Ten Years On, GW Puts Finishing Touches on Palisades Campus

When George Washington University (GW) acquired the Mount Vernon College for Women in Northwest’s Palisades neighborhood in 1999, they had planned for an extensive build-out of the 134-year-old former seminary that would include 320,000 square feet of new academic and dormitory buildings.

A decade later, GW's satellite campus is co-ed for the first time in its history, but has achieved less than half of the approved additions once intended for the 26-acre campus. Now, with the tenth anniversary of Mount Vernon's incorporation into the University approaching, GW officials have teamed with EE & K Architects to realize the remaining 167,000 square feet of new development for the college at Foxhall Road and Whitehaven Parkway, NW.


The development team – which also includes EDAW, AECOM and VIKA Capitol, LLC – has been holding monthly community meetings to outline their plans for a 2010 Mount Vernon Campus Plan. At present, there are three differently oriented project plans on the table - all of which, however, would achieve the same result: four new academic buildings, ranging from 25,000 to 45,000 square feet; a new 50,000 square foot, 100-bed residential complex; and, lastly, a new three-story gym/sports and recreation center. According to University reps, the idea is to concentrate the new development towards the center of the campus, thereby giving it the bucolic college green feel so rarely afforded to urban universities, and behind Mount Vernon’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it front gate on Whitehaven Parkway.

In order to make way for this slew of new building projects, some of the institution’s 70s-era academic and residential will be razed, in order to free up campus space. Mount Vernon’s Cole Residence Hall, Gatehouse Building, the Webb and Acheson academic buildings, along with a portion of the Ames academic building, are slated for demolition once a final plan is put together.
Upcoming meetings will adhere to a strict outline of community concerns regarding the project. On July 9th, the development team will present their findings on noise, lighting and population counts, to be followed on August 13th by a presentation on landscaping, storm water management and the green building techniques to be employed in the new facilities. The final scheduled meeting is to be held on September 10th, whereupon a final development scheme will be presented to locals and students alike. All meetings are held at 7:30 pm in the Mount Vernon Campus’ Webb Building.

JBG Adds More Office to Mega Rockville Development

If the JBG Companies keeps it up at this pace, they may want to consider renaming it "JBGville." The prolific DC area developer received approval from the Montgomery County Planning Board last week to pursue a second phase of development at their Fishers Place at Twinbrook Metro - an office park that has already delivered four office buildings to Rockville’s Twinbrook area - but that is merely prologue to the Disney-sized, mixed-use complex going up across the street: Twinbrook Station, or "2.2 million square feet on the redline," as the developer calls it.

The first approved addition for Fishers Place, at 12709 Twinbrook Parkway, will be a four-story, 72,330 square foot, run-of-the-mill office building built in two phases designed around a central courtyard with underground parking. The second and final office addition, at 5615 Fishers Lane, will include 111,000 square feet of office and a micro-retail space, intended for federal tenants, as it "designed to conform to the GSA Force Protection guidelines.”

"The existing buildings in Fishers Place are occupied primarily by government tenants (NIH/FDA), as well as with biosciences-related private sector companies. Potential tenants have expressed interest in the two newly approved buildings, but we’re not in a position to comment further at this time," said Matt Blocher, a Senior Vice President at JBG. "[But the] two buildings most recently approved will complete that campus."

At a community hearing held concerning the dual buildings last July, the County failed to receive a single complaint from neighboring residents. That normally would be considered neighborly relations by the developer (or dumb luck), but for the fact that there aren’t that many neighbors to complain.

That’s because, once completed by 2017, Fishers Place will join the sprawl of JBG’s greater Twinbrook Station across the parkway – a redevelopment project in partnership with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) that will see 26 acres of Twinbrook Metro parking lots transformed into 325,000 square feet of office space, 220,000 square feet of retail and 1,595 apartments and condominiums, 15% of which will be affordable housing. After breaking ground in November of 2007, the project last year earned a LEED gold certification by the US Green Building Council’s Neighborhood Development program. Last time we heard of this much development going up around a subway line, it was called Tokyo.

"The first phase, which is currently under construction, will have 279 apartments and approximately 15,500 square feet of retail ready to open by early to mid-2010," said Blocher.

Among the laundry list of contributors to the JBG/WMATA “smart growth” co-development are the architects Torti Gallas and Partners, DNC, David M. Schwarz, Grimm + Parker, The Preston Partnership, EDAW, Johnson Bernat Associates, Wells + Associates, and MV+A with construction by Harkins Builders. If Rockville Pike is unofficially known as “the world’s longest strip mall,” it looks like Twinbrook Parkway might soon claim the moniker of “world’s largest lump sum community.” Leisure World better watch its back.

Ballpark: Build It and They Will Come, They Might Even Stay

It's a good thing that the Nationals' standing as perhaps baseball's worst team ever will likely have no effect the residences of the surrounding neighborhood. The Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District (BID) has issued its second quarter residential statistics for 2009, showing how desirable the area is to reside in, and it looks like the cliched Costner-ism of "build it and they will come" is working...for some more than others.

EYA's Capitol Quarter townhome development appears to be the leader of the pack of with "88 of 113 (market rate) units sold" - though sales began in the fall of 2006. With prices starting at $630,000, EYA can be content with its position as the only new single-family home project in the area, and their only competition in the area are the dreaded c-word – condominiums – and its Capitol Quarter has generated a slew of favorable media coverage for its tre trendy green construction practices and subsequent “LEED for Homes” certification.

Proof positive that condos are indeed still on the sluggish side, Texas-based developer JPI’s pair of Capitol Riverfront condos. Or at least they were considered as condos before the Big Crash - The Axiom at Capitol Yards, The Jefferson at Capitol Yards and Faison's Onyx on First (pictured) – are now all renting as apartments. But according to the BID, the buildings have achieved 60% occupancy of their collective 960 units. That leaves approximately 384 empty units on the market, despite the fact the first completed building, The Jefferson, opened its doors one year ago this month.

It’s presumably that same dearth of buyers made JPI go rental with their third area building, 909 at Capitol Yards; so far with less success than its predecessors. According to the BID report, only “25% of the 237 units” at 909 – but the project began renting only in the spring of this year. The developer has been trying to court the young, urbanista demographic for the building by advertising amenities like yoga studios, communal Nintendo Wiis and a residents-only bar/pub (which essentially makes it the business model described here). JPI's tentative plans for a fifth and final 415-unit apartment building at 23 Eye Street still remain on the table, at least officially.

Valhal Corporation’s Capitol Hill Tower Condo-op is still trudging along with "80% of 344 units sold." That would seem an admirable rate of occupancy had the building not opened early in 2006, with sales almost a year before that. Not mentioned in the BID stats is the Cohen Companies' Velocity condo project, the 200 unit condo nearing completion, but for which sales are reportedly not, well, high velocity.

Nonetheless, the BID reports that, in total, there are now “an estimated 1,863 residents living in the Capitol Riverfront , with over 2,000 residents expected by the end of the year.” You could be one of the lucky 137 by year's end. Ghost town or boom town? You be the judge.


UPDATE: Says Ted Skirbunt, Director of Research & Information Systems at the BID: "JPI’s buildings were always going to be rental from the beginning. The only building thus far to convert from condos to rental apartments is the Onyx."

The Monty Makes (Another) Go of It in Bethesda

The would-be developers of Monty, LLC will head back before the Montgomery County Planning Board on Thursday, July 2nd to finally shore up their final site plan for The Monty – a high-rise residential project on a 1.12-acre lot in Bethesda that currently hosts several vacant storefronts from 4915-4917 Fairmont Avenue and 4914-4918 St. Elmo Avenue in the Woodmont Triangle.

