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25 M
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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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New Capitol Quarter Photos (Foundations. Yay.)
I can't pretend that photos of not-very-high cinderblock foundations coming up along L and Fourth streets are really all that exciting (unless you own one of the houses-to-be), but that didn't stop me from taking a quick batch of new Capitol Quarter photos this morning, despite having to tiptoe around the serious infrastructure work clogging up L and Fifth.
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Morning Roundup: Office Space Market, Gun Stores, Live Online Chat about Drag Queens
* Monday's Post has a couple of pieces on the state of the area's commercial real estate market, and looks specifically at how NoMa doesn't have tenants racing in despite the high-profile acquisitions of NPR and the Justice Department. It also compares NoMa to Near Southeast, and quotes Russell Hines of Monument Realty as saying that "although the slow economy has made leasing the building more complicated, the company had seen interest from some associations and other private companies looking to escape high rents downtown." Alas, the piece mentions "50 M" as Monument's 275,000-sq-ft office building scheduled for completion next year when it means 55 M. (50 M is Monument's project, too--a proposed 130,000-sq-ft office building on the old Sunoco station site, but they are looking for tenants before starting construction there.)
* A Sunday Examiner piece looks at the temporary zoning rules covering where gun stores can be located in DC: "Firearms dealers who apply for a D.C. location will be largely restricted to high density commercial areas downtown and kept at least two football fields away from where people live, play and pray, according to emergency rules now in place." Included in the allowed zones are C-3-C areas, which means that the area of Near Southeast between South Capitol, Second, M, and the freeway (my "North of M" area) is covered. (See the map on page 8 of the OP report for exact boundaries.) Other restrictions: "All applicants, under the new rules, must appear before the Board of Zoning Adjustments to obtain a special zoning exception. Retail stores will be limited to the downtown area, generally between Massachusetts and Pennsylvania avenues Northwest, in addition to about 25 square blocks between Independence Avenue and M Street in Southwest. No dealer will be allowed within 600 feet of a residence, school, library, church or playground." Of course, the gun stores would have to be able to afford the rents in the pricey new buildings going up, since there aren't too many other places left in the neighborhood.
* Late notice (unless you're subscribed to my Twitter feed, in which case you heard about this yesterday), but there's a Live Online chat today at noon with the author of the Post magazine's piece on the drag queens of Near Southeast, and the man known as "Mame Dennis" who was the focal point of the article will be participating, too.
 

Youth River Sports Day at the Boathouses, Aug. 23
The Anacostia Community Boathouse Association is having its second Youth River Sports Day on Saturday, Aug. 23 from 10 am to 2 pm, at their boathouses nestled between the 11th Street Bridges spans (1115 O Street, SE). The 10 member organizations of the ACBA are banding together to help teach kids (and grownups) how to paddle in outrigger canoes and dragon boats and how to row in big training barges--or you can just take a slow tour of the Anacostia River. The events are free, though the ACBA does ask you to register so they know how many people are coming. If you want more background on the boathouse operations at O Street, there's now an interesting history page on the ACBA web site.
(If you want to receive day-before reminders about this event, or other events in the neighborhood, sign up for the JDLand Twitter feed. In addition to reminders and random thoughts, JDLand twitter readers get an added bonus: they knew a few hours ago that I was going to be posting about this today--it's like a sneak preview for the blog.)
 

The Drag Queens of Near Southeast
The Sunday Washington Post magazine has a long story about the drag queens who for years called the clubs of Near Southeast home. It talks about how things used to be at the clubs, and the difficulties the clubs (and the queens) have had finding a new home since the wave of ballpark development closed places like Club 55 (above left, on what's now the north side of the Velocity block) and Ziegfield's (above right, now home to shallow right field).
Here's some quotes from a conversation with Carl Rizzi, who long performed at Club 55 as "Mame Dennis": "He is still holding out hope that the Dicksons can find a place to reopen Club 55, so that they will again have a permanent home. He faults the gay community for being caught so flat-footed; they took for granted that they'd always have Southeast, he says. 'I guess we never in our wildest imagination thought anyone would tear that down because it was such an undesirable area.' The city benefits from having a ballpark, says Rizzi, 'and that's all well and good. But [a long-standing gay community] was all torn down and torn apart and scattered, and we had no place to go and no help.' " The online version of the story has an accompanying video about Rizzi and the clubs.
 

