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ANC 6D's January meeting is Monday, Jan. 9, and its agenda is now available. It contains mostly items pertaining to SW (including a presentation by Forest City Enterprises on Waterside Mall, which I know is of interest to many of you), but what caught my eye was this: "Presentation: Variance and Special Exception, 900 New Jersey Avenue SE." Whaa? For those of you who don't know the street grid inside out, 900 New Jersey would be on the east side of the street between K and (the nonexistent) I Street, and is currently occupied by a DC Department of Public Works facility (the one with the tall brick chimney). The DPW site is part of the Capper / Carrollsburg PUD, which calls for a mid- to high-rise residential building on that lot. Are they moving forward with this? Is this something else? Or is it some boring little thing about eventually re-opening I Street, and nothing more? I'm doing some digging, and maybe I'll have an answer before Monday's meeting. But it is intriguing....  UPDATE: The agenda has been changed, and the 900 NJ Ave presentation is no longer there; it has been replaced with a presentation on proposed alley closings on the east side of Square 743, the 1100 block of 1st Street, SE. And apparently the "900 NJ Ave" label was an incorrect reference to the zoning adjustment request for the JPI project, which is not on New Jersey Ave (it's at 100 I Street). So for now, the DPW site is not going anywhere. UPDATE II: These JPI projects have driven me crazy since the beginning. To clarify a bit, JPI is also in the process of buying land on the west side of the 900 block of New Jersey (which includes the Nexus Gold Club), so they do plan on giving a presenation to ANC 6D soon about desired variances and exceptions for that project. But nothing for this second JPI project has shown up yet on any of the zoning calendars....
 

This week marks the third anniversary of this blog (of course, back then, it wasn't really a blog, we oldtimers called them "web sites," hee hee). It was before there was even talk of bringing the Expos to DC, let alone putting a stadium in Near Southeast. The Cappers were still occupied, 1100 New Jersey was still under construction, the M Street portion of the Southeast Federal Center was still a fenced-off unoccupied lot, and there were plans but no construction at DOT HQCapitol Hill Tower, 20 M Street, or either of the Capper Seniors projects. Since then, I've taken thousands of pictures, posted a few hundred of them, typed a lot of words, and become far more knowledgeable about zoning procedures and tax parcels and the DC government web site than I ever could have imagined.
So, what do I see coming in Year Four of my Near Southeast Obsession? I don't need a crystal ball to see some of the future: Early in the year we'll have the completion of the Capitol Hill Tower / Courtyard by Marriott project, bringing the first new market-rate housing (and the first hotel) to this neighborhood since, well, forever. DOT and its accompanying retail spaces should be completed by the end of the year, bringing a flood of workers into the area each weekday. Capper Seniors #1 should be finished as well (and maybe even Capper Seniors #2), allowing the first group of low-income seniors to move out of the old Capper Seniors highrise at 7th and M. And sales should begin (and maybe even construction?) on the huge "Capitol Quarter" mixed-income housing development replacing Capper / Carrollsburg.
Predicting what else may come down the pike this year is a bit dicier. Plans have been announced with 2006 start dates for projects like Washington Canal Park, a new JPI residential project on I Street by the SE Freeway, and the Ron Cohen mixed-use development at Half and K, but I'm not betting on seeing shovels in the ground necessarily for all of them by the end of the year. Then there's that stadium, and the "Ballpark District" that has four of the biggest developers in the city simulatenously working together on plans and salivating at the potential profits. They've got to get construction started by April in order to have the stadium ready for Opening Day 2008--my fearless prediction is that the stadium lease will get settled, and plans will proceed, but they won't make the April 1, 2008 deadline (which will have MLB spouting threats all over again).
And no doubt some new projects will materialize (some I've talked about on this site, others that are still just a secret gleam in a developer's eye), plus we should see actual drawings and plans for the huge Southeast Federal Center project.
But the biggest change for Near Southeast in 2006 will be the largest influx of new workers, residents, and visitors since the revitalization of the neighborhood began, which will no doubt bring grumbles about increased traffic and tighter parking in the surrounding areas. But it should also bring more amenities, such as portions of the Anacostia waterfront being made more accessible, and more retail and service offerings.
It'll be interesting to watch.

