Blog | Photos | Projects | Nats Park | Time Machine Photo Archive | Project Directory | Nats Park | Search | About | Contact JD
Please note that JDLand is no longer being updated.
peek >>
Near Southeast DC Past News Items
In the Pipeline
25 M
Yards/Parcel I
Chiller Site Condos
Yards/Parcel A
1333 M St.
More Capper Apts.
Yards/DC Water site
New Marine Barracks
Nat'l Community Church
Factory 202/Yards
SC1100
Completed
Thompson Hotel ('20)
West Half ('19)
Novel South Capitol ('19)
Yards/Guild Apts. ('19)
Capper/The Harlow ('19)
New DC Water HQ ('19)
Yards/Bower Condos ('19)
Virginia Ave. Tunnel ('19)
99 M ('18)
Agora ('18)
1221 Van ('18)
District Winery ('17)
Insignia on M ('17)
F1rst/Residence Inn ('17)
One Hill South ('17)
Homewood Suites ('16)
ORE 82 ('16)
The Bixby ('16)
Dock 79 ('16)
Community Center ('16)
The Brig ('16)
Park Chelsea ('16)
Yards/Arris ('16)
Hampton Inn ('15)
Southeast Blvd. ('15)
11th St. Bridges ('15)
Parc Riverside ('14)
Twelve12/Yards ('14)
Lumber Shed ('13)
Boilermaker Shops ('13)
Camden South Cap. ('13)
Canal Park ('12)
Capitol Quarter ('12)
225 Virginia/200 I ('12)
Foundry Lofts ('12)
1015 Half Street ('10)
Yards Park ('10)
Velocity Condos ('09)
Teague Park ('09)
909 New Jersey Ave. ('09)
55 M ('09)
100 M ('08)
Onyx ('08)
70/100 I ('08)
Nationals Park ('08)
Seniors Bldg Demo ('07)
400 M ('07)
Douglass Bridge Fix ('07)
US DOT HQ ('07)
20 M ('07)
Capper Seniors 1 ('06)
Capitol Hill Tower ('06)
Courtyard/Marriott ('06)
Marine Barracks ('04)
 
Go to Full Blog Archive


930 Blog Posts Since 2003
Go to Page: 1 | ... 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 ... 93
Search JDLand Blog Posts by Date or Category

Maneuvering Over the AWC
From the Washington Business Journal: "D.C. leaders are determined to change the future of two highly scrutinized development agencies, but they are still duking it out on how it will all work. Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Neil Albert says his office is already crafting plans to assume the operations of the National Capital Revitalization Corp. and the Anacostia Waterfront Corp. Armed with several new hires with private sector development experience, Albert says he's prepared to continue the missions of both groups and cut costs, at the request of Mayor Adrian Fenty. But Albert's office will need to go through the D.C. Council, whose economic development committee has already approved a different plan. Committee Chairman Kwame Brown, D-at large, wants to create a combined entity for AWC and NCRC that would be governed by a five-member board and retain control of some of the agencies' major projects, including the Southwest waterfront, Poplar Point and the McMillan reservoir site. The remainder of the AWC's and NCRC's smaller plots and development projects would be folded into Albert's office under Brown's plan." The two sides are working to find a compromise before a vote on May 14 on the plan to create the new entity--to be called the DC Economic Development Authority (EDA).

 