Onyx Opening Monday? And Other Quick Links
A few quick hits to start the day:
* DCMud says that Onyx on First is opening Monday (so my post earlier this week on it looking close to opening wasn't too far off). I'm trying to confirm, but haven't heard back yet. UPDATE: They tell me that yes, they're opening Monday.
* The Fredericksburg (Va.) Free Lance-Star has a nice piece on one of the tour guides at Nationals Park. (Didn't know that there's ballpark tours? Find out more here.)
* The Examiner reports on allegations by DC auditors of an ethics violation by former Anacostia Waterfront Corporation chief Andrew Altman back in 2005, having to do with the AWC signing a contract with a real estate services company that listed Altman as a reference.
* Interest in JDLand reaches Brazil. (Thank heavens for Babelfish's Portuguese-to-English translator.)
* The Nationals have announced that they have donated more than 10,000 tickets to August games at the ballpark to local community and civic groups, as part of MLB's "Commissioner's Initiative for Kids" program. Southwest's King Greenleaf Recreation Center was one of the recipients.
 

DC and Verizon Reach Deal on FIOS
From the Post's WashBizBlog: "The District and Verizon Communications have reached an agreement to bring the company's FiOS high-speed Internet service to the city. Eric Richardson, director of D.C. Office of Cable Television, said the agreement requires approval by the mayor's office and the D.C. Council, a process he said could be completed by the end of the year. Richardson said negotiations took nine months, less time than it has taken the District to work out previous cable franchise agreements." As posted a few weeks back, there's a fence sign in the 900 block of Half Street, SE proclaiming "1st Community in DC to Offer Verizon FIOS!", and 70/100 I have marketed themselves as pre-wired for FIOS, so perhaps Near Southeast will be at the front of the line when service does actually start. When would that be? "A spokesman for Verizon, Harry Mitchell, said his company looks forward to introducing the service soon. 'We are excited about this. Washington is a great market for us,' he said."
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City Launches New Anacostia Waterfront Projects Web Site -- 11th Street Bridges Replacement Info
On Wednesday DDOT announced a new web site, called Anacostia Waterfront: Realizing the Vision. It's billed as a "centralized location for updates about the Anacostia Waterfront, as well as project-specific information and links," though as of now the only detailed project information is for the plans to replace the 11th Street Bridges, there there are also links to the Anacostia Waterfront Framework Plan and the Comprehensive Plan.
The items on the 11th Street Bridges include those that I blogged about late last week, as the city starts to move forward to procure design/build services for the project. They've posted the presentation slides from Monday's informational meeting, which mention the goal of meeting or beating the construction completion date of Dec. 31, 2013 (mark your calendars). DDOT expects to release the Request for Qualifications on Aug. 15, followed by a Request for Proposals by the end of the year, with a contractor selection and agreement completed by June of 2009, so that work can begin soon after.
This new web site repeats what I saw on the 11th Street Bridges EIS web site, that the city "will remove the existing flyover ramps to RFK this summer," but doesn't have any additional details. (Summer does technically run until mid-September, I guess.)
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JDLand.com Among Finalists for 2008 Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism
Today may be just another lazy summer day for you, but it's an exciting one for me, with the announcement that JDLand.com is one of the four finalists for this year's Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism. I'm beyond thrilled that my work as a neighborhood blogger has been recognized as one of the many innovative approaches to journalism bubbling up on the web--I guess the lack of sleep has been worth it. It's also a pretty cool (and ironic) award for someone who ditched journalism school way back when because she couldn't stand going to public meetings.
If you're visiting the site for the first time, click the map at right to see my pages devoted to the various projects underway, completed, or planned in Near Southeast. You can also check out my coverage of the construction and opening of Nationals Park, last year's makeover of the Frederick Douglass Bridge, and my favorite shots from my Photo Archive showing the before-and-after views (or, in many cases, the before-and-during views) of the huge changes that this 100-block area has undergone in the past 5 1/2 years. You can even see my gallery of the more than 150 buildings that have been demolished to make way for all the shiny new developments. Or just scroll through the blog entries to watch the flurry of Near Southeast news go by.
The actual awards--a $10,000 Grand Prize, a $2,000 Citizen's Media Award, plus two $2,000 Special Distinction awards--will be handed out during a September 10 symposium at the National Press Club, where the four winners will present their sites.
You can read the official Knight-Batten release, along with my sorry first-ever attempt at a press release if you want something official from me. More about how this site came to be can be found here.
There would be no JDLand, of course, without all the people (mostly unheralded) who have helped me out over the past five-plus years by answering my pesky questions, or by passing along information they've come across, or just by reading the site and reminding me that there are folks out there who are interested in this stuff--to all of you go the sincere thanks of the entire JDLand staff.

