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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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Waterside Mall Demolition Party on Nov. 1
Via the Developments in Southwest DC blog, word is out that there's going to be a Waterside Mall Demolition Party on November 1 from 4 to 6 pm, with "local fare, music and entertainment." I post this mainly because I'm terribly jealous that, given all the demolition that's happened in Near Southeast in the past few years, there's not been a SINGLE party! But Southwest deserves a bit of letting loose after all the trials and tribulations of getting Waterside Mall redeveloped....
More posts:
 

Changing the Navy Yard Station Name - Followup
WTOP follows up their no-one's-thought-about-renaming-the-Navy Yard-station story yesterday with a story this morning saying, basically, people are now thinking about renaming the Navy Yard station: "A name change for the Metro station near the new Nationals stadium could be on the way. The move for the change comes after after a WTOP report. 'It is something we ought to do," Metro Board member and D.C. City Council member Jim Graham tells WTOP. "It is just a matter of changing all the maps. We have the money to do it.' " The last station name changes cost almost $211,000.
 

More on Jobs at the Ballpark, And a Construction Update
The Washington City Paper is reporting that there was a press conference and tour at the ballpark today (my invitation must have gotten lost in the mail), given by Council Member Kwame Brown and the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission, with a smidgen of news about the construction itself (sod expected to be laid down the first week in November), but mainly to address the recent stories about the amount of high-level "journeyman" work being given to DC residents. The project labor agreement specified that 51 percent of these jobs should go to DC residents; speakers at today's event put the number at 28 or 29 percent. As mentioned in previous stories, "The essential problem is that there aren't enough skilled D.C. resident workers available to fill the jobs. If a subcontractor doesn't have a D.C. resident to do a job, it can contact the city's Department of Employment Services. If DOES has no workers, then the subcontractor can hire whoever." They did say that DC residents have worked 78 percent of all of the available apprentice hours, which could mean more experienced workers down the road for other city projects.
UPDATE: Tim Lemke of the WashTimes was on the same tour, and gives an update on the construction progress, beyond just the grass: "The bulk of the structure, including two parking garages on site, is nearly fully erected. Stadium workers have been installing seats in the ballpark at a rate of 1,800 to 2,000 a week, with all expected to be in place by the end of the month. Much work remains on the inside portions of the ballpark, though the clubhouses are nearly complete and the concession stand and restaurant areas are taking shape. The biggest remaining challenges, Haas said, will be completing site work on the outer edge of the stadium, such as sidewalks and plazas. Installing the electrical system for the ballpark's massive scoreboard also will pose a challenge because of the complexity of the job."
More posts: Nationals Park
 

14th Street Bridge Corridor EIS Meeting on Oct. 10
(Boy, I really want to ignore this, since 99 percent of it falls outside my cast-in-stone boundaries, but it's a slow day, so....) Tomorrow (Oct. 10) there's a Public Information Meeting about the 14th Street Bridge Corridor Environmental Impact Statement Study. Quoting: "The purpose of this study is to identify actions that can reduce congestion, enhance safety, and improve traffic operations in the 14th Street Bridge corridor." They're looking for congestion and safety solutions and ideas, and also are looking for ways to make the "existing corridor work more efficiently." The scope of the study area runs along I-395 from just east of South Capitol Street all the way to Glebe Road, and east to Route 1 in Virginia and south to M Street in Southwest. See the flyer for additional details. It's from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at Amidon Elementary School, 401 I Street, SW.
UPDATED because I can't read a calendar. Tomorrow is the 10th.
More posts: South Capitol St.
 

Oct 9, 2007 9:06 AM
Oops - No One's Thought About Renaming the Navy Yard Station
From WTOP: "In the sprint to get the new ballpark for the Nationals up and running next year, an important element may have been overlooked, and it could cause big confusion. The name on the closest Metro station to the stadium is Navy Yard, but it doesn't say anything about a stadium being there. Right now, the only Metro station with the word stadium in it, is the Stadium-Armory stop. That name isn't changing and the Nats aren't playing there next year. D.C. leaders tell WTOP this is the first time the issue has been raised. They say they do understand there could be confusion." And: "A request for a name change at the Navy Yard stop would have to come from the District and would have to be paid in full by the District. A name change on a Metro stop isn't exactly an easy procedure. The last time there was a change was at the 'Rhode Island Avenue-Brentwood Station' as well as the 'Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter' stop. Both of those changes cost almost $211,000 and took months because maps and signs had to be replaced." Maybe the people who go to the wrong station can catch the RFK parking shuttle.
 