WMATA Subcommittee Supports Garage Move
Following up on yesterday's entry about the plans to move the WMATA Southeastern Bus Garage from its current location at Half and M to the DC Village site in Ward 8.... This morning the WMATA subcommittee supported the resolution that will now be voted on by the full board on May 24--the plan is to place an advertisement in June for a demolition/utlities/environmental remediation/site preparation contract, which would be ready for the full WMATA board's approval in September. There's still some question as to whether they'll be building a temporary facility or will go full-bore from the beginning with a permanent facility that will be added onto in later expansion phases (if they get a federal grant they may go for the full facility, or they may have the funds from the sale of the land and some other transactions, etc. etc.).
DC council member Jim Graham did ask for the resolution's wording to be tweaked somewhat to make clear that the city is still working on a plan for the relocation of the homeless families living at DC Village, although Marion Barry told the meeting that just this morning an agreement was finalized between himself (as chair of the appropriate council subcommittee) and the mayor to have $10 million from the DC budget available to get DC Village closed and the families relocated by the end of 2007 (and perhaps even by the end of FY2007). Barry also told the meeting that he is strongly in favor of moving the garage to DC Village, and that his constituents in Ward 8 have also been overwhelmingly in favor of the plan. The desire to move the garage off of Half Street has been an issue for 10-15 years now, he said ("even when I was mayor") and it's "time to do it now."Jim Graham also indicated that he is very much in favor of the move, but that he just wants to make sure that the current residents of DC Village are adequately taken care of (and indicated that he will move to reconsider approval of this plan at the June subcommittee meeting if it appears the city hasn't gotten the relocation plan figured out by then). You can listen to the audio of the meeting here, and the background/information documents are here. (And read my entry from late April on all this for additional background.)
More posts: Metro/WMATA, staddis
 

More Info on WMATA Bus Garage Move
Tomorrow (May 10), the Planning, Development and Real Estate subcommittee of the WMATA board is meeting, and the agenda links to a document detailing the continuing process of moving the Southeastern Bus Garage out of its current location at Half and M Streets (right across from the Navy Yard subway station entrance, and smack in the middle of the Ballpark District). The document contains background information so that, at the full board meeting later this month, approval can be requested of a proposed resolution (contained in the document) for the following items: "[n]egotiate a land transaction with the District of Columbia, by which WMATA may acquire the DC Village property via monetary consideration or an exchange of existing properties; hold a Compact public hearing on the project and its Environmental Assessment, General Plans and Preliminary Financial Plan; advertise the Phase 1 construction contract upon completion of the bid documents; and apply for a Federal bus facility grant." The Phase 1 part of the project would allow the buses to be moved from Half Street quickly and housed temporarily while the new facility is built at DC Village, and the documents indicate that they are hoping to award the Phase 1 contract by WMATA's September board meeting. The document also says that last month WMATA received an unsolicited bid for the garage land, but doesn't say who (and I just can't imagine who might do such a thing!). Then we can start waiting to see what the Unnamed Bidder comes up with in terms of redeveloping that side of Half Street. UPDATED to fix stupidly broken links.
UPDATE II: This story is now starting to be picked up, from the angle that the bus garage move will close the largest homeless shelter in DC. Note that the proposed resolution in the documents talked about above says that the WMATA board will take no action until "there is an approved final plan for the relocation of any shelter beds" at DC Village, and that DC's city administrator "has approved a final plan for the relocation of any shelter beds displaced by the construction of the Southeastern Bus Garage at DC Village."
 

ANC 6D May Agenda - And 250 M Back at the Zoning Commission
The agenda for May ANC 6D meeting has been sent out (though it's not yet available on their web site). In addition to a presentation and vote on the Waterside Mall plans, there's a bunch of Near Southeast-related items on the agenda, ones that I've been posting about here for a while:
* There will be a presentation and vote on 1325 South Capitol's resubmission to the Zoning Commission as a PUD (that hearing is now scheduled for May 31). This is the planned 276-unit residential building across the street from the Nationals ballpark, which because of some procedural muck had to resubmit its plans in a different format.
* Also scheduled is an update by the DC Housing Authority on the latest goings-on at Capper/Carrollsburg, including status reports on the Senior Buildings (which I imagine will include the change for Capper Building #2 [aka the "Ballpark Apartments"] to allow workforce-level residents in addition to low-income seniors), as well as on the planned demolition this summer of the old Capper Seniors building at 7th and M, and the latest with the townhomes at Capitol Quarter, as more market-rate houses go on the market and with infrastructure construction expected to begin soon (and "vertical construction" probably starting in early fall).
* And there's also a presentation and vote on the (gaaaaak) Supplemental Stadium Surface Parking plan that's having its zoning hearing on May 21. My Stadium Transportation and Parking page (and its News Items tab) can give you the gory details.
This meeting is scheduled for the same time as Monday's Zoning Commission meeting, which includes on its newly-posted agenda the final approval vote on the 250 M Street office building project (which has been delayed a bit over the past few months), so it's a tough call which one I'll be focusing on. (Especially since we know how much I love ANC meetings.)
 