Since its initial approval in May 2007, the 17-story residential development has grown (via an update to the developer's plans this past March) from 133 apartments to include "a maximum of 200 units" for a total of 210,188 square feet of new Bethesda real estate. Described by Planning Board staff as “an attractive urban infill redevelopment project,” the project is still planned to subsidize 30 moderately priced dwelling units, 7,700 square feet of ground floor retail and 211 underground garage spaces.

One of the Monty’s more interesting flourishes will be the 5,480 square feet of (mandatory) public use space. A so-called “pedestrian promenade” on the building’s south side will include art installation, composed of a chain link backdrop and live bamboo, by artist Dan Steinhilber and the landscape architects of Parker Rodriguez. Once complete, the piece will “provide an animated experience as a person moves through the space” for a quasi-hallucinogenic stroll that would seem more Burning Man than Bethesda (and make it a sure-fire destination for area Zendik pamphleteers. Eew.) SK & I is performing the architectural design for the building.

Since the first of this year, both the County’s Transportation and Environmental Planning divisions have both lent their final approval to the re-jiggered development scheme, as have Planning Board staff. Though the developer has not stipulated a final timeline for construction, once complete, it will stand directly across from the site of another Woodmont Triangle high-rise, the also delayed 4900 Fairmont development. The project has been approved in the past, but just might possibly happen this time.

Capitol Hill's Eastern Market Reopens

Mayor Adrian Fenty and city officials will cut the ribbon on the new Eastern Market tomorrow (Friday) at 10:30 am. The $22m renovation was completed just over two years after the market was destroyed in a fire in April 2007.

The development team - led by OPM, along with Quinn Evans Architects, the Minkoff Company, Keystone Plus Construction, FEI Construction and The Temple Group, led the construction efforts so that each of market's original vendors can return to their former locations in the building’s Southern Hall, while their temporary domicile across the street is repurposed for community use.

The new Eastern Market will feature, in a first for the 138-year-old building, air conditioning, Wi-Fi, and separate men's and women’s restrooms, not to mention 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. Alas, it just won't seem the same without Michael Jackson.



Another celebration will be held on Saturday, June 27th along an improved 7th Street streetscape, which will be open to traffic Monday through Friday, but closed on weekends for pedestrian use.

DC Officials Pitch New Plan for Convention Center Hotel

The DC City Council’s Committee on Economic Development was briefed today on a new scheme devised to underwrite the fully-approved and shovel-ready, if financing challenged, Marriott Marquis Hotel. The city's newest plan for the mostly vacant property next to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center would get construction going by mid-October.

Today’s hearing was spurred by legislation introduced by Mayor Adrian Fenty, himself described as "tired of waiting" on the project, this past spring that would have effectively removed the project’s developer, Quadrangle Development Corporation, and made the new Marriott wholly city-sponsored. In the intervening weeks, officials from the Washington Convention Center Authority (WCCA), the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development and the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCF) have been feverishly working on a fiscal reconciliation that would preserve the public-private partnership.

"Given current economic conditions and the lack of liquidity in the capital markets…the District, led by the Washington Convention Center Authority and its partners at Marriott and Quadrangle, was forced to pursue alternative plans, including an option whereby the WCCA would finance 100% of the hotel by selling bonds,” said recently appointed (though still unconfirmed) Deputy Mayor Valerie Santos. “We’ve made considerable progress on a new financing proposal, such that the new hotel would once again be largely privately financed.”

The crux of the proposal depends of the Committee’s authorization of an additional $22 million in city-backed debt to get the project going. This deal, presented to the District by the development team only last Thursday, would ensure that more than 60% of the hotel’s $537 million budget come from private funds, with DC footing the bill for the remaining costs. At present, lawyers from the OCF are currently exploring whether the project could also qualify for stimulus funds under the American Investment and Recovery Act, thereby offsetting the District’s burden in a year of record high spending.

The sense of urgency behind the proceedings is well founded, as Greg O’Dell, head of WCCA, said his operation is continually losing business to other comparably-sized convention centers, such as those in Denver and Indianapolis, which have on-site hotels and hospitality amenities. Furthermore, city officials also view continued development at Prince George’s County’s National Harbor as a direct threat to the Convention Center’s revenue stream – a feeling that has only been exacerbated by Disney’s recent announcement that they’ll be building their own mega-hotel/meeting space just across the river. That leaves the District, in the words of Councilman-at-Large Michael Brown, directly “behind the eight ball.”

Both the public and private sides of the development team will now spend the next two weeks finalizing the in-and-outs of their proposal before returning to the Committee on July 14th for a final vote. In the meantime, Committee members repeatedly stressed that the project’s fast track status will not delay other city development in the pipeline or cause any fiscal belt tightening.

“This will not cause us to postpone any projects that are already authorized…Nor will this require expenditures from the general fund. This is not going to be publicly financed deal,” said Committee co-chair and Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans. This would not be the first partnership for Marriott and the develeper, Quadrangle and Marriott jointly built a 224 room hotel together in Bethesda in 2004.

W Hotel Debuts in DC July 8

Washington DC's first W Hotel will open to the public on July 8th, the first local opening for the hip hotelier. The international pop luxury chain, operated by Starwood Capital Group, takes the place of the Hotel Washington, once a grande dame of DC hotels but that had become faded and tired before selling in 2006, first for $120 million and then to Istithmar Hotels for $150 million, then closing for renovation in 2007 and selling yet again to Nakheel Hotels. Both Istithmar and Nakheel are partly owned by the government of Dubai.

Starwood will provide 317 rooms and suites, stretched out from the original 400 rooms, retaining the famed 11th-floor rooftop terrace that overlooks Tim Geithner's office, not to mention the White House, in a decidedly more upscale setting - the word "swanky" being all but ubiquitous in reviews of the hotel chain. In keeping with its "category buster" profile, the hotel was re-designed by architect Dianna Wong, a Los Angeleno, who kept many of the original architectural elements while adding such must-haves as a DJ and "digital fireplace," for an appearance that will be "sophisticated and sleek but never trendy."

The hotel renovation, which took 18 months to complete, entailed a complete gut and overhaul, and the new owners "gutted it to the girders," according to Barbara Martin, Director of the Patton Group, a public relations firm. Some original elements of the building such as chandaliers, check-in desks, and archways were taken out, restored and returned to the building, but the rest will be new. The POV (point of view) Lounge on the top floor will operate year-round, with drop-down screens and raised awnings for yet better views of the executive office.

Opening within the hotel will be J&G Steakhouse. Rates available on the W's website start at $289 per night single-occupancy. The hotel was built in 1888 as department store and renovated in 1917 to become the fabled Hotel Washington. The July 8th event will be open to the public.

Bottom rendering courtesy Dianna Wong.

Update: It should also be noted that BBG-BBGM was the architect of record for the redesign of the hotel. BBG-BBGM has designed numerous hotels both locally and internationally, and designed the W Hotel in New York City.

DC Receives Stimulus Funds for Affordable Housing

The District’s Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) announced yesterday that their application to the Department of the Treasury for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds has been granted. As a result, the District will be on the receiving end of some $33.7 million worth of stimulus funds that will, in the words of DHCD, "spur the continued development of affordable housing units."

"This new stimulus funding will have an immediate and critical impact on the development and rehabilitation of affordable housing in the District of Columbia. It will help us move forward with affordable housing projects, and it will generate much needed jobs for District residents,” said Mayor Adrian Fenty via press release.

More surprising than the grant its self was the quick turn around on DHCD’s application, which was filed less than two weeks ago on June 9th. However, per the terms of the quickie federal payout, the District has agreed to receive the lump sum grant “to finance construction or acquisition and rehabilitation of…low-income housing in lieu of low-income tax credits.”

DHCD Director Leila Edmonds didn’t specify which projects would be receiving the federal monies, only stating that “funds like these are especially necessary in this difficult financing market.” Probable recipients, however, are likely to include the soon-to-be redeveloped Park Morton public housing complex and the long in-the-works 1600 unit Northwest One development. Expect the subject of the latter to be broached at next month’s meeting of the City Council’s Committee on Economic Development, where the project will be subject to disposition approval resolutions.

