Areas · Washington, DC
Reels and spools in Ivy City: the District's working corner
IVY CITY — Ivy City, off New York Avenue NE in ZIP 20002, is the part of the District where trades, warehouses and small production businesses still have room, so it is where many District reels end up and where people who make things from them work. The desk picks up from its yards and docks and delivers spools there.
From the reel desk · Checked 9 November 2026
Schematic line map, not to survey: Ivy City marked, with US-50, Route 1 drawn heavier. The Potomac, the Anacostia, the District line and the Beltway are drawn for bearings.
Fact box: Ivy City
- ZIP
- 20002
- Main road
- New York Avenue NE (US-50)
- Land use
- Industrial and PDR uses, plus new housing
- Planning
- Ivy City Small Area Plan
What Ivy City is
Ivy City is a small, triangular neighbourhood wedged between New York Avenue, the rail lines and Mount Olivet Road. It has old brick warehouses, newer flex buildings, distilleries, food producers and building trades, and in the last decade a lot of new housing. A 2025 letter from the local advisory neighbourhood commission, ANC 5D02, to the Zoning Commission describes the area as heavily concentrated with industrial and production, distribution and repair (PDR) uses. The same letter opposes a proposed new warehouse on New York Avenue at the Montana Triangle, citing the Ivy City Small Area Plan and the plan to place resilience hubs along the corridor.
Why reels collect here
Contractors who work inside the city need somewhere to keep material that is not a job site, and the New York Avenue corridor is one of the few places left in the District where that is possible. A shop in Ivy City may have reels from five jobs stacked against a fence. Some are part-full reels kept for the next job; the rest are empties waiting for someone to take them. Those empties are what the desk collects.
Pickups in a tight neighbourhood
Ivy City’s streets are narrow and busy with deliveries, and parking is tight. A pickup here works best with:
- A clear spot where a truck can stop for twenty minutes.
- Reels rolled out to the gate or dock, standing on their flanges.
- A count by flange size, so the desk sends the right vehicle: a box truck for a dozen small reels, a flatbed for anything 48 inches or larger.
If you are clearing a shop of mixed reels (wood, plywood, a stray steel reel), sort them into rows first. Steel reels go back to their maker; the desk will take the wood and plywood.
Who wants reels here
Ivy City is also a good place to place reels. Woodworkers and fabricators take sound reels apart for their lumber, event businesses use them as tables, and contractors elsewhere in the District want working reels. A reel that leaves an Ivy City shop can end up a mile away on someone’s roof deck.
Getting here
New York Avenue (US-50) is the main road in, from the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and the Beltway to the east and from downtown to the west. Route 1 runs along Bladensburg Road to the north. Truck routes avoid the residential blocks.
Sending a request from Ivy City
- Count and measure. Count the reels and measure the largest flange edge to edge across the face. A photo with the tape in it is better than a guess.
- Check the build. Nailed lumber, plywood sheet, steel or plastic. Look for a stencil or tag naming the maker and the reel number.
- Set aside steel and tagged returnables with their serial numbers. Those go back to the maker, not to the desk.
- Say where they stand: yard, dock, garage level, alley or curb, plus clearance, gate hours, badging or escort a driver needs.
- Say what loads them: forklift, pallet jack, loader, ramp, or only people. Reels over 42 inches weigh more than 100 lb empty.
- Say how often: one time, weekly, monthly or at each job close-out.
- Buying instead? Give the flange and height you want, how many, and how the reel gets from the truck to where it will sit.
- No form handy? Email info@dcwoodenspools.com with the same details and a few photos.
Reels you are likely to have
| Reel | Build | Flange | Traverse | Drum | Lb | Usually carries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C-5 | Nailed wood | 23 | 17 | 12 | 34 | Copper building wire, grounding |
| A-10 | Nailed wood | 30 | 22 | 16 | 66 | Service drop, bare aluminium |
| N-24 | Nailed wood | 36 | 28 | 14 | 83 | Insulated and multiplex cable |
| A-29 | Nailed wood | 42 | 28 | 21 | 154 | Overhead conductor, feeders |
| A-38 | Nailed wood | 48 | 28 | 24 | 212 | Aluminium and ACSR, large feeders |
| A-62 | Nailed wood | 60 | 28 | 28 | 397 | Utility conductor |
| A-76 | Nailed wood | 66 | 28 | 30 | 473 | Heavy conductor |
| S-120 | Steel, returnable | 84 | 36 | 42 | 895 | Transmission and medium voltage |
Other makers' reels differ by an inch or two. All flange sizes · How to measure
Questions the desk gets
Will the desk take a few reels from a small Ivy City shop?
Yes. District pickups are usually small. Tell the desk where the truck can stop and how many reels there are.
Does the desk deliver spools to Ivy City?
Yes. Say what size you need and how the reel gets from the street to where it is going.
Sources
Each opened and read on 9 November 2026.
- DC Zoning Commission, Case 24-11 exhibit (ANC 5D02 letter, 20 October 2025): opposition to a proposed warehouse on New York Avenue NE at the Montana Triangle; Ivy City's concentration of industrial and PDR uses