and would not be impacted by the development.
Diradour, who keeps Lion’s Paw’s office one block to the south along Robinson, said the idea of developing the parking lot came to him in early 2024, in fact on the earliest day of 2024.
To get a fresh perspective on the neighborhood, Diradour said he’s made a routine of riding around the neighborhood on New Year’s Day every year.
“I was just looking at things while people weren’t there, and the streets are sort of empty on January 1. There are a lot of infill projects going in and a lot of people need housing. So I thought, ‘Let’s start thinking about what might work,’” Diradour said.
“On (January) 3 or 4 when we went back to work, I went to (Lion’s Paw operations manager Sandy Appelman), pointed across the street, and said ‘We’re going to build residential there.’ It seemed to me like a really good idea, and it still does.’”
Lion’s Paw began working with fellow Fan-based firm Johannas Design Group to design the new building. As proposed, the 14 apartments would be one- or two-bedroom units above 1,100 square feet of commercial space. Diradour said it’s too soon to say what type of commercial tenant the building could attract.
Diradour said he wants the new building to fit in with the rest of the Fan. Early designs show it’d sport a brick façade and mansard roofs.
“I want it to offer an up-to-date feel being in the Fan and yet have it be a building that was built in 2024 rather than 1910,” he said. “I’ve never built anything in the city that I don’t like when I look at it. That’s going to be the case here.”
The site is currently a surface parking lot. (Mike Platania photo)
Lion’s Paw and Johannas Design Group have filed for a special-use permit for the project, which would be Diradour’s first venture into ground-up residential development.
Diradour’s project will add to plenty of other residential infill developments in the works throughout the Fan, particularly along West Cary Street.
Work is also underway on a higher-density project in the southwestern corner of the neighborhood, where a D.C. developer is both converting an old Dominion Energy building into 125 apartments and planning to build a pair of new four-story buildings with an additional 221 apartments. A block of new townhomes at 2327 Apple Alley were also recently completed nearby as part WVS Cos.’ Parkline development.