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20 M ('07)
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This is one of those real estate-section puff pieces, not a straight news story, but it's a quiet Friday so I'll link to the WashTimes's "New in DC: Batter, and Buyers, Up,"which gives an overview of Capitol Quarter. If you're looking for a summary of what's there, it runs through all the basics. For photos and lots more information, my Capitol Quarter page has plenty to keep you occupied.
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More posts: Capper, Capitol Quarter
 

Did anyone see some people traipsing around the old Post Plant this morning? There apparently was a site visit was scheduled at 9:30 am as part of the city's move to unload its sublease of the building. The Office of Property Management now has a page devoted to 225 Virginia, with some additional overview documents and rough sketches of how the building could be re-adapted. It also mentions that the original Sept. 26 deadline for responses to the Request for Expressions of Interest is going to be extended, by not less than a week. UPDATE: The deadline is now set for October 3.
For those who haven't been following along, in late 2006 the city signed a sublease for the building with the intent of moving many functions of the police department there. But in the summer of 2007 OPM decided not to go forward with the move, leaving the building empty and the city paying over $500,000 a month in rent. They are looking for some developer to completely assume the sublease, that also contains an option to buy the building outright.
 

Will update with more later today, but did want to let everyone know that JDLand.com won the Citizen Media award at today's 2008 Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism. Big big thanks to them for the recognition.
UPDATE: Here's the press release, and the section of most interest: "Winning a $2,000 Citizen Media Award is the ambitious JDLand.com, Jacqueline Dupree's digital chronicle of redevelopment, construction and community concerns in Washington, D.C.'s rapidly changing Southeast/ Ballpark district. Using text, Twitter, interactive maps, and before-and-now photos, the site is 'an incredible wealth of information, especially impressive for a one-person effort,' the judges said." (Winning the $10,000 first prize was Wired.com's WikiScanner, while PolitiFact.com and Ushahidi.com both won $2,000 Special Distinction awards.)
There's a lot of people who have been very generous in giving me their time and information over the past five-plus years--and equally important are the folks who have stumbled into this nook of the web and allowed me to feed off their enthusiasm for the information and the photos. Thanks to all of you! This is about the highest honor a little site like this can ever reasonably expect to receive, and so I'm just beyond thrilled.
Fun factoid: Ron Paul, Bob Barr, Cynthia McKinney, and Ralph Nader were holding a press conference in the ballroom next door to the Knight-Batten awards (at the National Press Club), and just before the Knight shindig got underway, Ron Paul stuck his head in for a moment to see what was going on. Presidential candidate meets innovative journalism.....!
UPDATE 2: And here's my press release, such as it is.
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More posts: JDLand stuff
 

In the agenda for Thursday's meeting of Metro's Finance, Administration, and Oversight Committee, there's a tantalizing sentence in a request to extend the special evening-and-weekend N22 (Union Station to Navy Yard via Eastern Market) Metrobus route service until March of 2009:
"The District of Columbia has advised WMATA of its intent to transfer the entire Route N22 as well as non-regional Route 98 (Adams Morgan-U Street link) to the DC Circulator effective March 29, 2009."
In poking around the DC Department of Transportation web site, I found this newsletter on the joint DDOT/WMATA Neighborhood Circulation Study that's now underway, and the newsletter has this to say: "DDOT is currently developing plans for future expansion of DC Circulator routes in 2008 to serve Union Station-the new Capitol Visitors Center and the new Nationals Baseball stadium. Another route in consideration would connect the Woodley Park/Adams Morgan/U Street/Corridor." (I'm guessing they mean 2009.) None of the four scheduled public meetings are in Ward 6, so perhaps there will be more sessions at a later date that will be more tailored to Ward 6 concerns. And WMATA will have to have its own public hearings on the discontinuation of the N22.
As always, we shall see, but I imagine just the prospect of a Circulator bus running to and from the Navy Yard station will generate some excitement.
 

