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You'll probably need your x-ray specs to really glean any progress from my usual vantage points, but that shouldn't stop you from taking a look at today's batch of Capitol Quarter photos, taken on the blocks bounded by Fourth, Fifth, L, and Virginia. As the above photo shows (there's a bigger version on the project page), foundations are indeed now being dug for the first townhouses, on the south side of L between Fourth and Fifth. And meanwhile, the streets are getting pretty new granite curbs and brick gutters. The blocks north of L now have a lot of "private" infrastructure work underway (meaning, the pipes and whatnot that will run beneath the houses), so all in all there's no denying that, after a long long wait, the heart of the Capper/Carrollsburg redevelopment is now underway. We should be seeing the first hints of structures rising out of the ground next month.
And, if you really really can't get enough of seeing what's happening in that section of the neighborhood, go to the Capitol Quarter Phase I Expanded Archive, where you can see all vantage points. And be sure to click on the Click to see all available photos of this location. icon anytime you want to see the complete range of photos from a certain spot (to watch the old Capper buildings come down, then see the weeds grow, then see the beginnings of construction).
UPDATE, 7/25: Within 24 hours of my visit, the first concrete footers were poured.
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More posts: Capper, Capitol Quarter
 

* From Wednesday's Post: "ACC Commissioner John Swofford confirmed yesterday that the inaugural Congressional Bowl, to be held Dec. 20 at Nationals Park, will feature the conference's ninth-best team, 'assuming we have nine teams [bowl] eligible.' Approved by the NCAA in May, the Congressional Bowl will be the first college football bowl game in the District. Assuming it is bowl eligible, Navy will take on an ACC team. Teams must win at least six games to be eligible for a bowl game. Last season, eight of the 12 ACC teams qualified for bowl games."
* I missed this last week, but the ballpark was host on July 17 to another battle royale: "They gathered together just south of the Capitol dome, silhouetted by the setting evening sun, to play a game of baseball. U.S. Representatives from across the aisle and across the country donned uniforms local to their districts and immersed themselves in America's pastime Thursday at Nationals Park. The city's new stadium played host to the 47th annual Congressional Baseball Game sponsored by Roll Call."
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More posts: Nationals Park
 

Last week the folks at Forest City were gracious enough to take me on a behind-the-fences tour of the The Yards, so that I could stock up on "before" photos before too much more work gets underway. The first stop was Building 167, also known as the Boilermaker Shop, on the northeast corner of Third and Tingey streets behind the US DOT HQ. This steel-and-glass industrial workshop (such a rarity for Washington) was built in 1919, and by the end of 2009 Forest City expects it to be transformed into a 46,000-square-foot retail space, with a new loft-like mezzanine in the middle of the building that will provide additional square footage without sacrificing the wide-open feel of the high glass-lined ceiling. I have wanted to get inside this building for a long time, so I'm glad to now have photos in advance of the shop's makeover, which you can see on my Boilermaker Shop page along with renderings of what's coming.
Across the street at the old Pattern Joiner Shop, interior demolition work continues, along with the removal of all the windows and the white paint from the building's exterior. We didn't get to go inside, but I've still posted some updated photos, which you can compare to shots from the past three years to see what's been done in just a few months. By late 2009 this will become the Pattern Shop Lofts, with 170 apartments, ground-floor retail, an interior courtyard, and two new floors on top.
I also snagged some photos from a few other locations, too, and I'll get those posted soon.
And, if you're wondering What's the Deal With the big hole punched in the historic red brick wall on M Street east of Fifth--apparently that's the start of the necessary work to create 5 1/2 Street, SE (no, I'm serious), which will run between the big red brick Building 202 (to be turned into condos by 2011) and Building 74 (forecast to be converted into townhouses in a future phase of the Yards). Here's an overhead photo of the spot in question, taken from the roof of the old Capper Seniors building before it came down last year.
 

