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To prove (to myself) that I am not completely out of commission, I attended this morning's Bisnow event focusing on current goings-on development-wise in the Capitol Riverfront.
Here are a few bullet points of the development-type items I found of most interest:
* Dock 79 is 92 percent leased, and MRP Realty expects to begin construction on the residential building next door (71 Potomac) late this year or early next year--and that it is expected to have a lot more 2-bedroom units than Dock 79. I was also told that All-Purpose will probably open in the fall, and Dacha in the spring--and also that the planned small additional storefront for All-Purpose fronting Potomac Avenue has fallen by the wayside.
* One Hill South is 60 percent leased, and the developers have just begun design meetings for the project's second phase, another 300ish-unit building fronting South Capitol Street. That could get underway in a year or so.
* As the attendees were taking their seats at Arena Stage, a splashy video was played for the 25 M Street office building project planned by Brandywine REIT and Akridge. I can't link directly, but go to the (new to me) official web site at 25mst.com and scroll down to click on Property Video. Janet Davis of Brandywine did say that this building will not get underway until it's about 50 percent leased.
* Skanska's 99 M office building at 1st and M is expected to top out in about a month or so. Skanska's EVP Mark Carroll said that they expect to announce their first signed tenants soon, and that they are "not typical tenants." Both Carroll and Davis agreed that there has been a clear uptick in interest in Capitol Riverfront office space in the past six months or so.
* District Winery is crossing its fingers for a September opening. (Perhaps even earlier than September, but best not to get ahead of the permitting process.) Owner Brian Leventhal was on the Yards panel, and told the story of branching out from the original operations in Brooklyn without having any specific location in mind, and how once they narrowed to DC, everything about the lot at the Yards "was perfect, [so] we didn't consider any other space." (He also has moved to DC from Brooklyn, and said that living at the Yards is "like living in a resort.")
* 1221 Van is expected to begin move-ins later this year, and leasing should start in the relative near future.
* Forest City's Debbie Ratner Salzberg talked about how the Yards came to be, and said that "the minute Bluejacket opened [in 2013], we were on the map."
* And we definitely appear to be referring to the blocks immediately north of Nats Park as the "Ballpark District" once again.
* It was only mentioned in passing, but I should still officially note here that Cosmopolitan Nail Salon is now open in Arris at the Yards.
Comments (48)
 

My focus is now zeroing in on a very targeted area in my world, so I am going to be pulling back from full-sized posts here for the foreseeable future. I may still pop up in the comments, and may find a moment or two to pipe up for whatever reason on Twitter, but for now my time is best spent elsewhere. Continued thanks to the "erstwhile" JDLand commenters for keeping the chatter up in my absence.
But at least before I go I can post links to the news of Dacha coming to Dock 79, and that maybe a bowling alley will go into some of the retail space in the Jair Lynch residential/retail project above the Half Street Hole just north of Nats Park. And a reader reports this morning that steel beams have arrived at the NAB HQ site at South Capitol and M, so work might be starting there.
And thanks to everyone for your patience and good thoughts in these past months.
Comments (42)
 

These days I'm generally the last person laying eyes on something new in the neighborhood, but I still find it necessary to conduct photo documentation when the calendar and forecast align. Which they did on Sunday.
Let's look at signs and entrances, starting first at F1rst and its Residence Inn, where it looks like the homestretch has been entered (click to enlarge, of course):
Then, let's go over to 4th Street, where the District Winery building continues to zip along. It's also where the Bower is now signed, as is Conte's space in Arris:
Then we'll double back westward (you're getting a sense for how far I walk on these excursions), taking a look at the new sidewalk on New Jersey Avenue in front of Insignia on M. Shake Shack's signage at the Homewood Suites, and the One Hill South entrance (very New York, isn't it). (I caught the Bethesda Bagels signage back in December, just in case you think I'm missing it.)
I even caught the view from the bridge of the new Bardo beer garden at Florida Rock, with a few hardy souls in attendance. Plus, views of both Agora on New Jersey Avenue (aka the Whole Foods Building) and 1221 Van (aka That Big Building On South Capitol Immediately North of the Ballpark):
All the links above to project pages have additional brand spanking new pics, and of course Before photos.
Next up, checking out holes in the ground, both current and coming soon.
 