Tim Lemke of the WashTimes, writes on his Sports Biz blog about how the organizers of the college bowl game (now called the Washington DC Bowl, not the Congressional Bowl) were eyeing Nationals Park from the beginning, with the support of the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission, but: "In essence, it came down to whether the Nationals were willing to hold the bowl game inside the stadium, and my sources tell me that the team simply didn't want the game there, or at the very least was not particularly receptive to the idea." So tomorrow there's a press conference where they'll announce all the particulars. And, since it won't be at the baseball stadium, I get to stop paying attention. (Yay!)
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More posts: Nationals Park
 

At last night's Zoning Commission monthly public meeting, the DC Housing Authority made a presentation on the latest request for changes to the approved Planned Unit Development at Capper/Carrollsburg. I wrote a long explanatory entry about this request and the plans for multi-unit residential buildings at Capper back in July, and so I'm just going to plagiarize myself here:
"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."
As for last night's Zoning Commission presentation, there was a feeling apparently that it wasn't clear enough, so DCHA will be returning in early October with additional details.
 

The folks at the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District have asked me to point interested readers to an online "perception survey" they've currently got underway. From the intro page: "Your answers are an important way to measure the effectiveness of services, progress made, and gauge community priorities as further programs are being planned."
 

Sep 8, 2008 11:11 PM
From the MPD's First District mailing list comes the news that on Sunday (Sept. 7) at 3:30 am a man was shot at the bus stop at 10th and M streets, SE. From 1D Commander David Kamperin: "We have no motive or suspects at this time. The victim is currently listed as critical in a local hospital. Anyone with information should contact the 1D Detectives Office."
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More posts: M Street, square 976
 

Sep 8, 2008 3:09 PM
Friday was the deadline for interested parties to file petitions to run for Advisory Neighborhood Commission seats, and, according to this list from the DC Board of Elections, longtime ANC 6D07 commissioner Bob Siegel is being challenged by Capitol Hill Tower resident Geoffrey Kreiss. ANC races will be on the Nov. 4 general election ballot, and if you haven't registered to vote for the general election, you have until October 6. The boundaries of 6D07 are pretty much all of Near Southeast between South Capitol and 11th Street, except for the portions north of M Street from Seventh Street east.
And, speaking of voting, tomorrow (Sept. 9) is primary day for DC council and congressional races. The Ward 6 seat is not on the slate this year, but at-large races are. Here's the primary's Voters Guide.
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Sep 8, 2008 9:47 AM
According to this Friday piece from the WBJ about EagleBank being in negotiations to be a sponsor for the Congressional Bowl college football game scheduled for Dec. 20, the mini bombshell is dropped that the game is now going to be played at RFK and not Nationals Park. The DC Sports and Entertainment Commission is having a press conference on Wednesday about the game, so we should hear more about it then (there's nothing about the Bowl at all on the DCSEC web site). It was announced back in July that this game, between the Naval Academy and the 9th-best ACC team, would be at the new baseball stadium.
(PS: Hey, DCist, a little credit might be nice.)
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More posts: Nationals Park
 

Sep 8, 2008 8:21 AM
For the two or three of you who might be interested.... On Wednesday morning (Sept. 10) at the National Press Club is the symposium for the Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Online Journalism, where JDLand.com is one of the four finalists up for a $10,000 grand prize. (There are also two $2,000 Special Distinction awards and a $2,000 Citizen's Media award. Everyone's a winner!) The finalists and honorable mentions will be presenting their sites, and then the prizes will be awarded. (But it's not done by Applause-o-Meter, so alas your attendance won't put me over the top.) The symposium is free, with a request for advance registration, so if you're looking for an excuse to escape your normal Wednesday morning for a little while, drop on by.
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More posts: JDLand stuff
 

Sep 7, 2008 5:42 PM
Sunny, cloudless day? You knew there was no way I could pass it up. (Tivo has Nadal-Murray waiting for me.) So enjoy the new Capitol Quarter photos showing third floors now framed on the first batch of houses at Fourth and L. Catch the highlights on the project page, or the whole gamut in the Expanded Archive.
(And, Go Fed!)
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More posts: Capper
 

