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Near Southeast DC Past News Items: Nationals Park
See JDLand's Nationals Park Project Page
for Photos, History, and Details
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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Background on New Capper Buildings
If you are coming here after reading this week's Ballpark and Beyond column in the Post, here are my information/photo/news pages on Capper Building #2, Capper Seniors #1, the old Capper Seniors building at 6th and L, and the entire Capper/Carrollsburg Hope VI redevelopment. And if you liked all those purty stadium photos displayed next to the column in the print edition, here's my Stadium Construction Gallery for plenty more of those....
 

The Green Ballpark
Channel 9 News has a story on how the designers of the Nationals ballpark are trying to "go green" and win LEED certification for the stadium; the lights, the water filtration system, and recycling plans are all part of trying to meet the qualifications set out by the US Green Building Council. You can also read an Examiner piece from a few weeks back on the stadium's green-itude.

More posts: Nationals Park
 

New Stadium Photos (Inside and Outside) and More
It seems like it's been forever since I updated my Nationals Ballpark Construction Gallery, but I'm actually only a week behind my usual schedule--it's now updated with a pile of pictures I took during yesterday morning's beautiful weather, but beware that some of the showiest shots didn't get updated this time around thanks to actual construction going on at the construction site.
But to make it up to you, I have a whole new series of photos from inside the stadium so you can see stuff that the Webcam might not be showing real clearly.
And I've also finally expanded the construction gallery to include four additional pages of befores-and-afters (well, befores-and-durings) that have vantage points you don't see on my "main" gallery page. So knock yourself out looking at more shots from First Street, Potomac Avenue, South Capitol Street, and N Street. (There's also links to these new pages from the top of the main gallery.)
I also updated the Photo Archive with a fair number of photos from other spots around Near Southeast. You can see every new photo posted on this page; if you look really closely, you'll see a few shots that include the campers' tents at the Capitol Quarter sales office on 4th Street, as well as photos of the colorful new fence drapings that now surround the Velocity Condos site.
More posts: Capper, Capitol Quarter, Square 699n, Nationals Park, Velocity Condos
 

Lew Moving to DC Schools Modernization
From today's Post: "Allen Y. Lew, who managed construction of the Washington Convention Center and is overseeing completion of the Nationals baseball stadium, has agreed to become the director of a new city department created to carry out the D.C. public school system's $2.3 billion modernization program, government sources confirmed yesterday. Lew, 56, has served as chief executive of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission since 2004 and is respected by city leaders for his ability to deliver large, complicated public construction projects on time and on budget. He is expected to resign from his position at the sports commission next month to join Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's administration, the sources said." That sound you hear is the anguished cry of baseball fans devastated at the news, led by DC council member Jack Evans: " 'Do you want to take the main guy out of the picture, the guy who is able to get it done on time and on budget on opening day?' Evans said. 'If you take him out of it, who will replace him? Getting the stadium done is not automatic.' "
UPDATE: Well, that didn't take long--Mayor Fenty has named Lew's successor at the DCSEC: Gregory A. O'Dell, who currently serves as the chief development officer in the office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

