A little birdie was kind enough to pass along a URL for the "Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District", the BID in its initial organization phase that's slated to cover the entire Near Southeast footprint. (I'm not letting them rename my Hood just yet.) Right now there's only an Executive Summary posted, but it's certainly chock full of information about what's planned for the area, and how important a BID would be (they seem to be fixated on how dirty the neighborhood currently is). The city council must approve the creation of a BID, so this document is very much focused on persuading The Powers That Be that this BID is necessary; it's chock full of vision statements, goals, boundaries, number crunching, yadda yadda yadda. But considering that the initial directors of the BID are heavy hitters from WC Smith, Forest City Washington, Monument Realty, JBG, and Potomac Investment Properties, it's clear that there's plenty of muscle behind this proposal. But if you don't care about any of that, at least check out the cool previously unseen renderings of the Nats ballpark (on page 15) and the proposed Canal Park on the back cover (I'm adding the renderings to my project pages as well). You can see my previous entry about the formation of this BID (and more about what the heck a BID is) here. But definitely browse through the BID's Executive Summary, they clearly mean business [ahem].

A press release today from Lerner Enterprises: "Lerner Enterprises, Washington D.C.'s largest private real estate developer, is pleased to announce the substantial completion of 20 M Street, SE, a 190,600 square foot 10-story Class 'A' office building located in Washington D.C.'s Southeast Corridor. 20 M Street is situated across from the Navy Yard Metro and two blocks from the new ballpark of the Washington Nationals." The press release touts the building's views of the Capitol and the Nats Ballpark, and its LEED Gold rating by the US Green Building Council. Missing from the release, it should be noted, is any announcement of tenants for the building; as of now, none have been announced that I've heard. As for "substantially completed", the building itself doesn't look 100% open for business, but the sidewalks are now completed and open, so I guess that's good enough. You can relive the before-and-afters on my 20 M Street page, and I've also updated the office tab of my Project Directory to move 20 M to the Completed list. (And you'll note that 55 M and the other portions of the Monument Half Street project are now listed in the directory as "Under Construction.")

(I was out of town last week, and am also currently under the weather, so I'm only slowly catching up.) At some point during the past week, more buildings on the footprint of the Monument Half Street project met the wrecking ball, giving us some new additions to my Near Southeast Demolished Buildings page. There's also getting to be quite a hole already on the north end of the lot, around the Navy Yard Metro entrance at Half and M.

It took awhile to get into the city's Real Property Sales Database, but it can now be reported that WMATA sold its land on the east side of Half Street and one parcel on M Street to Monument Realty on Dec. 26 for $15.4 million. This is the land on top of the Navy Yard Metro stop east entrance that's now going to become the first part of Monument's Half Street/Ballpark District mixed-use development; as part of this deal, Monument is handling the renovation/expansion of the subway station, already underway.

The draft agenda for the March 12 ANC 6D meeting has been sent out (although not posted on their web site as yet, alas), and there are a few Near Southeast items of interest: discussion and vote on an construction agreement (presumably between the developers and the neighborhood/ANC) for 1325 South Capitol Street (the 276-unit residential project across from the ballpark); a presentation on modifications being requested in front of the Zoning Commission to the plans for the office building at 100 M Street (I don't know any details, will post when I find out); and a presentation on streetscapes at the The Yards/Southeast Federal Center (ooooh, more hints of moving forward!). There's also a meeting on the planned Monument Realty project on the Randall School site at Half and I Streets SW (blissfully outside of my purview). The meeting is at St. Augustine's Church at 6th and M Streets, SW at 7 pm.

Washingtonian.com's Open House blog was nice enough to include my Near Southeast site in its list of Habit-Forming Real Estate Blogs, alongside others that are doing similar work around the DC area. While I'm certainly addicted to it (with no hope of rehab, at least not before the stadium opens), it's comforting to know that I'm dragging other people down with me.

(Yes, I'm running a bit behind. Will be back to normal next week.) On Wednesday the Economic Development subcommittee of the city council held an oversight hearing that included testimony about the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation and the National Capital Revitalization Corporation. From the Washington Times piece on the hearing: "Council member Kwame R. Brown, at-large Democrat, said he was not trying to stop progress by the organizations, but that he would be 'holding them accountable' for questionable expenses and delays in completing deals. A hearing on whether to dissolve them is scheduled for March 13." And, from the Washington Business Journal: "Wednesday's hearing was focused more on the agencies' interaction and cooperation with neighborhood groups, says Kwame Brown, D-at Large, chairman of the council's economic development committee. The March 13 hearing will look at the actual performance of both agencies and how they've progressed with their development efforts."

The Washington Blade updates the continuing saga of the nightclubs that left Near Southeast because of the Development Gold Rush and the legal roadblocks that continue to thwart their attempts to find new homes within the DC city limits. Not something I'm following closely, just passing along the link for those who might be interested.

A new item popped up on this coming Monday's (March 12) Zoning Commission agenda, and apparently it is a request by the developers of Capper/Carrollsburg to revise one of the conditions in the original PUD to allow units in the new Capper Seniors #2 building to be made available as workforce housing (30%-60% annual median income) in addition to the already approved low-income senior units. This will probably be something that the ZC will have to have hearings on, but we'll find out on Monday.

More posts: 400m, Capper, Capper Senior Apt Bldgs, zoning