Thanks to sharp-eyed correspondent John for noticing a tidbit buried in the January Hill Rag (not yet online), which I've also found in this December 12 press release from the Mayor's Office discussing the new forensics lab that the city is going to start building in 2008 at 4th and E, SW: "Ultimately, more than 500 District employees will work at the 300,000 square foot building which currently houses a DC Fire station and a Metropolitan Police Division headquarters. The fire station will be reconstructed at the site as a part of the new building, and the MPD Division headquarters will be relocated to leased facilities at 225 Virginia Avenue, SE." This is the old Washington Star/Post printing plant that sits next to the freeway. I can't tell you anything more than this--the press release says that construction at the 4th Street SW site is supposed to begin in 2008 and last until 2010, I don't know when they plan to move the District Station. More as I get it. (This is the main 1st District Station, by the way--not the substation at 5th and E SE.)

Slightly off-topic, but if you're a DC blogger, you're invited to the Washington Post Blogger Summit, Jan. 9 from 6 to 9 pm. Here's a DCist post with the information and RSVP address.

How's that hangover? Let's start the year off with this link to the Post's "A Family Company, Forest City, Sets Out to Transform the District", a profile of Forest City Enterprises, the Cleveland-based company that "owns about 90 acres at three major Southwest and Southeast projects where it plans to invest roughly $3 billion into a mix of parks, housing, shops, restaurants and offices. And it is one of the developers working on transforming the land around the new baseball stadium -- now mostly boarded-up storefronts, car-repair garages and nightclubs -- into a vibrant neighborhood." There's not anything that qualifies as new info in the piece, but it's a good summary piece of the developments Forest City is involved in. Its biggest project in Near Southeast is the Southeast Federal Center, where "[o]ver the next decade, Forest City plans to build an almost $2 billion development of 6 million square feet -- a space almost as large as the Pentagon. Its plans call for preserving the historic buildings and turning a boilermaker shop into a retail area, creating apartments from a former carpentry building and converting an old gun mount factory into condominiums. It will also put in streets, offices, lofts and waterfront parks. In tribute to its Navy history, the project will be called the Yards." Forest City is also behind the revitalization of Capper/Carrollsburg, and, although not mentioned in the article, is likely to be one of the companies who get to redevelop the WASA site across from the stadium (if the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation can ever finish that land negotiation). And, outside my purview, they're also part of the team redeveloping Waterside Mall in Southwest. One interesting quote about the Southeast Federal Center project, from Deborah Ratner Salzberg, head of the company's DC operations: "It really will be a mixed environment that looks like it's been here forever. It won't look like Disneyland. It will be a little edgy and have the feel of the waterfront." Can't wait to see some specific plans; the company has announced in recent months that the first projects on the site are to get underway in 2007, so hopefully we don't have to wait much longer for some concrete information.

As we slide into the New Year's weekend, I'm bringing 2006 to a close with a pile of new photos. The most comprehensive update would be on my Department of Transportation HQ page, with updated photos from almost every angle, including the not-yet-open-to-the-public views from the south side of the project, along Tingey Street. And I had a lovely time on Christmas Eve morning being briefly detained by security and then escorted off the premises, so I hope you appreciate my sacrifice. I also updated all the 20 M Street shots, as workers have switched into a high gear to have the building ready for a Spring 2007 delivery. The demolition work on the last Capper block has brought some new photos to the Capper Apartments page (updated since yesterday), and my wanderings around the Capper footprint made me also add some new shots to the Capitol Quarter page and even at the bottom of the main Capper/Carrollsburg Overview page. Then I had to go take a few new Nationals ballpark shots (yes, new just since Christmas Eve). Then, because I never want to be accused of ignoring a construction site, I've even posted fabulously exciting pictures of the excavated holes at 70/100 I and 100 M/Onyx. And sprinkled two new M Street images, too. The beloved icon is your guide to all the latest, of course. And I hope to have another big update early in 2007 with some new overhead shots, once the Capper demolition is complete. In the meantime, enjoy this overwhelming bounty.

