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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)
 
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Douglass Bridge Closure Mere Hours Away - Updated With More Story Links
Enjoy your access to the South Capitol Street/Douglass Bridge today, because that's it until August. As I've mentioned ad infinitum here, it's closing tonight (12:01 am Friday July 6) so that the portion of the viaduct north of Potomac Avenue can be demolished and the rest of the northern approach lowered so that the bridge comes to ground level at Potomac Avenue. Here's my page with the graphics, links and photos explaining it all. Dr. Gridlock addresses it today in his Get There blog, and there are short blurbs out today by WJLA and Fox 5. While the plans are for the bridge to be closed through the end of August, the contractor can receive up to $1 million in incentives by finishing sooner.
And we'll see what happens with tomorrow's rush hour; officials are warning commuters to add 30 minutes to their normal expected commute time while the bridge is closed. Feel free to send me your Day 1 traffic experience.
UPDATE: More stories in advance of the closure, from WTOP (which says that the contractors will be working 20-hour days), NBC 4, WUSA, and another reminder from DDOT.
 

South Cap and L SW Parcel Sells for $5.5 Million
We know that I only grudgingly look at what's happening on the west side of South Capitol Street given how full my hands are with all points eastward, but I did manage to notice within the past few weeks that the KFC/Taco Bell on the southwest corner of South Capitol and L (barely visible here and from M Street) has been boarded up. And I now see in the DC property sales database that on June 1 the property was purchased for $5.5 million by "URA Venture LLC." Quick searches don't yield me anything concrete on this company name, so I guess we'll have to wait and see who it is and what they're up to. If you know, feel free to share.
UPDATE, 5 minutes later: The contact address for URA in the sales database appears to match with this entry in the city's LSDBE database for Urban Realty Advisors LLC, which has now led me to their web site. (And I was unaware that Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart had entered the DC real estate market!) Still no words on the plans for the KFC site, though. And e-mails to their contact address bounce.
More posts: South Capitol St.
 

All-Star Hood?
From today's Washington Times: "The Washington Nationals have contacted commissioner Bud Selig to make their pitch to play host to an All-Star Game in their Anacostia Waterfront ballpark, which is scheduled to open in 2008. [...] 'My guess is it would be sometime between 2010 and 2013, whenever they decide to give us one and based on other requests from other teams,' [Nationals owner Mark] Lerner said."
More posts: Nationals Park
 

Piles of New Photos (Stadium and More)
I've been posting over the past couple days all sorts of new photos: first off, there's the usual update to the exterior views in the Stadium Construction Gallery's main page and the more detailed north-south-east-west pages. The big change is the arrival of the scoreboard steel on the First Street side, which has also helped to give the stadium its more rounded feel when looking at it from the north. And, if you know what you're looking for, you can see the first real shots of progress on the west parking garage at Half and N, although it's still kind of hidden by trees and construction equipment. There's also my final shots from up on the South Capitol Street viaduct north of Potomac Ave. (waaaah!).
You can also see some new shots from inside the stadium, where you can get a better view of the scoreboard's progress and also of the seats being installed in right field. And the outfield restaurant is moving along as well.
I got a big surprise when I rounded First Street onto Potomac Avenue Saturday morning--all of the trees and growth on the south side of Potomac were removed this week, and the fence marking Florida Rock's property was moved back, in preparation for the widening of Potomac Avenue. I posted a bunch of new pictures showing the change on my Florida Rock page, but I'm not sure the photos do it justice. And of course it's about to change even more late this week when the Douglass Bridge Extreme Makeover starts.
And finally there's a lot of new shots from various locations north of M that I took on Thursday, catching things like a new "Capitol Yards" sign at 909 New Jersey, progress on the Velocity Condos sales center, and even the new sidewalks on the northern portion of New Jersey Avenue if you have x-ray vision. It's hard to see in the photos, but the vertical construction at both Onyx on First and 70 I Street is now right at street level, so in the coming weeks expect those buildings to burst on the scene. You can see all these non-stadium updated photos compiled here if you don't want to poke around on the project pages.
That ought to keep everyone busy during a slow vacation-tinged week....
 

