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Near Southeast DC Past News Items
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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The Near Southeast Traveling Road Show, On Demand
During my poking around on the DC Office of Cable Television web site recently, I discovered that many of the groundbreakings and other events in Near Southeast this year that have been broadcast on the city's cable channel 16 are also available On Demand; the same goes for council hearings, available on Channel 13's On Demand page. (I kinda sorta knew that the On Demand stuff was there, but when I checked it many moons ago, it didn't seem quite so complete, so I hadn't looked back in on it for a while.)
So if you've missed any of the following four-star telecasts from 2007, you can watch them at your leisure:
* The July bill-signing ceremony at the Earth Conservations Corps pumphouse where the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation and the National Capital Revitalization Corporation were officially abolished;
* JPI's June "groundbreaking" for its four projects along I Street ("Capitol Yards");
* The January groundbreaking marking the start of the Navy Yard Metro renovation and Monument's Half Street project;
* And pretty much any ceremony anywhere in the city the mayor was at since the beginning of the year, plus a lot of other presentations and events. (Be sure not to miss the Reporters' Roundtable "Snitching Debate.") Check the dropdown boxes on the On Demand page for the offerings. I've added the above links to all of the various project pages in case you're desperate to find them again someday.
Two of the most recent shindigs haven't gotten added to the lineup yet--the Oct. 22 kickoff ceremony for the Capitol Riverfront BID (in which you can find out where the "Traveling Roadshow" moniker originated), and the mayor's remarks at the Nov. 13 turf unveiling at the ballpark. Ditto with the Waterside Mall Demolition program, which is currently playing on Channel 16 but hasn't yet made it to On Demand. But perhaps they'll show up eventually.
 

Quick Links: Parking, Bridges, Streetcars
I just can't bear to go completely dark for too many days in a row, so here's some light reading for your post-turkey haze:
* These are almost a month old now (oops), but the Hill Rag has an opinion piece on the plans for the 11th Street Bridges, plus an article on the community concern on Capitol Hill and in Southwest over the planning for ballpark parking.
* Today's Washington Business Journal looks at the plans for the return of streetcars to DC, a very long-term project that could eventually have light rail running down M Street SE and across both the 11th Street and Douglass bridges. But that's a loooong ways off--first they have to finally get a long-delayed test line in Anacostia off the ground, and then the H Street NE corridor would be next. There used to be a good web site on the project at DCTransitFuture.com, but that site is now hijacked with a fake blog, so the best I can give you is this DDOT page with a few links.
* There's also a WBJ article on PNC Bank securing the naming rights to the Diamond-level seats (the second priciest) and the club lounge at the ballpark. Still no word on naming rights for the stadium itself, though a few weeks ago we heard that there might not be a sponsor during the inaugural season.
 

Barely Useful JDLand Page Now on Facebook
With news no doubt being hard to come by over the next few days, I had to cook up something to provide the sort time-wasting that so many people visit JDLand to find. So here's the new JDLand.com page on Facebook, which basically offers nothing of interest for now other than a way to declare yourself "A Fan." And I guess the option to write something of great interest on the Wall. I just built it last night, and haven't played with it much to figure out what other sort of tricks and modules it can offer, but those of you who are Facebook-addicted can still wander by while I'm tinkering.
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Latest Florida Rock Design Moves Another Step Forward
At Monday night's Zoning Commission hearing, Florida Rock's request for a hearing on the revised design for RiverFront on the Anacostia was approved. (See Monday's post for the quick description of the project.) You can read the Office of Planning report on the latest design, which also includes a lot of good history as to the twists and turns this project has taken over the years.
There have been some small changes since this revised design was first unveiled back in June, and even some further changes from renderings I posted here in September, with the Office of Planning looking for more variation of materials used for the four buildings proposed for the project instead of being all glass (to "minimize the potential campus effect," according to the report). There's also been some changes to the amenities package that the developer is offering, though this is still being worked out between the developer and the Office of Planning. As of this filing, they have expanded the amount of workforce-level housing to 29,000 square feet/25 units to bring it in line with the city's inclusionary zoning requirements. On the flip side, they have scaled back their financial contribution to the creation of Diamond Teague Park to $350,000 from $3.5 million, since the park is now fully funded from other sources.
You can see some new renderings of the latest design and specifics about the project on my Florida Rock/RiverFront page (though note that the site map and the rendering of the entire project are older; I hope to get updated versions soon). And, just as a reminder, this is a project that is planned to be completed in multiple phases over many years. The developers would start with the eastern office building and the plaza known as "The Pitch" adjacent to Diamond Teague Park, perhaps in 2008.
The developers have asked for an expedited hearing on this new design (technically known as a modification to the project's second-stage PUD), so it could appear on the commission's calendar before too long.
More posts: Florida Rock, zoning
 

