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Nat'l Community Church
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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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346 Blog Posts Since 2003
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First Stadium Construction Subcontracts Awarded
This might be just a touch more than anyone really needs to know, but that won't prevent me from passing along this item from the Clark/Hunt/Smoot A Joint Venture web site (the guys building the new baseball stadium), dated March 1: "Clark/Hunt/Smoot has awarded its first major subcontracts for Demolition and Mass Excavation. Demolition has been awarded to F&L/Wrecking Corp., A Joint Venture, consisting of the local F&L Construction and Wrecking Corporation of America. Mass Excavation has been awarded to Anderson/Urban, A Joint Venture, consisting of The Anderson Company and the local Urban Service Systems Corporation. Approximately 315,000 cubic yards of soil will be excavated from the 20-acre site." If you thought a lot of heavy trucks rumbled through Near Southeast now , just wait until the demolishing and the digging start...
More posts: Nationals Park
 

Lease Agreement Day 2
Lori Montgomery's DC Wire blog entry on MLB signing the lease agreement seems to have some of the hesitation that I was expressing last night, and it centers around MLB's condition that "Excess ballpark tax revenue earmarked for debt service will be available for stadium cost overruns." Linda Cropp is meeting with people from the Mayor's office and the Sports Commission this morning. So I feel good to not have popped the champagne *just* yet. Also, here is the WashTimes's piece from this morning's paper on the "deal."
More posts: Nationals Park
 

Baseball Signs Lease Agreement
From the Post: "Major League Baseball today signed a lease for the Washington Nationals use of a proposed $611 million stadium project along the Anacostia Waterfront, clearing the way for the city to begin construction of the stadium and baseball to move ahead with the sale of the team, according to sources familiar with the process. Baseball delivered a signed document to the D.C. Sports & Entertainment Commission on Sunday afternoon, with a provision that the lease not become effective until the city begins its sale of the bonds to cover the stadium project, sources said. The document, which was delivered to the city attorneys representing the D.C. Sports Commission, also contains a number of other conditions, sources said." And,for my favorite part: "A major condition was that the document does not become legally binding if the city enacts further legislation that is contrary to the stadium funding plan it passed last month, sources said." What does it mean? Is it really good to go? I want to see a bit more information first. See you after the Oscars.
UPDATE, 9:44 pm: Here is the AP story, containing this line, which is why I haven't been jumping up and down with glee just yet: "DuPuy said the lease will go into effect if the Council agrees to several provisions, including an agreement that the city not enact any legislation that violates the terms of the lease." This whole process has made me a wee bit gunshy of declaring "Ballgame" until we've got some more details, but hopefully all will be well.
UPDATE, 11:53 pm: The updated Post story, "MLB Officials Sign Lease for D.C. Stadium," does seem to have a feeling that this is all done. In addition, I saw Adrian Fenty interviewed on ABC7, and he said even though it was a bad deal for the city, it's time to move forward. So perhaps this really is finally completed, although I might not be completely convinced until there are shovels in the ground :-).

More posts: Nationals Park
 

Stadium Latest (Not Really)
There doesn't appear to be any big news tonight on the stadium lease agreement, so I'll take the opportunity to point people to this morning's WashTimes article (which I looked for but didn't find earlier today), "Mayor Defends Proposal." It appears that everyone is waiting to find out if the city's attorney general will rule whether the legislation passed in February allows use of excess baseball revenue to pay for any cost overruns. Another interesting notion is that if baseball signs the lease agreement on Monday, the council's scheduled vote on Tuesday to extend the cap legislation for 225 days might be, well, superfluous: even if the council were to vote against the extension, the lease will have already been signed. And, says Mayor Tony, "Once a lease is signed, a lease is a lease. It's a contract. You can't authorize people to enter into a contract and then change the law to de-authorize it." Hmmmm. The WashTimes does say that "Some sources, however, said council could disrupt matters by rejecting the city's contract with the ballpark construction team, which also is up for approval Tuesday." Food fight!