Canal Parc Seeks PUD Approval in July

Willco Residential, LLC and New York-based developers, The Athena Group, will head back before the District of Columbia Zoning Commission next month to hammer out the lingering entitlements stalling their planned residential redevelopment of the Riverside Hospital - an aging psychiatric facility at 4460 MacArthur Boulevard in Northwest DC's Palisades neighborhood.

Long viewed as undesirable element in the affluent community (the hospital last made the news when it was faulted with abuse of a minor in 2007), the development team is hoping to demolish the site and start anew with Canal Parc - 37 brick townhomes, developed via the LEED Neighborhood Development program, to replace the long-term care facility. Little, though, has been heard of the project since a raze application for the hospital was filed last August and Willco Residential President, Gary S. Cohen tells DCmud that his team is still in the midst of negotiating the planned unit development process with city authorities.

“[Right now], we’re trying to get the PUD. When we get the PUD, we’ll move ahead. Right now, we’re still working on the entitlements,” he said. “There’s been action, but the Zoning Commission hasn’t voted on it yet…We’re hoping that at the hearing in July they’ll take the vote. We’ve also been working with the neighborhood and trying to resolve some issues.”

The Office of Planning threw their support behind the project in November 2008, but stopped short of a full-on approval of the site plan due to in-progress talks with the DC Fire and Emergency Medical Department about a turn-around area within the development. Additional issues, mostly stemming from the economy, have kept Canal Parc from heading down the fast track, but Cohen is confident that once the project’s finer details are in place, the market will be receptive to a another residential project.

“I’m looking forward to getting off the ground and starting. I do think that by the time we deliver, the market will be at a better place and there won’t be as much supply because there’s not much between now and the next few years. So I think the timing could work out really well. It’s just a question of getting some the pieces that I don’t necessarily control in their proper place,” he said.

As such, a schedule for demolition and construction of the Lessard Group-designed development has yet to be set in stone, but should be much clearer following next month’s Zoning Commission hearing. “I’m hoping it’s on the sooner side,” said Cohen.

Industry Insight: Paul Robertson of Robertson Development

With his firm’s tenth anniversary coming up this August, Paul Robertson, the enterprising developer behind such U Street area condominium projects as Moderno, VISIO and MURANO, spoke to DCmud about what it takes to last a decade in the DC development game.

In addition to detailing Robertson Development projects past and present, the company’s founder and president shared his thoughts on butting heads with the DC Water and Sewer Authority (WASA), divulged his newest project and revealed how his firm has just forged a new partnership that will take their work out of the for-sale market and into some surprising new arenas.

How did Robertson Development initially come together?

I started Robertson Development in August of 1999. I had been working for Sallie Mae for about 13 years prior to that, during which time I renovated some DC town homes on the side. Having lived the past 23 years in the U Street corridor, I have seen tremendous development opportunity and progress. I always loved design, real estate, and construction, and I majored in finance so it made sense to get in the business.

In doing my first full renovations, which I ended up living in, I did the plans, pulled the permits and acted as my own general contractor. I just kind of learned things on the fly. I also used to go look at a lot of open houses in the area – still do. I saw a void there and thought there were some things that I could bring the market I didn’t necessarily see.

I networked a lot and found an agent, Ken Taylor, who helped identify two large brick townhomes on the 1400 block of N Street. I ended up buying them and turning them into eight units. That was The Rocco and The Capece. I designed the majority of the floor plans and was the GC and the developer for the project. Terry Sellheim joined the team as VP of Operations and we hired construction staff. It was a tough project to build because we added a floor to the top of each one, and did massive excavation and underpinning to create basement units the full depth of the buildings. It was a very tight sight and a very, very challenging first condo project.

Can you detail some of the projects you have done?

Prior to the completion of The Rocco and Capece, I started The Highland project, which is at 1531-1535 P Street. It is three town homes that we converted into eight units…Then we did our first new construction – again, still operating as the developer and general contractor. I have a Class A general contractor’s license from Virginia – and built Woodson Row on 12^th Street, just south of U St. That’s, coincidentally, another eight unit project, but was all new construction – triplexes over duplexes – which was very successful.

At the same time…we put together the two parcels for The Beauregard and bought property to build what became VISIO. The Beauregard was finished a couple of years ago. It’s a 45-unit building with underground parking. Tompkins Builders was the GC. We built VISIO and are now just finishing up MURANO, which is the sister building to VISIO.

Recently, we’ve co-developed Moderno, with Lakritz Adler Development who asked us to join the team early in the design phase. Prior to construction, we assumed the majority of responsibility for the project. My personal residence at the time - in Woodson Row, which is across the street - was used as a model to sell some of the units in pre-construction. The project is complete, and sales have gone amazingly well. Now I’m working as co-developer with Collins Lange Development on a new project called Truxton Row.

Can you tell us a bit more about Truxton Row? Will it be condos as well?

Truxton Row is a 16-unit condo project. Collins Lange asked me to participate, again, in all phases of the development and construction. The first thing was to re-work the floor plans to enhance their functionality and style, which I’m confident added significant value to every unit. The great thing about good design is that it doesn’t really cost anything. It takes effort, time, experience and imagination but the dividends are huge.

The project will be done in two phases; construction has now started on Phase 1. The project has eight town homes, 7 new and 1 renovated. Each home contains two units, most of which are duplexes with a few flats. Many are similar to units at Woodson Row. There are terraces and double-height living rooms and so forth. The exteriors will be very traditional. Despite the trend toward doing “lofts” and ulta-contemporary, the interior finishes will lean more toward a “transitional” and traditional look. It’s going to be very exciting project.

Why the attraction to traditional architecture over say, the glass and steel look that’s so prevalent these days?

We wanted to follow the look of the exteriors and to offer a more refined sophisticated look. It will be great to offer some classic, upscale finishes in new construction. Currently, almost all new construction has a very “contemporary” aesthetic, but that doesn’t appeal to all buyers.

Given that are you are a condo developer, how has the condo decline affected business? Is the DC market as insulated as public perception makes it out to be?

Well, I don’t think it’s insulated because certainly virtually all projects have seen price reductions – although Moderno has fared very well in that regard. But because of the high desirability and significant job creation of the metro area, we haven’t been hurt as badly as some other locations. Washington is still one of the best places to live.

What attracted you to condos? Have you ever considered pursuing a rental project?

Yes, but everything that I have looked at to this point, and actually embarked on, has lent itself more to condominium than it did to rental. Although rental has been hotter in the past year or two, we see small signs that potential new condo projects are becoming more viable again.

Which neighborhoods do you see as ripe for redevelopment? You’ve fared well in some emerging areas, like U Street and Logan Circle.

There’s still plenty of opportunity in the U Street and Shaw area, and certainly Columbia Heights, Brookland and Petworth – that’s where I see it going. But there’s still infill in better neighborhoods. It’s harder to find and certainly harder to find at a price that makes sense, but it’s there.

What are your thoughts on DC development process as a whole? Is there anything you’d like to see change?

I would take whatever steps necessary to significantly reduce the time it takes to get a building permit. They are making strides at DCRA, but, if I were the mayor, that would be a priority because it would really facilitate more development and therefore generate more tax revenue for the city.…Also, I would start an initiative to work the utilities – WASA, Pepco and Washington Gas – even though they’re not governmental agencies…because one still needs to get approvals from those utilities and often times that is a greater challenge than working with DCRA. People tend to focus on the DC government, but what they don’t often realize is the complexity and the time consuming nature of dealing with Pepco, WASA and Washington Gas.

What’s next for Robertson Development?

