A briefing in Wednesday's Post: "D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) withdrew yesterday his proposal to revive a plan to build condominiums and parking garages near a new baseball stadium in Southeast Washington. There was little discussion about the bill during yesterday's council meeting. The city's chief financial officer, Natwar M. Gandhi, had sent the council a letter saying that the bill would "jeopardize the on-time and on-budget completion of the stadium facility." Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) told the council in a letter that he supported Barry's bill with several amendments that addressed Gandhi's concerns. The proposal could be placed on the agenda again this month." UPDATE: Here's a more detailed piece, from the Examiner: "Council Chairman Linda Cropp ruled the measure out of order - she opposed it anyway - because it was not accompanied by a fiscal impact statement. 'I agree wholeheartedly that there is an emergency we need to work out,' Cropp said. 'I don't think at this point this is the resolution to do it.' [...] Cropp agreed to work on a compromise with Barry in the coming weeks."

I've been remiss in not doing this sooner, but at the bottom of the right-hand column on this page you'll see a new list of links to Other DC Neighborhood Blogs. Go visit, and find out what else is happening around town....

A bombshell from Tuesday's Post: "Several D.C. Council members were negotiating late yesterday to introduce emergency legislation today that would revive a plan to build condominiums and parking garages near a new baseball stadium in Southeast Washington. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) was leading the effort and had distributed a bill that seeks to alter the $611 million stadium cost cap approved by the council in March. The legislation would allow the city to spend money from the sale of development rights on stadium land to pay for the parking garages." As an emergency bill it would require 9 of 13 council votes, and CFO Gandhi has already said he has "grave concerns". And the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission would be stripped of control of the garages land, handing them over to the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation and allowing them to negotiate with the Lerners. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride continues....

From CrimeInDC.org (saw this a few days ago, sorry for being slow in posting), report of a carjacking on Sept. 19 at 6:16 pm at the Exxon at 1000 M Street: "c1 reports as she was putting air in her front left tire s1 approached her from the rear then pushed her. s1 entered her vehicle at which time s1 and c2 began to struggle with the door. as s1 drove off c1 was hanging onto the driver door."

Speaking of taking pictures, I've added some ones to my 100 M Street, 1100 First Street, Capper Seniors #2, and M Street photo galleries. 1100 First in particular has some striking before-and-afters now that trees have been removed along 1st and L streets. I also did some creative cropping of a Sept. 2000 photo of M Street to document (barely!) a solitary rowhouse that used to stand on the 100 M Street lot (where those steps-to-nowhere just west of the alley had been for the past few years, until meeting the wrecking ball over the past few weeks).

A portion of today's Dana Hedgpeth column in the Post describes "observations offered last week by developers and leasing and sales brokers to about 100 real estate professionals in an annual conference." The one comment about Near Southeast: "The area around the planned baseball stadium in Southeast, many agreed, will eventually develop into shops, restaurants, housing and more offices. But some differed on how long it would take. The area, which is now mostly boarded-up storefronts, empty lots and car repair garages, would look very different by 2008, some said. Others said it would take until 2010 or beyond. 'You'll go down there and forget what it looked like before,' [emphasis mine] said Daniel P. Dooley, managing director at Tishman Speyer Properties". Gosh, if only someone had thought to take pictures of the neighborhood to capture what it looked like before all the development arrived! :-)

From the Post, the end of the article first: "Mark H. Tuohey, chairman of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, said ballpark construction is proceeding on schedule. Workers have erected hundreds of concrete pilings and are shaping the clubhouses and seating bowls, with a major delivery of steel to the site -- a critical step -- set for Friday." The story itself is about how "[t]he Washington Nationals' disappointing on-field performance this season, coupled with a drop in ticket sales at 45-year-old RFK Stadium, has underscored the importance of finishing a new $611 million ballpark in time for the 2008 season." Fun quote: " 'RFK will never be more than good old RFK,' [Nationals President Stan] Kasten said. 'By the time we get the new park open in '08, it's going to [provide] the best experience you can possibly have.' "

Thanks to the kind folks at Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, I've now posted an image of the latest design of Washington Canal Park, which was presented at the stakeholders meeting a few days back.

With thanks to loyal reader Eric for providing the needed push, I've added another detail map, this time for New Jersey Avenue, giving the scoop on what's planned along what could eventually be quite the grand boulevard. And I added a few new photos, too, including finally officially documenting the horse stables tucked under the Southeast Freeway just east of NJ Ave. (I guess I didn't want everyone running over there and bothering them :-). ) The other maps, for your perusing pleasure, are of the Stadium Corridor, M Street, and Capper/Carrollsburg (and I've tweaked the main map at left to highlight these additional offerings).

I've gotten my hands on a rendering of 909 New Jersey Avenue, the 238-unit residential tower being developed by JPI on the block currently occupied by the Nexus Gold Club. No official word yet on when construction will begin, I've heard mentions in the past of early 2007, and I've also heard rumors that Nexus will close by the end of 2006. This is also a good time to mention that in late July JPI paid $1.989 million to the William C. Smith Co. for two lots on this block, totalling a mere 2,873 sq ft of land. (It should also be noted that the official sale of the Nexus land to JPI from current owner Marty Chernoff has not yet happened; in 2005 JPI paid Chernoff $1 million for two lots on the block, and the Post reported in January that the total sale price for all four of Chernoff's lots [incuding Nexus] will be $8.9 million.)

Fox 5 did a segment on Tuesday about how the stadium is progressing, and the video is available online. (I think I might have driven past the reporter taping a standup along 1st Street on Sunday--I should have stopped and offered myself as a neighborhood observer!) (UPDATED 10/2 to change the link to one that works.)

I've posted some new renderings and the revised site map for the Florida Rock project, with many thanks as always to the generous folks at Davis Buckley Architects for passing them along. The two new images of the east office building at 1st and Potomac highlight the three floors of glass-enclosed retail that has now been added to this location; you can also see on the site map the proposed 39,000-sq-ft public plaza at the foot of First Street. This east building would be the first phase of Florida Rock's development, with construction beginning if all goes well in early 2008. The project has another hearing in front of the Zoning Commission on Nov. 27 (here's my entry on how the first one on Sept. 18 went).

There are projects immediately adjacent to Near Southeast that I won't be tracking with my usual level of obsessive-compulsiveness (no photos, dedicated pages, etc.), but I will mention big milestones if I hear about them. And so first is the announcement of a pending public meeting by the AWC on October 10 on the Poplar Point Site Development Plan process--this is the 70-acre on the Anacostia on the east side of the South Capitol Street Bridge, just across the river from Florida Rock, where possibly a new DC United stadium may be built. (Note that the transfer of this land from Federal to District control is still pending in Congress.) The other project is 1325 South Capitol Street SW, on the western side of the street between N and O (in other words, directly across from the stadium). GlobeSt.com reports (hat tip to reader RR) that Camden Property Trust is planning a 244-unit 210,000-sq-ft building on the site, with construction to start in Q2 2007. (I know, it's just across the dang street from Near Southeast, and maybe by the time the project starts I'll cave and decide to track anything that actually fronts South Capitol. Because there aren't enough projects for me to track :-).)

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.