Another Round of Surface Parking Lot Requests - Update
As expected, there is now a request in front of the Zoning Commission to approve temporary surface parking lots on parcels totaling 396,000 sq ft in the Southeast Federal Center (i.e., "The Yards"), to last no more than five years and to be available for Nationals ballpark parking (among other uses). There are four lots, which I highlighted a few months back on my Stadium Parking page map: on the southeast corner of 1st and N (where there is already a parking lot, along with a one-story brick building scheduled to be demolished); two spots on the SEFC land south of Tingey and DOT and east of the WASA pumping plant; and on the southeast corner of 4th and M, behind the red brick wall, where a surface lot already exists. According to the meeting notice, temporary lots at the SEFC are already permitted under the existing Southeast Federal Center overlay, subject to approval by the Zoning Commission.
I don't know anything more about this other than that there will be a ZC hearing on July 26; I'll be working to find out exactly how many spaces these lots may make available, although in the presentation slides from the March public meeting there was an indication that 1,700 additional spaces could be available at the Federal Center. These would be on top of the other temporary surface lots recently approved, and would bring the count of potential available spaces on all temporary lots to 5,475 spaces, on top of the 1,225 spaces being constructed on the stadium footprint (adding up to 6,700 spaces, higher than the 4,900 spaces that planners anticipate will be needed for the highest-attendance games). Of course, not all of the identified potential lots will end up being used, and the likely total count from all lots is probably closer to 5,200, but this is clearly a healthy-sized addition to the lots approved last month. More information as I get it.
UPDATED with corrected numbers on the potential spaces, because math is apparently not my strong suit late on a Friday night. But these new numbers are still just speculation on my part based on that March public meeting on parking--we have to wait to see exactly how many spaces planners are anticipating at the SEFC.
UPDATE, 6/11: This zoning request apparently would allow for 925 paking spaces in four lots at The Yards; so it's far lower than what was projected for the SEFC at the March public meeting on the stadium transportation planning. It does mean that, if approved, up to 5,925 permanent and temporary spaces are in the mix around the stadium site (1,225 on the ballpark site itself and the rest from the temporary surface lots). And that doesn't count any possible spaces in lots beneath already-constructed buildings near the stadium. But hopefully some clarity will arrive when the draft Traffic Operations and Parking Plan is released by the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission, supposedly this month.
More posts: parking, Nationals Park, The Yards, zoning
 

Ballpark Update in the Post
Today's Ballpark Update in the Post: "Though it's not the most significant structural breakthrough at the new Nationals ballpark, it might be the most symbolic development of the week. Construction crews this week excavated the site for the Nationals' bench. Or, as Rick Buckovich of the construction company Clark/Hunt/Smoot said, "We dug out the dugout." Crews also placed the last wood-framed elevated concrete deck in left-center field, the last major concrete pour in the park."
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Lawyers, Runs, and Money
Both today's Post and Examiner cover a "scathing" new audit (which you can read for yourself at the DC Auditor's web site) about the money being paid by the city to law firm Venable for legal work tied to the still-going stadium land eminent domain cases going well above and beyond the $1.87 million initial budgeted. According to the Examiner, "Venable was awarded the contract in 2005, during Mayor Anthony Williams' administration, for one year plus four option years, at no more than $950,000 annually. But the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of Contracting and Procurement 'did not develop and document a realistic projection of costs, or the source and amount of funding available for such services,' the audit reported, and no one in any agency monitored the deal to ensure the firm's billings were appropriate -- many were not." And it wasn't just those offices that dropped the ball; the Post adds, "All contracts worth more than $1 million must be approved by the D.C. Council. However, it appears the Venable contracts were renewed several times without the matter ever appearing before the council, Nichols's report found."
So, now what? All sorts of big problems with getting the money, because of the $611 million stadium cost cap? Examiner: "The D.C. Council nevertheless approved an emergency resolution Tuesday to pay Venable up to $3.8 million over the next two years [after paying them $1.2 million the first year] 'in support of the District's eminent domain litigation to determine the amount of just compensation due to the owners of parcels of land on the ballpark site.' The firm has performed many hours of discovery in preparation for mediation and trials expected to start later this year."
(The problems with the Venable contract were initially reported about a month ago.)

