Artomatic Does Southeast in Style

High culture and high-rise office space don't often collide, but they did today as DC arts organization, Artomatic, opened the doors on its landmark 10^th anniversary exhibition at Monument Realty's new 275,000 square foot, LEED silver-certified building at 55 M Street, SE in the Capitol Riverfront.

With galleries on each of its nine-stories, this year's Artomatic celebration overlooks Nationals Park and the city's monumental core, while featuring the work of more than a thousand artists of just about every discernible sort – painters, sculptors, videographers, musicians, tattooists, poets, dancers and more. And, to wash down that load of multimedia, bars and vendors -- including the Hard Times Café, Red Bull, Cake Love, Busboys and Poets and the Flying Dog Brewery – are scattered throughout. The city legislators present, including Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, touted this year’s festivities as the beginning of the “new 20003.”

“We’re no longer an emerging neighborhood. We’re here,” said Capitol Riverfront BID board member and Cohen Companies Executive Vice President Eric Siegel – who, in his acting his role with the latter organization, helped develop the Velocity Condominiums project a stone’s throw away at 1025 1^st Street, SE.

BID officials are projecting that Artomatic will draw some 70,000 visitors to the neighborhood (now dubbed “The ‘Front” for short) during its five-week run. The exhibition is open to the public starting today, Friday, May 29^th at noon. The opening gala will begin around 8 PM tonight and feature a fire dancers, 24 bands and performances and a discussion with PostSecret creator Frank Warren.

Artomatic 10 will close up shop on July 5^th, but until then, the exhibition will available for perusal on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 5 pm – 10 pm; Fridays and Saturdays from 12 noon -1 am; and Sundays from 12 noon – 10 pm.

And, having just returned from the sneak peek, let me state it plainly: it's pretty kick-ass.

DC Proposes Tax on Co-op Sales

The Washington, DC Council has proposed taxing the sale of co-ops in the District, a move that would bring the transaction tax on co-op units into tax parity with the sale of fee simple and condominium sales. The new tax measure, buried deep in the Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Support Act of 2009, proposed by Chairman Vincent Grey, proposes to add a transaction fee to the sale of a co-op unit for both the buyer and the seller - 1.1% for sales under $400,000, 1.45% otherwise.

The sale of co-ops, technically a transfer of an economic interest rather than transfer in title, is not currently taxed by the District of Columbia; the proposed law would add an "economic equivalent" tax at the same rate as the transfer (tax on the seller) and recordation (tax on the buyer) taxes currently imposed by the District. While co-ops represent only a small fraction of real estate transactions, the District reckons it could pull in an additional $5m to $6m per annum for the next few years with the additional tax burden, compared to the $118m the District siphoned from transfer and recordation taxes last year.

The absence of recordation taxes is one of the few incentives to buying into a cooperative, most of which have more onerous rules than condominiums, carry underlying obligations to the purchaser, and bestow on the Board of Directors the power to reject applicants, all of which tends to suppress the price of co-ops below that of an equivalent condominium. The tax would take effect next year. In other words, sell now.

Work Begins on Capitol Riverfront's "Crown Jewel"

Developer Forest City Washington broke ground today on the latest Capitol Riverfront redevelopment initiative: the Park at the Yards. Located between Nationals Park and the Navy Yard, the $42 million, 5.4 acre park, designed by M. Paul Friedberg and Partners, was touted as "the core" and "crown jewel" of the greater Yards development. Once complete, the area will feature 2700 new units of housing, 400,000 square feet of retail and 1.8 million square feet of office space. The park’s first phase, scheduled for completion next summer, is set to include “vast open lawns” and landscaped gardens along a riverfront promenade that will incorporate an extension of the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail. Future work will include three retail pavilions, including one in the historically-protected Lumber Shed adjoining the site, with the end result of creating a world class waterfront destination.

“A world class city has to have a world class waterfront…This I think is the biggest piece of that and generations of Washingtonians are going to be thankful that this day occurred,” said DC Mayor Adrian Fenty.

Meanwhile, FCW President Deborah Ratner Salzberg told DCmud that other, more retail-centric pieces of the greater Yards puzzle, such as the Boilermaker Shops at 200 Tingey Street, SE, continue to fall into place. According to Salzberg, roughly 50% of that space is now leased and the FCW development team recently returned from a conference with potential retailers.

Despite rumors of business being slow in the from-scratch neighborhood surrounding the ballpark as construction continues, Claire Schaefer, Deputy Executive Director of the Capitol Riverfront BID, said that approximately 1,600 new residents are now in place in the area’s various rental and condo buildings, with that number expected to climb to 2,000 by year’s end. According to the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the Yards alone will host some 3,700 Southeast newcomers once work finally wraps sometime in the twenty-teens. Those figures will surely be helped along by the vast number of transit-oriented, “’smart growth” projects coming along as the riverfront coalesces - expanded bus services, water taxis, street cars and even horse-drawn buggies being among the options explored for a site that once hosted a government compound known as the Southeast Federal Center.

“You have to put all these pieces together to get to today…[This is] how a neighborhood gets transformed,” said Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, who facilitated the nation's first public-private partnership on federal land for the Yards project. “It is especially important to the neighborhood and city that there be a way to reach our river from which we have been isolated forever. This is a part of the city that has been opened to the people.”

H Street Country Club Now Open

After many a stop and start, the Atlas District's H Street corridor will finally see the long-awaited H Street Country Club open tonight. Brought to fruition by DC developer/restaurateur/man-about-town Joe Englert (who also counts the Rock and Roll Hotel, The Red & The Black and Palace of Wonders among his stable of popular destinations for area nightlife) and co-owners Ricardo Vegara and Blair Zervos, the 6800 square foot, 300-seat restaurant at 1335 H Street, NE, will offer up "Mexican cuisine with both southern and northern accents," (we don't know the difference either) along with beers, margaritas and tequilas of the same pedigree from along their 40-foot, tartan-covered bar.

The real crux of the HSCC’s appeal, however, is the in-house entertainment. Just as the nearby Palace of Wonders specializes in turn-of-the-century Fortean curiosities, the HSCC is will highlighting the best and rest of American pastimes with pool tables, shuffleboard, skeeball and, yes, mini-golf. The club’s second story hosts a 9-hole putt-putt course, designed by Arlington-based artist Lee T. Wheeler, which affords customers the chance to “shoot through the corridors of U Street, around the Washington Monument, and past towering K Street Lawyers” for a whopping seven bucks a pop. Baby back that, Chiles.

New Condo Report: The Argent

The sales center at Perseus Realty LLC's $37 million Silver Spring condo building, The Argent, has opened its doors and DCmud was among the first to peruse some of its 96 for-sale units. The Argent is something of a curiosity in DC metro area because, as other similarly minded residential developments in the area have converted to rentals, The Argent is forging ahead in a condo market gone south. Home Properties' 1200 East West Highway building, directly across the street, is under construction and hoping to finish up early next year - advertising only rental units - while the Portico, once envisioned as a condo, is now leasing. Other projects in the area have simply failed to materialize.