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"Baseball to Seek Arbitration Over D.C. Stadium" is in Wednesday's Post. I'm tired of all of this--you can go read it and tell me what it says ;-). UPDATE, 6 pm: And MLB has done, the deed, filing today for mediation. Here's the MLB.com story. UPDATE, 11:23 pm:  Earlier Post link has gone bad, so I've removed it and added it to the official Thursday story, "Baseball Files for Arbitration on DC Stadium." Since I'm still doing my best to ignore all the back-and-forth and the posturing, I'll just post this quote: "Mayoral aides said the Williams administration may announce changes in the lease agreement by the end of this week and will resubmit it to the council within two weeks."
More posts: Nationals Park
 

The Washington Blade's "D.C. law may block O Street clubs from moving" discusses the current state of affairs for the gay nightclubs in Near Southeast, from the ones in the footprint of the new baseball stadium (like Ziegfield's, Secrets, Follies, Heat, and others) to the ones along K Street (Wet, Edge, plus all-orientation Nation). The ones within the stadium footprint say that a law on the books intended to help them may actually prevent them from moving outside of their current area. Meanwhile, Wet and Edge at Half and K have been told they must vacate this year in order to make way for Ron Cohen's mixed-use project on that block. As for the fate of Nation, I've heard nothing about the existing plans moving forward for a 10-story office building on that site--the building permit was filed more than a year ago, although Potomac Investment Properties indicated at the time that they just wanted to be ready for when the time was right to begin building. However, construction materials and fences have been spotted around the Nation building, and their published events calendar is pretty sparse (plus their concert line hasn't been updated since early November) leading folks to wonder if something is indeed afoot. (If someone wants to whisper about any of this to me, I'll listen!)
 

(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.
More posts: Canal Park
 

I'm not sure many readers have ever had the strength to scroll all the way to the bottom of my Near Southeast home page, so many of you might have missed the goofy little "slide shows" I had there showing the construction progress at Capitol Hill Tower and DOT HQ. But since the home page has gotten unbearably huge, I decided to now just show a random one each time you load the home page, but I've also created a  Construction Slide Shows page to give them their own space. A random one comes up each time you load the page, then you can click on the links to choose another. And I've also added a new one, for Capper Seniors #1. Meanwhile, in other site news, if you've visited in the past week or so you've probably noticed the slight design change, with navigation links and ads now running down the right-hand side of the page, instead of taking up precious real estate in the main portion of the pages. And perhaps now having the list of Near Southeast pages visible (instead of in dropdown boxes) will make roaming the site easier. Or scarier, if you're alarmed by exactly how much is here. UPDATE: And I added a Blog Archive list of links, allowing you to go back through my posts month-by-month, if you are ever so inclined.

 

The Post's Op-Ed page today includes "Why the Stadium Deal Isn't Done," written by Major League Baseball president Bob Dupuy. I'm guessing some people might be unhappy about it, especially when reading paragraphs like "The District, for all its many pluses, is not an easy city with which to do business. City leaders frequently quibble with baseball about its commitments, and they often quarrel with each other. There are so many interested parties in the D.C. government that it seems on some days that no one is in control and on other days that everyone wants to be in control." Oh, and MLB wanted the Banneker Overlook site south of L'Enfant Plaza. Because that would have been so much easier to secure and build on, and wouldn't have had a smidge of citizen opposition.

More posts: Nationals Park
 

Mayor Bow Tie was on WTOP's Ask the Mayor this morning--here's a story on his stadium-related comments, with links to audio files of the broadcast. As for Mayor Bow Tie's bow ties, there's even a story about that today, too.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

Different day, only slightly different story. Today we have "D.C. Metro Fund Weighed To Boost Navy Yard Stop" in the Post. Perhaps tomorrow's story will be "Labor Day Telethon Eyed for Stadium Funding."
More posts: Nationals Park
 

City Administrator Robert Bobb (yes, Bob Bobb, not to be confused with Bob Loblaw) says that we should not expect a city council vote on the stadium lease agreement before mid-January, with hopes to conclude the agreement by the end of January. He also says that they are trying to "rein in" some of the public discussions of the ongoing lease negotiations. UPDATE: Here's an expanded version of the same AP story above, with a touch more detail. UPDATE II: The WashTimes expands on the "mid-January" story.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

