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(originally posted Dec. 2) It's been just short of a year since Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd won the design competition for Washington Canal Park, and basically nothing has happened with the plans since then. But for its Dec. 8 board meeting, the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation has prepared a draft resolution that agrees to award GGN a $979,500 contract for design and planning services. Let's hope that the park appears in 2006, as originally scheduled. UPDATE: I have now heard that the AWC board did authorize the AWC to enter into a contract with GGNL. But of course now the contract has to be worked out.
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More non-stadium news! I've got a tidbit or two on the Capitol Hill Tower project, as it heads toward the finish line. The Courtyard by Marriott hotel that makes up the southern portion of the block is anticipating an opening date of March, 2006 (I'll let you know when reservations start being accepted). Also, the site's developers are working on filling the 9,000 sq ft of ground floor retail that's available--a drycleaners has already been lined up, and there are hopes that a restaurant can be brought in as well. I've added a new rendering of the Courtyard elevation along L Street to my Capitol Hill Tower page--and I'm embarrassed at how the photos on that page are getting way out of date, I'm going to do some mammoth photography sessions next week, I promise. UPDATE: And I also hear that an on-site Sales Center for the residential/co-ops side of the project will be opening soon. The residences are supposed to open sometime in the second quarter of 2006. UPDATE II: And coffee lovers will rejoice to hear that there's also going to be a mini-Starbucks counter in the lobby of the hotel!
 

Stop the presses! I have NON-STADIUM news! Hallelujah! Construction has begun on Capper Seniors #2, the wraparound addition to the Carroll Apartments for low-income seniors at 4th and M. This new construction will add four stories and 130+ units to the 64 units in the Carroll building. Scroll to the middle of my Capper Seniors page for a rendering of the new construction, and photos of the current site. As for Capper Seniors #1 at 5th and Virginia, construction is speeding along, and I promise once the Christmas rush is over to post new photos. For more detail than one would ever want on the entire Capper/Carrollsburg project (and Canal Park, too), read the Feb. 2004 Zoning Approval for the Capper PUD.
 

I don't really want to spend the next x number of weeks tracking every single story about the stadium lease, but I feel I've set the precedent. Ah well. Thursday's Post has "Nats Bidders Told Not to Offer Funds", which says that MLB told the groups bidding to buy the Nationals back in early November not to promise city officials money for the new stadium. The story also gives more detail on Marion Barry's oh-so-subtle attempts to become commissioner of baseball by trying to "force" MLB to sell the Nats to a bidder who has agreed to pay for stadium cost overruns. (Yeah. Attempting to strong-arm MLB. That'll work.) The story also notes that despite Barry's comments yesterday, Carol Schwartz says that she never told the Mayor-for-Life that she was on-board with his "deal." (I'm starting to have flashbacks to the DC government of the 1980s, and it's not pretty.) UPDATE: Carol Schwartz has penned a stern Letter to the Editor to the Post about Barry's "deal" and the first Post story on it.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

The DC web site has updated and expanded its Baseball in DC page, including most of the same links it's had all along, but now there's also a aggregation page of city press releases relating to baseball; they've also added a Public Comments and Testimony section. (Hat tip to DCist for noting the new version of the page, as well as it's prominent spot on the dc.gov home page.)

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Today's Post stories: "Barry Acted to Block Stadium, Ex-Mayor Says He Had Been Negotiating Deal," with the tales of the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that led to the cancellation of Tuesday's lease vote; "Stadium Arbitration Could Take Months," detailing the unusual situation of arbitration over a stadium itself; "In Baseball Melodrama, No Shortage of Critics," with a rundown of public opinion; and "Baseball, D.C. Are in a League Of Their Own" by Thomas Boswell, which does a good job of explaining that the Nationals are not about to be taken away from DC. The WashTimes has "D.C. stadium vote delayed until next year", which is a more straightforward recounting of where things currently stand.
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Starting a new thread for today's lease tidbits. Mayor Williams is holding a briefing at 1:30 to give the latest on the lease agreement. UPDATE, 2:30 pm: Not much new seems to have come out of the briefing; here's the AP's short piece: "Mayor Tony Williams says he's not giving up on the city's baseball deal. He says he plans to seek guarantees of outside money from developers and the federal government for infrastructure costs around the proposed stadium. That may help win him some votes on the DC Council. In the meantime, negotiations continue with baseball officials. D-C Sports and Entertainment Commission chairman Mark Tuohey says they don't expect a delayed vote on the stadium lease to cause major problems -- even if the city misses its December 31st deadline as expected. He says a brief delay shouldn't cost the city any extra money." UPDATE, 4:50 pm: Here's the expanded version of the "All is Not Lost" AP story I quoted above, which includes talk of the council wanting a team owner to pay a bigger share of the costs.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

