Faison Enterprises and Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds are holding a ceremonial groundbreaking (with Most-Likely-To-Be Mayor Fenty in attendance) for the Onyx on First residential project, on Nov. 1 at 10:00 am. This is the 260-unit residential building at 1100 First Street SE; the project will also "include a rooftop pool, underground parking, a fitness center, an outdoor courtyard, a game room, and great views of the city from the upper floors. Condos will range from studios to 2-bedrooms, and prices are anticipated to start in the upper $200s." UPDATE: Here's a GlobeSt.com blurb on the project.

A web site has been launched for the 260-unit residential building at 1st and L, which I've been referring to as 1100 First Street but which has been dubbed Onyx on First. Not much in the way of actual information there, but there is a registration form to fill out. (And I hope people who aren't in-the-know about Near Southeast aren't baffled by the "Ballpark Metro" references, since there's no station with that name, of course.) This is the project being developed jointly by Faison and the Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund (Magic Johnson being the "Johnson" part of that).

Speaking of taking pictures, I've added some ones to my 100 M Street, 1100 First Street, Capper Seniors #2, and M Street photo galleries. 1100 First in particular has some striking before-and-afters now that trees have been removed along 1st and L streets. I also did some creative cropping of a Sept. 2000 photo of M Street to document (barely!) a solitary rowhouse that used to stand on the 100 M Street lot (where those steps-to-nowhere just west of the alley had been for the past few years, until meeting the wrecking ball over the past few weeks).

Not a huge update, but with demolition having now brought down all the buildings on the 1100 First Street site, I added a few pictures of the new streetscape to the page.

Thanks to the reappearance of the sun, I was able to take a pile of photos this weekend. It'll take me a bit to get them onto the site, so for now here's pictures of the results of the demolition at the 100 M Street site, which took down the On Luck Cafeteria, the Zohery Bus Tours garage, and some long-abandoned brick townhomes. Demolition will continue this week on that site, to clear the 1100 First Street portion of the block.

Hat tip to reader Erik, who reports in this morning that demolition has begun at the 100 M Street/1100 First Street site. These two projects are by different developers but being constructed concurrently (it's always so nice to see kids sharing on the playground!). 100 M, by Opus East, will be a 240,000-sq-ft office building with about 13,000 sq ft of ground-floor retail, and 1100 First, by Faison, will be a 266-unit residential building. Delivery is expected in late 2008. Another big big change to M Street and the North of M area begins.... UPDATE: As of Wednesday evening, the old Zohery Bus garage is now a pile of rubble. Will get pictures posted within a day or two (I may not be able to wait for a sunny day, as is my usual preference). UPDATE II: On Friday, the On Luck cafeteria met the wrecking ball. And I'm still hoping the sun may be seen once again.

The parade of alley closings and street closings/realignments this year in Near Southeast continues, as the National Capital Planning Commission has on its September meeting agenda the proposed closing of a public alley in Square 701 (the square bounded by 1st, M, N and Half Streets, SE--see my cruddy tax parcel map for assistance on where the squares are). I figured that this was going to be the alleys in the footprint of the Monument/WMATA properties, since Monument has made clear it's plans to move forward with developing the land along Half Street, but instead I find out that the alley closings being requested are on the east side of the Square, between Cushing Place and 1st Street, where the land is owned by the Cohen and Camalier families, who have said little about their plans for these properties. Does this mean we'll be seeing development coming to 1st Street south of M soon, too? And believe it or not, as I was writing this very entry, I received word that Monument has now filed it's application for alley closings on the west side of Square 701 as well as one small alley on Square 700 (behind the Amoco Station). Note that neither of these applications request closings of Van or Cushing. These applications follow successful alley closing requests already this year for Square 0743N as part of the 100 M and 1100 1st Street projects, the street/alley closings for the new ballpark, and the closed alleys and new streets for Capper/Carrollsburg--plus there are the still-pending requests to realign the streets in Square 737 in preparation for William C. Smith's big mixed-use project at 2nd and H and the Lerners' request to close a small portion of an alley in Square 697 as part of their 1000 South Capitol office project (no bills for these yet appearing in the DC Council legislation database).

Eagle-eyed boots on the ground report seeing the appearance today of No Parking signs along M Street between New Jersey and 1st Street--in front of On Luck, Zohery Bus Tours, and the Metro entrance--marked as lasting from Aug. 12 to Aug. 30. Dovetailing with what I've heard elsewhere, this may well mean that demolition on that corner is about to start. (I would guess that it will happen the same time along the rest of that block of 1st Street, back to L Street.) This is to clear the way for the 100 M Street office building and the 1100 First Street residential tower, which will be built concurrently. Some folks have also mentioned the fence that has gone up today around the Sunoco station at 50 M--there's still been no word on the sale of that property, so I don't know if demolition is imminent there or not. UPDATE: I went and took a look myself, and there are also No Parking signs along the eastern side of 1st Street between L and M, marked as starting August 8 through December 8. Also, the Sunoco fences also have signs on them indicating that it is a Sunoco construction zone. Perhaps Sunoco is demolishing the station themselves--but to make way for what, we all want to know? Is it the rumored hotel? Will the hotel folks be buying the land, or is Sunoco keeping the land and handling the development themselves? We shall see....

From a press release hitting the business wires today about the condo project at 1100 First Street: "The Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund is making its first-ever investment in the Washington, D.C., market by partnering with Faison of Charlotte, North Carolina, on the development of a transit-oriented condominium project next to the Navy Yard Metro station in the Near Southeast submarket. [...] Plans call for 266 condominium units over a four-level underground parking garage with approximately 210 parking spaces and 65 storage spaces. The condominium community is part of a master planned development that will include a 13-story office building adjacent to the project, which will be separately developed by Opus. [...] Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund, the development's major equity investor, is a joint venture between Canyon Capital Realty Advisors and Earvin "Magic" Johnson's Johnson Development Corporation." The release also says that demolition is scheduled for the "third quarter of 2006," which means, uh, any minute now. And: "[P]roject completion is expected in the third quarter of 2008. The majority of units, designed to attract entry-level professionals, will range in price from the high $200,000's to the high $300,000's with an average unit size of 725 square feet. Residents of the full-service building will have amenities including a public courtyard, game room and pool. "

From GlobeSt.com: "Charlotte, NC-based Faison Enterprises has closed two separate land deals in the DC area over the last week worth almost $200 million. The first is for a condo project in southeast Washington near the baseball stadium at First and L Street, SE. Philip W. Norwood, president and CEO of Faison tells GlobeSt.com that this was a particularly complex transaction in that it involved land swaps and will entail some joint development work with a nearby office project on M Street. The approximate 260-unit condo development, which is expected to be delivered in 2008, is worth roughly $100 million, he says." The building permit for this project was filed in mid-June. UPDATE: Faison has generously passed along to me a rendering of 1100 First Street, which I have added to the project's page.