"Land Sale Possible To Fund Stadium" in Wednesday's Post describes a new possible plan to help fund any potential cost overruns on the new baseball stadium: "District officials are considering selling development rights on land adjacent to a baseball stadium to the Washington Nationals' new owner or development companies as a way to help cover potential cost overruns on the ballpark project, D.C. Council members said yesterday. [...] Council members said the tentative plan is to sell the rights to develop land within the portion of the 21-acre footprint for the stadium project that will not be occupied by the ballpark itself. The structure is expected to take up 14 or 15 acres. Developers or the new team owner would probably pay tens of millions of dollars for the rights to the land, the council members said, for a chance to build a mix of shops, restaurants and office space." If only someone had floated an idea along these lines back in November...! Note that this land is not part of the Ballpark District that the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation has recently named developers to work on. And, who knows, if potential team owners get a whiff of the possibility that they could buy with that land and develop it (and reap the profits), maybe they'll poke at Bud a bit and pressure him to go ahead and name the new owner. After all, how would you feel if you were the new Nats owner and you never even got the chance to sit at the table when the land right around your new home was sold off to developers?
 

It's a beautiful sunny day, so I went on a photo expedition. (Except that trying to take pictures toward the south at this time of year is almost impossible, no matter what time of day.) Check for new photos on my DOT HQ, Capitol Hill Tower, Capper Seniors, Florida Rock, M Street, and 20 M pages. As always, the  icon is your guide.
 

If you're in the hospitality industry and are looking for work in Near Southeast, Hospitality Partners (the management of the opening-soon Courtyard by Marriott at New Jersey and L) has posted a few position vacancies on their web site. (And I'll be continuing to check the cycapitolhilll.com URL to see when it turns into a web site for the property itself.)
 

ICP Partners, the developers of the new project at 801 Virginia Avenue, have been kind enough to pass along a rendering of the four-story building that is going to be built on the southeast corner of the 8th and Virginia intersection--you can see it at the top of the "My Photos" section on my 8th Street Historic District page. The project is to have 15 residences, and retail spaces along 8th Street, and could be completed by the end of 2006.
More posts: 801va, 8th Street
 

Catching up a bit here after the holiday.... Preferred Real Estate Investments has purchased the "Blue Castle" building on the corner of 8th and M, for $20 million. According to the Post: "Executives at the Conshohocken, Pa., developer said the location of the 100,000-square-foot building makes it ideal for retail stores such as a Barnes & Noble bookstore and a Whole Foods grocery. The upscale stores eventually would supplant three charter schools that now are in the building." They hope to start construction in 2007. (And they're planning to de-Blue the building a bit, too, by painting it a more sedate shade; but they plan on preserving the arched windows and exposed brick interior.) Note that it doesn't sound like there are as yet commitments from any retailers for the site.
 

The Washington Business Journal has named the Nationals "Newsmakers of the Year," detailing the how the plan (and trying to go through with it!) to put a stadium in Near Southeast engendered a land rush in Near Southeast. It's a nice short wrapup of all that we've watched happen during the past 12 months....
More posts: staddis, Nationals Park
 

"Leadership Void Keeps Stadium Deal Up in the Air" is an analysis piece in Saturday's Post discussing the "three mayors"--Williams, Cropp, and Barry--and how the stadium lease agreement has gotten so mucked up.

More posts: Nationals Park
 

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!
 

It's an opinion column, not a news story, so make of it what you will, but the Examiner's Harry Jaffe has a Friday column telling Nats boosters not to fear, that there will be a stadium lease agreement, mainly because there's too much money in it, for all sides. He says that the developers who have signed on to build the Ballpark District "will step in to save the day, if necessary. [..] I am banking on the developers because, over the long run, they stand to make the most money from the stadium deal. They have the most to lose if it craters. Developers already have agreed to kick in as much as $20 million for infrastructure costs. They are in negotiations to relieve the city of the most egregious part of the lease: cost overruns."

More posts: Nationals Park
 

I've added a search box to the top of my Near Southeast home page--when even I am having trouble finding stuff on my site, I figure it's time for a search capability :-). I also tinkered with the display along the right side of the homepage, beneath the map, adding thumbnails of the renderings for projects under construction, and doing some tidying up of the design.
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