The agendas for Thursday's various Metro board meetings have been posted, and, barring a last-minute change, it looks like the Planning, Development and Real Estate committee will finally be taking up the awarding of the Half and L "chiller plant" site for the Navy Yard Metro station to a developer. It's going to happen in an executive session (the agenda says nothing more than "Term Sheet on Navy Yard Chiller Site"), so it could be possible it's not yet a done deal. They've been trying to bring this up at the board since February; the solicitation for bids for the 14,100-sq-ft site happened nearly two years ago.
 

Despite my preference to not ever actually step foot outside in Washington during the summer, I wandered around on Thursday afternoon and got updated photos of 909 New Jersey, Velocity, Onyx, 100 M, and 55 M. I especially enjoy the view that's now developed looking up First Street at M(above), where you see five new buildings in the same vista where 80 M stood all alone less than three years ago.
If you've really got some time to kill today, check the Photo Archive for before-and-afters of these intersections that have changed so much: 1st and I, 1st and K, 1st and L, 1st and M, Half and M, Half and L, Half and K, New Jersey and K, New Jersey and I. Or, just start clicking around on the Archive Map to look at other spots.
Coming soon, photos from a few locations I've never had access to until now....
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More posts: mnorth, Square 743N
 

An e-mail went out late yesterday announcing that Axiom at Capitol Yards (better known around these parts as 100 I Street) is now open for business, almost exactly one month after older sibling Jefferson/70 I went live. Axiom, with about 246 units, has a more modern design in comparison to Jefferson's "warehouse/industrial" look, but has many of the same amenities, such as a roof pool, fitness center, "resident pub," etc. (I've got interior photos from about two months ago, which I hope to get updated soon--I almost took a photo yesterday afternoon of the main entry that now has an "Axiom" sign above it, but I thought to myself, "Oh, I'll just wait until it's officially open." Oops.)
The official web site is at AxiomCapitolYards.com, and leasing has been underway for a few months. And, like all younger siblings, Axiom's debut into the world will probably be less of an event, with fewer announcements, parties, photos, home movies, birthday presents, etc. (Do I sound bitter?)
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More posts: jpi
 

Yes, it's time once again for What's the Deal With.... Canal Park? Now that the ballpark's open and people have stopped asking me about the baseball that was originally planned for the roof of the Red Loft, I can safely say that there is no question I receive more often than this one. Here's the latest:
Over the past few months, the Canal Park Development Association has been resurrected, and is now being led by Chris VanArsdale, a local lawyer-turned-green-developer. An agreement is being worked on with the city that will allow the CPDA to take on moving the park forward, a task that ended up in the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development after the demise of the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation.
Of course, there will be no moving forward of the park until the dang buses are gone. The timeline being put forward by DMPED is now "December or January" for the departure of the buses, since a new location has been found (*cough*DC Village*cough*) but a lot still must be built. (It's at this point that I'm always required mention that it was in October 2003 when I first heard the city had been given 90 days to get the buses off the park site.) The park's blocks would then be graded and temporary sod planted until the park itself is built.
So, when will the park actually be completed? You didn't actually expect anyone to tell me that, did you? However, indications are that once the license agreement between the CPDA and the city is finished, we'll get a better sense for what's left to be done and when it all could happen.
In the meantime, while twiddling your thumbs waiting for the next news tidbit, take a look at the designs and plans for the park, which came as the result of a 2004 design competition held by the city. Are they still holding up? Discuss. (Hey, it's summer, I've got to do something to perk up the energy around here.)
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More posts: Canal Park
 

Reader AW was nice enough to pass along news of a fence banner along Half Street, SE, just south of 70 I that is shouting "1st Community in DC to Offer Verizon FIOS!" (This is the high-speed fiber optic TV/internet service that is available throughout the 'burbs.) I went to verizonfios.com, and did some address searching via the Check Availability page, and got positive results for 70 I, 100 I, and 1000 New Jersey (Capitol Hill Tower). However, if you click one of the addresses and continue along, you're then told that FIOS TV isn't yet available for that address, but FIOS high-speed Internet is. (As I posted back in June, JPI has been marketing 70 and 100 I as "pre-wired" for FIOS.)
UPDATE: Read this entry's comments to see that, not surprisingly, "First Community to Offer FIOS" isn't quite what it seems just yet. But if there's any neighborhood in the city where the infrastructure work could already have been done to get fiber in place, it'd be the one that's being entirely rebuilt from scratch....
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More posts: Capitol Hill Tower, jpi
 