Rumors and other tea-leaf-reading seem to indicate that the Nexus Gold Club will be closing after one last bash on New Year's Eve (the sign on their front door that used to show their hours now says only that there's a big party New Year's Eve, "Wear Black"). Rumors also indicate that the last night for seeing de-clothed ladies (employed by the club, at least) is Saturday, Dec. 30. It will most likely be demolished early in 2007 as work gets underway on the 238-unit residential tower at 909 New Jersey, JPI's second project in Near Southeast. If Nexus does indeed close on New Year's, it means that every nightclub operating in Near Southeast back on Jan. 1, 2006, will have shut down (Ziegfield's, Secrets, Follies, Heat, Club Washington, Wet, Edge, Club 55, Nexus). Somewhat of a bellweather of a changing neighborhood, one might say.

The schedule of public programs at the US Navy Museum for January has been released, and I've added them to my Events Calendar.

I point you to the last few days' worth of crime reports issued by the DC government, to alert you to a rash of auto-related incidents: five car break-ins on Christmas, two stolen cars on Boxing Day, and another theft-from-auto the next day. The perp seems to have a particular fondness for L Street, from South Capitol all the way to 8th. So be forewarned, and as always, don't leave anything in your car in sight that might be the slighest bit attractive to someone peeking in.

Today the saga of the Capper/Carrollsburg residential demolition neared its end, as the last building at 2nd and L (which stood partially demolished for most of December) was finally brought down, and one of the four buildings on the final block (bounded by 2nd, 3rd, K, and I) came down; a good portion of one of the other builidings was stripped away as well. I took a few photos of the changed landscape, even though it was an ugly day for pictures. Apparently sometime in January the demolition team will then move to 5th and K to demolish the old community center, at which point the only remnant of the entire 51-building old Capper/Carrollsburg will be Old Capper Seniors at 7th and M, which will itself be demolished once its residents are moved to Capper Seniors #1 and #2. (The city is eyeing that lot for possible baseball parking, even though it's eight blocks from the stadium, so I'm betting Old Capper Seniors will be gone by April 2008.) And then the wait will begin for the construction of the new Capitol Quarter townhomes (most likely to begin in Spring 2007) and the announcement of when any of the planned apartment buildings for the stretch between 2nd and 3rd will begin to move forward.

A press release from WMATA: "The west entrance of the Navy Yard Metrorail station on the Green Line will close starting Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2007, through April 2008 due to construction related to the expansion of the station entrance. The east entrance on the northwest corner of M Street and New Jersey Avenue, SE, will remain open. The $20 million construction project is to increase the station's entrance capacity due to its close proximity to the new ballpark that is currently under construction. The west entrance at Half and M Streets, SE, is one block north of the future Nationals' ball park scheduled to open in April 2008. The entrance expansion includes increasing the number of fare gates and fare card machines; relocating the west entrance to the street level; installing a new elevator from the street level to the mezzanine; and installing a new stairway between the mezzanine and the platform. The present mezzanine's capacity can move up to 5,000 passengers per hour. The plan for the new mezzanine is to increase the ability to move 15,000 passengers per hour through the station. Funding for this project is being provided by the District of Columbia in anticipation of being refunded by the federal government." At the same time, Monument Realty's 55 M Street 275,000-sq-ft office building will be under construction above the entrance, as will Monument's other two offerings along Half Street, a 200-key W Aloft hotel and a 350-unit residential building at Half and N. The Monument projects will not be finished before 2009, although they hope to get the three levels of parking (700 spaces) and perhaps some of the 50,000-sq-ft of ground floor retail completed before Opening Day 2008.

If you've heard big booms in the vicinity of the Navy Yard today, it was a salute to former President Gerald Ford, with guns fired every half-hour from 8 am until sunset. Ford served in the US Navy from 1942 to 1946.

My Christmas present to you -- updated stadium construction photos, taken just this morning. Let the icon be your guide. Be sure to especially look at the photos I've included that show the progress in just the last three weeks, it's quite astounding how fast the steel is going in.