I’m in talks with a couple of developers about additional co-development projects. One is a mixed-use and the other 100% residential…Both will be in DC. We are really pleased that others seem to recognize the value we can bring to all phases of a project. Of course, we’ve made lots of mistakes, but it helps our partners because we try to help them avoid them in the future.

I should mention also that Robertson Development is branching out and starting another company called Robertson Walsh Design. I’ve partnered with an architect, Brandon Walsh, to start the company. We both love design, space planning, cool materials, et cetera. We are currently doing several projects including designing a vacation home in the mountains of West Virginia and doing a rooftop terrace for the local nightclub, Town. We’ll be launching a website announcing those projects and services very shortly.

If you had a dream project, what would it be? What would satisfy you the most in terms of future development?

I would like to do another project like The Beauregard because, although it is terrific, I have learned lessons from it and other projects that I would love to apply to another “large” building. It’s the challenge of doing something better than the last time, of continuing improvement and refinement. But what is most satisfying is hearing the positive response we get from the people who have bought homes from Robertson Development.

Debonair Development Coming to Woodley Park

Woodley Park may soon become still more debonair now that the owners of the Debonair Cleaners at 2610 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Shahram and Maria Taginya, have taken on Annapolis-based developers Ashbourne Developments LLC to construct a four-story residential building directly behind their storefront.

Entitled, surprisingly enough, the Debonair Residences, the project will include "up to" 14 residential units and span the length of the existing one-story commercial outlets on site - Fusion's Alley restaurant and Baskin Robbins, to name a few - from 2608-2612 Connecticut Avenue, NW, directly next to the Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan Metro. A rear-entry garage will be built at basement level for residents coping with the scarcity of parking along the retail strip and be accessible from 24th Street.

Plans by Studio 27 Architecture include balconies overlooking 24th, with a fourth-story roof terrace, but the historically protected commercial building facing Connecticut will be simultaneously “renovated and restored to a condition respectful of the original architecture” - i.e. the original height and roofline will remain along Connecticut Avenue.

According to Ashbourne President Crispin Etherington, a June 15th meeting with the local ANC 3C went “swimmingly,” though the project’s scheduled appearance before the District’s Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) has been pushed back to July for unspecified reasons. Ashbourne is currently projecting a third quarter 2009 start date for the Debonair “with delivery in the spring of 2010,” though a final construction schedule is contingent on HPRB approval. Monarc Construction will serve as general contractor.

Shovel-Ready for 2010: CityCenter?

With the economy slowing real estate development (just a touch), developers are finding themselves on the defensive about projects in the planning stage. A skeptical public might think it a case of protesting too much, but promoters seem compelled to assuage public doubt while struggling to convince once-bitten investors. Case in point, the rumor mill was rife recently with reports that Archstone and Hines Interests’ redevelopment of the old Convention Center site surrounding 10^th and I Streets, NW – the important and hugely visible CityCenter – was being taken off the table. Not so, says Ken Miller, a Senior Vice President at Archstone. In fact, despite issues with financing and retail partnering, according to Miller, DC might just be seeing the project sooner than cynics expect.

"We are within a year of breaking ground," said Miller. "We are continuously meeting and speaking with retailers that expressed interest."

And yet the project has missed several projected groundbreakings since the developers' first estimate of a groundbreaking by last January, and despite numerous assurances that the delay isn't affecting retail interest in CityCenter, no major retailers have been announced. The multi-phase, mixed-use development will commandeer 10-acres of vacant downtown property to eventually realize 400,000 square feet of retail space, more than a million square feet of office space, 670 residential units and a 400-room “high-end” hotel with its own 100,000 square foot retail plaza, under a 99 year lease from the city. It may sound a little on the ambitious side, but Archstone claims they have more than enough time – and resources – to see it through.

"At this point in time, we still have months to complete our construction documents and get our final permits and entitlements. We’re busy meeting with potential investors and banks that have expressed interest,” said Miller. “By year’s end, even though we’re in a challenging state with capital markets, we’ll be able to get the financing lined up and be able to break ground.”

The last time DCmud reported on the status of CityCenter last September, a Hines representative relayed that the project was “85% ready to go” and that the development team would seek a general contractor “in the next few weeks.” Though neither has yet transpired, there was recently one sign that wheels are again turning after a dour Spring; on April 28th, the development team met with potential contractors at a pre-bid "requirement conference."

The District Government swapped land in 2007 with Kingdon Gould, who gave up land on the site of the future Convention Center Marriott to get the northeast parcel of CityCenter from the District government (labeled 'District Parcel' in the rendering). Gould will be developing his land separately, but has also not committed in time or in scope, nor has the much discussed Convention Center Marriott broken ground yet.

Purple Line Vote Affirms Maryland "Rail on the Trail"

The metro area's arbiters of all things transit, the National Capital Transportation Planning Board (NCTPB), today voted unanimously to endorse light-rail as the preferred mode of transport for the 16-mile Purple Line project between Bethesda and New Carrollton. The light-rail option, which has already received the support of both the Montgomery and Prince George's County Executives and County Councils, along with the Coalition for Smart Growth and the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, has faced a long string of criticisms from Bethesda/Chevy Chase area residents who fear that the project will render their three-mile spur of the Capital Crescent Trail system both physically and environmentally unsound.

Trail supporters lobbed various critiques at the Purple Line prior to the vote, including claims that it would make the area unsafe for schoolchildren, lead to the deforestation of Bethesda’s last remaining green space and the system will amount to little more than a “two billion dollar trolley line.” Others reasoned that the planned location of the Purple Line’s Bethesda depot at Woodmont East is too far away from the Metro, the National Institutes of Health and the soon-to-be relocated Walter Reed Army Medical Center to have any impact on traffic in the area. Anti-light rail advocates instead proffered that the NCTPB should endorse rapid bus service from Bethesda to Silver Spring as the Purple Line’s preferred mode of transport.

“Some of my constituents in Chevy Chase will advocate…bus rapid transit on Jones Bridge Road - [an alternative that] is not supported by the residents of Jones Bridge Road,” said Montgomery County Councilmember and Purple Line Now! founder, George Leventhal. “The difficulty that we have in proposing an alternative that is preferred by both counties, and that is likely to be endorsed imminently by Governor O’Malley, is that anywhere you try to move this transitway, you encounter other problems…This alternative, which is included in our master plan and has been endorsed by both counties, is indeed the right transitway for our congested, urban, inside-the-Beltway corridor.”

Leventhal went onto to point out that his county initially acquired the Capital Crescent Trail for the express purpose of having both a “recreational hiker/biker trail” and future transit line at the same site.

“There would not be a trail today had not Montgomery County, back in 1990, acquired that right-of-way for the purpose of building what is now called the Purple Line,” he said.

Though some area organizations- most notably the Bethesda Civic Coalition's Save the Trail campaign, which collected some 18,000 signatures in support of their cause – opposed the plan, the majority of testimony submitted to the NCTPB was overwhelmingly favorable. With an estimated daily ridership of between 42,000 and 46,000, many believe that the “Rail on the Trail” will provide a crucial east-west link between Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties, resulting in an economic boom for outlying communities and a more efficient Metro system. Even frequent trail users spoke out in support of the plan, illustrating just how multifaceted the Purple Line debate had become.

“The media, unfortunately, portrays the issue of the Purple Line as black and white. You either support the Capital Crescent Trail or you support the Purple Line, but not both. That’s not the case with WABA,” said the cyclist organization's Executive Director, Eric Gilliand. “When finally constructed, the Purple Line will include a direct bike-ped link with the Silver Spring Transit Center, where it will eventually link with the Metropolitan Branch Trail coming out of DC. This is a critical bike/pedestrian transit project that must move forward.”

With NCTPB approval now in hand, the Purple Line’s next stop is with Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, who is expected to endorse the light-rail option and announce a timetable for construction by year’s end. In the meantime, NIMBYs on the other side of the Potomac can get ready for another Metro-centric debate now that plans for a proposed Silver Line, running from downtown Washington to Dulles Airport, are being openly discussed.