With the city council now almost in its summer recess until mid-September (though not before David Catania introduced legislation yesterday trying to raise the sales tax at Nationals Park in what appears to be an attempt to get back at the Lerners for withholding the rent), and with the Zoning Commission and most ANCs taking August off, the pace of bureaucratic-type news in these parts will be slow if not nonexistent for the next few weeks. We've got a Metro board meeting next week that might (or might not) be telling us the developer of the Navy Yard station's 14,000-sq-ft chiller plant site on the southwest corner of Half and L, but otherwise the calendar is all but empty until after Labor Day. (At least I can report that on Monday night ANC 6D voted 7-0 to approve a public space permit by 100 M Street to install sidewalks and city arborist-recommended willow oak and elm trees.)
That said, I should have some interesting items in the next few days, including hopefully an update about everyone's favorite What's the Deal With....? subject. And of course I'll have photo updates every few weeks, especially since it's expected that framing of the first Capitol Quarter townhouses will get underway by early August. But beyond that, expect the pace around here to be more leisurely during the dog days. As it should be!
 

From Tuesday's Post: "Yes, the Nationals are riddled with injuries and the team is among the worst in Major League Baseball, which resumes its schedule Thursday after tonight's all-star game. The team's owners, the Lerner family, are in a messy dispute with the city, which financed the $611 million ballpark. The stadium, meanwhile, is developing a happy following. The reviews so far: generally good. Getting to the ballpark, along the Anacostia River in Southeast Washington, is fairly easy most nights and weekends. The stadium is winning praise for its sightlines, scoreboard and atmosphere. Food prices are another matter." And there's this: "Neighbors who worried about fans clogging streets are breathing easier. 'As of now, I think it's been managed well, especially by the team,' said Andy Litsky, a Ward 6 neighborhood leader. 'It's not as bad as we anticipated.' " On the other hand, the lack of a parking/transit/traffic catastrophe as predicted by so many for so long has left JDLand all but devoid of content....
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More posts: Nationals Park
 

0807 Wyoming 635 Mount Rushmore 0807 Wyoming 490
I'm back from a week in Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota, where I took all sorts of photos despite the fact that there were almost no buildings under construction. And what better way to get back in the blogging saddle than to post notice of Monday's ANC 6D meeting. The agenda has one Near Southeast item, which is a public space permit for 100 M Street (for trees, a driveway, and sidewalk paving). The rest of the agenda includes a presentation by the Office of Planning on a zoning study of Southwest, a resolution on the proposed moratorium on "singles" (alcohol, not unmarrieds), and admin minutiae in conjunction with some events planned in Southwest. The meeting starts at 7 pm, at St. Augustine's church at 6th and M Streets, SW. I'll be the one in the audience griping about not still being out west.
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More posts: 100 M, ANC News, Square 743N
 

On Friday night one passenger was killed and another seriously injured when the open-top double-decker bus they were riding in went under an overpass while the two were apparently standing up. The news reports of the accident are all over the map--they were going to the game, they were heading back to RFK from the game, they were on the Southeast Freeway, they were on I Street near 9th, it was the 11th Street overpass. Here's the Post story, Channel 9's story, and last night's Fox 5 story, before it was confirmed that one passenger had died. On the Ballpark Guys thread discussing the accident, fans report seeing the westbound freeway closed during the accident investigation, which would seem to indicate that the bus was going to the game.
UPDATE: The Post reports late on Saturday that the second victim has died as well.
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More posts: Nationals Park
 