More posts: Nationals Park
 

Three New Pages; Other Additions
While at the Courtyard by Marriott today, I got some great overhead photos of Near Southeast; as I worked to put them on the site, I realized that it was also now time to launch separate pages for three developments that are in the pipeline: JPI's two residential projects on I Street, the mixed-use development project on Square 699N at 1st, Half, K, and L streets; and the Faison and Opus East 1st Street office and residential towers between L and M. Right now the pages are kind of short on specifics, and I don't have renderings of any of the projects, but with JPI and Square 699N looking to start construction later this year, I figured it was time to break them out into their own pages. Also, I added overhead shots to my Capper/Carrollsburg and North of M pages. (And, in looking at my 2006 pictures, have you all figured out yet that I got a new camera?)

 

Courtyard by Marriott Sneak Preview
Using all the power and pull I have at my disposal ("Uh, yeah, hi, I have this blog, and I was wondering... Hello? Hello?"), I got a sneak-preview today of the not-quite-yet-finished Courtyard by Marriott hotel at New Jersey and L. It's still a few weeks away from the grand opening, but they do have some of the rooms ready for showing, and I snapped a few photos of them, as well as a few shots of the still-under-construction outdoor courtyard space of the residential side of Capitol Hill Tower (scroll a bit down my CapTower page to see the new shots). The hotel has 200-plus rooms, meeting space, a pool and fitness center, a bar, and a small restaurant area that will offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner to not only guests but the public as well. If you ever want to stay there, sacrifice a bit of space and ask for one of the upper-floor rooms on the New Jersey Avenue corner--they have a wall of windows with unreal views to the west, at least until all the other Near Southeast projects get off the ground.
 

Navy Yard O Street Gate Ribbon Cutting
"Navy Yard celebrates opening of O St. gate" describes the renovations to the 11th and O Entrance to the Navy Yard, now designated as the entry point for visitors and deliveries. (The renovated gate officially opened in November, but the ribbon-cutting ceremony was delayed to Feb. 23.)
More posts: Navy Yard
 

Day 2 on the Latest Stadium Shenanigans
That screeching sound you hear is the brakes grinding on Mayor Bow Tie's attempt to use revenue left over from the debt service on the stadium to pay for cost overruns. In "D.C.'s Mayor Draws Fire on Stadium Plan," from Thursday's Post, city council members express, shall we say, displeasure over the idea. I think Tony has it right: "People feel betrayed on both sides," Williams said of the council and MLB. "There's bad faith on both sides. And I think the only thing everybody agrees on is they don't like me." Someone wake me up on Tuesday, when we see how this turns out; having to go through this uncertainty for a fourth time is just absurd.

More posts: Nationals Park
 

Stadium Overruns Still Stalling Agreement
Thursday's Post has "Williams Digs Up More Stadium Cash", about a plan by Mayor Bow Tie to use "$20 million in excess revenue from a gross-receipts tax on businesses, a utility tax on businesses and federal buildings and taxes from concessions at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium [to pay for cost overruns on the new baseball stadium]. Those taxes were implemented last year to pay off debt service on the construction bonds. Williams aides have told baseball officials that revenue leftover after debt service can be used for overruns, if necessary." But MLB said it was unaware of the plan, council members either wouldn't comment or complained that it would violate the cap legislation. The doom and gloom portion of the article: "The latest negotiations appear to be the final chance to resolve the standoff before Monday, the deadline set by the council for MLB to endorse the spending cap. If baseball officials reject the cap, the stadium dispute could enter binding arbitration. That would cause a delay of as much as six months and open the possibility that the Washington Nationals could be moved elsewhere.Baseball officials have made it clear that they do not want the Nationals' owner to have to pay for cost overruns for the stadium along the Anacostia River in Southeast. Over the past two weeks, the Williams administration has sought to assure MLB that another source of revenue is available." Whee! Time to start up the rollercoaster again.
UPDATE, 12:37 pm: The AP reports: "Williams says he had a conference call with MLB officials today, and promises the deal will get done before Monday's deadline. The mayor says reports that he has dug up 20 million dollars to help cover cost overruns are inaccurate. He says everything he is considering is in compliance with legislation passed by the DC Council. Williams says developments over the past year have left feelings of bad faith and uncertainty on both sides. "
UPDATE, 1:57 pm: For a little bit of atmosphere as to how all this is playing, I suggest Thomas Boswell's column.
UPDATE, 2:36 pm: From early this morning, sorry I'm only now seeing it, is a DC Wire blog entry from David Nakamura with a tiny bit more detail (including that Kwame Brown is against the plan), although how this squares with the AP story from a few hours later, I don't know.

