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909 New Jersey Ave. ('09)
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400 M ('07)
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20 M ('07)
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Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd., the landscape architecture firm picked to design the planned Washington Canal Park along 2nd Street, has finally added it to their project list on their web site. The only new tidbit is that their info page says "Completion Date: December 2006." Now, whether that's a real date or a fingers-crossed date, I don't know, but at least it's something....
UPDATE, 5/5: Apparently the "Completion Date: December 2006" on the GGN Canal Park project page was a typo, and has been removed. But hopefully there's going to be some movement before too long.

More posts: Canal Park
 

Here's a slapped-together page of photos I took at the groundbreaking. And washingtonpost.com has posted an extended video report of the ceremony, along with the Post's story in Friday's paper. And here's the Blade's coverage--I'm not sure how many attendees knew that the black building across the street was Ziegfield's.
 

With the bonds financing the stadium having been sold yesterday, the city wasted no time in submitting its application to the DC Zoning Commission for approval of the ballpark design. (While the Zoning Commission approved the amending of the Capitol Gateway Overlay to allow for a stadium last year, the stadium itself still needs zoning approval.) An interesting sentence within the application that I can't shed any light on at this moment, but which apparently means there are slightly different design options being considered: "The Applicant has requested approval for three different options for construction of the Ballpark, identified as a Base Plan, Option One, and Option Two. The Base Plan, Option One and Option Two differ primarily with regard to the presence and location of preferred uses along the First Street, SE façade of the Ballpark." The hearing has been scheduled for June 26 at 6:30 pm.

More posts: Nationals Park, zoning
 

The riff-raff-o-meter at the gate of the stadium groundbreaking was apparently malfunctioning, allowing me to get in and witness this morning's festivities. I'll post some photos later today--in the meantime, here's some washingtonpost.com video of the event.
UPDATE: Pictures probably won't come before late tonight. Here's the Post story, and the WTOP/AP story.

More posts: Nationals Park
 

Everyone's now reporting that the ownership group led by DC-area developer Theodore Lerner has officially been picked as the owners of the Nationals. I will be very interested to see if this man--who already has two office building projects in Near Southeast (20 M and 1000 South Capitol)--moves quickly to make any changes to the plans for the new stadium or gets involved in the plans for the surrounding Ballpark District development. As for what it means for the team on the field, that's for other folks to digest :-).
UPDATE: The WashTimes seems to throw a bit of cold water on the notion that the Lerners will come in and start tossing around money to help with the stadium: "But the new owners said they do not anticipate contributing additional money toward the ballpark. 'We have to get in there and figure out what is in and what is out, but we believe the project can be done for the budget that is set,' Mark Lerner said in an interview. 'It's part of the building business. We do it all the time.' "
More posts: Nationals Park
 

Sorry for the late notice (RSVP deadline was yesterday, but I was out of town and am only now seeing this), but according to the Voice of the Hill: "On Saturday, May 6 there will be an Action Roundtable about Development to discuss the Near Southeast and Southwest communities' needs during the stadium development and other redevelopment projects. [...] A free lunch will be provided to attendees. Interested persons must RSVP by May 1. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Southeastern University, 501 I St., SW, multi-purpose room. For information, call (202) 777-2242 or e-mail sreines@sfcg.org."
More posts: Nationals Park
 

The first people will be moving into Capitol Hill Tower on May 22, according to various sources. I'm posting this mainly so that people will stop bombarding me with e-mails telling me their move-in dates--please note for the future that I will not be following all-but-completed residential projects with the amount of detail that some people seem to be expecting. I don't intend to keep the site updated with the number of units sold, exact move-in dates, changes in prices, etc. etc. So I appreciate the updates that people are sending me (and sending me, and sending me, and sending me) but no need to continue. When there's news that's of interest to the entire neighborhood--like when more retail establishments sign on--I'll of course let folks know, but if you want exact details about Capitol Hill Tower or other projects that will be coming down the pike, you'll need to contact the sales offices. Sorry, but as you can see from the site these days, I've got a lot to cover, and this is one area that just doesn't need my laser-like attention.
More posts: Capitol Hill Tower
 