Breaking news: "Mayor Tony Williams has asked the D.C. Council not to vote Tuesday on the baseball stadium lease agreement. Williams has withdrawn the lease from consideration to make what his office calls "technical changes." Williams says he will continue to work aggressively with the federal government, private developers and Major League Baseball to put together the best deal possible for the city. Cropp says she will work with the mayor to put the lease back on the council agenda as soon as possible." I don't know yet what this actually means, whether there really are changes, or if Tony knew he didn't have the votes. More as I get it. Here's the mayor's press release. UPDATE: Rumors flying fast and furious, if you want to track them you can visit the Ballpark Guys's Nationals board. Posters there are saying that this is tied to Tony getting a commitment from the Feds to pay for the Navy Yard station upgrades. UPDATE, 7:05 pm: The Post now has a story up about the delay; big tidbits include that the city has gotten a letter from the four ballpark district developers offering to pay for $12 million worth of repairs to roads around the stadium. UPDATE, 7:39 pm: Jim Graham says the lease didn't have the votes. UPDATE, 9:39 pm: MLB.com has a story on yet another (!) stern letter from MLB COO Bob DuPuy, warning the council: "If the lease is not approved by [Dec. 31], the city will be in default on its contractual commitments and we will then have no choice but to prepare for arbitration." UPDATE, 12:45 am: Here's the Washington Times piece on it all.

More posts: Nationals Park
 

Reminder: On Monday, Dec. 19, Mayor Williams, members of the City Council, and community members will gather for a rally in support of keeping baseball in the District and revitalizing Southeast Washington with a new ballpark.  The rally will be at Freedom Plaza (across from the Wilson Building, on Pennsylvania Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets) at noon. According to the Washington Times, stadium opponents are trying to organize a counter-rally at the same time and place. UPDATE: See the flyer e-mailed out by the Mayor's office on Sunday, laying out the arguments for approving the lease that would allow the stadium to be built in Near Southeast. UPDATE II: Here's the Post's afternoon piece about the rally.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

"Williams, Cropp Push To Tweak Stadium Lease" is the Post's Saturday story, detailing talks between council members, the mayor, and Major League Baseball to try to push MLB to contribute more to the construction of the new baseball stadium, and also a request for the federal government to contribute to the cost of upgrading the Navy Yard Metro station. The article gives a current council vote tally as 5-4 (Cropp, Evans, Patterson, Orange, Ambrose voting yes, Catania, Graham, Fenty, and Barry voting no), leaving Schwartz, Mendelson, Brown, and Gray as the swing votes. UPDATE: Meanwhile, the Washington Times focuses on the efforts of anti-ballpark activists ("Ballpark foes look to council for help"), and includes its own estimate of the current vote stances of council members.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

From Thursday's Post ("Williams, MLB Turn Up Heat On Council's Stadium Foes"): "Mayor Anthony A. Williams and Major League Baseball officials began intensely lobbying D.C. Council members yesterday to win support for a stadium lease agreement that is critical to the future of a ballpark along the Anacostia River. In personal meetings, Williams promised to support council members on some of their key issues, including school renovation, if they vote in favor of the lease Tuesday. By day's end, Williams and his top advisers said that they had firmed up more support for the lease and that they planned to continue lobbying until the vote." Tony is also is also quoted as saying, "I'm not sure the letter [from MLB to the city council stating that RFK is not acceptable] was helpful. [...] It looks like another decree from baseball." UPDATE: And the Washington Times has an article centering around an interview done by editors and reporters with the Mayor, that includes much discussion of the problems with moving to RFK.  In the meantime, opponents of the stadium are demonstrating today outside the Wilson Building.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

I imagine there will be tidbits throughout the day coming out of the council roundtable on the stadium, but I'll start now with the text of CFO Gandhi's prepared statement. UPDATE: Here is Mayor Williams's testimony, and an AP story about it. And don't forget the streaming video. UPDATE II: According to the AP, MLB President Bob DuPuy wrote to Linda Cropp today, telling her that baseball's other 29 teams (who together own the Nationals) are opposed to RFK as an alternative. Oops.... UPDATE III: "Baseball Opposes Moving Stadium" from the Post summarizes the day's events at the council roundtable and in the MLB chambers. UPDATE IV: The WashTimes's story on the day's events paints a bleaker picture of whether the council will approve the lease at its vote on Dec. 20.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

The Anacostia Waterfront Corporation has posted the "South Capitol Street Waterfront District Summary of Recommendations" that it presented at the "master developers" announcement on Monday. Nothing terribly new in it for JDLand readers (except perhaps noting their slight hedge of using "South Capitol Street Waterfront District" instead of "Ballpark District"), but it does also include the entire list of companies in the two development teams, and one rendering of what Half Street south of M may look like down the road, which I promptly snagged and put at the top of my Ballpark District page (to which I've also added some new photos of the WASA land).
 