Nonetheless, the developer is hoping to combat any possible sticker shock by dropping prices on units once scheduled to start in the low $400s. As of today, a 636 square foot studio is going for $247,900, while prices top out at $553,900 for 1435 square two-bedroom with den. The building’s sole three-bedroom unit, located on the second floor, is priced at $570,900, measuring in at 1426 square feet. Those prices increase by roughly $3,000 the higher you climb in the building’s nine-stories - but don’t hold your breath for amenities while you’re up there.

"There’s a rooftop terrace. It’s walking distance to the grocery store and all the different shops…Unfortunately, there’s no pool [and] no exercise room,” said one of the sales

representatives working the project. The JSA Inc.-designed development is rounded out by a plaza/sculpture garden, fronting on East West Highway, that was designed by local artist Mary Ann E. Mears. The building opened on May 22^nd.

District Takes a Stab at Building Secure Evidence Depot

The District broke ground this morning on the Metropolitan Police Department’s new Property and Evidence Warehouse at the former site of the DC Village emergency shelter at 34 DC Village Lane, SW. The $20 million, 30,000 square-foot project is being developed as a joint venture between the Office of Property Management (OPM) and Akridge Development.

The Mayor’s office is pegging the project as "state-of-the-art" with features including a "computer-automated storage system for logging and retrieval of evidence," "video event logging of transactions," "radio frequency handheld portable terminals,” and “refrigerated units for storing DNA samples.” According to the original bid, the evidence warehouse will contain roughly two million items, including “narcotics, possible biohazards, cash/valuables, guns [and] oversize items” – some of which, according to legal guidelines, must be retained for up 65 years.

Though never explicitly stated, some of the security measures lined-up for the new warehouse seem targeted at reducing the reams of missing evidence – including “$16,453 in currency, seven revolvers, one shotgun, one BB gun, one derringer, marijuana, amphetamines and cocaine” – that failed to turn up during a 2008 audit of the MPD’s present facility at 2235 Shannon Place, SE. Per Washington, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty’s follow-up on the project’s status last February, the District also intends to cut costs by moving from the privately-owned building that they currently lease to the federally owned Southwest parcel. Several sites, including the largely abandoned St. Elizabeths Hospital in Anacostia, were bandied about before the OPM settled on the DC Village site that had itself been closed in October 2007 due to “poor living conditions.”

The District plans to have their new facility up and operational by the fall of 2010 and to qualify for, at the very least, a LEED silver certification.

New Shaw Library Seeks Out Stimulus Funds

Three years after it was initially scheduled for completion, work is finally underway on the long awaited Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Library. And the fact that excavation is now bristling along at the Rhode Island Avenue, NW site, courtesy of Forrester Construction, isn’t the only piece of good news for Shaw bibliophiles. Officials at DC Public Libraries (DCPL) now tell DCmud that some features originally envisioned for the new library –but that had to be shelved following drastic budget cuts in 2008 – could be restored, courtesy of an application for $282,000 worth of federal stimulus funds that is currently pending with the District Department of the Environment.

"[In] the initial design, we hoped to have a vegetative green roof on the library,” said DCPL spokesman George Williams. “From the conceptual design to putting together how much it would cost to actually build the library, the vegetative green roof was a feature that initially we could not afford. With the availability of stimulus funds, we thought it would be a great opportunity to put the roof back on…It was something that the library wanted and that the community around the library wanted as well.”

Moreover, the community has been wanting any sign of progress on the new 20,000 square foot, LEED-certified, Davis Brody Bond-designed library since its’ predecessor closed in 2004. Though the project formally broke ground this past November, work at the site has only recently geared up – a slow pace, even by DC standards. Nonetheless, DCPL pledges that not only were the delays warranted, but that they’ve also found a means to keep the public updated on progress at the site.

“[We were] making sure that we had all the appropriate permits, approvals and traffic plans taken care of…I don’t believe that our end time changed and we’re looking at scheduling the new library to open in spring 2010,” said Williams. ““We are now doing excavation and foundation work. There are roughly nine milestones [during construction] and we are now on the third…We’re going to put signs up that track what those milestones are as we reach them.”

According to DCPL, the milestones they have to achieve are, in ascending order, steel work, building exterior, interior construction, interior finishes and finally move-in. The agency is putting the building’s penultimate stage of development up for public debate and will hold sessions to “check out the interior finishes and furniture choices” at the Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Interim Library on June 15th from 12:00-1:00 pm, June 16th from 5:30-6:30 pm, June 17th 12:00-1:00 pm and June 18 from 5:30-6:30 pm.

Golden Arches Go High-Rise in Downtown Bethesda

Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School students will have one less parking lot to congregate in now that New York-based developers, the Clarett Group, have gotten the go-ahead to demolish the existing McDonald’s franchise at 4500 East West Highway and replace it with 223,300 square feet of new office and retail development.

The site – which currently houses the fast food chain, a small office building and a vast amount of surface parking – is to be re-appropriated for a new 98-foot, nine-story high-rise that will feature 13,300 square feet of ground level retail. The prominent downtown Bethesda location – just a block from the aforementioned high school and the Bethesda Metro Center – is intended to house a new restaurant and a few commercial outlets above three levels of below-grade parking. The rest of the Shalom Baranes-designed development will go towards Class A office space and a green roof.

However, to receive the approval of the Montgomery County Planning Board (MCPB), the development team was forced to acquiesce to a laundry list of county demands: the building must be completed in one construction phase, achieve a LEED silver certification, provide – at a minimum - 20% public use space.

In order to live up to the latter of those specifications, Clarett will install a 4500 square foot public plaza with “plantings, a water feature, and artwork” at the corner of East West Highway and Pearl Street. A final decision on the choice of artwork lies with the Montgomery County Art Review Panel, which is expected to announce their decision soon. According to Planning Board staff, the proposed plaza is a “direct response” to the provisions of Bethesda Sector Plan and will “serve as a gateway to downtown Bethesda.”

Furthermore, the site is also to be incorporated into the Georgetown Branch Trail, a local biking path that shadows the route of the upcoming (and much debated) Purple Line. Two 5-foot wide on-street bike paths will be laid along Pearl Street in order to connect it with the popular footpath, for a total of 6885 square feet of on-site public use space. Pearl Street itself was once proposed a Purple Line stop for Bus Rapid Transit –before the MCPB instead moved in favor of a light rail system. Given the close proximity of the high school and the heavy hiker/biker traffic in the area, Planning Board staff pledged that these infrastructural improvements will keep the “emphasis on safety and pedestrian access.”

After a preliminary hearing last October, Clarett’s final project plan was approved by the MCPB on December 4th. The MTA Purple Line Project team has also ruled that the plans present no conflict with their plans for a light rail system, as have the Maryland State Highway Administration and Montgomery County Department of Transportation. Construction is expected to commence in the fourth quarter of 2009. James G. Davis Construction Corp. will serve as general contractor.

DC Announces Contenders for Eastern Market School Site

Fresh off last week’s announcement that Eastern Market will reopen in June, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development has gone public with their short-list of candidates for redevelopment of the nearby Hine Junior High School at 335 8th Street, SE.