(Sorry for short and sweet. My Own Private JDLand, etc. etc.)
* The BID reports that Forest City has announced (I never hear about Forest City things directly anymore) that all-organic, vegan, and gluten-free juice bar and raw-food kitchen The Juice Laundry will be coming to Arris in the spring, its first location outside of its home base in Charlottesville. If you want a sneak preview, there's a pop-up version of the Juice Laundry this weekend at the corner of 4th and Tingey, from 10 am to 6 pm today (Friday, Dec. 2) and tomorrow (Saturday, Dec. 3).
* Barred in DC says that "the long saga for the Bardo River Brewery appears to be over," with Bardo and ABRA having entering into a consent order this week that will finally pave the way for a liquor license. Barred says that the order means that Bardo can be open until midnight, but is "required to create a security plan and maintain a comprehensive security camera system and cannot seek permission to have entertainment, such as live music or DJs." However, an "anonymous" comment on Barred's post disputes these items, and says that Bardo "is still pursuing legal measures due to the delays ABRA's illegal actions caused." Gosh, I wonder who wrote that!
I kind of gave up on following the many twists and turns after last year's liquor license veto, but Barred has posts to catch you up on this new brewery plan.
UPDATE, DEC. 7: The owner of Bardo has been busy on Twitter yesterday and today, making clear his vast displeasure with ABRA and ANC 6D.
 

It took a while for the weather and the calendar to successfully dovetail, but on Sunday the JDLand Camera finally got a look at the new plaza now nestled between Diamond Teague Park and Dock 79, as well as the extension of the Anacostia Riverwalk westward. (I missed out on the fountains, though.)
Once The Salt Line and All-Purpose open in their spots next year, and baseball fans figure out that there's a spot to hang out on the stadium's southeastern side (with handy built-in tables to eat carryout pizza at), this may become a pretty activated location. Especially in comparison to what it looked like 11 years ago.
Comments (23)
More posts: allpurpose, Florida Rock, riverwalk, saltline
 

It will be a mere 11 years ago next week that I wrote my first real post focusing on the site on the banks of the Anacostia known as Florida Rock, and there's been at least 120 posts since then, covering numerous changes in plans and designs.
And yet all of a sudden, here we are, with the first residents now moving into Dock 79, the development's first-phase 305-unit rental building. I'm getting verklempt!
The new JDLand camera got its first workout on Thursday with a tour of much of the building, and it should come as no surprise that this camera, as previous ones, was as interested in the views out of the windows as in the inside of the building itself. To the north, Nats Park fills the field of vision, while to the south (and east and southwest), the Anacostia River and its banks make for a vista that is not a standard Washington D.C. apartment building offering.
You'll want to browse the entire gallery of course to get better views of the model unit, the current state of the Riverwalk and new public plaza, and the common areas, but here are a few highlights:
Plus, there's this stitched-together panorama taken from one of the unit's balconies. Thank heavens it wasn't raining.
As for Dock 79's retail spaces, there are already announced plans for restaurants The Salt Line and All-Purpose Pizzeria to arrive in 2017, and I'm told that there should be announcements of additional tenants Any Minute Now.
For more specifics on the building, such as rents, floor plans, amenities, and all the stuff that normal people would be interested in, visit Dock79.com. For many more photos and details on the long road to this point, see my Florida Rock project page.
And with hardly a chance to catch our breath, Dock 79's forthcoming sibling next door is now in the early stages of its own trip through the Zoning Fun Factory.
Comments (23)
More posts: Development News, dock79, Florida Rock
 

The output of the current official JDLand camera (an eight-year-old Canon 50D with a Sigma 18-200 lens) has been a bit less sharp of late (like me!), and given that the shutter has fired more than 110,000 times since 2008, I have been figuring it's probably time for a new camera. But since I knew I'd also want a new lens as well, I decided to buy that first and see if maybe the far cheaper component was the problem. I finally got the chance to take the new lens for a workout on Sunday, and the ruling after looking at the 730 photos I took is: I need a new camera. (Will probably be the 80D.)
All of that is just a time-wasting intro to a roundup of the progress photos I took.
Dock 79 is getting pretty close to the finish line, with the sidewalk along Potomac Avenue now open and work proceeding on the open plaza to its east. (Yes, those are sculptures.) There's also emerging placeholding signage for The Salt Line in advance of its 2017 opening.
ORE 82 now has some completed balconies overlooking New Jersey Avenue and I Street, but mainly I just wanted the excuse to post my rather striking shot (below left). And speaking of red buildings, the Homewood Suites at 50 M is making steady progress as well.
The walls of windows at 909 Half Street are making for some interesting reflections, not only from the reflected bright blue sky but from the patterns of recesses and bump-outs, as well as the windows that are left open to presumably give the poor workers a little air.
If you stand at New Jersey and M, you can get good views of Insignia on M to your north and the F1rst apartment/Residence Inn hotel project to your west.
Then we have the even newer neighbors, the ones who we can't quite see just yet, although the 1244 South Capitol apartment building now has one floor above ground level. (I admit, this is one I am looking forward to watching rise up.) Then there's the office building at 99 M, which seems to be slooooowly getting ready for vertical construction, though a peek down in the hole indicates that a skeleton is still some weeks away.
I also took photos of the Bixby, but nothing much is changing on the outside there. And I only took morning-light photos, which means I don't have any good ones of Agora, unless you like looking at its backside. (So to speak.)
Then there's Parcel O at the Yards, where one condo and one apartment building are to be built. Fences are up, and there is some infrastructure work going on along with breaking up the concrete pad that the trapeze school stood on until last year. I believe the shoring, sheeting, and excavation permit is approved, but whether the true Digging of the Dirt is underway, well, We Shall See.
There are more new photos than just the ones above--follow the links for additional shots, plus I've also updated a bunch of before-and-after sliders. And maybe soon I'll get out in the afternoon light to get photos of the western side of all of these projects--with a new camera!
(If you're thinking that these photos don't look that blurry, it's really more on the edges of the shots where the problem lies, plus I do some sharpening of all photos after I size them down for posting.)
 