From the Post: "More than midway through the baseball season, the Washington Nationals' owners have failed to pay $3.5 million in rent for the District's new ballpark, contending that the state-of-the-art stadium is still incomplete. Besides withholding rent, the team is demanding damages of $100,000 a day, dating from March 1. The team and the city are also at odds over the timing of sales tax payments on tickets, with the Nationals paying game-by-game and the city wanting tax revenue from pre-sold ticket packages upfront." The dispute will be going to arbitration.
UPDATE: Here's some additional details from Tim Lemke's blog at the WashTimes, including how Mayor Fenty reacted in it'll-all-work-out fashion today on WTOP. Ditto from the Post's DC Wire.
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More posts: Nationals Park
 

I'm out of pocket for a bit, so I'll just quickly mention that the National Capital Planning Commission's National Capital Framework Plan was unveiled today, with all sorts of visions about reworking and improving various areas of the city. Here's the section of the report dealing with South Capitol Street (I must admit to wishing they'd update their drawing to one that has a realistic depiction of Nationals Park). Much of this section is really just a restatement of the goals announced in their 2005 report on South Capitol Street. Here's the Post's article on the new framework plan. (UPDATED to fix broken link.)
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More posts: South Capitol St.
 

This is kind of old, but I only heard about it after the fact--on July 1, DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton held a "Capitol Riverfront BID briefing" at the US DOT HQ as part of her continuing efforts to encourage federal agencies to move to "developing" areas of DC. We heard last week that the Department of Agriculture is looking around down here, and perhaps the FBI as well. Here's Norton's press release on the briefing--I'm interested in the paragraph near the bottom listing the area's coming amenities, where it says "two first class supermarkets are planned." We know that there's space for one in the ground floor of the proposed office building at 401 M Street at The Yards, which isn't scheduled to be completed until 2011--I don't know about any firm plans for another one.
 

Jul 7, 2008 7:19 PM
According to the Post's DC Wire blog, the final chapter of the Garages Wrapped With Development Goodness saga has now been written: "Developer Herbert Miller has settled his $40 million lawsuit against the District government over the failed plan to build two 13-story condominium towers just outside Nationals Park. Under the settlement, the city will pay Miller's Western Development $2 million and the company will drop its legal grievances, according to Miller's son Ben, who is now the company's president." Above is the design for the condo/garages, and here's my various entries on the Miller plan. While you look at those links, think about the current four-story parking lots in the outfield and imagine them with another eight stories on top. And no centerfield plaza, either.
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More posts: parking, Nationals Park
 

Jul 4, 2008 8:51 AM
From today's Washington Business Journal print edition (subscribers only): "The Department of Agriculture, in search of 330,000 square feet, has been poking around the ballpark district. Michael Stevens, executive director of the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District, says the government has heard proposals from Opus East LLC, planning 411,000 square feet of offices at 1015 Half St. SE, and the mixed-use project planned for First and M streets SE by Potomac-based Willco Cos., which will have 350,000 square feet of offices. The agency is looking to relocate 1,255 employees from seven other locations, at a max rate of $47 per square foot." The Willco space is the current location of Nats parking lot F, on the southwest corner of First and M; and of course Opus isn't *planning* office space at 1015 Half, they're already digging the hole. The blurb also says that the FBI is looking for 180,000 square feet of new space, and that Akridge pitched their as-yet-untapped three-block space on Second Street SW in Buzzard Point.
Also in the WBJ, a story on two small investors who spent 18 years amassing a batch of 23 small properties in Southwest, who are finding that the new ballpark still hasn't brought anyone calling to meet their $12 million asking price for the lots, which are encircled by the Syphax Gardens and James Creek public housing developments. They apparently are hoping that the city would decide to redo the two projects (a la Capper), but the DC Housing Authority says that they don't currently have the funding, and that the residents would have to be really supportive of any redevelopment plans as well.
 