Founders Square Readies for Demo in Ballston

It looks like Old Man Economy might have finally started taking his pills again. After gaining approval from the Arlington County Board in July of last year, the Shooshan Company's ambitious plans for Founders Square, a five-building, mixed-use development in Ballston, seemed about as promising as a GM-backed pension plan. But despite slippery start dates in all types of construction, Shooshan's Vice President of Development, Kelly Shooshan, tells DCmud the project is still on track for its originally scheduled 2009 groundbreaking and that the company will be seeking a general contractor before the summer is out.

"We're looking to probably be bidding the project in the middle of the summer and will probably start construction sometime in the fall or early winter," said Shooshan.

Located on 4.6-acre parcel bounded by North Randolph Street, Wilson Boulevard and North Quincy Street in Ballston, the RTKL Associates-designed development will replace the industrial and non-tax paying bus lot known simply as the WMATA site, a gas station, a recycling center and a tre chi-chi Super Pollo chicken joint. Founders Square is intended to house 26,000 square feet of retail space (8,000 of which the Shooshan Company has since farmed out to Paradigm Development), 730,000 square feet of office space in two towers, and another two worth of housing for a total of 378 residential units.

“The buses have been gone since March 27th,” said Shooshan. “When we start the project, it’ll start with demo…the site is just a one-story building, so it’s a very small portion of the construction timeline.”

“Super Pollo will be relocating to the new retail building and there are several other tenants that have expressed interest in the other two spaces in the retail building. It’s very small retail, only 8,000 square feet. The first office building is a secured office building, so it won’t have any retail in it." The secure building will, though, have enhanced security features suitable for defense-related businesses.

The development’s residential units are tentatively scheduled to hit the market as rentals and all five Founders' buildings will aim for a LEED certification. In the meantime, the developer has yet to definitively budget the project, as it is, in the words of Shooshan, “evolving over time with the present market conditions.”

"There’s such a large spread right now with construction prices decreasing every minute, it’s really hard to give a formula on the whole entire project,” she said. In 2008, Shooshan completed Liberty Center in Ballston, a 21-story, 469-unit residential building. Despite continued development, the rough and tumble Arlington 'hood has somehow managed to keep its street cred intact.

The Dirt on...14th and U

Pawn shops no more

As any observer of the area can tell you, the post-riot 14^th Street that used to host DC’s finest peep shows and open-air drug markets (RIP Shop Express) is long gone. True, there are probably a dozen dollar stores hocking Obama t-shirts and incense at any one time, but the retail scene has expanded beyond just Footlocker and tattoo artistry of Pinz-N-Needlez. While Whole Foods isn't too far way, the newly-opened boutique grocer, Yes! Organic, should satisfy the immediate needs of hummus-starved newcomers. In fact, the neighborhood today boasts DC’s most impressive array of niche-centric retail with everything from gourmet confectionery (Cake Love) to pricey custom furniture (Vastu) to comic books (Big Monkey) and hand-made jewelry (DC Stem), within walking distance of the U Street/Cardozo Metro station.


Real estate’s best bet

Two blocks north of the famed 14^th and U interchange, DC's largest concentration of new condos and apartments is brewing, with more than 1000 new units of housing going up within a stone’s throw of 14th and W. Among those completed are PN Hoffman’s Union Row and Jair Lynch’s Solea condos, while Level 2’s View 14, UDR’s Nehemiah Center residential tower are under construction, and Perseus Realty’s 14W is scheduled to begin shortly. And, unlike, say, the area surrounding Nationals Park in Southeast, where neighborhood amenities are still absent after the residential building boom, U Street is already loaded with restaurants and nightlife of all stripes. And with Room & Board scheduled to open more than 30,000 s.f. of retail space next year, expect much more visibility for the neighborhood.


Eating out: it’s not just half-smokes anymore

While Taco Bell and McDonald's might be the most popular dining establishments (at least at 2 am), the inroads made by funky restaurants like Busboys and Poets, Marvin (country fried chicken and waffles--who knew?) and Tabaq have gone a long way to bringing some flavor to the neighborhood. In the past months, newly opened establishments like cajun/soul food eatery, Eatonville, and The Gibson, where mixologists design the perfect cocktail, have been abuzz in the press and are the newly-minted, go-to destinations for urbanistas city- (and suburb) wide. Even greasy spoon and DC dive landmark Ben’s Chili Bowl has moved upscale by opening a white table cloth eatery, Ben’s Next Door. And After you've over-indulged, you can work it off with an "Urban Funk" class at Results Gym.


Adams Morgan ain’t got nothing on U Street

While nearby Adam’s Morgan may have one thing going for it (read: boozed-up college kids), U Street’s approach to nightlife is more diversified with culture: The Lincoln Theater and Source Theater, DC's most eccentric sports bar, Nellie's, and a laundry list of music venues (The 9:30 Club, Black Cat, DC9, and the Velvet Lounge) share space next to bars that (gasp) don’t specialize in jell-o shots and specials on Miller Lite…not that there’s anything wrong with that.

But it’s still has that old school DC charm

But if you’re really attached to the iPod adapter you keep in your tape deck, it might still be good idea to take it inside before sacking out for the night. Area car thieves have made the old smash-and-grab a fact of daily life at 14^th and U, much like five o’clock congestion or sidewalk sermons from Greenpeace. Whether it is women’s clothing, a half-empty pack of cigarettes or the kids’ car seat, literally nothing is too inconsequential a target for area miscreants. For a closer look, check out the MPD's crime map.

Nonetheless, don't be afraid to chill out. This is a neighborhood with not one, not two, but three yoga studios after all. Santa Monica, here we come.

Architects’ Institute LEEDs the Way Downtown

Finally leading by example, The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has gotten the go-ahead from the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) to pursue an extensive renovation of their headquarters at 1735 New York Avenue, NW that would see the 36-year-old office building become a LEED-platinum certified facility - making it the first such eco-friendly "do-over" in the history of the District. In the words of NCPC, it would allow the AIA's national headquarters to serve as a "national model of sustainable design and construction."

Located just a few blocks west of the White House, directly behind the historic Octagon House, the AIA’s aging HQ would make the jump from standard downtown office complex to the apex of green design by "installing three building ventilation shafts, using recycled building materials, installing cisterns [for the collection of rainwater], creating a green roof, installing operational windows, and by installing both solar thermal equipment and photovoltaic array on the roof." With those modifications in place, it’s the AIA’s belief that their rehabbed facility will be 100% carbon neutral by 2030.

One facet of the proposed renovation, however, has earned the architects a surprising thumbs down from the local West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission, the ANC 2A. As part of their PUD application, the AIA had been hoping to relocate their in-house book and gift shop to a new street-accessible location, adjoining their building’s front plaza. The ANC sees this as a misappropriation of the PUD process because, according to ANC 2A Chair Armando Irizarry, the “proposed public benefits and community amenities package is inconsistent with the DC law since it fails to include any amenities for the immediately impacted Foggy Bottom-West End community.”

Nonetheless, the NCPC recommended that the AIA pursue a variance from the District’s Board of Zoning Adjustment to see that their plans for a newly relocated storefront can proceed unimpeded. A hearing on the matter has yet to scheduled, but if and when the AIA is successful, their newly re-modeled headquarters will join just a handful of LEED-plantinum certified developments in Washington DC. At present, there are only three: PNC Financial Services Group Inc. / Vornado/Charles E. Smith’s Gensler-designed office building at 800 17^th Street NW, Sidwell Friends' Middle School addition in Cleveland Park and the US Green Building Council’s (who themselves administrate the LEED program) 22,000-square foot office suite in Dupont Circle.