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Capper Foundations, Bike Valet, More New Photos
* The foundations are rising at Capitol Quarter on the south side of L Street between Fourth and Fifth. Next obsessive milestone to watch out for: delivery of lots of lumber!
* Speaking of foundations, I peeked into the big hole at 1015 Half Street on Sunday and saw that they appear to have reached bottom--there's concrete poured on the northern portion.
* In addition to the other photos I've pointed you to in the past couple days, I've posted updated shots of Velocity and 55 M.
* The August issue of the Hill Rag has an interesting little piece on the bike valet service at the ballpark.
* The annual National Night Out is tonight--the closest event is at 13th and Potomac, starting at 6:30 pm. See Tommy Wells's web site for details.
 

City Makes First Debt Service Payment on Ballpark
From the WashTimes SportsBiz blog: "The District of Columbia has successfully made its first debt service payment on Nationals Park, despite the lack of a rent check from the Nationals. The first debt payment of $13.9 million (all interest) was due Friday and was made without complication[.] The $3.5 million rent payment is a key portion of the money used to pay back the $535 million in bonds used to finance the stadium. But it appears that the city was able to raise enough money through other financing components to cover the gap." (As reported a few weeks ago, the Nats are withholding rent over whether or not the stadium was "substantially complete" on Opening Day.) The debt payment is financed by the ballpark ticket/concessions tax, a utility tax, and the ballpark fee assessed on city businesses (which is coming in substantially higher than was projected).
Speaking of the ballpark, one of the neighborhood's longtime residents was in attendance Sunday, as a guest of the Earth Conservation Corps. (See the full-sized photo--he's quite stunning!--and other shots I've taken here and there in my Scenes from the Inaugural Season gallery.) I also finally updated my photos of the ballpark's South Capitol Street facade from the Left Field Gate down to the admin building, as well as some other new shots along Potomac Avenue that I hadn't updated since March--and that means I can finally declare my Ballpark Exterior Before-and-Afters complete, at least until they rename the place and change all the signage....
 

Onyx Looking Close to Opening; 909 Getting Bricked
A few weeks ago I was told that the Onyx on First apartment building would probably be opening its first three floors in early August, and judging by the newly installed sidewalk along First Street and a peek into the lobby, it doesn't appear to be far off. The building will have approximately 260 units, and began construction in fall 2006. On my Onyx project page, you can see updated photos, along with a few new images of the buildings that preceded Onyx on this site.
Two blocks to the north, 909 New Jersey speeds along, with its distinctive roofline now visible from many locations around the neighborhood, as you can see both on the project page and in the Expanded 909 Photo Gallery. (What do we call this roof thing? The crow's nest? The bow?) The photos also show that brick is now being added to the First Street side of the building. This 237-unit rental building with ground-floor retail space will be the third of JPI's four "Capitol Yards" residential developments, and is expected to be completed next year.
(And while you look at all the latest photos, be sure to take a moment to thank the supreme being of your choice for bestowing upon us Sunday's gorgeous weather and severe clear blue sky, which is such a rarity given DC's normally haze-filled Augusts.)
 

