Live on-site blogging via PDA, so it's brief. No actual deal yet for 225--city will be transferring its lease, not subletting. There are negotiations with several interested parties, handout says. More to come. (See
the entry below for background on this press conference.)
UPDATE: Back at a real computer now. The official wording on
225 Virginia in the press release (
now online): "Today, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty announced that the city plans to transfer its long-term lease of a warehouse at 225 Virginia Ave., SE, to a private entity that will assume the lease's "option to buy," saving the city $19.1 million a year. Although a final deal has not been penned, District officials are in negotiations with several interested parties." The $19 million figure comes from a combination of estimated lease, utilities, and buildout costs that would have been required had the city moved forward with plans to occupy the building.
Tommy Wells spoke as well, noting that the original plans for moving many MPD functions to the building "did not make sense," and thanked the mayor's office for working with him and the communities in both Southeast and Southwest on both 225 Virginia and also keeping the First District station in Southwest. He also said that using the Bowen site for 1D makes sense as well, and said there would be a "community process" to make sure neighborhood concerns about the move are addressed.
DC activist Dorothy Brizill (of
DC Watch) was on hand, and asked a number of questions that weren't specifically addressed about the structure of the plans to get out from under the 225 lease; she also asked about the fate of the other MPD functions (the evidence warehouse, etc.) that were going to relocate to 225 Virginia; the mayor said that some will go to Bowen, and there will be news on the other ones to come.
For people interested in the Consolidated Forensics Lab, there were
some renderings displayed; the release says that they'll also be available online at
www.cfl.opm.dc.gov, but that site doesn't appear to be live yet.
More to come as the media coverage starts trickling in.
UPDATE II: It's not on their web site yet, but WTOP is apparently reporting that not only is
NPR one of the groups negotiating with the city (as
previously speculated), but that it's the "
preferred option" of several officials within the Fenty Administration.
UPDATE, 12/1: Not really much coverage (but you already got most of the scoop here, anyway).
The WashTimes got some quotes from Phil Mendelson about the Bowen/CFL moves, which he called "no 'new' news" and labeled himself skeptical that the CFL can be done on the schedule the city is calling for.