In Saturday's Post, two very positive articles written by Tom Boswell about the new baseball stadium. The first, "Nationals Owners to Dig Even Deeper" on A1: "The owners of the Washington Nationals plan to spend at least $30 million to improve the city-financed ballpark under construction on the Southeast waterfront, according to Mark Lerner, son of principal owner Ted Lerner. In addition, after the park opens, the Lerner family plans to spend 'millions more each season to develop the park's personality,' Mark Lerner said. Lerner said the family will improve the main scoreboard and 'get it to HDTV-quality,' double the size of the outfield restaurant and place "an LED display on top of it," and increase the size of the board that shows scores of other baseball games. Club level suites will get sliding-glass windows and bathrooms, Lerner said." The article also emphasizes that the construction continues to be on-time and on-budget, and proceeding at a lightning pace. The second piece, a column called "On the Waterfront, Hope Beginning to Spring Eternal," Boswell fairly gushes about the stadium's progress, its location, and its potential to be one of the best stadiums in baseball. He also takes some swipes at the naysayers who predicted that there was no way the stadium could be finished on time and on budget. (Alas, he may be a bit overly optimistic about grand sweeping views of the Capitol still being possible once surrounding buildings get built.) Check my Stadium Construction Gallery (which I promise to update once the holidays are past and/or it stops raining, whichever comes first) to see the progress as of early December and how the neighborhood has changed. And of course there's the official Stadium Webcam if you want to see up-to-the-minute images.

Today the DCRA Building Plan Review Status database shows a new building permit application for 1015 Half Street, the site of the old Nation nightclub, where Potomac Investment Properties is planning to building a 440,000-sq-ft office building. This is just the application, it hasn't been approved yet, and to illustrate that permit apps don't always morph immediately into new construction, I point out that a building permit application for 1015 Half was originally filed on August 24, 2004; here's a Washington Business Journal story describing the project. That being said, today's new application is most likely a resubmittal of the original one with whatever structural corrections needed to be addressed from the first application, and clearly they're moving forward with the project; you may remember that I posted last week that a raze permit is also currently in the works for 1015 Half.

Tomorrow (Thursday Dec. 21) the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation is having a public board meeting at 5 pm. which you can either attend in person or listen into telephonically. See the announcement for details. And, because there's hardly a Near Southeast detail too small for me to pass along, I'll note that should it tickle your fancy, DC cable channel 16 is replaying tomorrow morning at 7 am the ceremony from a few weeks back when the Southeast Federal Center officially became The Yards. (Hey, at least I didn't give it its own entry!)

Even though workers won't be moving into the new US Department of Transportation headquarters until spring (at least, that's the last I've heard), the work on the surrounding streetscapes continues. Over the past couple weeks both 4th Street and the "new" extended New Jersey Avenue south of M Street have been paved and striped--and now there are stoplights installed (but not yet operational) at 4th and M and New Jersey and M. So be on the lookout for those going live (and when they do, let me know). I don't know when 4th and New Jersey will actually open to traffic, I imagine it won't be until DOT opens. As for 3rd Street, which runs between the two DOT buildings, they've done a nice job with making it a pedestrian plaza--and in case you're a long-term visionary, you can note that 3rd Street is still up to the proper standards should it ever be decided to open it to vehicular traffic, in the hazy far-off future when the entire city isn't locked down to the point of ridiculousness.