Watching the Skyline Change Beyond the Ballpark
One of the bazillion spots where I took photos this weekend was up high above home plate at the ballpark, gazing off at the skyline to the north. It was only 11 months ago that I got my first photos from there, so check out the archive to scroll through the changes from Sept. '07 to Aug. '08. There are seven buildings (some of which are already out of view) that have popped up and topped out during this very brief time.
Coming soon, the photos I took this weekend at ground level of all these new buildings.
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A Slight Redesign of the Home Page; Crime Data
You'd probably have to be paying pretty close attention to notice that the JDLand home page looks a little different today. I moved the pile of wordy links that were in the header box to a new spiffier menu bar, and also tinkered with some other item placements. And, if you scroll down below the map, you'll see a new box that displays the most recent JDLand Twitter updates (except that it's a bit iffy in IE right now--grrrr), and below that, a new search box heralding the addition of a Google Site Search in case you're unfortunate enough to be trying to find something in this morass.
I also discovered that the Crime Report data feed wasn't displaying optimally--it was only showing the most recent 14 days' worth of data, which doesn't take into account that sometimes it takes longer than two weeks for a report (or for the descriptive narrative) to get into the feed. So you'll see a considerably longer list (now 30 days), which could be disconcerting--looks like the bad guys have been a little more active lately, especially along New Jersey Avenue. Keep an eye out.
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More posts: crime, JDLand stuff
 

Twittering all the Latest Near Southeast News
Heaven help me, I'm launching yet another JDLand platform: now you can sign up for Twitter updates, delivered via the web or SMS or RSS. I'll be sending out quick bursts of either useful or useless Near Southeast-related minutaie that don't rise to the level of a blog entry or that I just can't bear to not blab about. For instance, if you were subscribed this afternoon, you would have been alerted around 3:20 to a traffic tie-up at South Capitol and M because of a "hanging light." (That would be an example of a useful tweet.) As always, I'm mainly doing this to test-drive the latest e-toy, but if anyone wants to come along for the ride, feel free.
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11th Street Bridges Replacement Moving Forward
I'm a little late on this, but apparently on July 2 the "Record of Decision" was signed for the 11th Street Bridges replacement project--this is the official sign-off from the Federal Highway Administration on the selected design for the revamped bridges, with one eight-lane span carrying highway traffic and a second carrying "local" traffic (including perhaps light-rail, if it ever happens) between Anacostia and Near Southeast. There's a two-page FAQ about the project, if you don't feel like wandering through the entire Final Environmental Impact Statement to figure out what's going on. You can also read my entries from when the EIS was released last year for some summaries of how Near Southeast will be affected by the new configuration (or look at the low-rent graphic I created).
According to the ROD, DDOT will be paying the National Park Service just under $1 million for 1.5 acres of Anacostia Park that will be used as part of the bridge project, and will also be footing the bill for some other "mitigation measures" and "enhancements" spelled out in the ROD's Attachment A. Attachment C details how the Anacostia Community Boathouse Association's operations will be temporarily relocated during construction from the two brick buildings nestled between the bridge spans to a spot just a bit further northeast along the riverfront, in the 1200 block of Water Street, SE. Attachment D is a list of all the "environmental commitments" agreed to by DDOT to avoid, reduce, or mitigate various impacts of the project.
In the meantime, DDOT is soliciting Letters of Interest from those interested in doing the bridges's design/build, and is having an informational meeting on the project on Monday (Aug. 4). Letters of interest are due Aug. 13, and DDOT is expecting to release the Request for Qualifications in mid-August. They appear to be expecting to begin construction in 2009, with the project lasting five years. (I *swear* I read somewhere in all of this that they would plan to first build the new interchanges between the bridges and the Anacostia Freeway, but I'm now completely unable to find that verbage.)
The FAQ mentions that the existing flyover ramps to and from RFK (the ones that head east over M Street) are supposed to be demolished "this summer", but I've been unable to get any details from DDOT as to whether that's still happening. I'm also not sure whether that's part of the bigger plan (not technically part of the bridge replacement project) to completely do away with the current below-grade freeway to Pennsylvania Avenue and replace it with "Southeast Freeway Boulevard", running at-grade from 11th Street eastward. (Read the EIS for more on that.)
How much is it going to cost? The ROD says that a cost review meeting in December "indicated that the estimate was consistent with an 80th percentile probability that the year-of-expenditure project cost would not exceed 465 million dollars." Those of you well versed in bureaucracy-speak can translate that as necessary.
 