An article in Friday's WashPost about when (oh, when) a new owner for the Nats will be named says that the city expects "Major League Baseball to name a new owner of the Washington Nationals in time for Thursday's groundbreaking for a $611 million stadium project" (emphasis mine). That would be Thursday, May 4 for those of you counting along. No mention of a time or anything, I'll keep digging. It also says (and this makes sense) that the groundbreaking is the day after the financing bonds are to be sold on Wall Street. UPDATE: I hear through the grapevine that this will be at 10 am.

More posts: Nationals Park
 

Another long-planned development project is now moving forward--a correspondent tipped me to a newly posted sign announcing that 250 M Street will be arriving in 2008. This is a 212,500-sq-ft office building by the William C. Smith company, to be built right across the street from the DOT HQ (currently there's a parking lot on that site). It will take up all of the M Street frontage on that block, but won't cover the entire block--there will be an apartment building associated with Capper/Carrollsburg on the rear of the lot, facing L. See the Jones Lang LaSalle database for more information, and check out my tossed-together new page for the project.
 

Clark/Hunt/Smoot has posted an updated Bid/Purchasing Schedule for the ballpark--even if you're not a construction company looking to get in on the action, it's oddly fascinating to see how specific it all is, as well as seeing the timeline of what's bidded on when.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

I've made some changes to navigation on the site, which I hope might help on some of the pages that are really much too full of information. I've created "tabs" with topic areas that you can click on to see specific portions of info on a page--for instance, the Capitol Hill Tower page now has "tabs" for Overview, Courtyard by Marriott, Capitol Hill Tower, and News Items. (Just go see and do some clicking, it's hard to explain; I've added some photos to each section to make it worth your while.) Another example is on the right side of the home page, below the map--I've had for a while a huge "Directory of Current/Future Projects," which gave all the basics on every project in the 'Hood, but which was hard to grasp because the table ran so deep. So I've now used tabs to separate the Projects Directory into Residential, Office, Recreation/Retail/Hotel, and Mixed-Use. So check it out. (I've tested these updates in IE 6.x and Firefox 1.07--if you're using anything older than that, it's time for you to upgrade!) Oh, and I've made the construction slideshows I've done much more prominent on each project's page, which I should have done a long time ago!
More posts:
 

(This is WAAAY over my head, but I provide it as a public service to the three of you who do understand it.) Fitch has rated the bonds that will be sold next week to finance the new baseball stadium: "Fitch has assigned ratings to the following series of ballpark revenue bonds to be issued by the District of Columbia: $81.34 million taxable series 2006A-1 'BBB'; $108.88 million taxable series 2006A-2 'BBB'; $320.39 million tax-exempt series 2006B-1 'BBB+'; $25 million tax-exempt series 2006B-2 (auction rate securities) 'BBB+'. The bonds are scheduled to be sold the week of May 2. The series 2006A-1 bonds will be a limited offering with UBS Investment Bank as placement agent. The series 2006A-2 and 2006B bonds will be sold through negotiation with a syndicate led by UBS Investment Bank. The Rating Outlook on all four series is Stable. Proceeds will be used for construction of a new baseball stadium along the Anacostia River."
UPDATE: Here's an AP story about this, indicating that these are low ratings, because "a utilities tax, a stadium concessions tax and rent from the Washington Nationals could fluctuate, making them a less stable way to pay back investors." And the bonds will be sold May 3.

More posts: Nationals Park
 

Thanks to a tip from a correspondent, I can confirm that there is now demolition underway at the ballpark site, at its southernmost corner (South Capitol and P and Potomac). They are also "demolishing" (i.e., digging up) the triangle of empty land at 1st, P, and Potomac known as Reservation 247. Plus, now that the asphalt plant at Half and O has been dismantled, they're also digging up and clearing that lot as well. And they are in the process of putting up more fencing around the perimeter of the site--looks like they will have O Street at South Capitol fenced off by the end of the day. So while there hasn't been any sort of official groundbreaking--and I haven't heard whether there will be or not--clearly they are now moving forward.