More posts: Nationals Park
 

Update on Stadium Land Fight
The Post's DC Wire blog has an entry about today's court hearing on the city's request for the right to remove the property owners from the lands taken via eminent domain in the footprint of the new baseball stadium and take full possession of the land. Interesting tidbit: "Also, Zeldon requested that a representative of DC CFO Natwar M. Gandhi discuss whether the city is ready to issue construction bonds for the project. Gandhi has said he will issue bonds only after MLB endorses the council's spending cap, which would give final approval to the lease agreement. Under the council's legislation, MLB has until March 6 to make a decision about the spending cap and stadium lease. Whether Zeldon will rule on the case before MLB makes its position known is unclear." Also, this week's Washington Blade has a follow-up on the Feb. 9 eminent domain ruling, and what the gay clubs (and their owner Robert Siegel) are going to do.
UPDATE, 11:09 am: The AP is reporting: "DC Superior Court Judge Joan Zeldon says she's prepared to evict the owners once Major League Baseball agrees to a stadium lease with the city. That decision is expected by March sixth. Zeldon has ordered several property owners fighting to keep their land to go into mediation with the DC government before then. Otherwise, the judge says she will promptly sign the land over to the city once it's certain the baseball deal will go through. "
UPDATE, 1:35 pm: Here's the Post's story on the ruling, although the headline ("Court Rejects DC Bid for Private Land") makes the ruling seem far more ominous than seems to be indicated by the text of the story.
More posts: Nationals Park
 

South Capitol Street EIS Newsletter
The South Capitol Street Environmental Impact Statement project has posted its Winter 2006 newsletter with the latest updates on the study. Two build alternatives have been identified and are briefly described--the less costly one would keep the South Capitol and M intersection in two levels, and would create a "traditional" intersection at Potomac Avenue. The second and more wide-ranging alternative would reconstruct South Capitol and M to be "at-grade", and would create a traffic circle interchange at Potomac Avenue (there are differences in the two plans for east side of the bridge as well). The various plans (the two build alternatives, plus a "Transportation System Management" alternative and a No-Build alternative) will be presented at public meetings later this winter, then there will be ANC meetings, environmental analyses, and finally the preparation of the draft EIS. In the meantime, DDOT will be discussing this project as part of its Feb. 25 Open House. Also, both the South Capitol Street EIS and the 11th Street Bridges EIS teams will present their pedestrian and bicycle concepts to a meeting of the Bicycle Advisory Council on March 8. See my South Capitol Street and South Capitol Street Bridge pages for more details, photos, links, etc.
 

Raze Permits, Street Closing Legislation for Stadium Area
Boy, it's been a quiet week on the Near Southeast front. (Almost too quiet...!) But this week's DC Register provides some very small stadium-related tibits. First, raze permits for the stadium fooprint have been filed with DCRA. Second, the city council has scheduled a hearing for March 17 on Bill 16-628, "Closing of Public Alleys In Square 702, 703, 704, 705, and 706 Act Of 2006." Of course, tomorrow (Feb. 24) is the date for an expected ruling on whether the city can now force landowners out of their properties.