Sep 5, 2008 3:08 PM
Doesn't look like Saturday will be a good day for taking pictures, and Sunday I'll be welded to the sofa watching the US Open, so this will have to tide you over to next week:
* WalkingTownDC has announced its fall lineup, and once again "Capitol Riverfront" is one of the tours, led by Michael Stevens, the executive director of the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District. It's Saturday, Sept. 20, starting at 10:30 am. More info here.
* DDOT says that, weather permitting, the Douglass Bridge will be closed from 6 am to as late as 10 am on Sunday morning for some minor repairs: "Crews will be making minor repairs necessary to improve movements of the swing span that occur during the periodic opening of the bridge."
* If you've snuck a peek at the recent building permit applications and are wondering if the application for 1111 New Jersey Avenue means that Donohoe is close to getting started on their planned 200,000-sq-ft office building, I've already done the wondering for you, and the answer is "no"--just getting the paperwork out of the way. (Longtime readers will remember that the first building permit applications for 1015 Half Street were submitted more than three years before construction got underway.)
* Speaking of the building permit data, the feed for approved permits has been down since the end of July. The folks who handle the feeds assure me that it's being worked on, and will hopefully be back before too long.
* Apropos of nothing, here's a Washington Times story from Monday about the groundskeepers at Nationals Park.
 

Sep 4, 2008 3:13 PM
This hasn't been mentioned in the items over the past few days about Akridge's Aug. 27 closing of its $46.5 million purchase of Metro's Southeastern Bus Garage at Half and M: On the same day they closed on the bus garage, Akridge bought Monument Realty's land just south of the bus garage for $9.66 million. The site, a conglomeration of five or six lots that Monument cobbled together in 2004 and 2005, totals about 16,000 square feet along N Street between Half and Van, where the Good and Plenty carryout used to stand (for you old-timers).
To add one more Aug. 27 transaction to the mix: Monument also closed on its $22.7 million purchase of the 27,000-square-foot WMATA parking lot nestled between the Public Space Storage building and the old Domino's site, across Van from the bus garage. This is the land (currently Nats Parking Lot M) that Monument was awarded as part of the settlement of their lawsuit over the original awarding of all WMATA land on Square 700 to Akridge.
This means that Akridge now owns all of the west side of Half Street between M and N, while Monument owns the east side of South Capitol between M and N *except* for the Public Storage Building. (See my Monument Ballpark District page for photos.)
As mentioned in the other posts this week on Akridge's purchase of the bus garage, reports are that they are looking at a 700,000-sq-ft mixed-use project, beginning perhaps in 2010. Don't know anything more than this at this point. Monument had been working on a residential building at South Capitol and N (land they still own), but I haven't heard if that's still part of their plans.
 

Sep 4, 2008 2:26 PM
Announced yesterday, and written about in today's Post: "Two men riding on the open top tier of a double-decker bus in the District were standing on their seats the night of July 11 when their heads hit a freeway overpass, D.C. police said yesterday, adding that 'alcohol may have been involved' in the fatal accident."
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More posts: Nationals Park
 