With thanks to the many eagle-eyed correspondents who passed this along, we can report that demolition has begun at 55 M Street, the southeastern corner of Half and M, currently home to the western Navy Yard Metro Station entrance and soon to be home to Monument Realty's first offerings in Near Southeast--a 275,000 sq ft office building at Half and M, a 200-key W Aloft hotel mid-block, and 350-unit residential tower at Half and N, with 50,000 sq ft of ground-floor retail throughout the project. I talked to the workers on the site, and they said that they will be demolishing the entire length of the block between Half, M, N, and Cushing; I asked about the WMATA employee lot just south of the station entrance, how much longer that lot would be there, and the workers said "not long." This lot is to be moved to Monument's land at 1236 South Capitol (south of the Public Storage Building), but as of a few days ago that land still required its own demolition. Monument's Zoning Commission/Capitol Gateway Overlay Review hearing on 55 M Street is scheduled for January 11, but considering the very tight timeline they're working under (needing to get the upgrades to the Navy Yard station completed before Opening Day 2008, plus their plan to get the three levels of underground parking completed by that date), it's not really a surprise that demolition is moving forward. A lot of moving parts that need to work together just right for success.... (And just FYI, I'm not considering this project "underway" until after they get zoning approval.) UPDATE: I think I see their interim solution for the WMATA parking lot, there's now "WMATA Lot Only" signs on the fenced-in lot a few feet further south on Half Street, they must be planning to move the employee parking there as the demolition works north to south, until the 1236 South Capitol lot is ready....

With no debate, the four Near Southeast alley closing bills that have been snaking their way through the DC legislative process in 2006 were passed at today's city council session, with both emergency and permanent bills being passed (emergency bills allow the statutes to take effect immediately, allowing the closings to be considered law as the permanent bills await mayoral and congressional approval). To recap, this batch included the closing of alleys on the west side of Square 701 between M, N, Cushing, and Half (at Monument Realty's 55 M Street site); the closing of alleys and the creation of streets named 2nd Place, 3rd Place, and an official designation of a portion of L Street, all part of the Capitol Quarter footprint; the closing of alleys and the eventual reopening of H and I streets between 2nd and New Jersey to make way for W.C. Smith's 1-million-sq-ft mixed-use project at 800 New Jersey; and finally the closing of alleys on the east side of Square 700 (between Half, Van, M, and N), where Monument will eventually add to their Half Street domination. That makes seven Near Southeast alley closings and street changes put on the books in 2006, when you include the stadium street closings, the Willco land on the east side of Square 701 (M, N, Cushing, and 1st) and the Square 743N west-side alley closings that allowed the start of construction on the 100 M Street office building and the Onyx on First residential tower. There's one more potential alley closing wandering around out there somewhere, and that's for Lerner's 1000 South Capitol Street office building; representatives came before ANC 6D way back in April, but (believe it or not!) a squabble broke out about an acceptable community benefits package in return for the ANC's report, and nothing's been heard on this since.

A quick tidbit: on Friday Dec. 15, Clark/Hunt/Smoot (and Clark Concrete Construction) placed the first concrete deck on the club level at the new Nationals ballpark--ahead of schedule. And the steel for the upper deck continues to go in at a steady clip. I'm sure the mild and dry December has helped the construction timetable quite nicely. You can look at my latest photos of the site, although they're now two weeks old, which is ancient given the speed of work down there. And there's the official Stadium Construction Webcam if you want up-to-the-minute views.

I've finally uncovered a roundabout way to find out about pending raze permits (right now, raze permit applications are not tracked or listed in any way on DC.gov--waaah!). The city's Historic Preservation Office sends out via e-mail weekly permit reports for the entire city (the HPO is contacted by the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs to confirm that building/raze permits aren't for buildings with some landmark status or other hold). Recently mailings have indicated that raze permits are in process for 1015 Half Street (Nation) as well as most of the buildings on Monument Realty's properties along Half, N, and South Capitol Streets (26, 30, 32, and 68 N Street, 1241 and 1243 Cushing Place, and 1236 South Capitol). This reports from HPO don't mean that razing is imminent (for instance, the Monument Realty raze permit requests came through HPO in mid-October), but do show that plans for demolition are more than just theoretical. UPDATE: I knew I forgot something when I posted this; I meant to include that, while I haven't seen a raze permit, a correspondent has reported that tenants told him that the beige brick building at South Capitol and O SW is scheduled to be demolished just after the New Year, to make way for the 1325 South Capitol 244-unit residential building.