The 43-year-old, 131,300 square foot educational facility was shuttered in 2007, in order to redirect $6.2 million worth of school funds towards leasing costs for the District of Columbia Public Schools' headquarters at 825 North Capitol Street, NE. Now, according to ODMPED officials, the various proposals aim to repurpose the Eastern Market site for “combinations of new housing, office space, nonprofit space and neighborhood-serving retail.” The six contending teams are:

1. The Bozzuto Group/Scallan Properties/Lehr Jackson Associates/E.R. Bacon Development, LLC/Blue Skye Development/CityStrategy, LLC

2. Equity Residential/Mosaic Urban Partners

3. Quadrangle Development Corporation/CapStone Development, LLC

4. National Leadership Campus/Western Development Group

5. Stanton Development Corporation/Eastbanc Inc./Autopark Inc./The Jarvis Companies/Dantes Partners

6. StreetSense/DSF/Menkiti Group

District administrators will be hosting a community showcase of all six proposals on June 10^th at Tyler Elementary at 1001 G Street, SE. The meeting will begin at 6 PM and is open to the public.

Bethesda Row Gets a Workout

As we blog, Virginia-based general contractor LF Jennings Inc. is hard at work on the latest commercial addendum to Federal Realty Investment Trust’s (FRIT) success at Bethesda Row, the Champs Elysees of DC's yuppiedom. This time, they're working on a new, 45,000 square foot Equinox Fitness Club at Woodmont Avenue and Elm Street, across from Austin Grill.

Based on designs by Hickok Cole Architects, the three-story, LEED-certified uber-gym will be constructed out of “steel, brick, veneer and curtainwall,” according to the builder, and feature two levels that will include a basement pool. In keeping with the project’s aspirations of eco-friendliness, current plans call for a green roof that will “retain and filter rain water” for re-use in the development. Though the luxury workout spot will abut the decidedly less dapper Shoppes of Bethesda strip mall on one side, wealthy fitness buffs should be able to get a clear view of Bentley Bethesda from the top.

Work at the site began late last month and is likely to complete in spring 2010. That’s just about the same time that FRIT and the JBG Companies will be readying themselves to break ground on the mixed-use retail/residential towers, tentatively titled Woodmont East, on Bethesda Row’s southern side at Woodmont and Bethesda Avenues – meaning there’s beaucoup development in the works for America’s second most liveable city come the New Year.

Southeast Seniors Get New Housing

A vacant lot at 2620 Bowen Road, SE in the Barry Farm community will soon be home to the Bowen Senior Apartments – a 37-unit apartment building for independent sexagenarians of Ward 8. Specifically described as a non-assisted living operation, the 23,502 square foot project is being spearheaded by the Bowen Group LLC – a partnership between Seattle-based senior care developers Second Family Inc. and property owner Shilda Frost-Labule.

"[My] history is that I’ve been a registered nurse for over the last past 30 years, and I have a history in working with pediatrics and elderly care," Frost-Labule told the DC Board of Zoning Adjustment in January 2007, shortly before receiving approval for the project. “I entered a RFP to provide housing for persons with disabilities in 2002, and during that time, I had several conversations with Department of Health, Department of Aging, and the Housing Authority, and they all were supportive of the project, stating that there was a great need for assistance with the elderly in the Southeast area…[That’s] when I bought the property.”

Designed by EDG Architects of Bethesda, the $3 million project is being funded through a combination of private loans, four housing trust funds and tax credits. Beyond providing merely new residences for area residents ages sixty and up, the development will also offer residents a wellness center to “provide services for individuals that might have chronic illnesses,” a multipurpose room and a shuttle service to provide “access to Metro, to shopping, to social, cultural events, as well as medical appointments.”

Once completed, the Bowen development will count the Howard Hill Apartments, Oxford Manor Apartments and another vacant parcel set aside for a future Hope VI housing project among its new neighbors. Hamel Builders will oversee construction when it begins later this year and will be accepting sub-contractor bids until 5 PM on June 9^th.

DHCD Seeks Developers for Vacant DC Properties

Washington DC's Department of Housing and Community Development's (DHCD) Property Acquisition and Disposition Division (PADD) has issued a Solitication for Offers for six long-neglected sites throughout the city with the intent of redeveloping them into a mix of affordable units and workforce housing. All of the residential properties are either vacant lots or dilapidated residential complexes: 3401 13^th Street, SE; 4 -14 Q Street and 14-16 Florida Avenue, NW; 1715-1717 28^th Place, SE; 1335 R Street, NW; 922 French Street, NW; and, lastly, 1713 New Jersey Avenue, NW – the latter being a site initially purchased in January's vacant property auction, but returned to DCHD after its would-be owner defaulted on the first payment.

"For some [of these properties], this isn’t their first showing. This isn’t the first time they’ve been out there. We’ve been looking for opportunities to…convert them into affordable housing…We’re stepping up our efforts to re-introduce these properties, so they don’t just sit and cost the city money to maintain,” said DHCD spokesman Angelita Colon-Francia, who also detailed for DCmud just how and why these six sites were selected from the District’s hundreds-strong catalogue of vacant properties.

“Some were eminent domain, some were tax foreclosures, some were inter-agency transfer of property, but, basically, these are properties that have been in our inventory for a long time…What we’re trying to do is to get them back into use and generate affordable and workforce housing out of them,” she said.

Prospective developers are welcome to bid on as many, or as few, properties as they see fit. The scope and size of the various revitalization efforts, however, will depend on area zoning statutes, as some sites are designated for single-family use, while others are zoned for multi-family development. The wide variety of locales and regulations governing the various sites hasn’t allowed DHCD to predict exactly how much housing will be generated after the projects are awarded – but nonetheless, they’re adhering to strict set of guidelines that makes a clear distinction between which will sites will be required to host affordable and/or workforce units.

“The bottom line is that all of them have a requirement that all buildings have 30% of the units identified as affordable at 60% or less of the Area Median Income (AMI),” said Colon. “There are two exceptions to that: the New Jersey Avenue property and the one on French Street. For those, we’re looking more at workforce. They’ll have to be at or below 120% AMI.”

As of Tuesday, 11 potential bidders have taken up DHCD on their solicitation and Colon encourages developers and non-profits “with the capacity and qualifications” to apply. To that effect, DHCD will be holding a pre-bid conference on June 8^th to “fill in the blanks.” The meeting will begin at 2 PM at DHCD headquarters at 1800 Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, SE.

In the meantime, the solicitation is available in hard copy format only and can be picked up at the DHCD offices. Final proposals are due to agency by 3 PM on June 24^th. Colon-Francia says the selection process timeline will be contingent on the number of responses received.

Arlington: Finish or Demolish Bromptons at Cherrydale

The Bromptons at Cherrydale, a 22-unit, mixed-use townhouse/condo/retail development at 3800 Lee Highway that has stood unfinished since 2006, must now either be either be fully completed or demolished, per an agreement between the Arlington County Board and developer Ed Peete.

After selling out during the banner year for condos that was 2004, work on the Bromptons stopped in March 2006 after County inspectors found the structure to be faulty, with uneven floors and load-bearing members incapable of bearing the building’s weight. The developer laid the blame for the structural deficiencies on the project's structural engineers – whom Peete later took to court over the matter, though Peete is still working with the project architect.