Morning Roundup
A couple of quick links in quick succession:
"Stadium Legal Expenses Mounting" from the Examiner, about the escalating legal costs still being incurred from the battles over the taking of the stadium land via eminent domain (Kwame Brown says the $611 million spending cap is not in danger even while the council introduces legislation to pay Venable LLP up to $3.8 million over the next two years to continue to work out the lawsuits by displaced landowners still pending.)
To cleanse the palette from that, you can read about the new 47-ft-by-101-ft high-definition video screen (scroll to the bottom of the page) that the Nationals will be installing, the second-largest one in baseball. The Nationals' owners ponied up the additional $2.8 million to upgrade from the smaller scoreboard that the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission was paying for.
Yesterday a DC Council subcommittee approved B17-0109, "The One-Time Relocation of Licensees Displayed by the Ballpark Amendment Act of 2007", which if passed would allow Ziegfield's and Heat (which closed because of the stadium's eminent domain land takeover) and Edge/Wet and Club 55 (which weren't on the stadium footprint but closed in Sept. 2006 to make way Square 699N's redevelopment), to relocate in Ward 5 near Mt. Olivet cemetery. The Post reports that Ward 5 council member Harry Thomas will oppose the bill, and that his office heard from more than two dozen residents yesterday complaining about it. You can also read a couple of pieces from last week about the bill being introduced.
Also, there isn't really anything new in it, but just for archiving sake (or for those of you coming in late), here's a quick blurb from Costar on the Metropolitan Police Department's planned move to the old Post Plant at 225 Virginia. Here's my previous entry on the move, for more background.
 

1111 New Jersey's Zoning Special Exception Approved
Today the Board of Zoning Adjustment heard an application by Donohoe to waive the rear-yard requirement for its planned 146,000-sq-ft office building at 1111 New Jersey. I don't want to get too far into the weeds of it all, but basically this rear "yard" requirement was actually applying to the airspace along the alley between L and M above the project's first floor (because by right the first floor can run right to the alley line). Donohoe's position was that, by allowing them to build to the rear property line on all floors, they could build an 11-story building with higher ceilings on the 1st floor (16 feet), making the space far more desirable to prospective retail tenants. If they were unable to use that airspace, they would instead build a 12-story building of the same square footage, but with only 12-ft ceilings on the 1st floor (and shorter ceiling heights on the other floors). Although ANC 6D opposed this application on the grounds that it lacked a community benefits package (which is not required in a "by-right" project), the BZA felt that the higher ceiling heights on the first floor that would be allowed by granting this special exception, and the resulting higher-quality retail prospects that could be drawn to the building, could be considered to benefit the community. And with the pastor of St. Matthew's Church (which sits directly to 1111's north) saying that he is in favor of the project, and with the Office of Planning, the Capitol Hill Historical Society, and the neighboring developments (100 M Street and Onyx on First both sit across the alley from 1111 New Jersey) supporting it as well, and with other required standards of the rules met (sufficient distance between 1111 and adjacent structures, sitelines sufficiently separated, and adequate off-street parking [114 spaces], loading docks, and delivery space), the BZA voted 5-0 to approve this application. I've been told that this project could begin construction this summer.
UPDATE: Actually, I now hear that the project may not start until closer to the end of 2007. I don't know for sure, but perhaps the schedule is also being impacted by an upcoming item on the WMATA Planning, Development and Real Estate subcommittee agenda for June 14: "Approval of Developer Selection and Term Sheet for the Navy Yard East Entrance", which is referring to a joint development solicitation proposal back in September 2006, looking to develop the 4,400 square feet owned by WMATA above the Navy Yard station entrance at New Jersey and M with some combination of a public plaza at ground level and development above it. So we shall see....
 