Southwest Neighborhood Assembly Annexing Near Southeast
The Southwest Neighborhood Assembly, the nonprofit resident association established in 1964 to "improve the quality of life for all Southwest residents," recently created a "Near Southeast Task Force", clearly wanting to get in on all the fun and festivities across the way on the cool side of South Capitol Street. (Hey, we kid because we love.) They're looking for Near Southeast residents to join the task force, with hopes that this new group leads "to the extension of the activities and benefits of our resident association" into Southeast. The assembly's next monthly meeting is on Monday, Nov. 26, at the St. Vincent de Paul's Catholic Church at South Capitol and M, at 7:30 pm, with invited speakers including new MPD First District commander David Kemperin, council member Tommy Wells, and representatives of Forest City Washington (developers of The Yards, Capper/Carrollsburg, and the old Waterside Mall in Southwest).
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Rash of Stolen Cars
If you haven't been watching the crime reports feed on my home page, and if you're someone who parks in Near Southeast on a regular basis, you might want to know that there's been a wave of car thefts reported--eight attempts have resulted in six successful thefts in the past two weeks, compared to approximately 19 attempts and 18 thefts over the first 10 months of the year.
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Nov 19, 2007 12:27 PM
Deadline for Public Comments on 11th Street Bridges
If you're wanting to comment either positively or negatively on the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the 11th Street Bridges (which has identified a "preferred alternative" for a new design for the bridges and their interchanges) tomorrow (Nov. 20) is the deadline to do so, though you'd better use fax or e-mail at this point.
More posts: 11th Street Bridges
 

Nov 19, 2007 11:36 AM
Short Takes on Teague Park, Poplar Point, Yards
Three quick items:
* I've received word that the Commission on Fine Arts approved the revised design for Diamond Teague Park at its meeting last week. This follows on the heels of a favorable response from the National Capital Planning Commission back on Nov. 1. Next steps are continuing through the permitting process with first the Army Corps of Engineers (because of the piers and water access) and then eventually local permits. Hopefully I can get a copy of the revised site plan for the park in the near future.
* Forest City Enterprises, one of the big guns in Near Southeast with its redevelopment of both The Yards and Capper/Carrollsburg, has been named one of the four short-list developers for Poplar Point. Mid-City Urban, which is partnering with Forest City on Capper, is also one of the finalists, as part of a team with General Growth Properties and Doracon.
* There's a Zoning Commission hearing now scheduled for Jan. 10, 2008 on a series of changes to the zoning rules that govern the redevelopment of The Yards. These changes are spelled out in the hearing notice, and are described as text amendments that "clarify requirements of the SEFC Overlay District and correct technical errors." There's also a request to readjust the SFC's property line between it and the Navy Yard and also change a few of the zone district boundaries as part of the realignment of Water Street within the Federal Center.
 

Nov 19, 2007 12:02 AM
Florida Rock Back at the Zoning Commission
Monday (Nov. 19) is the monthly Zoning Commission meeting, and Florida Rock (or, "RiverFront on the Anacostia") is one of the agenda items. I *believe* it's going to be a request for a new hearing on the project's revised design, which I first posted here in June, and which received favorable comments from the Zoning Commission in July. (This is a modification to the second-stage PUD, for those In The Know.) The meeting is at 6:30 pm, and will be shown via live webcast.
As always, this monthly zoning meeting overlaps with ANC 6D's monthly meeting; I haven't yet seen an agenda for that meeting, so at this point, I'm going to commit myself to finding out what's up with Florida Rock. (I knew I shouldn't have given the entire JDLand staff the week off at Thanksgiving.)
If you're arriving late and don't know what Florida Rock is, the project page will give you most of the scoop. But the short version is that it's the nearly six acres of land directly south of the ballpark, on the Anacostia River. The developers have been working for nearly 10 years to get this property transitioned away from the concrete business currently there to a 1.1 million square foot mixed-use waterfront destination.
At the February meeting where approval of the design was expected, the Zoning Commission unexpectedly sent the architects back to the drawing board, wanting a greater amount of residential space in the project, better views to and from the ballpark, and a better "expression of place." And now the developers are hoping to get this project moving forward, so that perhaps the first phase--an office-building with ground-floor retail and a public plaza on the easternmost end of the site, next to Diamond Teague Park--could get underway in 2008. The rest of the project, with a hotel, residential building, office building, public spaces, retail, and the riverwalk along the Anacostia, could take a while to be completed, especially given that the western portion of the site is probably not going to be ready until the current Douglass Bridge is demolished and the new new Douglass Bridge is built.
You can see the latest renderings, along with some watercolors and much more detailed descriptions of the revised design, on the project page.
UPDATE: The ANC agenda is now online, and other than the ballpark liquor license application that I wrote about a few weeks ago, there's no pressing Near Southeast news listed.
 

