I've been meaning to post this for weeks, during a "lull", but since there hasn't been a Near Southeast lull since about August 2004.... If you've noticed over the past months the construction activity around the WASA site (that's "Water and Sewer Authority"), it's because they're in the midst of a $45-million-plus rehab of the Main/O Street pumping stations located there. And, for those baseball fans who've been a bit concerned about having to spend your time sitting a little closer to a sewage plant than perhaps you'd like, I hope that it eases your mind to see that the two bid solicitations for the project both mention "odor control" as part of the projects....

Today's Examiner has "Mayor Williams says parking deal not dead", with not much that's new, but these lines advance the story a tad: " 'We've got to show that development's under way very, very quickly, but at the same time we have to satisfy the need for parking,' Williams said. Williams said talks were ongoing Monday between multiple parties. If the deal does ultimately collapse, the mayor said, the city might have no choice but to build the standalone parking garages sought by Nationals owners, but vehemently opposed by the D.C. Zoning Commission." And the WashPost editorializes about the brouhaha in "Mayor Williams's Dead Deal."

The City Council's long summer break is at last over, and three alley closing proposals that we've been hearing about all summer have finally been entered into the council's online legislation system: Monument Realty's requests for alley closings on both the west side of Square 701 and the southern section of Square 700 (both part of Monument's Ballpark District sites), and William C. Smith's request for realigning the streets in Squares 737N and 739 to make way for a 900,000-sq-ft mixed-use project at New Jersey and H. (And, just for fun, here's the description of what's being requested in Square 739: "[T]he closing of the public alley in Square 739, bounded by New Jersey Avenue, Canal, 2nd, and K Streets, S.E.; the opening [of] I Street, S.E. between 2nd Street and New Jersey Avenue, S.E.; the widening [of] 2nd Street, S.E. between I and K Streets, S.E.; the widening of New Jersey Avenue north of Canal Street, S.E.; the opening of H Street, S.E. to connect to New Jersey Avenue, S.E.; the closure of Closing Canal Street (North), Canal Street (South), and a portion of First Street, S.E.; to accept the dedication and designation of Reservation 17-A and Lot 801, Square 737N for public street purposes; to authorize the improvement of the dedicated land for street purposes; to authorize modifications to the permanent system of highways in the District of Columbia; and to designate the dedicated streets as I Street, S.E. and H Street, S.E and New Jersey Avenue, S.E. in Ward 6." Whew! UPDATE: I should also note that the two Monument Realty requests (Square 700 and 701) are delegated agenda items at the Oct. 5 National Capital Planning Commission meeting.

Not a huge update, but with demolition having now brought down all the buildings on the 1100 First Street site, I added a few pictures of the new streetscape to the page.

Today's stadium links (posted without summaries, because watching everyone run around like chickens with their heads cut off, clutching their hearts with doom and gloom, has finally exceeded my Allowable Exasperation Level): DC Examiner has "Mayor: City Must Act Fast on Parking," and the Washington Times has "Stadium Parking Threatens Budget". I'd also remind everyone who is so terrified that if the garages site isn't developed immediately, the Ballpark District will be doomed to failure--it took, what, seven years for the Gallery Place project to be developed just north of the MCI/Verizon Center, and that seemed to turn out okay. The garages site is two blocks within a far larger area that is already well on it's way to being developed, the city is going to get plenty of tax revenue, if those two blocks take a few extra years to get figured out, I don't think the city will crumble. UPDATE, 9/23: A day later, here's the Post's latest parking story, "City's Plans for Stadium Now Focus on Parking." I'm not going to rehash all the garage arguments (you can read the article's rehash, including yet another misguided statement about how a lack of development on those two blocks "could delay the waterfront revival until well after the stadium opens"), but there's an interesting comment at the end: "Monument Vice President Russell Hines said his company would be willing to lease the garages [under the company's planned development one block north of the stadium site] to the city for ballpark parking in 2008 because the office buildings will not be completed until the next year. If the city's fee is high enough, Hines said, Monument might even be willing to delay construction of the offices. 'There may be a solution where we agree to delay completion of our buildings in order to provide parking until another parking solution is provided,' Hines said. 'There's no deal yet, but we're willing to talk.' "

Just got back from the meeting about Canal Park held by the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation. The designers from Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd gave a presentation on the latest design and thought processes behind this three-block park planned for the center of Near Southeast, at 2nd Street between I and M. Much of the discussion centered around the park's Low-Impact Development design, which will capture and harvest rainwater for use throughout the site, and is being looked at as a model for this sort of development. The park will have larger-scale uses at it's south end, by M Street--a plaza with a seating area, and an amphitheater for events (the Marine Band has apparently expressed an interest in playing there)--then the park transitions to a smaller-scale feel as you move north, with water features dominating the second block and part of the third. A wooden boardwalk, under a canopy of shade trees, would run along the entire length of the park, on it's western side. They are also looking at ways to "connect" the Canal Park with Garfield Park 1 1/2 blocks to the north (separated by the lovely freeway underpass). I hope to get updated design graphics from them soon, and will post them as soon as I do, although they don't appear (to my untrained eye) to be radically different from what I have on the site now. As for a timeline (keeping in mind that all development project timelines should be taken with nine or 10 grains of salt), they are currently hoping to have the school buses removed from the site by the second quarter of 2007, and perhaps get the park open by Spring 2008.