What's Next at Capper/Carrollsburg
While the focus lately has been on the start of the Capitol Quarter townhouses, there is more to the redevelopment of the old Capper/Carrollsburg public housing complex. There are the two completed seniors buildings (Capper Seniors #1 and 400 M Street), now providing 300 of the 700 old Capper public housing units that are being replaced. The first phase of Capitol Quarter includes 39 subsidized rental units, and the second phase (which is probably not going to start delivering until 2011) will have another 47 subsidized rentals; this is in addition to the sales of 121 market-rate and 91 workforce-rate townhouses throughout both phases. That leaves a little over 300 public housing units to come, which will be included in the 1,300 apartments expected to be constructed at Capper over the next five years or so.
There are five new apartment buildings slated to be built, three of which along the east side of Canal Park where the temporary parking lots are, and another at New Jersey and K on the trash transfer site. And there is a new plan for a fifth apartment building, on L Street across from the Marine Bachelor Enlisted Quarters (B.E.Q), on the northern portion of the old Capper Seniors footprint.
Under the original Capper plans, there was to be a strip of 61 townhouses built on this spot, but the DC Housing Authority has recognized that these homes would be dwarfed by the B.E.Q. to the north and the two planned office buildings directly behind them at 600 M Street. So DCHA has now filed a request with the Zoning Commission to allow an expansion in the total number of housing units allowed at Capper to 1,747, which would allow the construction of a four-story 189-unit apartment building (with a massing very similar to the B.E.Q.) on this stretch of L Street known as Square 882N. This Zoning Commission request is also looking to expand the number of units in the planned apartment building on the south side of L Street between Second and Third (let's call it Square 769N) to 171 units, as a result of its block-mate 250 M Street having recently gotten approvals to be built higher than originally requested.
I've updated the map and descriptions on my Capper Overview page to reflect these latest plans for the area, and it's worth taking a look at if you're not really familiar with exactly how wide-ranging the Capper Planned Unit Development is. (Reading the 2004 zoning order establishing the PUD and laying out the requirements isn't a bad idea, either.) I should also note that the apartment and office buildings will combine to have about 50,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. There should also be a new community center at Fifth and K, but it doesn't seem to be on the front burner just yet.
Of course, the question then becomes: when? Timelines are always dicey and should be taken with a couple pounds of salt, but it appears that these two L Street apartment buildings (882N and 769N) would be first up on the agenda, perhaps being delivered in 2011. The other two buildings on Second Street would come next, and the anticipated 400-unit building on the trash transfer site would probably be the last one to be built, finishing maybe sometime in 2013. The three office buildings and the second phase of Capitol Quarter townhouses would be sprinkled throughout that time frame as well, with 250 M Street probably being the first office building to get underway, possibly even later this year. (Have I thrown in enough "maybe"s and "possibly"s and "perhaps"s for you?)
At least these plans don't have to wait until school buses get moved!
 