Sep 3, 2008 8:12 PM
Tired of seeing baseball at Nationals Park? How about La Traviata? On Sept. 13 at 7 pm the Washington National Opera is offering "Opera in the Outfield," a simulcast from the Kennedy Center of their new production of Verdi's classic opera on the big HD screen, with seating being allowed in the outfield. It's free and open to the public. (Choruses of "Kill the Wabbit" may be discouraged.) UPDATE: Here's the Post piece on the simulcast, which used to be held on the Mall. It will cost the Washington Opera about $300,000.
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Sep 3, 2008 5:04 PM
On the consent agenda of Thursday's National Capital Planning Commission meeting is a request for "approval of preliminary and final site development plans" for Diamond Teague Park, the new public park to be built by the city on the Anacostia River at the foot of First Street, SE, just across Potomac Avenue from Nationals Park.
As I've written about in the past, plans call for piers to be built around the red brick Capitol Pumphouse that is home to the Earth Conservation Corps, and there will also be floating docks that will allow visitors to see the wetlands along the water's edge (one of the last waterfront segments in the area not to have been bulkheaded, apparently). Benches, granite paths, and a garden will be installed, along with a memorial to Diamond Teague, the ECC volunteer who was murdered in 2003. Eventually this park will be connected via a floating boardwalk to the Waterfront Park at the Yards.
In the Executive Director's recommendation, the NCPC commends the city "for linking this project to planned open space along the waterfront to provide a continuous public open space system along the Anacostia River; for developing a portion of the Anacostia River as a high-quality urban park with a mix of recreational opportunities that emphasizes the river's ecological and scenic qualities and character; and for providing accommodations for a water taxi system to serve the neighborhood and the Washington Nationals' baseball stadium."
Statements over the summer from the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (which is stewarding the park) indicated that work will begin on the park this fall, with this first phase completed by spring 2009. (And yes, that includes the water taxi piers. Though there's been no word yet of any deals with taxi companies.)
 

Sep 3, 2008 3:34 PM
I don't see the release posted on their web site yet (or at Nationals Journal), but the Nationals have just announced: "The Washington Nationals today announced the 2009 prices for season tickets at Nationals Park. The team will continue to provide affordable, fan-friendly entertainment at Nationals Park by decreasing season ticket prices for 7,500 seats at the ballpark - 3,400 of which are located in the lower seating bowl. The team will not increase prices on any of the 41,888 seats for season-ticket holders who renew their season tickets for 2009." Here's a graphic showing the stadium layout and the change in prices from 2008 to 2009.
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Sep 3, 2008 11:34 AM
On the agenda for the Sept. 25 meeting of the city's Public Space Committee: an application by Monument Realty for 1200 Half Street (better known here as 55 M) to install various fixtures in public space around Half Street, described as 23 benches, 9 trash containers, 32 lights, 146 fountains, 8 bollards, and 18 bike racks. (UPDATE: I don't know what the deal is with "146 fountains"--that's what was in the meeting agenda.)
And, on the other side of Half Street, Akridge celebrates its closing on the Southeastern Bus Garage site (mentioned last week) with a press release. According to the Washington Business Journal, construction could begin on the planned 700,000-square-foot mixed-use project in 2010.
 

Sep 2, 2008 9:14 AM
When the headline "Nats Park: A Mistake?" pops up in your feed reader, it's easy to guess that the story will be about low attendance or whatever other ills the author defines and therefore what a boondoggle the stadium has been. But, instead, you get this, from WTOP's transportation reporter Adam Tuss: "Yet with all the trouble filling seats at novel Nats Park, this much is certain: The stadium is paying dividends to the neighborhood and city where it sits. [...] But the truth of the matter is, Nats Park has energized a section of the District that some would never have imagined driving through previously, let alone walking through. [...] New homes, shops, restaurants and vistas pop up on a daily basis. Old and run-down has been and continues to be replaced by young and vibrant." (One could quibble with the "shops and restaurants" portion of this, at this point, anyway.)
Then there's this section, which takes me back to the eye-rolling weeks of wading through media coverage early this year: "When the ballpark first opened this year, there were plenty of concerns -- many from a transportation perspective. Would Metro be able to handle the crowds that were going to games? Would there be enough parking for fans? Would the neighborhoods around the ballpark become swamped with unwanted visitors from out of the area? There were also concerns about the safety of fans headed to and from games. Would there be enough security, street lighting, and enforcement to keep the area a destination of interest? There is now deafening silence about those questions, as they have all been answered with resounding success."
He closes with: "As far as the team goes, the Nationals will get there at some point (you hope). But the home of the Nats is now helping transform a slice of the city into something truly special -- a second chance for an area that was far too often neglected."
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