Meanwhile, beginning in 2007, the developer pledged that he would demolish the work already underway, re-pour the foundation and begin the Bromptons anew. After two raze permits were granted – and lapsed – the County officially declared the quasi-building a "blight" in September 2008 and authorized legal action action against the Ed Peete Company, with the hope of recouping the estimated $600-900,000 of taxpayer funds required to demolish the building on the County’s dime. The County Attorney’s case was scheduled to be heard next week, but has been called off in the light of the settlement announced today.

According to Board Chairman Barbara Favola, today’s agreement “eliminates the uncertainty of this project that has become such an eyesore in the Cherrydale neighborhood.” Per the terms of the settlement, the Peete and company must “make the necessary repairs to complete the approved site plan project and bring it into compliance with the building code within an agreed timeline,” while giving the County the right to carry out demolition should the project not “proceed in accordance with a detailed timeline that specifies each incremental step in the re-design and repair process.” Peete will also be putting $250,000 in escrow to contribute to the cost of any eventual raze and work is set begin again at the site as early as next month. According to the County, the building’s exterior, along with sidewalks and landscaping, will be the first features attended to, so that “the community can begin to enjoy the benefits“ as soon as possible. WHA will remain onboard as the project's architect.

Glover Park Stripped of Old Club

The Glover Park Gazette reports that JP's Niteclub will be demolished this week, more than a year after a fire gutted the strip club. Following a final approval from the good guys at the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs last Friday, demolition of the club at 2412 Wisconsin Avenue, NW will proceed this week.

According to representatives for the general contractor, The Construction Guild, LLC, the teardown will begin today and, once complete, will be followed immediately by construction of similarly-scaled, two-story commercial structure - though, at present, site owner Alafoginis Family LP, has yet to secure a tenant for the planned retail space.

The family-owned strip club has remained vacant since a fire damaged the property in January 2008 after 20 years of selling some of DC's most expensive Budweisers and quality, uh, niteclub operations. In the intervening months, two new businesses have opened on either side of the derelict building: the Gin & Tonic Tavern and Z Burger, a local fast food joint. Neither has offered comparable entertainment.

Newfound Humanity in Arlington

Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia will soon convert a 50-year-old Arlington apartment complex into low income housing, pending county approval. Known to area residents as the Perry S. Hall Apartments, Habitat will update the aging facility at 2912 17^th Street South and then, in a move not usually associated with non-profit developer, put all 12 units of housing in complex up for sale as affordable-rate condos.

But neighbors shouldn’t fret over more low-income housing going up next door, says the developer. Since purchasing the property from Wesley Housing in 2005, the building has remained entirely vacant and George Lane, Project Manager for Habitat NOVA, tells DCmud the revitalized Hall Apartments will contribute to, not detract from, thank you very much, the surrounding Nauck neighborhood.

“[It’ll be] a major improvement to the neighborhood. If you drive by what’s there, it’s a pretty raggedy looking old building. No one’s done anything to it in 25 or 30 years and what we’re doing will blend in with the neighborhood. It’s colonial-style and it’s going to look very nice. There will be brick used in it…and a lot of nice window features. The units will be updated with modern appliances and plumbing and all that,” said Lane. “We’re building the same sort of housing [middle-class buyers] expect to live in today. We’re just building it for people who don’t make as much money.”

According to Lane, the development team – which also includes Creaser/O’Brien Architects – met with local Nauck residents last year to present designs and has stated the intention to ensure that locals already living in the area with be given “an equal, if not preferred opportunity” to purchase condo units. At present, they are scheduled to be available to those making between 20% and 60% AMI. Though Habitat famously relies on a stable of volunteers to construct their homes, the developer stresses the quality of the colonial-style apartment building will be on par with that of any professionally built project.

"Habitat uses a lot of volunteers for finishes. They’ll hang the drywall, they’ll install the insulation, they’ll do the carpentry and they’ll paint…All electrical, mechanical plumbing and things of that nature…are all done by professional contractors,” said Lane. “We sub-contract that out to other companies.”

Surprising to most will be the fact that this is not Habitat of Northern Virginia’s first foray into world of condominium development. They’re currently under construction on another, 9-unit development, entitled the Maple Ridge Condominiums, at 4150 Stevenson Street in Fairfax. Another Fairfax condo project, the 12-unit Westbrook Forest, was completed in 2007. And, following an upcoming Planning Board hearing, Habitat hopes to have the Perry S. Hall condos join them in short order.

“If all goes well [at the May 19th hearing]…then we’ll settle our building permit. Hopefully, the County will turn those plans around in a month or two and we’ll be able to start in mid to late summer,” said Lane. The project is scheduled to wrap up by the spring of 2010.

Eastern Market Set for Grand Reopening in June

Mayor Adrian Fenty announced yesterday that Eastern Market, Southeast Washington’s famed and historically protected marketplace that was damaged by a fire in April 2007, will re-open – with much fanfare – on Friday, June 26th. The surprise pronouncement of the restoration’s completion came at the end of a tour of the facility, led by Office of Property Management (OPM) Administrator Curtis Clay, that highlighted the $22 million worth of both new and soon-to-be restored features in the works for the area landmark.

The development team – led by OPM, along with Quinn Evans Architects, the Minkoff Company, Keystone Plus Construction, FEI Construction and The Temple Group – plans to reinstate the North Hall’s former use a center for community activity and arts events with a new demountable stage and dance floor. Meanwhile, Fenty stressed that all of Eastern Market’s original vendors will return to their former locations in the building’s Southern Hall, while their temporary home across the street will be repurposed for an as-of-yet undesignated community use.

Additionally, Eastern Market’s basement level will feature a newly relocated pottery studio and, in a first for the 138-year-old complex, new amenities which will include air conditioning and separate men’s and women’s restrooms. OPM was also quick to point out a newly-installed sprinkler system, with the hope that it will prevent the type of incident that led to the market’s shuttering for two plus years.

Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells, who was absent from the afternoon’s proceedings due to a family illness, released the following statement via press release:

"I’m thrilled that Eastern Market is on the verge of reopening. The devastating fire was a blow to our whole community, but the way in which the city rallied around the Market as more than just a building proved how important it is to the fabric of our neighborhood."


That neighborhood will be able to celebrate the project’s completion en masse the day after the ribbon-cutting. Fenty, who called the market a “sparkplug” of community activity, went on to announce that a celebration will be held on Saturday, June 27th along the newly refurbished and soon-to-be reopened 7th Street, SE, which abuts the eastern face of the market.

According to the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, “[OPM] and the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) worked together to minimize disruptions and complete projects simultaneously. The new street includes upgrades of the roadway and roadbed and installation of new brick sidewalks, granite curbs, utilities and lighting.” The street will be open to traffic Monday through Friday, but remain closed on weekends to serve as, in words of DDOT Director Gabe Klein, “a pedestrian plaza.”

DC’s Newest Development District is…the Florida Avenue Market?

Just around the corner from the ongoing revitalization effort that is NoMa, the Office of Planning (OP) is setting its sights on a similarly minded redevelopment initiative: transforming DC’s wholesaler haven, the Florida Avenue Market, into a “vibrant, mixed-use neighborhood that protects the look and feel of the historic retail markets” while also bring new residential, retail and office projects to the Northeast site.