Oct 8, 2007 12:34 PM
More on the 11th Street Bridges Changes
With no "real" news outlets yet uttering a peep about the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the 11th Street Bridges, I've had to continue to do my own analysis of what the chosen design alternative will look like. Friday's bleary-eyed discussion was a decent start, but I've looked at it a bit more closely today and have seen that there really will be a pretty large-scale change in how the Southeast Freeway works with the new plans.
If you look at this spiffy side-by-side graphic I've tossed together, showing the current freeway ramps and flyovers at 11th Street versus what the EIS depicts, you'll see that the bulk of the SE Freeway's lanes will turn toward the bridges at 11th Street, instead of just two smaller flyovers that currently exist. This is because the many lanes that now run from the freeway under 11th Street and over to Pennsylvania Avenue at Barney Circle will be taken out of the SE Freeway flow altogether. Instead, drivers on the SE Freeeway wishing to get to Barney Circle (and vice versa) will access the freeway and the new "Southeast Freeway Boulevard" (kind of a "Virginia Avenue Extended") via ramps at 11th Street, which appear to be able to be carved out of the existing smaller flyovers west of 11th. (And so the two flyovers coming from east of 11th to the sunken Pennsylvania Avenue access could be demolished altogether.) This means that the area north of M along 11th Street will be much more of a street grid rather than a series of flyovers and tunnels. Eventually.
And, for Navy Yard workers who use the 11th Street Bridges, note that you would no longer get to take that little turn onto N Street as you come off the bridge; you would arrive at M Street, turn right, turn right again on a newly two-way 12th Street, and then turn right at N. For other people, you'd be able to either turn left at M once you exit the upstream span of the bridge, or continue north on a new street and access the new Southeast Freeway Boulevard to continue either to Pennsylvania Avenue or 11th Street closer to I.
But it's really hard to clearly explain it all, so put on your concentration caps and spend some time comparing the befores-and-afters to see for yourself.

More posts: 11th Street Bridges
 

Oct 7, 2007 6:06 PM
Bids Being Solicited for Capper Surface Lots
Tucked deep in the classifieds of Thursday's and Friday's Washington Post were solicitations to build three temporary surface parking lots in the footprint of the old Capper/Carrollsburg public housing complex. The invitations for bids (here and here) are for 1) site grading/storm water systems/paving, and 2) lighting installation; proposals are due on Oct. 26 to DC Housing Enterprises (a subsidiary of the DC Housing Authority). The lots total nearly 234,000 square feet, and are located in two locations: the blocks bounded by 2nd, I, 3rd, and L, east of Canal Park, and the site of the old Capper Seniors building at Sixth and L, SE, which is scheduled to be torn down by the end of this year.
There will be somewhere between 670 and 720 spaces created in these three lots, which are being built to help ease the expected ballpark parking crunch. They were approved earlier this year under a zoning ruling that states the lots can last no more than five years; they will also be open for non-baseball use. The seniors building site is eventually going to be home to a 500,000-sq-ft office building by Forest City Enterprises, and the blocks lining Canal Park are destined to become mixed-income residential buildings as part of Capper/Carrollsburg's redevelopment.
UPDATED because I found the correct space count for the lots.
 

