Kingdon Gould III (born June 16, 1948) is an American real estate developer, active in the
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
-area. He is part of the fifth generation of the Gould family of financiers, philanthropists and diplomats, which includes his father
Kingdon Gould, Jr., grandfather
Kingdon Gould Sr., great-grandfather
George Jay Gould
George Jay Gould I (February 6, 1864 – May 16, 1923) was a financier and the son of Jay Gould. He was himself a railroad executive, leading the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (DRGW), Western Pacific Railroad (WP), and the Manhatta ...
and great-great-grandfather
Jay Gould
Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who is generally identified as one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made hi ...
, with associated generations of mothers, siblings, uncles, aunts and cousins.
Life and career
![Market Square](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Market_Square.JPG)
He was born in
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
, on June 16, 1948, to Kingdon Gould, Jr., and his wife, Mary Bunce Gould (née Thorne).
He was made part owner and vice president of Gould Property Company, his father's real estate firm and one of the largest and oldest real estate development firms in the D.C. metropolitan area.
[McQuaid, Kevin L. "Manekin Starts Work on Big P.G. Co. Mixed-Use Project." ''Baltimore Business Journal.'' November 15, 1991.] He was the company's spokesperson when the Hyatt Regency Crystal City hotel and the
Mayflower Hotel
The Mayflower Hotel is a historic hotel in downtown Washington, D.C., located on Connecticut Avenue NW. It is two blocks north of Farragut Square (one block north of the Farragut North (Washington Metro), Farragut North Washington Metro, Metro ...
both were subject to foreclosure proceedings in 1989.
Other notable projects
In 1990, Gould partnered with Boston Properties to construct Market Square North, a development in the
Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site
Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site is a National Historic Site in the city of Washington, D.C. Established on September 30, 1965, the site is roughly bounded by Constitution Avenue, 15th Street NW, F Street NW, and 3rd Street NW. The hi ...
which was completed in 1997.
In 1996, Gould's Laurel Sand and Gravel company which includes Fairfax Materials, Allegany Aggregates, Laurel Asphalt and S.W. Barrick & Sons purchased the 600 acres chase property north of the historic town of
Savage, Maryland
Savage is an unincorporated community and census-designated place located in Howard County, Maryland, United States, approximately south of Baltimore and north of Washington, D.C. It is situated close to the city of Laurel and to the planned co ...
. The site is home to the Savage Stone quarry, mining Baltimore Gabbro for road bed construction. The facility started operations in 2005 after special zoning approval with a 25-year reserve in materials.
Gould then partnered with his brother, Caleb Gould, and local developers David Costello and Richard B. Talkin to form Kincade LLC. In September 2000, Kincade broke ground on the $11 million Columbia Lakeside, a six-story, office building facing
Lake Kittamaqundi
Lake Kittamaqundi is a man made reservoir located in Columbia, Maryland in the vicinity of the Mall in Columbia as well as Merriweather Post Pavilion. It is also adjacent to offices and visible from US-29.
The lake was created by The Rouse C ...
.
[Mansour, Rachel. "Scarce Space." ''Baltimore Daily Record.'' September 26, 2000.] It was the first new office building in
Columbia Town Center since 1998.
In 2001, Gould embarked on a six-year-long land swap deal with the District of Columbia. Gould owned a lot on the southeast corner of 9th Street NW and Massachusetts Avenue NW. Gould joined with
Marriott International
Marriott International, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational company that operates, franchises, and licenses lodging including hotel, residential, and timeshare properties. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. T ...
, a hotel company, to propose that a 1,500-room hotel be built on this site to function as a "headquarters hotel" for the
Walter E. Washington Convention Center
The Walter E. Washington Convention Center is a convention center located in Washington, D.C., owned and operated by the city's convention arm, Events DC. Designed in a joint venture by the Atlanta-based architecture firm Thompson, Ventulett, ...
(then under construction). Gould hired the law firm of
Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi to assist with his plans. There was extensive debate among city officials and developers over whether the Gould parcel was too small for the hotel, and whether the old Washington Convention Center site (a few blocks away) would be more appropriate. D.C. Mayor
Anthony A. Williams
Anthony Allen Williams (born July 28, 1951) is an American politician who was the fifth mayor of the District of Columbia, for two terms, from 1999 to 2007. His predecessor had served twice, as the second and fourth mayor. Williams had previously ...
appointed Gould to an advisory board in October 2004, and charged the advisory board with studying all proposed sites and recommending one for the hotel to the city. In August 2005, the
Washington Convention and Sports Authority
Events DC is the official convention, sports and entertainment authority for the District of Columbia. Events DC is a quasi-public company based in Washington, D.C. that owns and manages the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Entertainment & ...
put a $900,000 down payment on two lots (which included the historic former headquarters of the
United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry adjacent to the Gould parcel.
On January 26, 2005, Gould swapped his parcel on 9th Street NW for a similar-sized lot at the site of the old convention center.
[Hedgpeth, Dana. "D.C. Has Deal for Convention Hotel Site." ''Washington Post.'' August 23, 2005.][Killian, Erin. "Developer, D.C. Reach Deal on Convention Center Hotel.' '']Washington Business Journal
American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes The Business Journals, which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States, Hemmings Motor News ...