With the aid of CORE Architecture and Design, EHT Traceries, Inc. and Economic Research Associates, OP released their findings on just how to achieve that seemingly insurmountable task (the surrounding area includes two of the District’s most notorious neighborhoods: Trinidad and Ivy City) late last month in the Florida Avenue Market Small Area Plan. The report details an impressive list of obstacles in the way of redevelopment – even for a city with as many impressive redevelopment challenges as Washington.

Though the crime rate in the surrounding communities goes unmentioned, here’s what OP sees as its primary concerns. Firstly, current zoning statutes prohibit residential development in the industrial zone - a problem that two nearby developments, the Washington Gateway and the Gateway Market and Residences, have been able to circumvent through the PUD process. Secondly, the Market area is comprised of 120 lots with 68 different owners – a ratio that will make acquisition by the city a costly, confusing and time consuming proposition. Lastly, of those lots, many are, in the words of OP, “underdeveloped” or vacant, which gives potential developers little or nothing to work with.

However, OP hopes to relieve that burden somewhat with their framework for potential redevelopment. Taking into account the site’s historic significance (the Center Market first opened in 1802; the flagship Union Terminal Market in 1928), current conditions and infrastructure, current economic and real estate analyses, and community input – “achieved through a series of community planning sessions, property ownership workshops, and through an Advisory Committee” that included City Councilmembers Tommy Wells and Harry Thomas, Jr., the ANCs 5 and 6, Gallaudet University, and Apollo Development – OP has arrived at a preferred mix of commercial and residential uses for the market area (pictured). In an ideal scenario, the Florida Avenue Market will become a new destination by linking NoMa, the New York/Florida Avenue Metro and the neighboring Gallaudet campus into cohesive, walkable and, yes, friendly, whole.

To that effect, the plan outlines extensive overhauls for each prime thoroughfare in the Market area - including the to-be-reopened 3^rd Street – with rehabilitated historic buildings, public parks, new signage and linkage to the Metropolitan Branch Trail. All of this would be done according to “Deaf Design Space principles,” in order to make the area welcoming for Gallaudet’s 1500 strong student population. Sound like a challenge? It will be, but OP hopes to relieve some of the burden from developers by encouraging a 20% tax credit towards the renovation of historic buildings on site.

Presumably to fill in the many remaining question marks (and gear up for an oncoming onslaught of RFPs), OP will be hosting a “Mayoral Hearing” concerning the Market on May 18, 2009 from 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM at Gallaudet’s Merrill Learning Center Building . The meeting will be open to the public - with questions and comments on the Area Plan encouraged. OP’s two-part plan for the Market can be read in its entirety here.

Airport Residential on Approach in Crystal City

The Gould Property Company, in association with the Abbott Development Group and CORE Architecture and Design, are readying plans for the fourth and final installment of their Airport Plaza development in Crystal City. Approved way back in 1981, Gould first delivered the two office tower components of the project in the early years of the Reagan era, but number four will bear a more striking resemblance to Airport Plaza III, also known as the Concord Residences - a 680,000 square foot, 412-unit luxury rental high-rise at 2600 Crystal Drive that delivered in 2007 and, as of this week, boasts a 93% occupancy rate.

"We don't have a name yet, but [Airport Plaza IV] will be linked with the Concord," said Doug Abbott, President of the Abbott Development Company. "It's designed as a stand-alone building, but, for our purposes, we’ll be managing and marketing it as one complex…It will have a Clark Street address, but they will share the amenities and management team."

Measuring in at roughly half the size of its neighbor, the as-of-yet untitled project will bring another 205-rental units to a resurgent Crystal City – itself slated for some major infrastructural improvements in the coming years. In accordance with those plans, the Gould-led development team will be outfitting the space between the two residential towers with "a multi-level outdoor plaza with landscaping" – a project already provided for in Crystal City Planning Task Force’s Framework Plan.

“That is part of the Crystal City redevelopment plan, so that can’t happen until the traffic circle is put in at 26^th Street,” said Williams. However, he says, work on Airport Plaza IV is proceeding at a much brisker pace and that his team is confident that the project will be a successful addition to a well-situated site less than a mile from National Airport.

“We’ve been working on schematics and we’re actually before the County with a minor site plan amendment. If that is approved, which I anticipate it will be, we’ll go ahead with design. For office buildings, we think that the market is kind of on hold, but I noticed during the last recession that the demand for rental is never slim to none."

Condos Get Affordable (and Green) in Columbia Heights

District-based affordable housing providers Manna Inc. will soon begin work on the latest residential endeavor for the increasingly crowded Columbia Heights neighborhood: the Cardozo Court Condominiums. Located steps from 14^th Street at 1343 Clifton Street, NW, the 15-unit, low-cost condo development is being developed, designed and constructed in-house by Manna and will overtake a vacant lot once owned by the city, but long envisioned as a potential home for low-income families.

“We acquired the lot back in the mid-90s from the DC government under the Homestead Program. The exchange was that we got the property and would develop it affordably,” said Karen Williams, Project Manager at Manna, Inc. “We have to get approved by [the Office of Housing and Community Development] because it is a Homestead project. That program no longer exists…but is now administered by the Property Acquisition and Disposition Division.”

The three-story project’s units will start at 551 square feet for a one bedroom with the largest, two-bedroom units measuring in at 1025 square feet. All will be available to area residents making less than 60% AMI, and, though there’s no word on what types of amenities are planned for the site, the project will be built according Enterprise Community Partners’ “Green Communities Criteria” – a LEED “aligned” program specifically aimed at certifying eco-friendly, affordable housing. Given the project’s ties the recent flurry of similarly minded DC developments, Cardozo Court looks to be on the fast track to breaking ground by summer’s end.

“We’re two steps away from getting our building permit,” said Williams. “Right now it’s in [the Washington Area Sewer Authority] and then it’ll go to structural, but, with permitting, you can hardly guess at [a solid date]. Ideally, we would start later this summer or in the early fall.”

Prices at Cardozo Court will start at $175,000 and, once completed, the development will join two other two other District-sponsored, brand-new, affordable residential developments: Somerset Development’s Hubbard Place redevelopment at 3500 14^th Street, NW and Jubilee Inc.’s refurbished Ontario Court apartments at 2525 Ontario Road, NW in Adams Morgan.

"Historic" Cleveland Park Pharmacy Set for Summer Opening

After more than two years of deliberation, Cleveland Park's new "historic" Walgreens at 3524 Connecticut Avenue will be opening this summer. Best known as the former site of the Yenching Palace restaurant, where intermediaries for President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev negotiated the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the site is currently is the midst of a commercial conversion, courtesy of Mid-Atlantic Commercial Properties (MACP) and Rust Orling Architecture.

"Construction started a couple of months ago. We’re hoping that’ll be completed this summer," said Randall Clarke, MACP Vice President. Construction is being overseen by the Dietze Construction Group.

Since purchasing the building in 2006, Walgreens reps have made numerous presentations of (and revisions to) their plans for the landmarked, 8,600 square foot site at the behest of the local ANC 3C and the Historic Preservation Review Board. In doing so, the development team arrived at a retro-esque design that recalls its original 1945 facade and will certainly make it one of the swankiest pharmacies in the District – but at the expense of a brief construction timeline.

“We went through the HPRB process and, as a result of that, we had to be careful in the demo and do some extra things, so it’s taking a little longer than it would have otherwise. But it’s plugging along,” said Clarke.