With the 305-unit Dock 79 apartment building very close to completion, the developers of the site on the Anacostia River that us oldsters still refer to as Florida Rock have now filed with the Zoning Commission their plans* for the project's next phase, a 130-foot-tall 253-unit residential building with 12,500 square feet of retail at 71 Potomac Avenue.
There will be at least two levels of underground parking, with a third level being pondered "given the parking demands of [Nationals Park] and the pending soccer stadium." And although the building is not covered by the city's Inclusionary Zoning laws, the filing says that eight percent of the units will be set aside for households with incomes up to 80 percent of the Area Median Income.
The construction of this building will also bring the completion of "Florida Rock Alley," running between 71 Potomac and Dock 79 and providing another route for pedestrians to move between Potomac Avenue and the waterfront along with the access to parking and loading for both buildings. The waterfront Esplanade will also be extended along 71 Potomac's frontage.
The 12,500 square feet of retail is an increase the previously approved 5,600 square feet. In the filing statement, developers Florida Rock Properties and MRP Realty mention that "based on the success in leasing retail space in Dock 79, the Applicant is confident that there is a retail market along Potomac Avenue," and that "the desire for retailers to locate in this area has only increased" since the previous plans were approved in 2013.
The site plans are very helpful to not only understand where this Phase 2 building at 71 Potomac will be, but how the eventual third and fourth phases are dependent on the construction of the new Douglass Bridge and its accompanying traffic oval, and the demolition of the existing bridge. (The filing mentions DDOT's current estimated schedule of a notice to proceed on the new bridge in 2017 and completion in 2020, but We Shall See.)
There are a slew of renderings in the zoning packet, which of course I'm snagging (we'll call it a one-for-one exchange for all of the photos of mine they used in the site overview portion of the package!).
These plans will require ANC presentations and a vote and zoning hearings and building permits and financing, so don't pack your bags just yet.
*For those to whom such things matter, this is a second-stage PUD filing.
Comments (12)
More posts: 71potomac, Development News, Florida Rock
 

The second I posted the news of Slipstream I realized I had forgotten one other restaurant announcement* that slipped through recently while I was otherwise occupied, which is that All-Purpose Pizzeria has been announced as the second restaurant tenant at Dock 79, joining The Salt Line.
All-Purpose is another venture from the folks behind Red Hen an Boundary Stone, with its first location having opened earlier this year at 1250 9th St., NW.
That location is open six days a week for dinner, and the the menu has flights of cheese, cold and hot antipasti in addition to the centerpiece pizzas.
City Paper profiled All-Purpose back in May, describing the process with a 650-degree oven that results in a crust "crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside, and sturdy enough for the 'New York fold hold.'"
*Though, if you are a wise reader of the JDLand comments, you would already know about this, since we discussed passing references to this without any official announcement back in May.
UPDATE: Washingtonian has additional details, including that there will be a separate takeout shop serving square Sicilian-style slices.
Comments (6)
More posts: allpurpose, Florida Rock, Restaurants/Nightlife
 

Earlier this week the leasing center opened for the 305-unit Dock 79 apartment building at 1st and Potomac on the old Florida Rock site. It's in a trailer west of the building (not in the building itself), so I wandered by to (of course) document it and say hello to the new neighbors.
The current rate sheet shows studio units starting at $1,875, 1 BR/1 BA starting at just under $2,000, 1 BR/den starting at $2,740, 2 BR/1 BA at $2,885, and 2 BR/2 BA at $2,740. There are also additional parking fees, pet fees, amenity fees, and application fees.
They are currently expecting the first move-ins to happen somewhere mid-summer-ish.
The official web site has floor plans and additional info. The residential portion of the building is being managed by Kettler.
As for the building itself, the exterior is getting close to being finished, and when I was there I also saw the planks being laid for the extension of the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail west of Diamond Teague Park, as you can see in the first photo below. The second photo gives a decent view of the rest of the walk that is under construction:
Comments (11)
More posts: dock79, Florida Rock
 
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