From WTOP: "Herb Miller's Western Development Corporation Baseball Partners rejected a deal from the city to develop parking and retail at the new stadium for the Washington Nationals. The move puts the city at risk of default on the stadium agreement with the Lerner Family. That agreement calls for the city to provide 1,225 parking spaces at the site by opening day in April of 2008. If the District is unable to provide that number of spaces, the Lerners could sue the city for damages. [...] Those options include creating surface parking around the stadium as an interim fix until more permanent parking can be developed. The D.C. Zoning Board has ruled the parking cannot preclude other development on the site, such as retail. " It appears that what they're now arguing about is how much Miller gets compensated for the deal falling through. More as I get it (and perhaps the Post will give us some clarity, this seems a bit jumbled). UPDATE: Here is the WashPost story, which doesn't tell us much that we haven't already heard. The article is a bit overwrought when it says "The dissolution of the Miller project could have far-reaching consequences on the entire baseball experience and the city's planned revival of the waterfront." -- after all, there are millions of square feet of office, residential, and retail projects planned for around the stadium, whether the Garages Wrapped With Development Goodness got built or not. Next step, trying to put 925 parking spaces on the northern edge of the stadium site by Opening Day 2008.

An e-mail has just gone out to folks who have registered previously at EYA's web site, announcing that the Capitol Quarter townhome project (on the site of the old Capper/Carrollsburg public housing project) will open for a one-week preview period on Oct. 14, during which the sales office will be open, and plans and prices will be available, but no appointments, reservations, or contracts will be taken. To get in on the preview, you need to re-register with EYA (at a new URL, www.eyacapitolquarter.com/), even if you've registered in the past, so that they can ensure you're still interested and that they have your correct contact info. The approximately 121 market-rate townhomes will start in the $500s, but there are also 91 "workforce" units: "If your income is less than $72,642 for a household of one, $83,183 for a household of two, $93,533 for a household of three, or $103,883 for a household of four, you may be eligible for the workforce housing program. The base prices of the workforce homes are projected to range from $295,000 to $350,000." Reservations for the first batch of market-rate homes will be accepted starting on Oct. 21; there will be a separate schedule for the workforce units, and EYA willl be holding a homeownership and financing workshop for those qualifying for these units. Plans and prices should be posted on the EYA web site in early October. There will also be 65 additional townhomes comprising 111 affordable rental and Section 8 home ownership units mixed into the community. As I understand it, they are projecting that construction will begin sometime in Spring 2007. (UPDATED to add additional information, and fix some numbers.)

In case you don't make it a habit to look at my Neighborhood Events Calendar halfway down the home page (boo!), I'm making mention of a few upcoming meetings: Sept. 20 has the Capitol Hill Restoration Society's Preservation Café, "Barracks Row Below the Freeway"; Sept. 21 has a Washington Canal Park Community Stakeholders Meeting; Sept. 28 has an Anacostia Waterfront Corporation Public Board Meeting. See my calendar for times and places.

If you're an obsessive viewer of Clark/Hunt/Smoot's Stadium Construction Webcam, you already know this, but for you folks who don't check it every fifteen minutes, I'm passing along the news that they've added a second camera angle, now looking from the north of the stadium site. (It appears to have been set up on the roof of 20 M Street.)

The Florida Rock mixed-use project had a second-stage PUD hearing at the DC Zoning Commission on Monday night; I missed the first 90 minutes, so I can't really give you a solid feel for how it all went; I did detect a fair amount of concern about the easternmost building of the project, an office building (now redesigned to include three floors of retail) at the terminus of First Street, specifically how it impacts the views of the river from the "grand staircase" of the ballpark. There were also still apparently some issues to be resolved with DDOT, the Office of Planning, and the AWC's new plan for a 39,000-sq-ft plaza at the foot of First Street. The Florida Rock folks will be back in front of the Commission in November to address the concerns brought forward. One interesting tidbit did sneak in during Adrian Washington's testimony--he said that the plans for the Ballpark District portion of the WASA site (AWC and Forest City are still in negotiations to acquire the land) is for it to be all residential, perhaps as many as 800 units. If that Ballpark Development Strategy ever sees the light of day, we'll get more details, I'm sure.