The Cleveland Park site will be Walgreen’s second location in the District; the first, at 22^nd and M Streets, NW, opened in March. A third location is planned for Connecticut Avenue and Veazey Terrace, NW in Van Ness, and won zoning approval early April. In all, the drugstore chain plans to open 495 new locations in North America this year.

Blighted Brightwood Apartments Born Again

Mayor Adrian Fenty and Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser made their second joint appearance of the week in Brightwood today to announce the commencement of major renovation procedures at 6425 14^th Street, NW – a long empty, dilapidated apartment building formerly owned notorious DC landlord, Vincent Abell.

"After essentially two decades of inactivity, frustration and blight…the District of Columbia government finally seized control of the property [in 2008]," said Fenty. "Don’t forget, it had been owned by countless private sector landlords [and] slum lords…People who just had no interest at all in making this the type of fantastic residential apartment building that it was once was and that it will be again.”

To that effect, the District has teamed with Blue Skye Development to repurpose the now-gutted apartment complex for the Tewkesbury Condominiums - a 30,000 square foot, 26-unit condo building that will, according to the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, be comprised of 51% affordable housing.

“We want to promote home ownership,” Deputy Mayor Neil Albert told DCmud of the decision to make the building a for-sale property for the first time in its fifty plus years of existence. “It was originally conceived as a condo project and we were able to get financing for it. Again, there’s a level of affordability that’s going into this building. It’s not a luxury condo building…It’s easier to get that financed than your mid-level and high-priced condos”

Purchased by the DC government early last year for $3 million, after filing suit against its owner for “numerous building code violations,” the total cost of the renovation will come in at $4.6 million. New amenities slated for the complex, as outlined by PGN Architects, include “a community room, roof deck, energy-efficient aluminum windows...as well as outdoor spaces directly behind the building.” With selective demolition already underway inside the complex, the development is scheduled to be open by March 2010 – a full year later than the District initially anticipated when they acquired the property.

“[These] haven’t been easy projects. The reason some of these projects have taken a long time is because there’s a lot of trouble and legal trouble that the city’s been dealing with,” said Muriel Bowser of the numerous concurrent, affordable housing initiatives under way in her ward. “But this administration has taken a ‘can do’ approach. Not 'we can’t,' not 'we won’t,' but that we’ll figure out how to get it done.”

Fenty and Bowser teamed-up earlier these week to oversee demolition at 3910 Georgia Avenue, NW, future site of the 130-unit Georgia Commons project, and for the opening of the Neighborhood Development Company's Residences at Georgia Avenue in March.

Historic Hill Hospital Going under the Knife

The Old Naval Hospital Foundation (ONHF), working in tandem with the Office of Property Management (OPM), is growing closer to a final design concept for the restoration of one of the District’s oldest medical facilities, the Old Naval Hospital at 921 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE. If all goes according to plan, the 145-year-old, Civil War-era institution, which has gone largely unused since 1999, will re-emerge as the Hill Center - a non-profit educational facility for "lifelong learning, cultural enrichment and community life."

Part and parcel with the Hill Center’s mission statement will be a complete refurbishment of the hospital and its grounds. BELL Architects is planning, since condos are probably out of the question, that the building’s top floor will be devoted to office space for community organizations, while the remainder of rooms will be retrofitted for all-purpose uses, capable of hosting “meetings, workshops, lectures, recitals, after-school tutoring, art exhibits, receptions and the many other functions and events that make a neighborhood a community.”

The ONHF has already secured sponsorship from the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop and Capitol Hill Computer Center for select events. Meanwhile, the carriage house adjoining the main building will converted into “a family-friendly café.” According to architect David Bell, the “project’s goal is to create a community center that doubles a commercial building, in keeping with the scale and shape of the original building.”

But similar plans have appeared - and evaporated - before. OPM first announced their intent to restore the property in 2002 and have vetted several projects, but some area residents expressed concerns that the project is now moving too fast at last month’s meeting of the ANC 6B and cited the need for more community input. Members of the project team, however, were quick to disagree.

“Take a look around. This building is deteriorating,” Bell told the commission. “I’m concerned [that the longer we wait] the more difficult and expensive this will be.”

The ANC subsequently approved the design. However, according to Ann Brockett of the Historic Preservation Review Board, the project has yet to be scheduled for HPRB review – a process that can take anywhere from weeks to (gulp) years. Nonetheless, the ONHF is optimistic that they will soon be making headway on the renovation. “If all goes as planned with leasing, permitting and construction,” reads their project plan, “the Center will be open and operating at the beginning of 2011.”

Builder Selected for New SW DC Crime Lab

The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development announced yesterday that is has awarded Whiting-Turner a $133 million contract to construct the District's new Consolidated Forensics Laboratory (CFL) at the former site of the Metropolitan Police Department's First District Headquarters at 415 4th Street, SW.

Designed by HOK Architects, the six-story, 287,000 square foot crime lab will house the forensic arms of not only the police department, but the Department of Health and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner as well. According to ODMPED, the new CFL will "coordinate crime, public safety and health investigations to help law enforcement solve crimes quickly without having to rely on other laboratories with competing priorities."

Coming in at a total cost of $220 million (including “specialized equipment”), ODMPED states that the “firm-fixed price contract includes abatement and demolition of the old building as well as a 35 percent set-aside for Certified Business Enterprises.” A date for the demolition has yet to be scheduled, but work continues abreast just around the corner from the CFL site. Early last month, the District officials selected Potomac Investment Properties, City Partners and Adams Investment Group to construct to two, new mixed-use buildings – including a new fire station – just a few hundred yards away on two parcels adjoining 450 6th Street, SW.

Planned Community for PG County Line

Bethesda developer The Artery Group will be back before the Montgomery County Planning Board tomorrow afternoon to vie for final approval of a sprawling 314-acre "planned community" at the Prince George’s County line in Burtonsville.

Bounded by Sandy Spring, Greentree and Old Gunpowder Roads, the so-called Fairland Community will bring 365 homes, a community center, public open space, "an extensive trail system," and a new, 11-acre elementary school site intended to divert students from currently overcrowded Burtonsville Elementary. A dramatic metamorphosis from its genesis as a golf-centered townhouse community, the project will include 46 moderately priced dwelling units of affordable townhouse and duplex residences, according to Lisa S. Schwarz, Senior Planning Specialist for the Montgomery County Department of Housing and Community Affairs. The rest of the homes on site will be detached, single-family units, to be built in three phases.

The history of the development dates back to 2004, when it was first approved by the Planning Board with a plan calling for a golf course and 400 homes on the Montgomery side of the county line. Despite support from area residents and inroads on a proposed land swap with Montgomery County for construction of the golf course, the project’s encroachment into a neighboring jurisdiction led to a veto from the Prince George’s County Council. With the developer getting a mulligan for the golf plan, tomorrow’s hearing concerns Artery’s recently amended, links-free development scheme; Planning Board staff have already lent their approval to the proposal - a move usually indicative of an impending green light from the Board itself.