More posts: Nationals Park
 

Amendment Allowing Strip Club Relocation in Near Southeast (An Analysis)
Tucked in the stories (Post and WashTimes) about the bill that passed its first reading in front of the council yesterday--allowing the relocation of the strip clubs that have left Near Southeast because of the arrival of the stadium and surrounding development--was word that an amendment to the bill had passed allowing clubs to relocate to certain zoned areas within 5,000 feet of the ballpark. People are already e-mailing me with the vapors, so here's what I've been able to find out.
The circle covered by a one-mile radius around the stadium site stretches across all of Near Southeast, most of Buzzards Point, a fair amount of Southwest, and even into Anacostia and small portions of Capitol Hill. But the text of the amendment says that the clubs can relocate "in any C-3, C-4, or C-5 zone within 5000 feet from the Baseball Stadium footprint"; once you take into account those restrictions, when you look at the zoning maps you'll see that there are very few locations that have those zone designations; in Near Southeast, the only areas meeting that criteria are the land bounded by South Capitol, I, M, and New Jersey (what I call the "North of M" area) and the area just south the freeway over to the Post Plant. In Southwest, the area between I, M, South Capitol, and 2nd St. SW, and the Waterside Mall parcel, are the only C-3/4/5 zones within the 5,000-foot radius. And across the river in Anacostia there is only one small area zoned C-3-A.
But, given the character of the areas in Near Southeast where these one-time strip club relocations would be allowed, it would appear to be a remote possibility--after all, what the clubs generally look for are large spaces with low rents, and with most C-3 parcels in Near Southeast now purchased by developers with grand plans for shiny new buildings, it would seem that the large-space/low-rent options east of South Capitol are few and far between. Unless the club owners decide to build big tents beneath the freeway.
More posts: Restaurants/Nightlife, mnorth, staddis, Nationals Park, zoning
 

DCSEC's Latest Report on Ballpark Progress
I gave you the short-and-sweet update yesterday on the progress at the Nationals ballpark, but if you want the real nitty-gritty of all aspects of the project, here's the 10-page Monthly Report submitted by the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission to the City Council on May 14 (posted on Councilmember David Catania's ballpark page). It describes the current state of the schedule, budget, procurement, design, construction, coordination, and public outreach. For example, you can learn from it that approximately 65% of the stadium's structural steel and concrete is now in place, as well as 58% of the precast concrete. Typical daily manpower on the site in April? 432 workers.
One piece of development-type news in the report: the DCSEC is "drafting a request for proposals for the sale of the First Street retail development rights as a means to offset any hazardous material cleanup costs in excess of the budgeted amount and to provide the non-program retail required by the Zoning Commission final order while remaining in conformance with the Council cost cap legislation."
Also, as I've mentioned in other posts, it's expected that the draft Transportation Operations and Parking Plan will be released sometime in June.
But, if you're interested in the state of, say, the sand filters or the service level slab-on-grade concrete, this is the document for you.
UPDATED because the original headline made it sound like the DCSEC *might* report, as opposed to this being their report for the month of May. Oops.

More posts: parking, Nationals Park, Traffic Issues
 

Ballpark Construction Progress Update; Signage Contract Awarded
For those of you not obsessively checking the Stadium Construction Cam at five-minute intervals, I've got a few recent highlights of the stadium construction's progress you might be interested in:
A 200-foot-tall crane is now in place along South Capitol Street, which will be used to help construct the Nationals' new office building adjacent to the ballpark.
On the north end of the site, concrete columns are now being poured for the two aboveground parking garages.
Inside the stadium itself, along the first-base line, the first area of "cast on slope" seating is almost complete; in addition, the drilling of what will end up being nearly 100,000 holes for anchoring the seats in the stands has begun, and workers are also now installing the cast-in-place aisle steps between the seating sections.
And, away from the camera's glare, drywall framing is in progress in the locker rooms and other service level areas.
But if you decide to drive down there for a visit, beware of dust clouds, massive potholes, and heavy construction vehicles. (Actually, right now that description pretty much applies to all of Near Southeast between South Capitol Street and New Jersey Avenue. Enter at your own risk!)
UPDATE: And the Washington Business Journal is reporting that a small DC company, Gelberg Signs, has been hired to make and install more than 3,000 signs for the stadium, in a contract worth more than $1 million, with the work starting next month. The contract was awarded under the ballpark's Local, Small, and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program. Gelberg has been in business since 1941. UPDATE II: Here's the press release.
More posts: parking, Nationals Park
 
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