Mount Pleasant's Raven Gets Expansion, Upgrade

On the heels of a renovation to the three-story residences that wrapped up last year, one of DC's best dive bars, the Raven Grill at 3125 Mount Pleasant Street, NW, is now working on getting a new rear addition, plus an upgraded exterior, courtesy of Washington affordable housing developers, Manna, Inc.

"We're trying to make it look like the original. If you look around the Raven and the [neighboring Mount Pleasant Dry Cleaners], you can see that there are still cracks. We need a new coating that looks like original," said George Rothman, President and CEO of Manna, Inc.

Manna’s in-house development, design and construction teams worked with the Raven’s owner, Merid Admassu, for the build-out of the Antonatl Condominiums - a name invoking an El Salvadoran war hero, which you already knew. Manna resurrected the 12-unit, affordable condo out of the charred remains of 13 fire-gutted apartments above the fabled watering hole, built in 1928 and gutted by fire in 2003. Work on the Raven itself will include a 300 to 500 square foot addition to the bar’s rear, primarily for storage space. Both projects should be completed in one fell swoop.

“The [condo] construction was probably completed in December and people have been living in it…We haven’t finished the front of the building yet because we’re finding a sub-contractor to do the specialized work with those windows,” said Rothman. “Everything inside is finished and the outside, we’ll probably do that when we’re doing the addition in the rear to the Raven.”

For those fearful that their designated hangout for three dollar PBR’s might lose some of its old-school DC charm, Rothman emphasized that the bar won’t be going anywhere and should be keeping normal business hours when work gets underway in the next four to six months.

“The Raven is an institution. It will stay. That’s always been important to us” he said.

Empty DC School Demolished for Park

Two days after DC’s Office of Property Management (OPM) publicly announced their goal of moving city agencies out of leased space and into shuttered public schools, the city has decided to tear one down instead. According to documentation from District’s Office of Historic Preservation, OPM has received approval to demolish Gage-Eckington Elementary in LeDroit Park, following concerns about a lack of parking from a potential government tenant.

The 86,500 square foot building, which sits vacant at 2025 3^rd Street, NW, had initially been considered as a new headquarters for the DC Department of Environment, which was quick to express its trepidation about the dearth of parking in the area. The school was definitively passed over once city officials balked at the reported $18 million worth of renovations and repairs needed to retrofit the facility (as presented here by frequent DCmud talkbacker, IMGoph, on his own Bloomingdale-centric site). So, instead of parking, the DC government has decided to go with a park.

In lieu of an agency relocation, Gage-Eckington will be razed to make way for a new public park designed by Lee + Papa and Associates. A final development scheme for the recreational area was approved at a meeting of the LeDroit Park Civic Association (LPCA) on May 26^th and is set to include a dog park, a children’s garden, an environmental learning center and incorporate the already existing community garden at 3^rd and V Streets, NW that adjoins the site. According to the LPCA, “Inside demolition of [the school] is scheduled to start on or about June 1. Exterior demo is expected to begin by August 1. Construction of the park is slated to begin on or about October 15.”

The LPCA had actively lobbied for the project via their "Put the Park Back in LeDroit Park" community campaign, which began shortly before Gage-Eckington Elementary closed its doors at the end of 2007-8 school year. It was a move expected to save DC Public Schools some $659,000 in “fixed costs” per year, but at the time, DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee and Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso said specifically of Gage-Eckington:

We intend to use buildings for the benefit of our city…[and it] could be used to house an early childhood or adult education program, a student and family health center, or another city agency…The Mayor has no plans to sell the property or allow it to fall into disrepair or unmonitored use.

Not to be confused with LeDroit Park’s other Gage school, the N.P Gage School at 2035 2^nd Street, NW that was replaced by Gage-Eckington (only to sit unoccupied for 25 years), and which was transformed into the Parker Flats at Gage School by Urban Realty Advisors and Bonstra Haresign Architects in 2005.

NPR to Start Work on New NoMa HQ

It's time turn down the volume on 88.5 FM and swap out your cardigan and khakis for a hazmat suit because work on National Public Radio's new NoMa headquarters will begin next month.

NPR's new 400,000-s.f. HQ at 1111 North Capitol Street, NE, will rise from a dramatic expansion and renovation of the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Companies Warehouse and Repair Facility presently on site. The historically-protected (and Meads Row isn't?), 83-year-old structure, however, is rife with toxic substances, including asbestos - the removal of which will constitute the first phase of development since the project was announced one year ago.

"The abatement of hazardous materials from the inside of the building and the interior demolition [will begin] in July," said NPR media contact, Danielle Deabler. “The actual construction is anticipated in late 2010 or early 2011…Our move-in date is fall 2013.”

Given the lengthy timeline in place for a full build-out of the new headquarters, Deabler tells DCmud that NPR’s development team for the project - Boston Properties and Hickok Cole Architects - have yet to produce a final design scheme for NoMa’s newest corporate high-rise. According to the NPR rep, a picture of the supposed façade that made the rounds a few months back was merely an example of Hickok Cole’s preliminary vision for the site.

“We don’t have a rendering that we are releasing publicly right now. The only rendering that has been drawn up is the one [the architects] used to bid with. Since that most likely won’t be won’t it looks like, we don’t have a final [design] to show yet,” said Deabler.

The development team is currently in the process of selecting a general contractor for hazmat removal and construction. Final bids were due on June 2^nd and a final choice will be announced shortly. (Expect NPR's pledge drive to be even more intense this year, as well.) Meanwhile, NoMa's first hotel opened its doors last week.

DC Reveals Management and Style Guidelines for City Property

Mayor Adrian Fenty yesterday unveiled the Office of Property Management's (OPM) first-ever District of Columbia Facilities Plan - a "comprehensive strategy" for managing and consolidating the DC government's 18 million square feet plus of property and 3.7 million square feet of privately leased space in a streamlined and cost efficient manner.

The OPM plan outlines measures that will reduce the city's amount of leased space by 13% (roughly 500,000 square feet) over the next year by relocating staff to shuttered DC public schools and consolidating warehouse operations. It also provides concrete timelines for the construction of new District-owned office space - including the currently underway Department of Employee Services at Benning Road and Minnesota Avenue, NE (pictured) and the recently announced MPD Property and Evidence Warehouse in Southwest. DC Public Schools and Libraries, however, will be unaffected by the Facilities Plan, as they are governed by their own distinct agencies.

The plan includes a provision requiring all DC-sponsored projects to meet a minimum LEED silver certification. OPM Director Robin-Eve Jasper did, however, point out that the plan is “Version 1.0” and will be subject to revision as new opportunities present themselves.

"A lot of things change about property – about the needs, about the market and other things - are very dynamic in real estate. We will be regularly updating this plan to address new things that come up,” said Jasper.

In addition to the master Facilities Plan, OPM also used the occasion to announce the release of its HOK Architects-authored (and phone book thick) Workplace Design Guidelines that, in the words of District reps, “standardizes the materials and furnishings that can be used in District office buildings” through bulk purchases and codified style standards.

“This will be a common brand making sure that efficiencies bring big cost savings,” said Fenty. Because, as we all know, the best way to attract DC’s best and brightest to local government is by forcing them to all use identical mauve swivel chairs in their mass produced cubicles. Oy.

Room and Board Buys into 14th Street

Minneapolis-based home furniture retailers Room and Board have purchased a vacant, four-story building at 1840 14th Street, NW and plan to transform it into a fully rehabbed, 33,000 square foot flagship location - their first in the metro area. According to the broker who facilitated the purchase, Wayne Dickson of Blake Dickson Real Estate, the retail chain has big plans for the re-emergent 14th Street corridor and will use the entire space for their showroom.

"Room and Board is expecting this to be a regional draw for them...Through their catalog sales, they did a zip code analysis of where the majority of their customers were. [The building] at 1840 14th Street was just about dead center in that customer base," he said.