Jul 3, 2008 9:40 PM
Not that there's probably anybody left in town (*tap* *tap* -- is this thing on?), but just in case, here's a few items before I downshift into low-posting holiday mode over the weekend and into next week:
* My Ballpark and Beyond column in today's Post covers some of the latest news on retail (i.e., banks) I've posted here over the past few weeks (Wachovia at 20 M, SunTrust at 100 M, plans for 900 M). There's also a blurb on the month-old news of the zoning approvals for the Waterfront Park at the Yards. The column normally appears in just the District Extra, but If you live in Prince George's County, you got a crack at it this week as they snuck it in on page 11 of the P.G. Extra, too. But note that we're scaling way back on how often the column will appear (probably just monthly from now on) since the news isn't flowing as fast and furious-ly as it was last year.
* No one's invited me to the roof of any of the sparkly new Near Southeast buildings to watch the fireworks. I'll say it: I'm miffed. I do and I do and I do for you people, and this is the thanks I get.... [/sarcastic martyr mode off]
* I've tinkered again with the big homepage map, trying to have it make a little more sense. I've added checkmarks for the completed projects, and turned the list of projects down the left side (marked on the map with boxes) into only ones that are under construction or ones which the developers have done an especially good job of making me believe they'll start soon. The rest of the map is a whole lot of stars marking proposed projects. And they're all color-coded to differentiate between office, residential, and recreational/retail.
My real desire is to completely redesign the homepage, but I haven't had any inspirations come to me yet. Although, in the meantime, I've added another three random before-and-after photo pairings down on the bottom right of the homepage (after you do a lot of scrolling), just to fill some space. I also expanded my Neighborhood Blogs list of links.
Happy 4th, everyone!
 

Jul 3, 2008 2:32 PM
Rumors of this first came my way over the weekend, and now WBJ has the somewhat official word, in this article about the closing of a $60 million construction loan to allow the completion of the 200-unit Velocity condo building at First and L streets: "Rockville-based Cohen Cos. is currently negotiating a deal with a first-class hotel operator for Phase II and is in negotiations for a full building user for the 280,000 square-foot, Class A office building in Phase III." Phase II, on the north side of the block, facing K Street, was originally planned to be a twin of the building currently under construction; the three levels of underground parking are already built, which presumably would speed up any sort of construction timetable for a hotel on that spot. Phase III is the section of the block facing Half Street. The article also says that the condo building is currently 25 percent leased.
 

Jul 2, 2008 9:44 PM
A letter arrived in the mail at JDLand HQ today (how old school!) from DDOT director Emeka Moneme, saying that DDOT "has heard your concerns regarding the hours of enforcement for the enhanced Residential Parking Permit (RPP) program in your neighborhood. I am pleased to announce that as a result of the success of our campaign to encourage transit use and based upon community feedback, DDOT has decided to modify the hours of enforcement for all residential streets within the following boundaries[,]" which is basically all residential streets east of South Capitol, west of 9th St., SE, and south of Pennsylvania Avenue. Beginning June 23, the hours on these residential streets in Near Southeast and Capitol Hill were changed to Monday through Saturday from 7 am to 9:30 pm, with no enforcement on Sundays. West of South Capitol Street, in Southwest, RPP rules remain the same (7 am to midnight seven days a week), except for ending these restrictions on M Street SW.
Also, according to the updated Multispace Meters Rates and Hours of Operation sheet from DDOT, parking at the green multispace kiosks in Near Southeast is no longer off-limits during stadium events. It now costs $2 for the first hour, $8 for the second hour, $8 for the third, and $2 for the fourth. This equals the cost of most of the cash lots operating near the ballpark. (See that sheet for the updated rules for Pennsylvania Avenue SE and Barracks Row.) I haven't paid close enough attention over the past few weeks to see if this meter change has been in effect since before June 23--but clearly the ample parking and well-flowing traffic near the ballpark has lessened the original fears that allowing on-street parking north of the ballpark would bring a crunch of drivers circling looking for spaces. ($4 gas might be helping that, too.)
I've posted on my Stadium Parking page the updated map from DDOT showing these changes and the explanations of the parking restrictions around the ballpark as they now stand, after these alterations. I suppose I should get off the sofa and go see if the street signs here on my Capitol Hill residential block have been updated to show these new hours, but I'm lazy tonight. Still worn out from last night's fast-forwarding extravaganza, I guess.
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More posts: parking, Nationals Park
 
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