Nov 18, 2007 12:55 PM
Quick Demolition Photo Updates
I've added some quick photos this morning showing the demolition progress at both old Capper Seniors and 1345 South Capitol Street, which you can see all at once here (though they really benefit from being paired with their before-and-afters, as seen on the project pages and in the expanded Capper Seniors photo archive). The South Capitol Street photos were hurried and ended up being incomplete after yet another run-in with the ballpark's Hired Badge Harry, who screamed at me incessantly for daring to even stand on the curb on the east side of South Capitol Street at O Street while trying to take pictures of the 1345 site, and with my having no interest in getting any closer to the ballpark site behind me. Once I moved a half-inch forward into the gutter, at the mercy of three lanes of high-speed traffic, I was then no longer Public Enemy #1.
UPDATE: I also tossed in a few new photos from the freeway at South Capitol Street, where I was a bit surprised to now see 55 M Street peeking into view in a few of the shots.
 

Nov 16, 2007 6:18 PM
NPR Looking at Near Southeast (and Elsewhere) for New Home
Today's print edition of the Washington Business Journal reports that National Public Radio is looking for 400,000 square feet of office space for a new headquarters to replace their current location on Massachusetts Avenue. In addition to sites in NoMa and Silver Spring, the article lists possible Near Southeast locations 1015 Half Street, 1100 South Capitol, and.... 225 Virginia Avenue? The site for which the city signed a long-term lease last year when it planned to move the the Metropolitan Police Department there, before that plan fell apart in late summer? Is this just a mistake by the reporter, or is this a hint at bigger news afoot about the future of the old Post Plant?
Maybe those Capitol views are particularly enticing to the media--two months ago the WBJ reported that CNN is also looking at 1015 Half, 1100 South Capitol, and Lerner Enterprises' proposed building at 1000 South Capitol. (The lower prices on commercial real estate in this part of town probably don't hurt, either.)
 

Nov 16, 2007 2:30 PM
Hearing on Bridge Projects
Here's my in-depth learned summary of today's city council hearing on proposed bridge projects in the city, about 98 percent of which focused on the future plans for the 11th Street Bridges:
* Some people are against it.
* Some people are for it.
The three-hour hearing should be posted soon on the Channel 13 On Demand lineup for this week, if you want to see for yourself the specifics. But really, it all boils down to arguments over capacity, over whether local streets will see a reduction in cut-through commuter traffic, and differences between Capitol Hill residents and advocacy groups and east-of-the-river residents and advocacy groups, none of whom spoke with any sort of uniform voice.
And since no one spoke about any of the preferred design's impacts on Near Southeast specifically (of which there are a few, mainly the revamped interchanges at 11th and M), I'll just leave it to others to go into more detail.
UPDATE: The Capitol Hill Restoration Society was concerned enough about the plans for the 11th Street Bridges that it hired its own traffic consultant--that report is now posted on the CHRS web site. Plus, DG-rad of And Now, Anacostia attended the hearing and has posted some notes, along with this link to slides DDOT presented about the project at this week's ANC 6B meeting, showing lots of graphics and numbers that were the source of much contention at the hearing.
 