Known to some as the Taylor Motor Building, 1840 14th Street began its life as a Ford Model A showroom, and, in subsequent decades, went on to to serve an array of uses, including stints as an arts space and church. Most recently, the building was slated for a residential makeover by Four Points, LLC, which paid some $10 million for the site. Plans for that project, the so-called T Street Flats, were announced in 2007, but never made it past the planning stages.

"Blake Dickson Real Estate has been working on that property for the better part of two years…It was most recently a church, called the Church of the Rapture, and then the initial plans by Four Points, LLC had a condo element,” said Dickson. “They bought that building at the top of the market and then later decided to go all commercial with it.”

As purveyors of handcrafted, American-made furniture, Room and Board will be among the latest in a string of upscale chain retailers, including Bang and Olufsen and Whole Foods, to set up shop along the once unfashionable 14th Street corridor - the same strip that recently lost its Storehouse furniture retailer, only to gain Mitchell Gold in its place. One block over at 14th and S Streets, NW, the JBG Companies also have plans on the boards for a new mixed-use complex with ground-floor retail. (Once that Apple Store gets announced, consider gentrification complete.)

Room and Board have retained omnipresent DC architects, Eric Colbert and Associates, to design the extensive renovation, which Dickson described as a “gut job.” The build-out is expected to take between 12 and 18 months.

Meads Row Bids Adieu to the Atlas District

Late last month, Washington DC's Historic Preservation Review Board voted down a motion for the protection of Meads Row – a series of nearly century-old structures at 1305-1311 H Street, NE that owners Tae and Sang Ryu plan to demolish to make way for a new Atlas District parking lot, much to the dismay of the ANC 6A. With no recourse now left to the ANC, the owners are free to pursue a raze for the property, although, in the view of some city officials, the Ryu's new pay-to-park will have anything but a positive effect on the increasingly developed H Street corridor.

"The 1300 block…is the heart of the arts and entertainment district of H Street,” said ANC Commissioner 6A03 David Holmes, who had been acting as the commission’s “point person” on the Meads Row matter. “It’s the most successful area of H Street in terms of its redevelopment and rebirth from the tragedies that affected it from the 1968 riots and the loss of interest in the business district….[Now] it has lots of bars, lots of restaurants, theaters and so forth. That block is based on the historic architecture of the area and the loss of any of that fabric is important to the business model of H Street.”

The four buildings in question were designed by early 20^th century DC architect, Charles Meads, who was also responsible for some 105 structures on Capitol Hill. Of those, only 73 remain today, with the remainder having been demolished to make way for the Congressional Office Buildings and Senate Park. Meads Row represents the very last remnant of Meads’ H Street properties, which once numbered seven. During their heyday, the buildings boasted an assortment of “well-to-do” shopkeepers, who lived above their storefronts in the buildings’ second-story residential flats.

The properties' history in the area, however, was of little import to the HPRB, who in their denial of the landmark application, state,"Judged only for the H Street buildings Meads work would have to be considered typical of that of Washington's designers-builders of that era." Unsurprisingly, Holmes disagrees.

“These are some of the earliest buildings along H Street and they were important because the builder was trying to set a tone for H Street…They are very upscale and would be appropriate on Capitol Hill, closer to the Capitol, but he was putting it right at the boundaries of the old city’s L’Enfant plan,” he said.

Today, most of the Meads Row properties in are in functional, though somewhat degraded, condition. 1311 H St. has been condemned by District authorities and currently boasts boarded-up windows and a damaged roof. Despite attempts from the ANC to facilitate historic restoration tax credits for the buildings, which directly neighbor the Atlas Performing Arts Center, the owners have expressed interest in no development scheme for the site other than asphalt.

“It’s as if they wanted to put [the properties] in that condition. It’s a practice we’ve seen on Capitol Hill in the historic district too…People want to put up a new three-story building and sell it, so they allow the old building to be demolished by neglect,” said Holmes. “He’s doing it simply to reduce his [tax] assessment by taking down the historic buildings and eliminating the improvements, so he won’t have to pay taxes on the land value…It’s a tragedy. These are important, attractive buildings.”

The Floridian Goes South?

Buyers at The Floridian condominium in Shaw received some unwelcome if unfortunately common news last week when they were informed they would be unable to settle on their contracts until a lien and lawsuit involving one of the lenders was resolved. The condo project at 919-929 Florida Avenue, by Kady Development, has been funded by "a number of different" lenders, including Bank of America. Contract holders have had their settlements delayed until the disputes are resolved.

"The situation is that the seller, about three weeks ago, disclosed to all of our potential purchasers and [current] owners that he is having an issue with the lender and hopes to get it resolved within - what he said at the time - a month, but that he couldn’t be certain. So, we've been working with anyone who is under contract and new potential buyers and telling them that information,” said Gerard DiRuggiero of Urban Land Company.

“[We] can’t settle [contracts] at the moment. So, it’s just weekly updates and we’ve cleared that with all the buyers. Again, people are remarkably flexible and we’re giving them the information that we know. The residents seem to be handling it well and they love the building and the location,” said DiRuggiero. The Florida Avenue project sits amid several sites that were intended for development, such as the Atlantic Plumbing site, but that never materialized.

However, as of last week, the 118-units in the development’s dual, Eric Colbert-designed 8-story towers boasted an occupancy rate of 50% according to the sales team, though DC government records show only 29 recorded sales - after having begun sales in October 2005 and beginning settlements in the first half of 2008. Like the Metropole, a nearby project which was taken over by the lender in April and has been all but invisible since, the Floridian’s sales center at 913 Florida Avenue, NW, remains technically open for business…for now, at least, but without a date certain for resolving the issue.

Tweaking Hine or Six to Four

Two weeks after publishing a short list of potential developers for a dilapidated Eastern Market school, the Washington DC government has announced that it has cleaved two of the six developers from the list. District officials announced that Quadrangle Development and Equity Residential/Mosaid Urban Partners were off the list to develop the Hine Junior High School at 335 8th Street, SE, leaving four contenders.

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 toward leasing costs for the District of Columbia Public Schools' headquarters. Developers have proposed a variety of retail, non-profit, housing and office uses for the building. The four survivors are:

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

2. National Leadership Campus/Western Development Group

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

4. StreetSense/DSF/Menkiti Group

A few lucky District officials will host a discussion panel on the property 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. Eastern Market will officially reopen on June 25th.

Industry Insight: Steve Schwat of Urban Investment Partners

Since co-founding Urban Investment Partners (UIP) at the turn of the millennium, UIP principal Steve Schwat has overseen a diverse portfolio of real estate and development projects in Washington, DC and Prince George's County. In addition to owning and/or managing roughly 2800 rental units throughout the city, the firm has developed several for-sale condo projects, including The Archbold in Glover Park and Providence Square on Capitol Hill.

As the area condo market began its steep descent a few years back, UIP turned its focus to a practice Schwat calls the "value add" - a program that provides "substantial rehabilitation" to blighted or vacant buildings with updated amenities and streamlined utility systems. Schwat spoke with DCmud about UIP's expanding list of services and the state of DC development in general from their newly acquired Connecticut Avenue offices, directly beneath one such "value add" property currently under renovation: the historic Macklin apartment complex at 2911 Newark Street, NW.

Can you tell us a bit about how UIP came together and the work you do here at the firm?

I’m one of the original principals. There are three of us. We started back around 2000 and I have been in Washington since 1980, when I went to school at GW. I’m serial entrepreneur of sorts. I’ve owned a number of different businesses and I have a background in sales. My initial interest in real estate was doing single-family homes, and then I did my first condominium project in the early 80s, by renovating an older historic-type building. I sort of caught the renovation bug.

I enjoy starting companies, administrating companies and getting them running. What been as a hobby in real estate turned into a full blown career. My two partners, both of whom are Dutch, have been in real estate for a very long time. There was a combination of their deep experience in real estate investing and my knowledge of Washington and ability to create a functioning operation.