Design for 11th Street Bridges Reconfiguration Chosen
Here's some late Friday news for you: the 11th Street Bridges Environmental Impact Statement has been completed, and a preferred plan for the reconfiguration of the bridges has been chosen, at an estimated price of $465 million, taking an estimated five years to complete. No start date has been announced.
You can read the summary, check out the Preferred Alternative and the other alternatives, plow through the entire thing at once (36 MB), or pick and choose the sections you want to read. When even the summary is 24 pages long, it's hard to give a quick description of what is being recommended, but here's my best shot:
* There will be two new bridges built on exactly the alignments of the existing two bridges, allowing the use of the existing piers but requiring their widening to allow for wider bridges. Two new ramps will be built on the east side of the Anacostia River, providing access at last to the northbound Anacostia Freeway from the Southeast/Southwest Freeway and to the freeway from the southbound Anacostia Freeway. One of the two bridges would be dedicated to freeway traffic, and the other to local traffic, with the total number of **freeway*** lanes unchanged, but with four new local lanes and with added paths for bicyclists and pedestrians, as well as "accommodations for transit," such as the proposed light rail system.
As for what would happen to the interchange with the bridge in Near Southeast, it's hard to digest, but this is what I'm seeing by looking at the diagrams in the Alternatives section (here's a Google Maps satellite view of the current bridges, which you might need):
* The current on/off ramps at N Street would be moved to M Street (see page 15), with local traffic and paths to and from Anacostia being routed on the western of the two bridge spans (officially known as the Officer Welsh Bridge), and traffic bound for the Anacostia Freeway routed onto the 8-lane eastern span. This also means that the local traffic coming north from Anacostia would be routed along a newly two-way portion of 11th Street up to M.
* The exit ramp now between Ninth and 10th streets would be moved to Ninth Street.
* There would also be a new entrance to the westbound freeway from 11th Street (perhaps taking some of the pressure off the Third Street ramp?).
(In a separate project, the existing Southeast/Southwest freeway between 11th Street and Barney Circle is apparently going to be downgraded to a new Southeast Freeway Boulevard, which would be accessed by exiting the freeway and going across 11th Street at-grade. As part of this, the sneaky little route to Pennsylvania Avenue from 9th Street and Virginia Avenue would be removed, too.)
As for the impact of the reconfigured bridges on the boathouses nestled between them on the west side of the river, the EIS says that "it has been determined that construction of any of the build alternatives, including the Preferred Alternative, will not require the whole or partial demolition of either of the two ACBA buildings." Boathouse operations would have to be relocated during construction, but the documents state that DDOT is committed to maintaining the operations during this time, having agreed to provide temporary structures on a Washington Gas-owned space a few hundred yards to the north. (See Section 7.3 for more about the boathouse impact.)
Finally, the document states that the bridges project will not impact the Virginia Avenue Park at 9th and Virginia.
I doubt anyone is still reading at this point, so I'm going to quit while behind and hope that all sorts of media outlets give some real coverage, and take me off the hook. If you're at all interested in this, especially in the impacts east of the river that I haven't addressed, I suggest browsing the entire document. You'd be amazed how much detail is in there.
There's now a public comments period, through November 20. See the EIS web site for more about the entire study process.
If you're not real familiar with this area of Near Southeast, visit my East M Street page for photos and links.
UPDATE, 10/11: I erred in this above item when stating that the total number of lanes would be unchanged from the current configuration; having misread the EIS wording that referred to the number of freeway lanes being unchanged. The two spans currently have eight freeway lanes, which will be the case with the new bridge; but those eight lanes will be carried on a widened version of the upstream span, and the downstream span will carry four local lanes.
 

Fox 5 and WAMU Cover Spay/Neuter Clinic
Here's a Fox 5 video from Thursday morning about the new National Capital Area Spay and Neuter Clinic at 1001 L Street, with interviews with some of the staff and lots of views of the interior. (And even a shot out the window at the park across the street.) UPDATE: Oops, missed this. Local radio station WAMU did a report on the center this morning.
 

Naming Deal for Ballpark May Not Happen by Opening Day
Also from today's Washington Business Journal print edition (subscribers only) is "Nats May Open Ballpark Without Naming Deal", which says that "Club executives are anticipating a delay in the rollout of a corporate moniker until 2009. [...] But with no deal imminent, according to club officials, the new mind-set is to wait until an optimal agreement happens rather than accept a lowball offer and push out a name for the opening of the 41,500-seat ballpark near the Anacostia River in April." It says that the team is seeking $8 million to $10 million per year for a naming-rights pact, which would be the second largest in Major League Baseball. The team says there is no concern about opening the stadium without a deal in place, using the Nationals Park name in the interim. Principal owner Ted Lerner is quoted as saying, "On a practical level, we're getting awfully late in the game where we wouldn't have enough time to order and install the signage in time for opening day. We'll get there. The important thing is to have the right deal instead of the quick deal."
UPDATE: The WBJ article was originally published in the Sports Business Journal; here's the link.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

Monument and the Ballpark District - A Timeline
Today's Washington Business Journal has a long story (not just for subscribers!) about Monument Realty's miffed-ness over not being awarded the Southeastern Bus Garage site. It details the process from 2005 when the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation issued the solicitation to develop land around the new Nationals ballpark up through the surprise awarding of the bus garage site earlier this month to Akridge. As for the next steps, in light of the acrimony and Monument's recent threats of litigation, the article sheds no light on the what course of action will be taken by the city, Monument, and/or Metro.
One thing the article cleared up for me was that brief moment in late June when the city asked WMATA to sell the bus garage to the District, then pulled back: apparently Monument Realty had complained to the office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development about the open bidding for the garage, and so the city asked to buy it, until it was realized that the purchase "would require approval and tens of millions of dollars from the council, which would soon recess for the summer", and so the offer was rescinded.
If you're interested in some of the documents, here's the September 2005 Request for Expressions of Interest, the Dec. 2005 Summary of Recommendations listing the chosen Designated Developers, and the accompanying press release. (Just be nice and give proper credit to where you got them if you use them.)
 