Nov 16, 2007 1:55 PM
Nats Season Ticket Holders Find Out About Their Seats
Even though the packages are going out in snail mail just today, Nats season ticket holders are able today to go to the Nationals' ticket web site to find out what seats they've been assigned in the new ballpark. And they're crying with either happiness or despondency, depending on whether or not they got the locations they requested. If you're wanting to know what the view from your new seats looks like, try the 3D seat viewer, or check out my panoramas taken inside the stadium on Tuesday.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

Nov 16, 2007 8:52 AM
Square 696 Alley Closing Hearing -- The $7 Million Question
Thanks to the glories of the On Demand video offerings at the city's Office of Cable Television web site, I was able to catch Wednesday's hearing on the request to close the 8,197-square-foot alley that bisects Square 696, the block bounded by I, K, First, and Half streets that DRI Development bought in April for $64 million. As I posted a few weeks ago after DRI's presentation to ANC 6D, DRI is planning more than 825,000 square feet of office and retail on the block, in three buildings that would be built in three phases, the first being a 300,000-square-foot office building along I Street that could begin construction in the summer of 2008.
As part of its successful bid to get the ANC's support, DRI and its development partner Jamestown Properties have committed to a $100,000 payment to the Near Southeast/Southwest community fund, LEED certification, and an 8,000-square-foot public plaza at First and K streets to replace the "public space" being lost by the alley closing.
The early part of the hearing was pretty standard as these types of sessions go. The development's representatives described their agreement with the ANC, and also the planned 37,000-square-feet of retail what would serve not only the office tenants but also the residential projects that will soon surround the block on all sides. Also touted were the large south-facing public plaza (light-filled and sunny!) with a 20-foot-wide pedestrian "breezeway" through the block to open the area to pedestrians arriving from I Street, the innovative loading ramps within turnaround space inside the buildings to eliminate the need for commercial vehicles to back up or turn around out in the streets, the fitness center with changing and shower facilities to encourage bicycle use, and more.
Then, Council Member Tommy Wells began to ask questions about the amount of the developers' required contribution to the city's Housing Production Trust Fund, dedicated to the creation of affordable housing. Wells brought up a slight discrepancy between the number the developers were citing versus what the Office of Planning had determined the figure to be.
Developer figure? Approximately $890,000.
Office of Planning figure? More like $8 million.
The hearing then became a blur of real and estimated assessed values, total F.A.R. based on T.D.R.s (that's total floor-area ratios based on transfers of development rights, for those of you whose minds are blissfully unsullied with this stuff), buildable square footage, and on-the-fly calculations. Council Chairman Vincent Gray, after commenting that even the $890,000 figure cited by the developers would be the largest trust fund contribution ever, wondered how many projects in the District "would see the light of day" if the city starts talking about $8 million contributions. Wells and Gray agreed that the calculating discrepancies need to be resolved so that the trust fund law can be implemented consistently, and the hearing ended with pledges from the applicant to provide additional information.
And despite the wrangling over the trust fund contribution, Council Member Wells made sure to reiterate that he supports the project, especially because of the environmentally friendly aspects of the design.
In the meantime, the last tenant on the block (a taxi repair garage) will be vacating when its lease expires in February.
Check my Square 696 page for an early sitemap of the project, along with photos of the block.
 

Nov 15, 2007 8:36 PM
Friday Council Hearing on Bridge Projects
A reminder for those who might be interested that tomorrow (Friday, Nov. 16) at 10 am is the City Council Committee on Public Works and the Environment hearing on "Major Bridge Construction Projects in the District," which will no doubt include discussions of the 11th Street Bridges, the 14th Street Bridge, and probably the Douglass Bridge. It can be watched live on DC Cable 13 or via streaming video, and will be archived on the Office of Cable Television web site for later on-demand showings. I'll be watching it and will report back on any Near Southeast-specific news that comes out of it. I'm guessing that among the public witnesses will be representatives of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens of Eastern Washington, who have been raising questions about the various road and bridge projects planned along the Anacostia, including advocating that a new "traffic mobility study" be undertaken. (Here's their flyer and a copy of a letter to Mayor Fenty they sent back in August.)
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Nov 15, 2007 6:03 PM
Updated Capper Senior Demolition Photos
During the five minutes it was sunny this afternoon, I managed to get some updated photos of the demolition at old Capper Seniors, where the work is still concentrated on the western side of the building. Within the past day or two the wrecking ball has sliced a hole in the main portion of the building, leaving the old southwest wing standing alone and temporarily making the tower into two buildings. Soon they'll be starting on the still-bricked elevator shaft in the center of the building on the north side. (I wouldn't park my car too close to there for the next few days.) Check the Expanded Project Archive if you want more angles of the progress, though they didn't all get updated today. And remember to click on the Click to see all available photos of this location. icon to see all the photos in the archive from a vantage point--the progression of shots looking south at the building from across L Street are pretty intriguing. They've gotten a lot done in eight days....
 