'Bridge Bucks' to Help With Summer Douglass Bridge Closure
New from DDOT: "The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) today started an innovative program to spur greater use of transit and ridesharing by commuters affected by this summer's repairs of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge (sometimes referred to as the South Capitol Street Bridge). The program will help commuters affected by DDOT's planned July-August closure of the bridge. Modeled after a successful similar effort carried out by the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project, DDOT's 'Bridge Bucks' program will provide $50 per month toward transit fares and vanpool fees to encourage commuters to switch out of their cars and into an alternative travel mode." There's a Bridge Bucks web page with more information. Or you could just take that eight-week summer vacation!
UPDATE, May 8: Here's a WTOP piece on the Bridge Bucks plan, and The Post's Dr. Gridlock (Bob Thomson) is addressing the program and the concerns from commuters about the plan to close the bridge in his Get There blog today.
 

The Green Ballpark (And a New Rendering)
Don't know how new this is, but a page on the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission's site about the steps being taken to make the new Nationals ballpark "green" includes a graphic describing the various environmentally conscious aspects of the stadium--and the graphic also has a stadium rendering I haven't come across before (looking at the stadium from its northwest corner) with the best view I've seen so far of the garages planned for the north end of the site, as well as good detail of the South Capitol Street facade of the stadium. I've added the graphic to my Stadium Renderings page.
 

Media Briefing on Riverwalk - Update
On Monday (May 7), DDOT is having a media briefing to announce that construction has begun on the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail. This is the first phase, and so doesn't actually include the planned portion of the trail through Near Southeast (from the 11th Street Bridges to the Frederick Douglass Bridge)--according to the AWC page and a meeting AWC held a few weeks back, I believe what's now being constructed is Phase I, the trail on the west side of the Anacostia from the Navy Yard to the National Arboretum. Phase 2 will be on the east side of the river, from Poplar Point to Pennsylvania Avenue, and Phase 3 (the Near Southeast portion) is probably looking at a 2010 date (when the Waterfront Park at the Yards is completed, and they can build the pedestrian bridge to link that park to Diamond Teague Park and Florida Rock.
UPDATE, May 7: A post-briefing press release says that the section of the Riverwalk now under construction is a two-mile stretch that will run from the Navy Yard east to Benning Road. There's also a link to a fact sheet on the trail (albeit from June 2006) that has a map of the planned trail and other information. And here's a WTOP piece on the new section.
 

BZA Hearing Tomorrow for 1111 New Jersey
Donohoe's planned 146,000-sq-ft office building at 1111 New Jersey Ave. (on the west side of New Jersey between L and M) takes a step forward tomorrow with a hearing in front of the Board of Zoning Adjustment--they're looking for a special exception for a waver of the rear yard requirement, which apparently would allow them to put up an 11-story building with higher ceilings as opposed to a 12-story building with lower ceilings if they have to keep the rear yard. ANC 6D voted in April to oppose this application, but more because the developers are not providing a community benefits package than any issues with the application itself. The hearing should be webcast, and I'd tell you what time it's scheduled for, but the Zoning Schedules and Agendas site has been down for three days now, so I can't look it up to confirm.
UPDATE: The BZA site is back, so I can tell you that the hearing is the third item on the agenda for the session that begins at 9:30 am.

 

Updates from Here and There
Let's see.... The most interesting news of the day is that, as of 2:00 this afternoon, there were already folks camping out in front of the Capitol Quarter sales office, six days ahead of the next offering of five market-rate townhouses. Next, I took some new photos of the Nation demolition (which is not exactly proceeding with lightning speed)--check either my 1015 Half Street page for the basics, or the Photo Archive for Half and K and Half and L for additional shots. I also updated with what might be my final M Street photos for the DOT HQ, recording that both New Jersey and 4th Street are now open to traffic south of M (a couple weeks after the stoplights were turned on). And I took photos of the new DRI sign at 1st and I (though the photos don't show them real well, and one's already falling down)--they say "DRI Development Services, LLC | A Transwestern Company | Office/Retail." Still trying to get some info on what's coming there. Anyway, you can poke around those pages, or you can look at all the photos from today that I've posted and then click on the intersection/direction links to compare today's shots to what that view has looked like over the past few years.
 