Next Capitol Quarter Release on Sunday - Change in Future Releases?
The current batch of campers at 4th and L now have the end in sight, as an e-mail went out this morning announcing that the July release of five market-rate townhouses at Capitol Quarter will happen July 1 (tomorrow) at 11 am. However, if you were thinking about heading down there with tent in hand in anticipation of the next release, this paragraph from the e-mail might be worth digesting: "This will be the last market rate home release until later this year. Once we have established the date and procedures of our next release of market rate homes, we will notify you with this information via email." Sounds like maybe they're changing their release routine? We will have to watch and see.
Also, the lowest base price on the market-rate houses is now just a smidge over $600k, so certainly the prices have responded to the interest!
More posts: Capper, Capitol Quarter
 

Douglass Bridge Closure Countdown Begins
With less than a week to go now until early morning July 6, when the two-month closure of the Douglass Bridge to shorten and lower the bridge's northern portion begins, the media blitz is now getting underway. Here's the DDOT press release summarizing what's going to happen and what the impacts will be; it's a good link to e-mail around if you need to alert people to what's happening. The Post's Dr. Gridlock is mentioning the release and summarizing some of the other commuting impacts as well. One tidbit: they're telling people to expect morning delays of around 20 minutes, and afternoon rush delays of between 20 and 30 minutes.
My Douglass Bridge Fixes page has lots of links, drawings, and graphics explaining exactly what's going to be happening, and of course I will be there with camera in hand throughout the project to capture the changes. But while getting a new boulevard-like South Capitol Street is A Good Thing, I must take a minute to mourn what will be lost: three of my beloved perches where I've shot photos of the ballpark's progress over the past 15 months. (Though, it must be said, those spots would have lost their stadium view eventually anyway with the construction of the "knife-edge" Nationals administration building along South Capitol.)
 

Lots of New Yards Renderings
With many thanks to Forest City Washington, I've posted a bunch of renderings of the four projects that are on the boards at The Yards in its first phase of development. These came from the submission on the first phase that FC made in advance of its July 12 presentation in front of the National Capital Planning Commission, and while they have some nice drawings of the plans that I've written about in the past for renovating three of the historic buildings at the old Southeast Federal Center, the big news is the first hints of what's planned for "Parcel D", currently a parking lot on the east side of 4th Street south of M: it's to be a residential building the south end of the site and an office building on the north end that would have a grocery store on the ground floor at 4th and M. The drawings also show the additional floors to be added to the brown-and-white Building 160 and imposing red-brick Building 202, both of which have interior atrium/courtyards I never knew about. And there's a few cool renderings of the plans for transforming the very industrial Building 167 that sits right behind the new DOT HQ into retail space. (Plans for the five-acre waterfront park and other areas in the Yards were not part of this submission.)
I didn't get the entire submission, so I'm not knee-deep in details, but everyone should definitely look at these drawings to see what's coming at The Yards. We should be seeing the beginnings of the streetscape improvements Any Minute Now (which include landscaping that barren area on the west side of New Jersey Ave. south of M), but the completion of the Building 167 retail and Building 160 residential won't happen before 2009, and the Parcel D/grocery store project *could* finish in 2010. So don't pack your bags or write your shopping list just yet.
 

Dry Cleaners Now Open in Capitol Hill Tower - And Promptly Robbed
I haven't seen it with my own eyes yet, but reader Scott reports that Congressional Cleaners has now opened on the ground floor of Capitol Hill Tower, on New Jersey north of L. No excuses for dirty clothes anymore!
UPDATE: .... And alas the new kids on the block promptly got robbed at gunpoint this afternoon. No one was hurt, thank goodness. But now everyone in the neighborhood really needs to stop by and give them some business. And let this be a lesson: never outsource the Welcome Wagon to the Bureau of Prisons.
 

WMATA Board Approves Navy Yard East Entrance Sale
Without any discussion, the Metro board has voted unanimously to select NJA Associates (a subsidiary of Donohoe) to develop the Navy Yard subway station's east entrance at New Jersey and M; there will now be negotiations for the sale itself. You can read my Monday entry for more background on the plan, or visit my 1111 New Jersey Ave. page for information on Donohoe's planned office building right next to the station, which the company apparently plans to expand onto this additional land. You can also look at the WMATA documents on the plan, although they aren't ridiculously heavy on detail. Next steps? Waiting for word of the actual sale, and keeping an eye out for Donohoe's revised design, which will now have to go through a Capitol Gateway Overlay zoning review since the expanded lot would front on M Street.
 