MacFarlane Profiled
There's a profile in today's Post of Victor MacFarlane, who over the past few years has invested huge sums of money in the District, including purchasing a 25-percent stake in The Yards and coming on board as a partner in Monument Realty's Half Street project. Oh, and he bought DC United, too, and was offering to build a new soccer stadium and huge mixed-use development at Poplar Point until the Fenty Administration decided to open the land to a Request for Bids process.
 

Spay/Neuter Clinic Ribbon Cutting
Today is the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new National Capital Area Spay and Neuter Center at 10th and L Streets, SE, launched by the Washington Humane Society and Alley Cat Allies to provide high-volume, lost-cost spay/neuter services for the critters of the DC metro area. I won't be able to be there, alas, but perhaps we'll get dispatches from other media outlets that have a slightly larger staff.
 

Nats Fans to Get to Park at RFK and Shuttle?
Thursday's WashTimes: "Nationals fans likely will be able to park near RFK Stadium and take a shuttle to the team's new ballpark next year, but it's still unclear how much they will be charged. The D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, which has oversight of the RFK lots, revealed yesterday that it will allow fans to park near RFK but has asked the team to pay as much as $5 a spot for the rights on game days. The sports commission has offered to provide 1,000 spaces for free, while charging the team $5 a space for 2,500 additional spaces. The team, however, has argued against the $5 a space charge because it likely already will incur costs by operating the shuttle service." The rest of the piece has a quick survey of the current state (or lack thereof) of the parking issue. It also mentions that the first game at the new ballpark could be on Sunday, March 30, allowing the stadium to debut on an ESPN national telecast.

More posts: parking, Nationals Park
 

Ground Indeed Broken at The Yards
The Near Southeast Groundbreaking Tour made its stop at the old Southeast Federal Center this morning, as city, federal, and corporate representatives took time out to officially mark the beginning of work at The Yards. There were speeches, there were shovels, and dirt was turned, all with the dull roar of heavy construction equipment in the background. I took some photos of the festivities and added them to the bottom of my main Yards page--and don't forget to look at the First Phase tab to get a feel for what's coming between now and 2010 (two residential buildings, one office building, a retail building, a pavilion, and a 5.5-acre park). There was a fair amount of media, so I expect to update with some story links later in the day. And since the mayor was there, the ceremony should eventually be on DC Cable 16.
UPDATE: Here's the press release from Forest City, with lots of numbers and stats on the project. And the Washington Business Journal piece, which sent me on my way to find this page on the design of the waterfront park, on the web site of M. Paul Friedberg and Partners, which includes a rendering of the floating bridge that will connect the Yards to Diamond Teague Park and the stadium.
UPDATE II: The Post story on the groundbreaking is now online. And NBC 4 has this text story (I think it's actually from the Associated Press), which doesn't have much of note, but I thought I'd correct one sentence: it says "More than 35 development companies are part of the project", but that should be 35 agencies. (I'm not sure any project could ever get finished with 35 different development companies!) Channel 4 also had a video report on its 6 pm newscast, but they haven't posted it online. (I only know about the 6 pm clip because Mom of JDLand called breathlessly to say she had seen me in one of the crowd shots.)
UPDATE III: The WashTimes offering. And one last reminder that you can find lots of details (and photos!) on The Yards on my project page.
UPDATE IV: A late addition, just now showing up: the Deputy Mayor's office press release.
More posts: The Yards
 

Florida Rock Heading Back to Zoning Commission; New Renderings
The developers of the Florida Rock site immediately to the south of the new ballpark have been spending the past few months working to flesh out the new design unveiled back in June, and apparently will be going to the Zoning Commission on Oct. 15 for setdown of their new application for a second-stage PUD. (If you understood almost nothing in that last sentence, don't worry about it.) That means a full hearing on the new design could possibly happen before the end of 2007, and if the bureaucratic gods align, perhaps work could begin on the first phase of the project in 2008. I've received a few new renderings showing a bit more detail, and have added them to my Florida Rock page (I'm not ready to start officially calling it RiverFront on the Anacostia just yet). Look for the icon to see them.
More posts: Florida Rock, zoning
 