The Fairland Community is precisely the kind of large-scale development Artery typically pursues in the metro area's far-outlying suburbs. In conjunction with Clark Capital Realty, they were responsible for The Pinnacle, a $55 million, 328-unit garden apartment complex in Germantown. The developer is also currently working on Arora Hills, another 1330-unit “neo-traditional” planned community in Clarksburg, with Beazer Homes and NVR.

JBG Discusses Plans for Bethesda Row

With preliminary approvals from the Montgomery County Planning Board in place as of last Thursday, the JBG Companies are now actively in development for Woodmont East, the large-scale, mixed-use project set to usurp the last vacant parcel adjoining Bethesda Row. Since first going public with the project in 2007, the project has lost one key component - a planned hotel that has since been revised as 208,579 square feet of office space. Meanwhile, the Capital Crescent Trail that bisects the site will remain open for, at the very least, most of the construction period.

"The amendment to the project and preliminary plan amended the use of that southern bit from hotel to office. Otherwise, not much changed…We did some modifications to the open space based on comments from the community. We did some modifications to the building, but not much. The envelope and the height have been pretty much intact from 2007 on,” said Matt Blocher, Senior Vice President at JBG. “It’s within the same density. They’re both commercial use and they’re both the same size buildings. It was purely market driven. “

Located at the intersection of Woodmont and Bethesda Avenues, Woodmont East will feature one tower of office space and a second with 250 residential units and 9,000 square feet of retail. Dividing them will be a landmark well-known to area outdoor aficionados - the Capital Crescent Trail.

“The trail will come right through the two of them,” said Blocher. “As far as what happened at the hearing, [the approval] permits us to close the trail for up to five days at a time if there is significant construction procedures. At this point, we’re not sure if we'll need to close it, except for at the end of the job when we have to do the paving.”

Joining JBG on the development team are Shalom Baranes Architects, as well the developers of neighboring Bethesda Row and owners of half of the Woodmont site, Federal Realty Investment Trust (FRT). Though both developers had initially filed separate site plans for the project in 2007, Kai Reynolds, a Partner at JBG, tells DCmud that the two have been working closely together since the development was first proposed.

“It was the same site plan [that was filed]. That’s just part of the venture. We have been together with FRIT on these efforts for about nine years now. It’s definitely a joint venture,” said Reynolds.

While Bethesda-ites and the developers alike are certainly hoping for repeat of the success of Bethesda Row, both will have to wait for development to get physical. Though nearing the end of the formal approval process, JBG concedes that there are still several key components that need to be worked out before construction can proceed.

"It’s still pretty far off because we haven’t yet begun to design the building beyond the site plan guidelines required by Montgomery County. Design and permitting is anywhere from 12 to 24 months, and then construction is 24 months,” said Reynolds.

Georgia Commons Starts Up in Petworth

The contractors of Meridian Builders joined Mayor Adrian Fenty and Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser yesterday to oversee the demolition of an old Petworth carpet store at 3910-3912 Georgia Avenue, NW. It’s a site that will soon host the Georgia Commons – a 30,000 square foot, mixed-use project from Jair Lynch Development Partners and Affordable Housing Partners with 119 out of its 130 new apartments geared towards working families. But the developer stresses that this is not your typical affordable housing project.

"It’s generally for families of four making 50, 60, 70 thousand dollars – that’s the market we’re talking about. It’s much different than the general impression of what people think low-income means," said developer Jair Lynch. "We think the remainder may be higher in the 80 to 90 thousand range. It’s not a drastic change.”

The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (ODMPED) selected the development team – which also includes EDG Architects and Frank Schlesinger Associates - two years ago following a competitive solicitation process. With features including a green roof, high efficiency heating and cooling systems, and "green screen" shielding, the project received an extra boost courtesy of the LEED Neighborhood Development pilot program, which acknowledges green and neighborhood-building features for buildings that fall short of traditional certification.

"This is one of the few projects in the country that was admitted into it," said Lynch. "They're moving towards acknowledging and certifying projects that are beneficial to neighborhoods, rather than just giving ratings for a building's efficiency...I think there are only three or four [such projects] in the District versus a pool of under of fifty across the country."

The seven-story, $35 million development will also feature a new ground-floor location for Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care– its third in the Washington area – that will provide physical, mental and oral health services. With “guaranteed care” and twice the patient capability of their current locations, the new facility will not be just a free clinic, but a primary care center for both middle and working class residents alike. Sharon Baskerville, CEO of the DC Primary Care Association described it as “a means of leveraging the city’s investment with private dollars.”

Apart from gathering those community benefiting features together under one roof, the past 18 months did provide some other unique obstacles for the development team. While ODMPED had to provide $5 million in gap financing to get the project moving, a laundry list of issues had to be addressed before construction could proceed. Said Lynch:

Whether it was the 18 lawsuits that the Deputy Mayor’s office worked diligently on for a year and a half, whether it was getting the permits out of [the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs] with Councilmember Bowser, whether it was the mandatory exclusionary zoning that we anticipated coming, whether it was the collapse of the financial systems for the last six months, this project has persevered time and time again. We’re not quite there yet, but we hope in the next month, now that [the Housing Finance Agency] has their board members, [the Department of Housing and Community Development] is committed and the rest of our partners are here…we’ll start be able to this wonderful new project.

Georgia Commons is just one of numerous Georgia Avenue projects that have steamrolled ahead in recent months. This past March, the Neighborhood Development Company opened the 72-unit Residences at Georgia Avenue, while, in approximately a month and half, Donatelli Development will hold a ribbon cutting for highly the anticipated Park Place project. To Mayor Fenty, himself a former Ward 4 councilmember, it’s evidence that change has taken hold on the prominent Northwest thoroughfare and in the surrounding Petworth neighborhood.

“On this four block stretch, you’re probably talking about 400 new apartments…For seventy years, not one new apartment was built on Georgia Avenue,” said Fenty. “Just in the past couple years and leading into the near future, there has been lots of development…When [this project] is finished, it won’t only be attractive. It’ll be a fantastic asset and resource for the community.” Georgia Commons is tentatively scheduled for a fall 2010 opening.

Live/Work for Alexandria's Main Drag

Virginia architect-cum-developer Gaver Nichols is gearing up to begin work on a new trend for Alexandria’s main drag, a project he is calling live/work housing. The Lofts at Del Ray Village - a three-story, 14,096 square foot development that will resuscitate a vacant lot at 2707-2711 Mount Vernon Avenue - will add much needed rental apartments, and offer tenants the opportunity to work from home from ground floor office space.

"It’s a unique mixed-use structure and the first form-based, code-designed building on Mount Vernon Avenue with a living/working space concept. It’s a brick structure with aluminum...roofs, aluminum panels at the top and rooftop decks," said Nichols. “Conceptually, it’s like the traditional neighborhood warehouse that’s been renovated with a modern top.” Residents of the apartments are not required, however, to utilize the commercial space below them.

Standing on The Lofts’ top two floors, the four rental units will range in size from 2,053 to 2,949 square feet and each include two bedrooms. The ground-floor will include 4,500 square feet of office space (plus basements) that Nichols says would be well-suited to a small office or bank, a corner plaza at Raymond and Del Ray Avenues and a 16-space surface parking lot. It’s a development scheme that Nichols has been pursuing since initially acquiring the property in 2005.