Ballpark and Beyond: This Week's Links
This week's Ballpark and Beyond column in the Post is on Tuesday's groundbreaking at Capper / Carrollsburg, and Monument's purchase of the Sunoco site. If you're visiting here for more information, you can check out my Capper / Carrollsburg overview page for more details and links on the project's redevelopment as well as photos from the groundbreaking, and my Capitol Quarter page has lots and lots (and lots!) of photos showing the area before, during, and after demolition. You can see what Monument Realty is up to at Half and M on my Monument Half Street page.
 

Project Maps Updated
With all the recent news about various projects around Near Southeast (Monument's Sunoco site purchase, Navy Yard Metro east entrance sale, 250 M's delayed start, JPI's plans for 23 I, etc.), I took the time to update my various Detailed Development Maps for the Stadium Corridor, M Street, and New Jersey Avenue. The information on these maps is not any different from what you'll find on the homepage in my Project Directory, but I know some people are more graphically oriented, or maybe would rather look at the proposed projects based on location rather than type. It's just a way to repackage the ridiculous amount of information I have on the site in different ways for different tastes. You can always get to these maps by clicking on the links at the bottom right of my main homepage map or toward the bottom of the right-margin on any of my interior pages.
More posts:
 

Ballpark Topping Out Party Scheduled (Updated)
In what has to be considered a good sign for the progress of the Nationals ballpark, a "Topping Out" celebration has been scheduled for July 11, signaling the completion of the exterior structural steel and the concrete work (or at least signaling that those milestones are reallyreallyreally close). These parts of the construction have to be completed so that the infield can be cleared of machinery and whatnot to allow for the start of digging to build the drainage system. The turf is scheduled to be planted in October.
Speaking of structural steel, eagle-eyed webcam viewers have already noticed that the installation of the steel started last week and is already pretty far along for the scoreboard in right-center field, which will be the largest in Major League Baseball (for now, anyway). In addition, the installation of the precast concrete facade has made its way around to South Capitol Street. The western parking garage is also taking shape. (Don't everybody cheer at once.) And I also hear that the first seats were delivered on June 22nd. Watch for the stands to start turning blue!
UPDATE: Speaking of the stadium, here's a Fox5 report from today about the "Washington Area Women in Trades" program that is helping get jobs in the construction industry for women who've had some rough times, and profiles two who are now working at the ballpark site.
UPDATE, 6/27: That didn't take long. Take a look at the webcam and you can see that the seats started being installed today, in the right-field upper deck at the far left in the photos. (You'll need to zoom in a bit, and peer through the raindrops on the camera lens, or go back to the 1:58 pm photo for a pre-downpour view.)
More posts: Nationals Park
 

Douglass Bridge Closure Date Still July 6 (Technically)
Thanks to reader Barbara for the heads up that an electronic sign has appeared on South Capitol Street this morning saying that the Douglass Bridge is going to close at noon on July 5; at the briefing on the bridge's two-month closure and "Extreme Makeover" a few weeks ago, July 6 was announced as the date the bridge would close. I'm trying to find out if there has indeed been a change, and will update this post when I have details.
UPDATE: The bridge is closing at 12 midnight (not 12 noon), but at the end of the day July 5; in other words, the very start of July 6. Take your pick--think of it as closing at 11:59 pm on the 5th, or 12:01 am July 6.
 

Miles Glass Tire Shop Closed
Thanks go to eagle-eyed correspondent Mark for passing along the news this weekend that Mac's Tire Service shop in the old Miles Glass building at 8th and Virginia appears to have closed. I have no details to pass along, as to whether the property's been sold or if the shop just shut down on its own. Anyone with details is of course encouraged to drop me a line. It's quite a cool building, in a good location on 8th Street--it would certainly seem to have possibilities, but they'd better not involve demolishing it or getting rid of that festive sign!
UPDATE: I've been alerted that Mac's has not closed permanently, but has moved to 423 Florida Ave. NE.
More posts: 8th Street, square 906
 

Capper Groundbreaking
For those of you who didn't feel like venturing out into the sauna (hello, DC summer!), I've posted photos from today's ceremonial groundbreaking at Capper/Carrollsburg. The tent was air-conditioned, at least, and there was a bit of a revival feel as DCHA executive director Michael Kelly, Ward 6 council member Tommy Wells, and other officials sang the praises of the federal/city/private partnership that has leveraged a $35 million HUD HOPE VI grant into a nearly $500 million revitalization project. Many former Capper residents were there, clearly excited about what they will be returning to; one woman, whose mother moved into the Cappers when it opened in 1956, spoke of being one of the 55 Capper households in the Community Support Services Homeownership Education and Counseling Program, which will help her to buy a home in the community where she's spent almost her entire life.
As for the timeline, infrastructure work at the site is now getting underway, to be followed this fall by "land development", which for us non-construction types is better known as Moving Dirt Around; the start of the houses themselves (i.e., "vertical construction") is scheduled for early 2008.
And the campers waiting for the next release of market-rate homes? They got to take the morning off, but will be back. You can watch the story Channel 9 did yesterday if you need your camping fix.