Nov 15, 2007 1:02 PM
Douglass Bridge Lane Closures This Weekend - Inbound Sidewalk Open
Word has just come out from DDOT that there will be lane closures on the Douglass Bridge this weekend, weather permitting: "Two inbound lanes on the bridge will be closed to traffic from 7 a.m. on Saturday, November 17 until 5 p.m. on Sunday, November 18. [and] Two inbound lanes on the bridge will be closed to traffic from 7 a.m. on Saturday, November 17 until 5 p.m. on Sunday, November 18." The advisory also says that the outbound sidewalk will now be closed for repair, and the the inbound sidewalk will now be opened to pedestrians and bicycles, which makes me really happy because now I'll finally get back some of my photo perches that have been inaccessible since late June.
 

Nov 14, 2007 10:21 PM
Diamond Teague Park on Thursday CFA Agenda
The draft agenda for tomorrow's (Nov. 15) monthly meeting of the Commission on Fine Arts indicates that there will be a presentation of a revised design for Diamond Teague Park. The city initially brought the park in front of the CFA back in September, where according to the meeting's minutes the design was met with a number of concerns about its "fussy and timid" small-scale design when compared to the grand scope of the ballpark across the street; it was described as "overly focused on small elements that are conceptually inappropriate within the large-scale context." (And I'm not sure that the landscape architect's response that the grand staircase of the ballpark should be reduced in size in order for it to better relate to this new smaller park was the best reply.) A post-meeting letter from the CFA after the meeting outlined the revisions the commission was seeking.
I suggest reading the CFA minutes, which give a very detailed description of the initial plans for the park as well as the back-and-forth between the commissioners, Judi Greenberg of the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, and landscape architect Jonathan Fitch; you can look at these original park designs on the web site of Fitch's Landscape Architecture Bureau, by navigating through all the Flash ridiculousness to Projects, then Green, then Diamond Teague.
According to the minutes, the plans are to build the park in three phases, starting with the commercial and recreational piers and the central portion of the park (on the one section of land the city currently owns); later phases would be dependent on Florida Rock's development of its planned public plaza abutting Teague Park and the development of the southern portion of the WASA site as well as the construction of a floating boardwalk to connect the park to the waterfront park at The Yards (scheduled for completion in 2010). If you're interested in the water taxis that the city envisions docking at Teague Park, the minutes have a lot of detail about how their operations would work; apparently a lot of coordination is going on with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, though there's yet to be any design released by the Corps for public comment.
There was a fair amount of discussion about whether the park's scale can accommodate the large number of visitors that will be drawn over by the ballpark and by the proposed water taxi piers, as well as questions about whether the park should even be built if WASA (right next door) is not addressing sewer overflow issues. (Lovely.)
Six weeks later, on Nov. 1, the park went through another of its many required reviews, this time by the National Capital Planning Commission, which "commented favorably" on the park's design without discussion; the staff recommendation document has a black-and-white site plan for the park that does seem to have been reworked in response to the CFA comments, but I don't know for sure if that's the same design being presented to the CFA on Thursday.
I won't be able to go to the CFA meeting, so hopefully I can get some information on what transpires without having to wait too long, although so far the city has held information about the park very close to its vest. In the meantime, you can look at my pictures of the site and see what little background links and info I've been able to scrounge up.
UPDATE, 11/19: The CFA did approve this revised design at the 11/15 meeting.
 

Nov 14, 2007 2:30 PM
Update on the Missing Call Boxes
A few weeks ago, I wrote both here and in the Post about how three historic call boxes along First Street (at L, N, and O) went missing in early October. Voice of the Hill has followed up with DDOT, and apparently two of the three were removed and put into storage for protection until the streetscape improvements along First Street are completed early next year. The whereabouts of the third box are unknown. The piece also gives more background on Cultural Tourism DC's efforts to restore the call boxes throughout the city, and how the Earth Conservations Corps is planning to repaint about 40 boxes in Southwest and Southeast.
More posts:
 

Nov 14, 2007 9:02 AM
More Detail on the Pope's Gig at the Ballpark
While still recovering from yesterday's media-event-propelled onslaught, I have enough energy to point you to today's Examiner story that provides more detail on how it came to pass that the Pope will be appearing at Nationals Park. (The archbishop called the Lerners.) This is actually a Nationals event, not one of the city's eight yearly allowed uses of the stadium.
 
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