With construction getting under way at 100 M Street, the "Main Street" of Near Southeast is seeing yet another transformation. Since 1999, six office buildings have gotten underway in the short stretch between South Capitol and 4th streets. So I've (of course) added a new map to my M Street Overview page, detailing what's where and what's coming. And I've added a bunch of new photos as well.

I've added some new photos of the now-cleared 70/100 I Street construction site. The buildings that were on the site were demolished back in April, but the site wasn't truly cleared of foundations, trees, etc., until last week.

Thanks to the reappearance of the sun, I was able to take a pile of photos this weekend. It'll take me a bit to get them onto the site, so for now here's pictures of the results of the demolition at the 100 M Street site, which took down the On Luck Cafeteria, the Zohery Bus Tours garage, and some long-abandoned brick townhomes. Demolition will continue this week on that site, to clear the 1100 First Street portion of the block.

Just one week before they were scheduled to permanently close, the gay nightclubs Wet and Edge at Half and L Streets got hit with a suspension of their liquor license. Capitol Hill Cabaret (the owners of Wet/Edge) were the subjects of a Show Cause Hearing on Wednesday Sept. 13 in front of the ABC Control Board, and I guess the assumption can be made that the proceeding didn't go well. The suspension sign says that it is in effect until Oct. 29, but I don't know whether this is something that can be rectified in time for the clubs to open for what would have been their final nights (Sept. 22 and 23), so the end for these bars might have already arrived.

From Saturday's Post: "District government officials believe a plan to build condominiums and parking garages adjacent to a new baseball stadium in Southeast Washington is in danger of collapsing and have offered to buy out the developer for nearly $1 million." The short of it--the city has delivered a contract to Herb Miller for the project, but the contract would need approval from Lerners, which it most likely would not get. So the contract also has in it a $990,000 payment to Miller if the deal falls through (Miller is quoted later in the story as saying he's incurred $5.5 million in design and other costs on this project, at the city's request). Why $990k? Because any payment more than $1 million requires city council approval. So, what would happen? "If Miller's towers are not built, commission officials have said they would consider paving over the area to provide surface-level parking spots with the potential for future development. Another possibility would be to ask the D.C. Council for more money to build garages underground or aboveground, commission officials said." Miller has until Wednesday to sign the contract, so we should know the resolution on this before too much longer. Or, have I said that before?

A bit off-topic, but just letting you know that I've moved JDLand.com to a new hosting company; if you're reading this, you've successfully made it to the new site. For a few days, going to "jdland.com" might still take you to the old site, where you'll see a pointer page sending you to the new site; no need to change your bookmarks, once the DNS change propagates out across the internet, "jdland.com" will point to the new site. If you want the scoop on the move, read this entry on my personal blog.

In June, The Lawrence Ruben Company added to the 24,000-sq-ft lot it has owned at the corner of South Capitol and L since 2004, paying (according to DC land records) $4.843 million to buy 9,000 sq ft of the St. Vincent de Paul church's parking lot. I'm told the Ruben Co. has hired the Shalom Baranes architecture firm (which is also working on the huge Southeast Federal Center project) to design a 330,000-sq-ft office building for this location (1100 South Capitol Street). Most likely, Ruben will not move forward on construction until they sign a tenant for the building. Check my North of M page (and it's spiffy new map!) to see what other projects are on the boards in this getting-ever-more-crowded section of Near Southeast.

Buried deep on page 75 of the September Hill Rag (but not as yet announced on the AWC web site, grrrr) is notice of a Washington Canal Park Community Stakeholders Meeting, scheduled for Sept. 21 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at 222 8th Street NE (St. James Church Rectory). The ad says "Everyone is invited. Come see the new schematic designs and share your thoughts and ideas." (hat tip to reader John for passing this along) UPDATE, 9/13: Here is the press release from the AWC announcing the meeting.

Another big project has now gotten underway--new fences have gone up, the green windscreens have come down, construction office trailers have been delivered, a "Construction Zone" sign has been posted, and there was even a bit of site clearing being done, so I think it's safe to decree that work has begun on JPI's 70/100 I project. These two buildings, when finished in mid-2008, will total nearly 700 residential units. (And I'm dispensing with the technicalities where 70 I construction is supposedly starting in September, and 100 I in October. They're gonna share a wall, they're by the same company, as far as I'm concerned, they're being constructed together!) A big batch of demolition took place in April 2006, but there's still a fair amount of leftover foundations and other stuff that will need to be dug up. UPDATE: Here's the GlobeSt.com piece on the 70/100 project; it says that they plan to break ground next year on their New Jersey Ave. project.