.'' January 27, 2006. With the land swap, the city was able to move ahead with plans to build the
Washington Marriott Marquis
Marriott Marquis Washington, DC is a luxury hotel located on Massachusetts Avenue NW, in NW, Washington, D.C., United States. The hotel is connected to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center across 9th Street NW via an underground concourse ...
, the 1,430-room "headquarters hotel" long-desired by the city.
On November 1, 2007, the deal to swap land with Gould was finally approved.
[Lazo, Alejandro. "D.C. Land Deal Clears Way For Convention Center Hotel." ''Washington Post.'' November 2, 2007.] Although the City Council had signed off on the deal in June 2005, the city took another 25 months to change local zoning regulations so that Gould was exempted from building housing on his new site.
Gould said he still had not decided what should be built there.
In 2003, Gould partnered with local residents in Baltimore to purchased the MacGillivray building at Charles and Read Streets to keep it out of the hands of a competing developer. Gould and the others hoped to renovate the structure into a mixed-used apartment building with upscale retail space on the ground floor.
In April 2007, Gould proposed a major redevelopment of an area bounded by Massachusetts Avenue NW, I Street NW, 6th Street NW, and 7th Street NW (a trapezoidal city block just southeast of
Mount Vernon Square
Mount Vernon Square is a city square and neighborhood in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. The square is located where the following streets would otherwise intersect: Massachusetts Avenue NW, New York Avenue NW, K Street NW, and 8th ...
). Although 650 Massachusetts Avenue NW and 901 Seventh Street NW were modern office buildings on the western end of the parcel, surface parking lots and several historic townhouses facing I Street NW occupied the remainder of the block. Gould proposed construction of an 11-story, office building with retail space on the ground floor and 300 underground parking spaces on the area currently occupied by the parking lots and townhouses.
[Natarajan, Prabha. "D.C. Office Project Calls for Removing Old Row Houses." ''Washington Business Journal.'' April 2, 2007.][Stewart, Nikita. "Growth in Chinatown Exposes a Deep Rift." ''Washington Post.'' August 13, 2007.] The office building's facade would be decorated with Chinese motifs, in keeping with the nature of the nearby
Chinatown
A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...
neighborhood.
He proposed moving 621 I Street NW and 623 I Street NW (both constructed in 1852 and never renovated) to form a cluster with three other historic townhouses on the southeast corner of the parcel, and demolishing 627 I Street NW (which had been renovated as recently as 1946 and was no longer considered to have retained its historic character).
The District of Columbia Historic Preservation Review Board began reviewing his proposal.
Gould took several steps to help win local support for his proposal. He worked with the Chinatown Steering Committee and the Chinatown Revitalization Council, and offered to contribute $1 million toward the construction of affordable housing in Chinatown, to turn over of space in the new building for community use, contribute $100,000 to neighborhood programs, and give free parking space in his building to members of both groups.
However, Gould also proposed closing part of the alley serving the block. Steering committee members opposed this, because the closed area would be behind their condominium homes and they feared an increase in crime.
D.C. Council Chairman
Vincent C. Gray
Vincent Condol Gray (born November 8, 1942) is an American politician who served as the mayor of the District of Columbia from 2011 to 2015.
He served for one term, losing his bid for reelection in the Democratic primary to D.C. Council member ...
attempted to mediate the dispute.
Gould abandoned these negotiations, and his architects redesigned the office building to build a service area by reducing the community space to just .
He also limited the space's use to a handful of groups he approved of.
Gould also altered his community contribution plan, agreeing to donate $600,000 to the Chinese Community Church, provide rental discounts to Asian-owned retailers in the new building, and donate $850,000 to build affordable housing in
Adams Morgan
Adams Morgan is a neighborhood in Northwest Washington, D.C., centered at the intersection of 18th Street NW and Columbia Road, about 1.5 miles (2.54 km) north of the White House. Notable establishments in the neighborhood include the ...
(a D.C. neighborhood several miles from Chinatown).
Despite strong objections from the two Chinatown community groups, the D.C. City Council approved Gould's proposal by a 12-to-1 vote in August 2007.
Local roles
In the mid-1990s, Gould was elected president of the Penn Quarter Neighborhood Association, a position he continued to hold as late as 2002.
[Morris, Vincent S. "Georgia Avenue Plan Criticized." ''Washington Times.'' October 9, 1996; Straight, Susan. "Neighborhood Grows Up Around New Lexington Complex." ''Washington Post.'' June 22, 2002.]
Gould was also chairman of the Downtown
Business Improvement District in Washington, D.C.
References
Bibliography
*Gutheim, Frederick A. and Lee, Antoinette J. ''Worthy of the Nation: Washington, D.C., From L'Enfant to the National Capital Planning Commission.'' 2d ed. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.
*Harnik, Peter. ''Urban Green: Innovative Parks for Resurgent Cities.'' Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2010.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gould, Kingdon, III
Living people
American real estate businesspeople
Kingdon
1948 births
Businesspeople from New Haven, Connecticut
Connecticut Republicans