A Bit More Info on Yards Building 202
In late March, in my big update on the plans for The Yards, I mentioned that the old Gun Assembly Shop at 5th and M (also known as Building 202) would be in the first phase of residential renovations (beginning in 2008), and that Forest City Washington would be partnering on this one portion of The Yards with PN Hoffman (the folks who will be revitalizing the Southwest Waterfront). The DCMud blog has more on this project (they're in the real estate biz, so they've got a leg up on this poor unconnected blogger), saying that "The former naval gun factory will metamorphose into one of the coolest projects in DC, according to the developer, which intends to fully renovate the interior space, leaving the existing shell and giant six-story atrium - to become the amenities center, encircled by the residences. There will be nothing like this in the District or its environs, according to Dave DeSantis of PN Hoffman." No wonder I was smart enough to dub this building the JD Lofts, way back in 2003....!
 

Five Market Homes Being Released at Capitol Quarter
From an e-mail just sent out by EYA, word that "Capitol Quarter will accept reservations on our next 5 market rate homes on Saturday May 12th, 2007 at 11:00 a.m. [...] Reservations will be accepted on a first come, first served basis beginning at 11:00 a.m on May 12th. [...] Please note that no reservations will be accepted before 11:00 a.m on Saturday May 12th, 2007, and this offering does not include any workforce homes, which will be released at a later date." And: "We anticipate an additional 5 market rate homes will be made available each month for the next several months." So, for those folks waiting to see additional movement at Capitol Quarter, it looks like they're kicking into gear. And note that the sales center is now back to being open seven days a week. For more on Capitol Quarter, check out my Capper/Carrollsburg pages. If you want to receive these announcements directly from EYA, go to their Capitol Quarter web site and sign up.
More posts: Capper, Capitol Quarter
 

Another New Development North of M?
Today I saw for the first time new signs hung on the fence surrounding the firewood lot on the southwest corner of 1st and I Streets, emblazoned with "DRI Development/Office and Retail" (or some such). I have absolutely no information on this--this lot has been owned for quite some time by the Potomac Development Corporation, but I don't see any records as of yet in the online public records to indicate a sale has taken place, so perhaps it's a joint venture. Or not. I don't know. Anyway, I'll try to see what I can find out (whispers in my ear always welcome!), and hopefully some light can be shed on perhaps ANOTHER project getting started in the North of M section of Near Southeast, to go along with JPI's two residential towers, ADC Builders' Square 699N, Faison's Onyx on First condos, and Opus East's 100 M office building (and maybe the Nation site, too?), and perhaps something on the Sunoco lot by Monument Realty.
 

Monument Half Street Web Site
Through an embarrassing confluence of events too geeky to explain here, I'm only now seeing that Monument Realty has now launched an exceedingly spiffy web site at its existing HalfStreetDC.com URL. Not a lot of information that isn't already available on my Monument Half Street page, but it's certainly flashier! Estimated completion for the east side of Half Street (which I think ought to be called Monument Valley) is mid-2009; the west side development is still being worked out as plans move forward for WMATA to close its Half and M bus garage.
 

Latest on Trying to Find the Gay Clubs New Homes
For those of you interested in the plight of the gay nightclubs with nude dancing that have left Near Southeast and their attempts to reopen elsewhere in the city, today's Washington Blade has an update on a new bill introduced by Jim Graham to attempt to fix a zoning issue that stalled an attempt by Wet/Edge to reopen (with "straight" nude dancing) in Northeast. UPDATE, May 8: Here's a short Examiner piece on Graham's expectations of meeting resistance when trying to get his bill passed.
 