“We took an empty lot that none of my developer clients wanted,” he said. “I decided to buy it with a couple of guys, took them through the development process and the city rewrote the zoning concept for us to allow for the live/work use concept.”

Having already been awarded approval by the Alexandria Planning and Zoning Board, Nichols now awaits building permits, at which point his in-house general contractor will begin construction. “I could have them as soon as two weeks from now, if everything goes well…All these permutations make [the project] very unique, but it's very difficult to get through the process,” he said. The build-out is expected to be underway by July with construction slated to take at least a year.

Financing Trouble Adds Woes to Troubled Southeast Neighborhood

Residents of the beleaguered Washington Highlands neighborhood in Southeast will have to wait at least a little longer for the DC Housing Authority’s (DCHA) planned reinvigoration of the Highland Dwellings public housing complex. In 2007, DCHA selected New Market Investors and Southeast developers Crawford Edgewood Managers Inc. (CEMI) to construct the Highlands Addition – a project that would utilize a vacant 300,000 square lot as the site of a new “physically and socially vibrant neighborhood” with 138 units of mixed-income housing. With the project’s planned summer 2008 start date having come and gone, HR Crawford, President of CEMI and a forty year veteran of District redevelopment initiatives, tells DCmud that project is now locked in a holding pattern.

“It’s all over the place. We need to decide what's getting built and how we’re going to get there,” said Crawford. “Everyone is suffering right now…We have to re-ignite things a bit.”

Crawford, who previously succeeded in luring middle class residents back to Far Southeast with the gated Walter E. Washington Estates project in 1998, chalks the delays up to a lack of readily available financing and the need for infrastructural improvements in the surrounding neighborhood before work can begin. Nonetheless, he says that though the project may be in stasis, his development team – which also includes architects Torti Gallas and Partners and Hamel Builders – is ready to commence construction once those pieces fall into place.

“We had to go through the ritual of getting [US Department of Housing and Urban Development] approval and all the public hearings and those kinds of things…It’s fully approved. We’re ready to go. You might say we’re shovel ready,” said Crawford.

However, Crawford went onto describe the project’s timeline as “questionable” – an unwelcome piece of news for Washington Highlands residents and DC policymakers alike. In the intervening years since the Highlands Addition was first announced, the surrounding community has had to battle some of the District’s highest rates of both unemployment and violence; in 2007, the neighborhood accounted for one-third of all homicides in the District. Media scrutiny of the area only intensified when, that same year, 14-year-old DeOnte Rawlings was shot to death by police inside the very same Highland Dwellings that DCHA has targeted for redevelopment. Despite its' troubled past, Crawford is confident that the area will be in for an image makeover (if and) when the Highlands Addition begins to draw in new neighbors.

“[We’ll be offering] both rental and for sale units. We’ll be a relatively innovative property, in that you won’t be able to tell who the renters are versus the owners,” said Crawford. “We’re going to integrate everyone socio-economically.”

N Street Hotel Prolongs the Agony

If Development Hell is a real place, surely the planned renovation of the former Gralyn Hotel and Woodbine Apartments at 1743-1755 N Street, NW holds a place in its ninth circle. Since purchasing the stately and historic Dupont Circle properties in 1988, DC real estate tycoon Morton Bender and his N Street Follies Ltd. (NSF) corporation have pursued a variety of redevelopment schemes for the buildings - all of which have been vacant for more than a decade. First, it was going to be an office building and apartment complex - but, since that attempt fell apart in the late-1990s, NSF has been pursuing a hotel for the site. It’s not going well.

This week, NSF was back before the DC Board of Zoning Adjustment (their fifth appearance in two years) to request several variances for the project. Once again, the Board postponed their hearing, this time until October. According to ANC 2B05 Commissioner Victor Wexler, the BZA hearing is just the latest in an eternity of changes and stay requests that Bender and company have wrangled out of the system.

“It’s been going on for many years and I just walked into it,” said Wexler. “I don’t know what this Bender wants, but he’s been turned down by the Federal Court, he came back on appeal and now they want an extension. It’s beyond me…I think Bender would like it to go on forever, so he doesn’t have to pay taxes.”

And The Washington Post agrees. According to that outlet – which in 2006 described Bender as “a litigious developer” and “not a man who likes to negotiate” – the hullabaloo surrounding the N Street site is, in fact, based on Bender’s contention that the District has overvalued the property and charges him a tax rate far in excess of its intrinsic worth. It can't help the District recently raised its tax rate on vacant property from 5% to 10% of the appraised value; according to DC tax assessment records, they're currently valued at $12.5 million. In 2004, he told the Washington City Paper, he wasn't even sure if they had ever been added to the city's vacant property registry.

“What difference does it make?” said Bender. "The bills come in, they get paid.”

Perhaps to prove a point, NSF consequently let the six historic buildings at the site lapse into disrepair over the past decade. Since purchasing the century-old buildings for $8 million in cash in 1988 and finally vacating the final tenants from the 1755 N Street Apartments in 1998 (reportedly by slashing the tires on the last remaining occupant's car), next to no upkeep has been performed on the properties – leading to a 2005 citation for “demolition-by-neglect” from the DC Board of Condemnation for Insanitary Buildings and the site’s inclusion on DC Preservation League’s 2007 list of Washington’s "Most Endangered Places."

"They're not endangered," Bender told the Post following the site's inclusion on the list. "I maintain them." In the same article, he laid blame for the delays afflicting the project at the feet of "unreasonable preservation protections." Nonetheless, the buildings' windows were subsequently boarded up.

But while the properties themselves have seen better days, that hasn’t stopped NSF from continually tweaking their redevelopment plans. Said Bender at a January 2006 BZA hearing:

We were going to [do] an office building [and] apartment house and that didn’t receive too much acceptance. We then have been working on it and have come up with doing a hotel…After going to the ANC and the Office of Planning and hearing all the negative comments, I went back to the architects and said…what can we do?…So we cut the building back from 117 hotel units to 77. We cut the garage to 96 from 127 and minimized whatever issues would be questionable by anybody.

The reduction of the scope of the project, however, hasn’t put its critics to bed. Over the past two years, the Dupont Circle Conservancy, the Historic Preservation Board, the local ANC and host of area businesses and office tenants - including the Tabard Inn, Science Services Inc., United Auto Workers, the Penn Art Ladies, the Middle East Institute and Johns Hopkins University – have all voiced their disapproval of the planned hotel's design scheme. In the meantime, NSF has traded up architects for the project – from JSA Inc. to HAA Architects – and legal counsel. Only after the project’s next BZA appearance this coming October 13th will we know when (and if) N Street will be seeing ever being seeing a new hotel.

For what it's worth, the N Street "folly" is one of the numerous legal battles Bender has immersed himself in over the years. In 2006 alone, he was engaged in two concurrent lawsuits. The first against Independence Federal Savings Bank, where, as the majority shareholder, he waged an unsuccessful take over the District-based financial institution. In the second, he was drawn into a bitter dispute with residents of Northwest's Palisades neighborhood - including former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and his wife, NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell - when he sought to build thirteen "mansions" on thirteen acres adjoining Chain Bridge Road. For one of the few times in a conflict-studded career, he lost. Said Mitchell of her opponent: "[He's] a developer with the deepest of pockets and no sense of community obligation."