More posts: Nationals Park
 

Last Week's ANC 6D Meeting
Voice of the Hill has a piece on the ANC 6D February meeting. Read it to see why it was the last ANC 6D meeting I will attend. My commitment to bringing you all the latest in Near Southeast does not extend to enduring this level of torture!
More posts:
 

The Stadium and Commercial Real Estate
You'd have to dig to find it on washingtonpost.com, but the front page of Monday's Business section has a huge graph showing the trend in commercial real estate sales in Near Southeast (and Buzzards Point) from 2000 through 2005. (Full disclosure: I did the research for it.) From 2000 through September 2004 (when DC got the Expos and the city announced that a new stadium would be built in southeast, there were 32 sales of undeveloped commercial property, totaling just under $40 million. In the 15 months after this, there were 37 sales--for nearly $219 million. It also compares two properties, right next to each other, that sold five years apart--the 45,000-sq-ft lot at 80 M Street sold for $5.5 million in 2000 (and construction began on the office building there soon afterward), while the 82,500-sq-ft block just to its north was purchased by Ron Cohen in 2005 for $51.6 million. A slight spike in prices, one might say. There's an accompanying article by Dana Hedgpeth, "Contesting a Stadium's Power," with quotes from developers, real estate professionals, and city officials as to whether the land boom in Near Southeast can really be attributed to the stadium, or whether the development would have happened anyway (albeit more slowly).

More posts: Nationals Park
 

Council Vote on Alley Closing
A little late to be posting this, but I'll still pass along that on Tuesday the 21st the City Council will be voting on Bill 16-585, which is the request by Faison to close two alleys in Square 743N (the block bounded by 1st, New Jersey, L and M). Faison is wanting to build two towers in that location.
UPDATE: Oops, I was a little quick on the trigger there. The bill was *considered* at the Feb. 21 meeting, and has now been put on the March 7 agenda for its first reading and vote, with the second and final reading on April 4.
More posts: 100 M, Onyx, Square 743N
 

New Capper Seniors Photos
I've added a bunch of new pictures to my Capper Seniors page of Capper Seniors #1, the building at the bottom of the 6th Street exit ramp.
 

Hearing on Blue Castle Building
On March 23, the DC Historic Preservation Review Board will be holding a public hearing to consider whether to designate the Navy Yard Car Barn at 770 M Street (more popularly known as the "Blue Castle") as a historic landmark, and also to consider nominating it to the National Register of Historic Places. The hearing will be at 10 am, Room 220 South, 441 Fourth St. NW. (Remember, you can always check my Upcoming Events calendar to see what meetings, hearings, and other Near Southeast items of interest are happening.)
More posts: Blue Castle, 8th Street
 

City Paper Article on Eminent Domain
The Washington City Paper has a big article about the eminent domain proceedings for the land in the stadium footprint: "Wild Pitch."
More posts: Nationals Park
 

Lots of Other New Pictures
In addition to the pictures I posted earlier from the site of the new baseball stadium, there's also new pictures now on my Capitol Hill Tower, DOT HQ, and 20 M Street pages. I've also got a few new shots and some additional information on the project at 801 Virginia Ave. (if you've been past there, you may have noticed that the buildings on the lot have been demolished.)
 

Lots of New Stadium Site Pictures
I hope I didn't jinx things, but on the off chance that construction on the new baseball stadium could actually begin in March (wouldn't that be a hoot?!?), I went for a nice long walk today in the beautiful weather and took what I presume are my final "before" pictures of the stadium neighborhood. The first pictures are of the perimeter of the site, which we'll be able to watch as it transforms from gritty industrial zone to demolished construction site to a stadium. The photos at the bottom of the page are of some of the businesses and buildings that have been the residents of these blocks off South Capitol Street but which will be soon replaced with bleachers, bases, bullpens, and uselessly exorbitant skyboxes. (You've got to take the good with the bad, I guess.) Anyway, enjoy the new photos. UPDATE: Oh, and by the way, I almost got arrested while taking them, as a DC policeman got all tense that I might possibly be photographing the Southeast Federal Center (which I wasn't). Because, you know, it's a government installation, and if I take pictures of it, the terrorists win. It's going to be so much fun having power-mad officers with nightsticks whacking baseball fans for daring to look at the east side of 1st Street. He asked to see my photos, but when I said, "Sure, fine, whatever, I've taken 70 already, do you want us to just stand here and look at the screen?" he got flustered and I took the opportunity to saunter off. (I'll admit I'm really just miffed that I didn't get mistaken for a prostitute, like a co-worker did when walking in the same neighborhood a few weeks back.)
More posts: Nationals Park
 
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