The Yards Web Site
The Yards (formerly known as the Southeast Federal Center) now has more than just a placeholder image at its web site, dcyards.com. There's now a form to fill out if you're interested in more information, and also one if you're looking for details on their local, small and disadvantaged business enterprises (LSDBE) programs. The site says that overall they're planning 2,800 residential units, 1.8 million square feet of new office space, 300,000 square feet of retail, and of course the 5.5-acre waterfront park--this is of course over a multiyear period (like, say, 10 years), but they say that the first office and residential projects will be available in 2010. One of the first retail projects (scheduled to open in mid-2009) will be the renovating of the Old Boiler Maker's Shop/Building 167, at the corner of 4th and Tingey as a shopping space. As for the other projects, I had heard not too long ago that some of the residential projects, which involve the renovation of two existing buildings, would be ready by 2009, but I guess the schedule has changed. Will try to find out more; for now, you can get more details and photos on my Yards page.
 

MacFarlane Partners Brings $$$ to Monument Half Street
From today's Washington Times: "The real estate investment firm MacFarlane Partners this week joined the $700 million mixed-use redevelopment project in Southeast near the new Washington Nationals baseball stadium. Although work has already begun on the 1.9-million-square-foot project, San Francisco-based MacFarlane Partners said it had agreed to make a large investment in the development. The amount was not disclosed." Uh, WHICH project would that be? Only thanks to a quote from Monument Realty's Russell Hines in paragraph #3 is there any hint of exactly which project MacFarlane is investing in, so I'm really still only guessing when I tell you MacFarlane appears to be investing in the Monument Half Street project just north of the stadium site. Mr. MacFarlane is of course one of the new owners of DC United, and is spearheading the redevelopment of Poplar Point, a somewhat salient point that isn't even mentioned in the story (and no, I'm not going to start covering Poplar Point, so stop asking!). MacFarlane is also already an investor in The Yards.
UPDATE, 5/8: Here's a piece from Commercial Property News confirming that it is indeed the Monument Half Street project that MacFarlane is investing in.
 

May Events at the Navy Yard
I've added the Navy Museum's slate of public programs for the month of May to my Upcoming Events calendar, if you're looking for entertainment and/or book larnin' right here in the Hood.
More posts: Navy Yard
 

WMATA Speeding Up Bus Garage Move
One of the more central sites in the Ballpark District is the WMATA Southeastern Bus Garage, on the southwest corner of Half and M. But Metro knows that it's time to move (although Monument Realty, which owns almost every other parcel on the block, has no doubt been tapping its toes and saying "Here's your hat, what's your hurry?"). Back in January, the WMATA board approved an effort to start finding a replacement location, with the preferred spot being DC Village, east of the Anacostia. At its April 26 board meeting, the board appears to have sped up its timetable considerably. Quoting from the documentation: "[T]he urgency for a timely replacement has increased and the strategy for replacement has evolved. The goal is to relocate the existing 114 Metrobuses to a Phase 1 facility by late March 2008 in order to avoid the impact of ballpark events upon bus access at the existing Garage. Thus, over the next twelve months, with Board approvals, staff intends to design, advertise, award and construct the Phase 1 facility for 114-bus capacity and to design and advertise the Phase 2 bus facility of 250-bus capacity." At the next board meeting, in late May, WMATA staff is expected to have the environmental assessment, general plans and financial plan and will request approval of a public hearing, the advertisement of the Phase 1 construction contract; and the agreement with the city to take control of the DC Village property. (Speedy!)
As for what will happen on the garage site, Monument has not announced any specific plans, and the site does have what has gently been referred to as "historic preservation issues" (and certainly a good portion of the building ought to be saved), so it could be a while before anything new arises on that spot. But I cannot lie, I will very much be looking forward to no more dodging of the buses that roam in that section of Near Southeast while I take pictures....

 
930 Posts:
Go to Page: 1 | ... 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 ... 93
Search JDLand Blog Posts by Date or Category




                  © Copyright 2024 JD.