Groundbreaking at The Yards on Wednesday
A groundbreaking ceremony is being held at The Yards (once known as the Southeast Federal Center, for you old-timers) on Wednesday morning at 10:30. Speakers on the agenda include Mayor Fenty, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Tommy Wells, and others.
More posts: The Yards
 

Finding DC Workers for the Ballpark
The Post looks into the issue of DC residents getting hired to work on the construction of the Nationals ballpark: "D.C. residents have worked about one-third of the total hours of skilled labor needed to build the Washington Nationals stadium, despite an agreement between the city government and labor unions that half of the hours would go to city workers. The data [...] show that city residents have worked 32 percent of the nearly 650,000 hours worked by journeymen, which include those in trades such as ironwork, electrical, roofing and plumbing. Although the vast majority of lower-paid apprentice work has gone to D.C. residents -- 91 percent -- the stadium contractors have not met the goal of 100 percent established in the labor agreement[....] Under the terms of the labor agreement, if a union is unable to provide D.C. workers to meet a request from a subcontractor, it can ask for assistance from the city's Department of Employment Services. If the agency cannot find a qualified applicant within 48 hours, the subcontractor is free to hire from outside the city." (There was a similar City Paper article a few weeks ago.)
More posts: Nationals Park
 

Council Oversight Hearing: I'll Get Back to You on That
DC council member Kwame Brown's Committee on Economic Development had an oversight hearing this afternoon to get information from the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development on the transition of projects on the Southwest Waterfront, Hill East, Poplar Point, Canal Park, and Kingman Island. The majority of the hearing time was spent on the three large projects, but since my hard-and-fast coverage boundaries don't include any of them, I'll just pass along what was said about the current status of Canal Park.
In her opening remarks, DMPED chief operating officer Valerie Santos Young gave a brief description of the 1.8-acre park project, in particular its sustainable design and stormwater management aspects, which will help "minimize discharge of polluted water" into the Anacostia River. She said that her office is (still) working with the DC Public Schools transit administrator to relocate the 100 buses parked on the southern two blocks of the site, and that the Deputy Mayor's office is aware of the "considerable interest" from residents in seeing the park built. "We have achieved some recent milestones to do just that," she said in closing her Canal Park remarks, without actually mentioning what the milestones were. It was later in the hearing, when asked for specifics by Tommy Wells, that Young explained the city has now negotiated the termination of the lease with the company renting the northernmost block of the site.
Otherwise, the issue with getting the park underway still boils down to the removal of the school buses, which has apparently been set back further after council chairman Vincent Gray's recent objections to a plan that would have created a citywide school bus parking lot in Prince George's County instead of in the District. Young said that they are now "scrambling" to find another permanent location, as well as an interim lot the Canal Park buses can be moved to, although DCPS does not want to relocate the buses to a temporary site until a permanent solution has been figured out. But Marion Barry made clear that Ward 8 residents oppose moving the buses to D.C. Village, which apparently had been considered as one possible interim solution.
Wells also asked if there were any progress on the creation of water taxi or ferry landings along the waterfront, but Young replied she was unable to give any answers because she was not personally aware of the specifics and that the project manager was not at the hearing, a response heard so many times that committee chairman Brown finally recessed the hearing in exasperation. (Young's "I was on vacation that week" response to a question by Barry about the specifics of a Poplar Point decision was my personal favorite.) Brown said that there will be another hearing scheduled, and admonished the Deputy Mayor's office that next time they need to be ready with facts and the appropriate staffers in attendance at oversight hearings, and not just repeat "We'll get back to you on that" over and over.
If you're interested in the other projects and want to see the hearing, check the DC Cable 13 listings for replays.
More posts: Canal Park
 

Council Hearing on Canal Park, Southwest Waterfront, and More
Just a reminder for those interested in the progress of Canal Park (as well as the Southwest Waterfront, Hill East, and other former AWC initiatives) that there's a DC council Committee on Economic Development Public oversight hearing on these projects on Monday (Oct. 1) at 12 noon in Room 500 of the Wilson Building. The DC Cable 13 schedule indicates that the hearing will be broadcast live, which means you can either watch the live webcast or dial up Channel 13 if you live in the District and have cable.
More posts: Canal Park
 
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