More posts: Capper, Capitol Quarter
 

Monument Realty Buys Sunoco Site
Thanks to the weekly update of the public version of the DC Property Sales database (which runs about five weeks behind), I can confirm what has been rumored for a little while now: on May 21, Monument Realty paid $14.26 million for the old Sunoco site at 50 M Street, on the northeast corner of Half and M. There's been no announcement as yet as to their plans for the 15,500-sq-ft site located between 20 M, 80 M, and a US government warehouse, and right across the street from the Navy Yard Metro west entrance and Monument's Half Street extravaganza. Just think--if Monument is the successful bidder later this year for WMATA's Southeastern Bus Garage, they'll control three of the four corners at Half and M. Monument Valley, indeed!

 

WMATA to Sell Navy Yard East Entrance to Donohoe
WMATA's Planning, Development, and Real Estate subcommittee has recommended to the full board that NJA Associates LLC (a subsidiary of Donohoe) be picked to purchase and develop the 5,612-sq-ft east entrance of the Navy Yard Metro station at New Jersey and M. Donohoe already owns 16,406 sq ft directly adjoining this property, and has received zoning approvals for its plans to build the 1111 New Jersey Avenue office building on the site; however, they would apparently expand the building's design to 206,000 sq ft with the new land acquisition, or go up to as much as 220,000 sq ft if the Zoning Commmission approves. And since the building would front M Street with this expanded configuration, it would also need to go through a Capitol Gateway Overlay Review to make sure it conforms with the design requirements now expected of M Street buildings.
The full WMATA board will consider approval of the plan to begin negotiating this sale at this Thursday's meeting; you can see a rendering of Donohoe's pre-expansion design on my 1111 NJ page, and also feel free to look at the Joint Development Solicitation from last fall that started this process. (And, anticipating your questions: no, there's been no movement that I've heard or seen on the sale of the Chiller Plant site on the southwest corner of Half and L.)
UPDATE: Of course, the west side of the Navy Yard station is already getting developed and expanded, as work continues on 55 M Street, the office building that will fill the northern portion of Monument's Half Street development.
 

Capper/Carrollsburg Groundbreaking (and Capper Background)
The DC Housing Authority is having a groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday (June 26) at 11 am for the first phase of the Capper/Carrollsburg mixed-income townhouses (i.e., Capitol Quarter), at 4th and L by the EYA sales office. This isn't a signal for the actual start of "vertical" construction, though--that won't begin until later this year.
And maybe this makes for a good time to have a refresher on what exactly "Capper/Carrollsburg" is:
In 2001, DC received a $34.9 million Hope VI grant to redevelop the 23-acre 700-unit Capper/Carrollsburg public housing project as a mixed-income development, replacing every one of the low-income units and then adding to them another 700-plus market-rate and workforce-rate rental and ownership units. The redevelopment project is being handled as a joint venture by Forest City Washington, Mid-City Urban LLC, and the Housing Authority.
The townhouse portion of the redevelopment, being marketed by EYA as Capitol Quarter, will have approximately 121 market-rate and 91 "workforce"-rate ownership houses; an additional 65 townhouses will contain 111 subsidized rental units and Section 8 ownership units. The market-rate houses are already being made available for reservations in monthly blocks, with the attendant tent cities popping up at the sales center as hopeful homeowners stake their claims. There was a lottery back in 2006 for the first 20 workforce units; I imagine another will be coming before too long.
Three hundred low-income rental units have already been completed (or are about to be) as part of the new Capper Seniors #1 and Capper Building #2 projects. The rest of the public housing rental units will be included in four mixed-income apartment buildings planned along Canal Park, three on the eastern side of the park between 2nd and 3rd and I and M, and a fourth on the site of the DPW Trash Transfer lot at New Jersey and K. None of these are anticipated to start construction before 2010, so in the meantime, temporary surface parking lots will soon appear on those blocks to help ease the expected Nationals stadium parking crunch.
Additionally, 700,000 sq ft of office space will eventually be built within the Capper redevelopment area; 250 M Street is a 190,000-sq-ft joint venture between William C. Smith and the DC Housing Authority, and although it now has all of its zoning approvals, we just learned a few days ago that Smith is going to wait until the building is 30 percent leased before beginning construction. There will eventually be another 500,000 sq ft of office space developed at 7th and M on the site of the old Capper Seniors building (itself scheduled to be demolished late this year), but with no current timetable for that project a temporary surface parking lot is coming to that site as well. There will also be another 30-45 townhomes built along L Street behind these new office buildings, but those are a long ways off.
Topping it all off, a new 28,000-sq-ft community center is planned at 5th and K, replacing the one demolished earlier this year. It could start construction in 2008, but those plans might change if, say, a developer or the Housing Authority manages to snag from DCPS the Van Ness Elementary School site at 5th and M, which was closed in 2006 and is now administrative space. A new elementary school could be then constructed to serve families as they move into the rebuilt Capper neighborhood, and the community center could be part of the school rather than being a standalone project. But with the changes in the structure of the public schools' governance, who knows when any decision like this could happen, if at all. Just some Sunday morning speculation for you.
(This info has all been available on my Capper overview page, but it's good to get it out front once in a while.)
 

