(And, Go Fed!)

Doesn't look like Saturday will be a good day for taking pictures, and Sunday I'll be welded to the sofa watching the US Open, so this will have to tide you over to next week:

This hasn't been mentioned in the items over the past few days about Akridge's Aug. 27 closing of its $46.5 million purchase of Metro's Southeastern Bus Garage at Half and M: On the same day they closed on the bus garage, Akridge bought Monument Realty's land just south of the bus garage for $9.66 million. The site, a conglomeration of five or six lots that Monument cobbled together in 2004 and 2005, totals about 16,000 square feet along N Street between Half and Van, where the Good and Plenty carryout used to stand (for you old-timers).

To add one more Aug. 27 transaction to the mix: Monument also closed on its $22.7 million purchase of the 27,000-square-foot WMATA parking lot nestled between the Public Space Storage building and the old Domino's site, across Van from the bus garage. This is the land (currently Nats Parking Lot M) that Monument was awarded as part of the settlement of their lawsuit over the original awarding of all WMATA land on Square 700 to Akridge.

This means that Akridge now owns all of the west side of Half Street between M and N, while Monument owns the east side of South Capitol between M and N *except* for the Public Storage Building. (See my Monument Ballpark District page for photos.)

As mentioned in the other posts this week on Akridge's purchase of the bus garage, reports are that they are looking at a 700,000-sq-ft mixed-use project, beginning perhaps in 2010. Don't know anything more than this at this point. Monument had been working on a residential building at South Capitol and N (land they still own), but I haven't heard if that's still part of their plans.

On the consent agenda of Thursday's National Capital Planning Commission meeting is a request for "approval of preliminary and final site development plans" for Diamond Teague Park, the new public park to be built by the city on the Anacostia River at the foot of First Street, SE, just across Potomac Avenue from Nationals Park.

As I've written about in the past, plans call for piers to be built around the red brick Capitol Pumphouse that is home to the Earth Conservation Corps, and there will also be floating docks that will allow visitors to see the wetlands along the water's edge (one of the last waterfront segments in the area not to have been bulkheaded, apparently). Benches, granite paths, and a garden will be installed, along with a memorial to Diamond Teague, the ECC volunteer who was murdered in 2003. Eventually this park will be connected via a floating boardwalk to the Waterfront Park at the Yards.

In the Executive Director's recommendation, the NCPC commends the city "for linking this project to planned open space along the waterfront to provide a continuous public open space system along the Anacostia River; for developing a portion of the Anacostia River as a high-quality urban park with a mix of recreational opportunities that emphasizes the river's ecological and scenic qualities and character; and for providing accommodations for a water taxi system to serve the neighborhood and the Washington Nationals' baseball stadium."

Statements over the summer from the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (which is stewarding the park) indicated that work will begin on the park this fall, with this first phase completed by spring 2009. (And yes, that includes the water taxi piers. Though there's been no word yet of any deals with taxi companies.)

And, on the other side of Half Street, Akridge celebrates its closing on the Southeastern Bus Garage site (mentioned last week) with a press release. According to the Washington Business Journal, construction could begin on the planned 700,000-square-foot mixed-use project in 2010.

When the headline "Nats Park: A Mistake?" pops up in your feed reader, it's easy to guess that the story will be about low attendance or whatever other ills the author defines and therefore what a boondoggle the stadium has been. But, instead, you get this, from WTOP's transportation reporter Adam Tuss: "Yet with all the trouble filling seats at novel Nats Park, this much is certain: The stadium is paying dividends to the neighborhood and city where it sits. [...] But the truth of the matter is, Nats Park has energized a section of the District that some would never have imagined driving through previously, let alone walking through. [...] New homes, shops, restaurants and vistas pop up on a daily basis. Old and run-down has been and continues to be replaced by young and vibrant." (One could quibble with the "shops and restaurants" portion of this, at this point, anyway.)

Then there's this section, which takes me back to the eye-rolling weeks of wading through media coverage early this year: "When the ballpark first opened this year, there were plenty of concerns -- many from a transportation perspective. Would Metro be able to handle the crowds that were going to games? Would there be enough parking for fans? Would the neighborhoods around the ballpark become swamped with unwanted visitors from out of the area? There were also concerns about the safety of fans headed to and from games. Would there be enough security, street lighting, and enforcement to keep the area a destination of interest? There is now deafening silence about those questions, as they have all been answered with resounding success."

He closes with: "As far as the team goes, the Nationals will get there at some point (you hope). But the home of the Nats is now helping transform a slice of the city into something truly special -- a second chance for an area that was far too often neglected."

It was too pretty of an afternoon to pass up a new batch of photos at Fourth and L, to document 10 days' worth of framing work on these first Capitol Quarter townhouses. (I'm sure the novelty of this construction will wear off soon. Hopefully before my camera gives out.)