Freight corridor · DC
Pallets on New York Avenue NE
New York Avenue NE is a three-mile freight spine through Ward 5, where the District keeps most of its warehousing, utility yards and wholesale docks. Pallets come off those docks all day. This is the one place inside DC where a load is a dock load, not an alley load.
Where the corridor sits
The corridor runs three miles, from Florida Avenue NE to South Dakota Avenue NE, and DC Office of Planning describes it as holding warehousing, utility and service jobs and carrying a heavy mix of freight and commuter traffic. Ivy City, Brentwood and Langdon are the neighborhoods along it. Two ZIP codes cover it, 20002 and 20018.
Most of the District’s production, distribution and repair land is in Ward 5, close to the railroad facilities, the Red Line corridor and New York Avenue itself. That is why the pallets in this part of town look different from the ones behind a restaurant on a residential block: they come off docks, in numbers, on a schedule.
Who is on the land
Government and utility users hold 1,124 acres of DC’s PDR-zoned land, which is 62% of it. Private business uses another 701 acres. Construction takes the largest share of that private land, 266 acres, then wholesale trade at 123, transportation and warehousing at 88 and manufacturing at 59, with 165 in other uses.
| Private use of PDR land | Acres |
|---|---|
| Construction | 266 |
| Wholesale trade | 123 |
| Transportation and warehousing | 88 |
| Manufacturing | 59 |
| Other industries | 165 |
DC Office of Planning, Production, Distribution & Repair Land Use Report.
A construction yard sheds different pallets from a wholesale dock. Material comes in on block and stringer pallets stacked heavy; wholesale docks ship out on lighter, cleaner 48x40 stock. Both can be sorted.
What we ask of a corridor load
Say which door it comes from. A wholesale dock will usually be able to give a count by size and a rough grade; a yard that takes in material will have more broken pallets and more mixed sizes. Tell us about both, plus whether a truck can back to the door or the pallets have to be moved to the curb first.
Because the corridor is a freight route, there is usually room to stage a load for pickup, which is what separates it from the alleys covered on the DC page. A steady flow is a dock program; a one-off pile is a pickup.
The corridor in the Office of Planning’s words
DC Office of Planning’s New York Avenue roadmap describes a corridor of warehousing, utility and service jobs that is also a major route for freight and for commuters. Planners treat it as an industrial and transportation spine inside a city that otherwise has little of either, and several of its blocks are zoned for production, distribution and repair.
For a pallet desk that means two things. First, the volume is real: truck docks, yards and service buildings concentrated in one place. Second, the neighbors are close, so one hauling trip can serve several docks along the same stretch, which keeps the cost per stop down.
Three neighborhoods, three habits
| Neighborhood | What we would expect to find | Planning note |
|---|---|---|
| Ivy City | Warehouse and service buildings, some converted | Ask about door heights and shared lots |
| Brentwood | Utility yards and wholesale docks | Ask about security and gate hours |
| Langdon | Mixed industrial and commercial uses | Ask about staging space |
These are the desk’s planning notes from the corridor description, not a survey of any building.
ZIP codes
20002 20018
Send the count
Questions
- Which ZIP codes does the New York Avenue NE corridor cover?
- 20002 and 20018 cover the corridor, including Ivy City, Brentwood and Langdon.
- Do you pick up pallets from docks on New York Avenue?
- Ask for a pickup and send the count and the sizes. We read the load and reply by email saying whether it is a sale, a buy-back or a clear-out.
- How long is the corridor?
- About three miles, from Florida Avenue NE to South Dakota Avenue NE.
- Why does most DC industrial land sit in Ward 5?
- It lies near railroad facilities, the Red Line corridor and New York Avenue, according to DC Office of Planning.