Mayor Fenty Tours Ballpark Site; Lots of Details
From Saturday's Post: "Under a clear blue sky perfect for a baseball game, 500 construction workers responsible for one of the most expensive and most important projects in the District took a break yesterday for a quick pep talk. 'The closer we get to next year, the more people are looking at us to bring this project in on time and on budget,' Mayor Adrian M. Fenty told them on his first trip to the stadium site near the Navy Yard and South Capitol Street in Southeast." And while the article is based around Fenty's visit, the meat of it is really about the handoff of responsibility for ensuring the ballpark opens on time from outgoing DCSEC chair Allen Lew (heading off to try to repair the DC schools) to his replacement, Greg O'Dell.
Some quotes:
* "Lew said this week that the ballpark is on schedule, and remains within budget, with no indication that will change."
* " 'I'm going to be involved in this a lot more than I was," said [council member Jack] Evans, who keeps a small countdown clock on his desk, showing the number of days, hours and minutes until the anticipated first pitch at the stadium next April. 'I had kind of taken a step back because of the confidence I had that Allen would get this thing done. There was no need for me to be calling everybody up every week, saying: 'Where are we? Where are we?' But now I'm going to reinsert myself in terms of being in the loop constantly.' "
* "The stadium's steel framework and concrete seating decks are largely in place, as are miles and miles of ducts, electrical wires and pipes. Workers are drilling tens of thousands of holes in the decks to anchor seats. And a 200-foot tower crane has been erected to lift concrete and other materials for construction of a Nationals office building. Next month, workers plan to complete the steel framework for the ballpark's restaurant and main scoreboard and to start putting in the stadium seats. The project's schedule calls for installation of the scoreboard to begin in August. Then, in October, sod will be laid. The grass will take root before going dormant during the winter and then spring to life for Opening Day." [Dedicated readers of JDLand know all this already, of course!]
* "Still, problems remain, including a long-vexing issue that O'Dell will inherit when he takes control of the project. 'The biggest thing still out there,' Lew said, 'is coming up with an inventory of parking spaces to meet game day requirements.' " (The article says that 9,200 spaces will be needed; the March transporation presentation and various Office of Planning documents have been quoting 4,900 as the maximum needed for a sellout game. I guess when the draft Transporation Operations and Parking Plan comes out [Any Minute Now!], we'll see what the real number is.)
Read the entire article for additional details. And of course you can look at my stadium construction photo galleries or the official webcam if you want to see what it's looking like.
More posts: parking, Nationals Park
 

Ward 6 Family Day
Tomorrow is the First Annual Ward 6 Family Picnic and Celebrity Softball Tournament, hosted by council member Tommy Wells; "Join the Nationals' Felipe Lopez, Jesus Flores and Jesus Colome as they play tee-ball with the kids and become celebrity coaches in the Softball Tournament. Plus, we have over a $1,000 worth of raffle prizes to give away (including autographed Nationals' jersey, autographed DC United soccer ball, 100 Nationals' baseball tickets, gift certificates to dozens of local restaurants and businesses, free sponsorship for a 3-day youth soccer camp, and many more)!" The event will take place at the Rosedale Recreation Center at 1700 Gales Street, NE, starting at 10:00 am, with activities running until 4:00 pm. See Tommy's blog for more details.
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