Master Plan Underway for Boathouse Row
Earlier this month the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development and the Office of Planning had a public meeting as part of their work to create a master plan for "Boathouse Row," the stretch of marinas, docks, and boathouses along the west/north bank of the Anacostia River northeastward from the 11th Street Bridges. I'm only now finding out about this process, so apologies for not posting about it sooner, but you can see the documentation from the public meeting and also an earlier advisory committee meeting if you want more information. I've got a small smattering of photos of the area closest to the 11th Street Bridges, but must admit that I haven't so far spent much time venturing further along to document what's there. (I'm lucky I can keep up with everything west of Seventh Street!)
 

Jul 30, 2008 9:34 AM
Vendors Lose Injunction Request; ExxonMobil Advertising at the Ballpark Irking Environmentalists
* City Paper reports on a lawsuit that had been brought by three street vendors "seeking to halt the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs' current practice of assigning vendors to sites outside the stadium via a lottery." The judge ruled against the vendors' request for a preliminary injunction against DCRA yesterday.
I did notice yesterday for the first time four semi-permanent kiosks on the edge of USDOT's Southwest Plaza, on New Jersey Avenue at Tingey Street, where before last night's Phillies game a couple of vendors were plying their wares. I'm not sure when these kiosks were installed--I'm guessing sometime within the past few weeks? And perhaps they're used during the day, too, for non baseball-related vending? This would probably be the result of the council's emergency legislation to add more 14 more vending spots closer to the ballpark. I didn't make the walk down Half Street to see if any vendors were in place there last night--anyone have any sightings of other new vending locations?
* This is a few days old, but the NYTimes has a report on how Nationals Park's ads from ExxonMobil have raised the ire of environmentalists: "When the Washington Nationals' season opened in March, the team unveiled a stadium any environmentalist could love -- the country's first certified green major professional sports stadium, with energy-conserving lights and water-conserving plumbing. Now, the team is the focus of protests from environmentalists who say their issue is not with the stadium, but with the Nationals' advertising relationship with the oil giant ExxonMobil. The company's logo appears prominently on the left-field wall and is frequently featured on the stadium's scoreboard. Despite the stadium's recognition for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design by the U.S. Green Building Council, ExxonMobil's involvement has erased any good will, say the leaders of Strike Out Exxon, a combination of environmental, civic and religious groups. The groups want the Nationals to end their advertising arrangement with the company."
UPDATE: One more link about the ballpark: Bayer's helping to keep the cherry trees healthy!
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Jul 29, 2008 9:29 AM
'Little Red Building' Changes Hands
Within the past couple of months, the Star Market (better known as the Little Red Building on the northwest corner of Second and L) has been sold, for a not-little sum of $900,000. This is the third sale of the building since I've been watching--it sold in October 2004 for $220,000, and then again in June 2005 for $580,000. The previous owner had plans to tear down the building and replace it with a "fine wine and spirits" shop, and I understand that it's anticipated the new owner's plans are similar, though nothing concrete has been passed my way. No timeline or details beyond that.
(The photo above is one of my favorites--it's from January 2003, showing the Star Market back when it was a lonely outpost without a hotel attached to it.)
 

Jul 28, 2008 11:12 AM
Diamond Teague Park Gets Army Corps Permit
As I scrounge around the interwebs in a desperate search for news, I see that on June 27 the Baltimore District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the city's permit application for Diamond Teague Park, the 39,000-sq-ft public park planned for the land where First Street ends at Potomac Avenue, on the banks of the Anacostia River across from Nationals Park. The office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development tells me that the receipt of this permit allows the city to complete the design of the park, which will include water taxi piers surrounding the little red brick pumphouse used by the Earth Conservation Corps. While there's still DC and National Park Service permits to be acquired, the city expects to begin construction on the first phase of the park this fall--yes, this means that the water taxi piers would be completed by Opening Day 2009, if all goes according to the current schedule. The second phase of the park will come if and when WASA vacates the southern portion of its property. See my Diamond Teague project page for recent renderings of the park's design and photos of the site. The park is named for an Earth Conservation Corps volunteer who was murdered in 2003.
(Stay tuned over the next few days for some additional interesting tidbits I've unearthed from digging through public records.)
 
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