Developers Would Welcome Georgetown University to Northern Virginia

Though Georgetown University is still fighting to keep much of its undergraduate culture in the community that shares its name, area developers suggest a move to northern Virginia is inevitable.

“Ultimately it is not a matter of if university-related expansion happens in Northern Virginia, it’s a matter of when,” said Scott Shinskie, a partner at Bethesda-based Potomac Holdings, in an email to the Washington Post.

Potomac Holdings is a development company that specializes in student housing. Shinskie suggested that the wealth of affordable real estate across the Key Bridge will eventually bring more GU programs and resources to northern Virginia.

The discussions between neighbors and the university have largely focused on the impacts of students living off-campus in the community.

Georgetown President Jack DeGioia at one of the first campus plan hearings that "there are inevitable tensions that exist between a campus of 6, 675 students and those living in close proximity."

When the Office of Planning came out with a report suggesting the University house all undergraduates on campus or elsewhere outside the 20007 zip code, the community lauded the agency.

The University continued to push back, after all, "We believe we have gone more than half way in reaching a reasonable accommodation" of the neighbors' concerns.

During of the Offfice of Planning's Deputy Director for Development Review & Historic Preservation, Jennifer Steingasser, GU attorney Maureen Dwyer challenged the agency report.

"Hasn’t the University proposed what it thinks is meeting a balance," asked Dwyer.

"OP doesn’t believe it’s been accomplished," responded Steingasser.

GU appears to have a welcoming committee waiting for it just on the other side of the river.

Terry Holzheimer, the head of Arlington Economic Development, told the Post, “We would love to have more of the facilities here and we have talked to them on and off for years on both residential and educational facilities."