What the Reservoir District Has Built for Bloomingdale, and What Is Still on Paper

The grocery store planned for the old McMillan site, just north of Bloomingdale, is a 22,500-square-foot Sprouts Farmers Market with a scheduled opening in 2028. As of this October, no public source confirms that the building it will sit in has broken ground. On September 22, 2026, DC's Chief Financial Officer reviewed a Council bill that rewrites part of the project's tax exemption "to align the exemption with the project's financing." So when someone talks about "the McMillan grocery," they mean a lease and a plan. The store doesn't exist yet.

Some of the Reservoir District does exist, though. A park, a recreation center, a pool and 146 new townhomes are already open on the other side of Channing Street. For someone comparing Bloomingdale with other inner-city neighborhoods, the open pieces and the planned pieces affect the decision in very different ways. The built half already competes for the same buyers.

What the September memo says about the apartments and the grocery

Jair Lynch Real Estate Partners is the developer behind the Reservoir District's apartments and retail. Its project FAQ said it expected to break ground "early in the third quarter of 2026." That window closed at the end of September. Our research found no announcement, news report or developer update confirming that construction has started.

The clearest public sign of where the project stands is a fiscal impact statement from the DC Office of the Chief Financial Officer on Bill 26-700, the Reservoir District Tax Exemption Amendment Act of 2026. The memo explains that DC already approved a tax exemption for Jair Lynch affiliates on Parcels 2 and 4, then describes what the new bill changes.

"The tax exemption begins on October 1, 2029 and is subject to certain conditions, including that one-third of the units would be set aside as affordable at 80% of Area Median Income."

The bill swaps that affordability standard for HUD's "80 Percent Income Limit Category of the Multifamily Tax Subsidy Project Income Limits." According to the memo, the reason is to line the exemption up with how the project is being financed. The CFO found no cost to the District and said the exemption would be available "beginning in fiscal year 2030," as long as every condition is met.

The memo doesn't give a construction date. What it does show is that, as of late summer 2026, the legal terms of the tax exemption for the apartment-and-grocery parcels were still being amended to match the project's financing.

How the grocery shrank on the way here

The Sprouts lease is the latest step in a long series of changes. Laid out in order, the dates make the 2028 target easier to judge.

1. Before 2022: Axios Washington D.C. reported that the original Harris Teeter deal fell through before construction began on the site in 2022. The redevelopment had already spent about a decade in court.
2. June 15, 2024: Reservoir Park, the recreation center and the aquatic center opened.
3. 2024: According to Axios, Jair Lynch said it could no longer attract the 55,000-square-foot grocery in the original plan, and late that year it formally asked to revise the plan.
4. June 30, 2025: The city held a ribbon-cutting for the first homes, 146 townhomes built by EYA.
5. Summer 2025: In the same Axios report, the Zoning Commission approved a downsized 22,500-square-foot grocer, and Jair Lynch said it had a signed lease with an unnamed market.
6. October 2025: EYA announced Sprouts Farmers Market as the anchor tenant, scheduled to open in 2028.
7. June 2026: The Washington Business Journal ran the headline "Trammell Crow may pivot from medical office at Reservoir District." Trammell Crow Company controls 5.7 acres approved for 1 million square feet. The public part of the article doesn't say which use is being considered instead.
8. September 22, 2026: The CFO issued its fiscal impact statement on the tax exemption amendment.

In that sequence, the grocery got smaller and the timeline got longer. Trammell Crow's parcel became the second large piece of the plan with an open question attached. The project's own site still presents the McMillan Center for Health & Research as a medical project.

What stands north of Channing Street today

The DMPED return on investment report from April 2026 is the most recent project-wide public update. Here's how its numbers line up with what's actually open.

The apartment count depends on which document you read. Jair Lynch's project page describes roughly 324 apartments over the grocery and about 22,000 square feet of retail in Phase 1, then about 266 apartments in Phase 2, including 141 affordable senior units. Its FAQ breaks the total out differently, as 449 apartments without age restrictions plus 135 senior apartments. Every version is a plan for buildings that haven't started.

The finished half already competes for Bloomingdale's buyers

For Bloomingdale, the most immediate effect of the Reservoir District is the new townhomes, not the future grocery. A buyer looking at a Bloomingdale rowhouse can walk a few blocks north and tour new construction that comes with a garage.

Here are the floor plans and starting prices on EYA's Reservoir District page as of October 12, 2026. The page doesn't print an update date.

Every model on that page includes a 2-car garage. EYA's product page also lists lofts, rooftop terraces, optional elevators on some plans, and all-electric design. The Chatfield showed "Only 2 Remaining," and some other models still had prices posted, so the community wasn't fully sold out.

Bloomingdale's homes are a different product. Most of its rowhouses went up between the 1890s and about 1916, many have basements, and the neighborhood became a historic district in 2018. Parking is mostly on the street with residential permits, though some houses have a rear pad or alley garage. Over the 12 months through September 2026, Bloomingdale's median closed sale was about $862,500 at roughly $457 per square foot of interior space, across 76 sales. The rowhouse median was about $925,000, roughly 13% lower than the previous 12 months. Homes sold at about 96% of original list price on average.

These two tables don't measure the same thing. EYA's prices are starting asking prices for new homes, and Bloomingdale's numbers are closed resales. No reporting we found measures whether the new townhomes have changed Bloomingdale's prices. Still, the comparison shows the choice a buyer faces. In the past year, the median Bloomingdale rowhouse sold for about what a new Bend lists for, and its price per square foot was below every EYA model except the Powell. The garage, the new systems and the rooftop come at a per-square-foot premium on most plans. The rowhouse offers historic architecture and, often, a basement, with street parking for most houses.

A slower citywide market leaves time to read the paperwork

Neighborhood-level monthly data for Bloomingdale isn't published in the regional reports. Citywide numbers show the pace the whole District is moving at. According to the Bright MLS August 2026 report, released September 10, 2026, Washington, DC had 438 closed sales in August 2026, down 19.5% from a year earlier. The median sold price was $681,500, up 1.7%. Median days on market fell to 28, and months of supply held at 4.91.

Bright's figures by property type cover the whole DC metro area, not just the District. In August 2026, metro attached homes and townhomes had a median of $588,000, down 0.7%, with 2.37 months of supply. Condos fell 5.7% to $386,500, and active condo listings were up 28.2% from a year earlier. In the same release, Bright Chief Economist Lisa Sturtevant tied the slower regional market to elevated mortgage rates, affordability challenges and economic uncertainty, and said some buyers were waiting for better rates or more certainty.

For someone weighing a Bloomingdale purchase, a market with fewer sales and stable supply means less pressure to decide in a weekend.

FAQ

Is the Reservoir District grocery store under construction? No public source we reviewed confirms it as of October 12, 2026. Jair Lynch had aimed for early in the third quarter of 2026, and the Sprouts store was announced for 2028.

What can Bloomingdale residents use there right now? Reservoir Park, the recreation center and the aquatic center, all open since June 2024. The park includes a playground, splash pads, an amphitheater and the Olmsted Walk.

Where can I follow the project's progress? Council bills like Bill 26-700 come with CFO fiscal impact statements, and DMPED publishes project updates in its annual return on investment report. The latest DMPED report is dated April 2026.

If you're deciding between a Bloomingdale rowhouse and new construction next door, or just trying to figure out how much the Reservoir District's future should factor into an offer, Tamara Miller can go through the comps, the timelines and the trade-offs with you, block by block. Schedule a free consultation.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.