A date has now been set for the Zoning Commission hearing on the new proposed amendment to the Capital Gateway Overlay: Jan. 30 at 6 pm. Here is the hearing notice, and also the Office of Planning's report and draft of the proposed text change that was submitted to the Zoning Commission for discussion.

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The DC CFO's office has released updated estimates of the cost of building a new major league baseball stadium at the site currently proposed in Southeast DC and at a site adjacent to RFK Stadium. In a letter to Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp, Gandhi estimates the total cost for the proposed Southeast DC site to be $667.3 million; the cost for the site at RFK is estimated at $605.5 million. These will be hashed over at Tuesday's BYOBV (bring your own bulletproof vest) Council Roundtable, starting at 10 am, and viewable via streaming video or on DC Cable 13). UPDATE: Here is the Post's article on the new cost estimates, along with discussion about the feasibility of moving to the RFK site. UPDATE II: The WashTimes's article condenses both the updated estimates and the naming of the teams of developers for the Ballpark District.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

Today the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation named two teams of development companies to "enter into exclusive negotiations" to develop mixed-use projects on two sites in the ballpark district. Forest City Washington (developers of Capper/Carrollsburg and the Southeast Federal Center) and Western Development Corporation (Herbert Miller's company, responsible for Potomac Mills and many other projects) lead one team, and Monument Realty LLC (which has purchased many parcels of land along N and Half Streets) and The Cordish Company LLC (developers deeply involved in the Baltimore Harbor) lead the other. What does this mean? Not as much as it sounds right now--the Forest City/Western team will be negotiating with AWC to develop the 6 acres of excess land at the WASA site on 1st Street, and Monument/Cordish will be negotiating for the 3 acres of WMATA parcels along Half Street. However, at this time AWC does not own either of these properties. The teams will be working together (coordinated by Forest City/Western) to create a Development Strategy for the entire ballpark district, which is due to the AWC in draft by March 15, 2006 and in final version by April 15, 2006. The teams have committed to provide payment to the AWC through a combination of up-front payment, annual base rent, and participation in development profits. UPDATE: Here is the mayor's office press release. UPDATE II: The Post's web site now has its story about the announcement. UPDATE III: And here is the AWC's press release. UPDATE IV: Here is the Baltimore Sun's Cordish-centric story.
 

"True Costs Of Stadium Go Beyond Budget" from Sunday's Post gives a history of how the stadium went from a $435 million project to a (possibly) $714 million project.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

For your reading pleasure this weekend, here's the stadium lease agreement and attachments. It's 108 pages (and a 5.5 MB PDF), so go wild! And if you want to become preeminently qualified in team and stadium minutiae, here's the original contract between the city and MLB that brought the Nats to town, from September 2004. (It's this contract that requires the lease agreement that's now being fought over.)

More posts: Nationals Park
 

WTOP is reporting: "[T]he lease for a new baseball stadium has been completed and agreed to by baseball commissioner Bud Selig. Included in the lease is a commitment from Major League Baseball to keep the Nationals in D.C. for 30 years. Also included in the lease - $20 million from baseball toward construction costs. Hall, who is a lead negotiator for the city, says the lease will also provide D.C. a 2/3 share of parking revenues at the stadium on non-game days. The other 1/3 will go to MLB. The Sports and Entertainment Commission will present the lease to the D.C. City Council Friday. A public hearing is scheduled for Dec. 16 and the council will vote on the lease Dec. 20. Seven of the the 13 members of the council must vote to approve the lease. D.C. Mayor Tony Williams has acknowledged that council approval of the lease is uncertain at this point." UPDATE: The AP has confirmed this, saying that a copy of the lease was delivered to the council around noon. UPDATE II: Here is Mayor Williams's statement on the agreement, which also includes more details on the lease. Let's remember, though, this still has to be passed by the council.... UPDATE III: The Post has a story up about the agreement--the version for Saturday's print edition fleshes out the various pieces of news of the day, without a few small additional tidbits: MLB is expected to name a new owner shortly after the lease is approved (if it is approved!); CFO Gandhi will give a cost estimate update to the council on Monday; and Mayor Williams has signed off on the final design for the stadium, and it should be unveiled also shortly after the lease is approved. Then the next rush will be on, to get zoning approval and fight any other opposition to the stadium so that shovels can go in the ground in the spring, to get construction completed by March 2008. The WashTimes's story is similar.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

Sharon Ambrose's office has just e-mailed (sorry, not available on the web) an announcement of a Public Roundtable to review and discuss the lease agreement of the new baseball stadium between Major League Baseball and the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission; it is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 13 at 10 am at the Wilson Building. The public is invited to testify; to do so, contact Ms. Danny Gibson, at (202) 727-6683 by the close of business, Dec. 12. I'm assuming this roundtable will be shown on DC Cable 13 and also via live streaming video, as was the case with the last one.
More posts: Nationals Park
 
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