More posts: Nationals Park
 

The Naval Historical Center at the Navy Yard has announced its public programs for the month of May, and I've added them to my Upcoming Events list. UPDATE: The events calendar on the historical center's site is now updated.

More posts: Navy Yard
 

It's a good day for tips from readers! Another correspondent passes along this piece from Shopping Center Business magazine, "Washington DC Focuses on the Waterfront," a roundtable with lots of big names in DC development and government discussing the state of retail in downtown DC. One of the participants was Forest City Washington, which is developing Capper/Carrollsburg and the Southeast Federal Center, plus is one of the four companies working on the Ballpark District. There's no real *news* on the projects, but they indicate that they are getting a tremendous amount of interest from retailers who want to be part of the combined 300,000 sq ft of retail planned for Capper and the SFC. They also say that "bulldozers will be moving by the end of the year at Southeast Federal Center." Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page to see the box highlighting Forest City, with the following sentence that will warm the hearts of Near Southeast residents and neighbors: "Forest City Washington believes a grocery store would be a good addition, and several are interested." Yes! And please hurry!
More posts: Capper, Retail, staddis, The Yards
 

A sharp-eyed correspondent passes along this press release from WMATA, announcing that Metro is finally removing the buses parked on a leased lot at Half and O, land that was seized by the city via eminent domain for the new ballpark. (The buses will be moving to a lot leased from Pepco at 1st and R, SW, with the city picking up the "costs associated with the move.") With this, all stadium footprint land has been vacated by its (former) tenants. Is the start of demolition still coming May 1 or thereabouts? Haven't heard anything more one way or the other. Tick tick tick!
 

Getting to be a busy time of photo-taking, so I've added a smattering of photos here and there to my Capper/Carrollsburg, JPI Residentials, Capitol Hill Tower, DOT HQ, New Jersey Avenue, M Street, and new baseball stadium pages. Let the icon be your guide. With demolition continuing at Capper and JPI's 70 I Street, I expect to be updating those pages steadily over the next few weeks. (They appear to be moving more quickly with the Capper demolition at 3rd, 4th, K, and L, and I expect the block to the north, between 3rd, 4th, K, and I, to be next to come down.) And starting soon I'll be updating 20 M Street much more frequently, with the tower's construction finally coming up out of the hole and above ground level. And then there'll be that stadium demolition and construction....
 

Short notice, but there's a board meeting of the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation on Friday, April 21, at 5:15 pm - here's the agenda. You can also see the 2006 grants that the AWC is awarding to local organizations.
 

I'm well aware that the home page of this site is a bit, well, dense. There's a lot of information on Near Southeast to get across, and it's not easy to do it in such confined quarters. I'm not sure whether this really helps or not, but I've made the main map a bit showier--now, as you move your cursor, you'll see at top brief summaries of the various projects, and a small (very small) illustration at the top right. (I'm using photos if the development is well on its way, architect renderings if a project is on the boards or just started, and icky photos of what a lot currently looks like if I can't get the developers to hand over any drawings.) Start moving your cursor around, and see what happens.
More posts:
 

A correspondent reports that the long-shuttered row homes in the 900 block of New Jersey Avenue started being demolished today. That block will eventually be the site of a 238-unit residential tower by JPI--everything currently on the block except the car repair shop at the corner of 1st and K will be demolished to make way for the construction, although there's still a few months before the Nexus Gold Club will close (I don't know an exact date), so get your ogling of naked chicks in sooner rather than later. You can see "before" photos of the houses being demolished on my JPI Residential Projects page (toward the bottom, so do some scrolling)--I'll add demolition photos as soon as the sun moves to an optimum position.

 
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