An ad began appearing late last week (h/t Richard Layman) for "Ballpark Apartments", trumpeting income-limited units with "Views of the water and monuments/shopping and dining at Barracks Row/Metro Access at Navy Yard Station/Catch a Game at the New Ballpark." The web site gives no clue as to where they're located, and the contact phone number is just a recording. I have heard nothing about any project like this up to now, and all attempts to figure out who is behind it have come up short. But some of the hints within the ads--coming this spring, income-limited--seem to point toward the conversion/ renovation of an existing property rather than new construction. I suppose It could be remotely possible that this is an ad for one of the rumored Southeast Federal Center projects or new Capper/Carrollsburg apartment buildings planned for 2nd Street (the ad is using a portion of one of the Capper images, but perhaps the Ballpark Apts. folks just assumed no one would figure that out), but those certainly aren't coming this spring, and they wouldn't be only income-limited units. And within the actual borders of Near Southeast (between South Capitol, the freeway, and the river), there's maybe three properties I can think of that could possibly be this project, but none of them have "water views" (maybe one of them could conceivably be marketed as having "monument views")--heck, "water and monument views" could also mean Southwest, or even Anacostia. I've put out some feelers to see if I can dig up more, but it would not surprise me at this point if the marketers are perhaps playing a bit loose with the description of the project (after all, if it were really close to the ballpark, wouldn't you want to say exactly where it is?). If anyone has any scoop, drop me a line.

I've received word that all permits have at last been secured for 801 Virginia Avenue, the 40,000-sq-ft residential/retail/office project on the southeast corner of 8th and Virginia. It will have 17 residential units (condos), plus about 8,000 sq ft of office and retail space. The developers expect to begin construction within the next 90 days, with completion expected in summer 2008. More information is available on the this web site (geared toward selling the office/retail space)--marketing of the condos should begin "soon", I'm told.

Thanks to reader Scott for snagging this press release off the wires [links mine]: "Patriot Transportation Holding, Inc. announced today that its subsidiary, Florida Rock Properties, Inc. ("FRP"), continues to pursue its efforts to obtain approval of a final planned unit development application for its Washington, D.C. property located on the banks of the Anacostia River across Potomac Avenue from the new baseball stadium being constructed for the Washington Nationals. In response to comments recently received from members of the District of Columbia Zoning Commission, FRP is seeking to refocus the proposed project to respond to the concerns raised. FRP believes that its proposed project, which had previously received preliminary approval, will complement the new stadium and will contribute to the overall redevelopment of the baseball stadium district. At this time, Patriot is uncertain when the Zoning Commission will act finally on the FRP application or what action the Commission may take." If you read on, you'll even get a nice little explanation as to how Florida Rock Properties, Florida Rock Industries, Patriot, and Vulcan Materials are connected (or not connected). It's like they wrote it just for me! For background, read these previous posts.

Wasting no time after the permits were approved last week, JPI has within the past few days put up a construction crane now towering over the Southeast Freeway at 70 I Street, where the digging down for the company's 448-unit residential project must be pretty close to done. I imagine there will eventually be another crane for 100 I Street (the companion 246-unit building) within a few months.

More posts: 70/100 I, jpi, Nationals Park