UIP doesn’t only operate as developer, but offers general contracting and property management services as well. Can you profile the organization for us?

UIP was always the rental group and all of our rental properties are owned under some kind of UIP entity. Drummond Development was our for-sale company and, if we do a for-sale project, it’s done under Drummond – just to keep the different types of investment separate. Then we have Urban CM, which is our construction group, and we currently do our own construction on projects up to $5 million. That may expand sometime in the next year or so if we do bigger projects.

Our property management group started in January of this year. We hired Dave Barton, who was running Randall Hagman’s residential management group, and when he resigned, they sort of sent him off with his staff and about 700 apartment units. So, we now manage our own properties. Before that, we were hiring third-party property managers…[but] we’d always envisioned having our own property management company, simply because we were constantly dissatisfied with the level of performance we got from other companies.

As it turned out, as the industry changes and the capital markets change and businesses are consolidating, we’d been considering it for so long that it didn’t seem like a consolidation move. In the end, in a market where you’re starting to worry about your ability to do as many deals this year as you did last year, it’s certainly a benefit to bring a fee-based entity in. You were giving away 5% before and now you’re bringing it in yourself. That’s not to say property management is highly profitable business. For us, it’s not yet, but it’s highly profitable for us as asset holders and asset managers.

How do you go about finding and selecting properties for rehabilitation? They all seem to be historic, yet something with an architectural history like the Macklin seems like a more obvious choice than say, 1921 Kalorama.

The prominent history, from an investment perspective, is probably fifth down on the list of the top five priorities. It’s certainly more fun to do architecturally significant buildings than it is to do historically insignificant buildings...What we look for in a property if we’re going to do a "value add" is “Can we increase the rents? Can we decrease the expenses? Does the building need the improvements that we’re talking about? And is there a method within DC rent control that’s going to allow us to achieve those goals?”

That’s really the key when you’re marketing inside a rent controlled environment like the District of Columbia. It’s not a matter of looking for loopholes; it’s a matter of utilizing the system in a legal way, taking buildings that are in need of substantial rehabilitation, putting it all together, and, in the end, doing what is a justified renovation of the building.

But, in that, you have two things that directly conflict. One is the city’s desire to maintain affordable housing. [The second is that] if you’re going to pour a million dollars into a building to renovate it, that’s something that will cause you to increase, not decrease the rent. Dig one level deeper and that conflict becomes a reality where you have people living in grandfathered buildings with antiquated heating, cooling, and electrical systems…If you were to build that building today, it would never meet code. But because it’s been grandfathered in over so many years, it technically gets past the code. But that doesn’t mean it’s safe or that the electrical system doesn’t need to be replaced.

Within rent control, there are a number of tools you can use to increase rents. But you can’t just take a crapped out building and increase the rent because it’s still crapped out. You can’t take a building that you wouldn’t live in…and just raise the rents because that’s not very moral. So there’s a balance of working within the rent control environment and achieving that perfect storm of, “Is the property currently requiring improvement? Is the property currently renting below market rate? Is there a tool within a rent control that we can use to increase the rents while working with the Office of the Tenant Advocate and the Rent Administrator?...[That is] separate from my political opinions on what preserving and providing affordable housing should be. That is not to say that I agree 100% with the District, but there is the law and you have operate within it.

That said, some of the District’s rent control laws are antiquated and somewhat backwards in their thinking. The concept of maintaining affordable units in an otherwise upscale building has some inherent issues that are problematic...If you build $700,000 houses or condominiums, is it appropriate to have a $200,000 condominium in that building? Issues like amenities and monthly maintenance fees are also in direct conflict with one another.

Does UIP view new construction as profitable arm of the business? Or is the company content with sticking to renovations culled from DC’s vast inventory of vacant buildings?

Well, a vacant building is what we see as a “value add” building. So, yea, we’re all over that. And, yes, potentially for condominium sales, I think the market – although it dropped off precipitously at some point after 2005 and has remained low – still has absorption in DC. There are still people looking to buy condominiums. For instance, The Shelby at 1706 T Street or The Macklin at 2911 Newark Street, both have condominium registrations associated with them, so they could be sold as a condo at some point in the future. But that’s not our plan or the way we underwrote them. We underwrote them as rental properties and we renovated them as rental properties.

Ironically, coincidentally, fortuitously, though, a renovation of a rental property…is very similar to the renovation you do for a condominium because you have to self-contain utilities and make it simple, so that someone can own it. There’s a lot of synergy there in renovating a building for rental, where you’re reducing your expenses. Part of our whole “value add” strategy is not only increasing the rents, but also decreasing your expenses from five, six grand per unit per year to something less than three grand because you’re not heating the building with a highly inefficient furnace that burns all day long…as opposed to replacing it with a self-contained unit that the tenant is responsible for. It’s amazing how green a technology that is…If leave, I turn it off; I come home, I turn it on.

The definition of “value add” is in how you exit and, if there’s one thing I’d like to say, it’s that “It’s the exit, stupid”…I like to talk about my condominium experience because we did a lot of “value add” renovations with condos. People go, “Oh no, condos,” but the sale of a condominium and the sale of an apartment building is the same thing. It’s just a contract selling one on a wholesale basis and another selling condominiums on a retail basis. A condominium unit is generally worth more than a rental unit, but, the point, is it’s a really a matter of what the equity wants and what the market is saying.

We have a friendly competitor that recently completed a condominium building on Vernon Street and they’re having a really high velocity of sales. We just finished an apartment rental two blocks from there and we rented out all our units in less than a month. There are strong market indications for both. We thought we’d start to see the rental ceiling – what’s the highest we can rent these units for – and we haven’t seen it…With the inventory higher now than it was two years ago, people have a choice. If you’re building something in a bad neighborhood or an undeveloped neighborhood or uncharted territory, I think you’re going to have problems. The only time you didn’t have problems was when supply and demand were so imbalanced that people were writing contracts just based on paper plans…We’re certainly a lot closer to reality today than we were three years ago. Three years ago, it was more important what the appetizers at the opening party were than how people wrote contracts.

With a well located property, you can sell condominiums today. We’re just over the last few months, after two years of not even mentioning the word condominium, I actually had a meeting with an equity partner who said, “We’re not afraid of condos. If you show that you think it’ll work, we’ll do condos.” And I think the market is saying just that.

Does that mean we’ll being seeing more from-scratch, new development from UIP in the future?

We’re just starting to look at ground-up construction. We’re starting to look at developable property that we stopped looking at for a year or so - some as rental, some as condo. For a while, you couldn’t buy developable land for a price that you could rent at. Seller anticipations are starting to come into line with buyer expectations. There was that time when if you had a vacant building for sale, it was a hundred grand a year because it was assumed you’d do a condo and sell it out at three hundred grand a year…Now you got the guys that bought the buildings for a hundred, paid a little more money to get rid of the last two or three tenants…carried it for a year and they now have a vacant building – with a big fat tax bill, a nasty interest carry cost each month and nobody that is willing to finance a condominium.

Ok, so go rental? But if you’re on 10^th Street, NW, an area that’s not supporting $2000 or $3000 a month rentals, how are you going take a hundred grand a unit, spend another seventy grand to renovate it and then rent it for $1200 a month? You’re losing money, so no one’s going to finance that.

There’s a lot of that type of property out there and that’s the type of property that we’ve been looking a lot at lately. There a lot of distressed owners – I won’t call them sellers yet – and they’re trying to figure out how to get out.

Given the tumultuous state people like that have found themselves in, what advice would you give to fellow DC area developers?

I’d go back to the basics and say that the money is in the buy. You can’t underpay for a property, you can only overpay. And once you’ve overpaid for that property, only time will help you erase that. So you have to buy property…and look at it on an income producing basis. The question is, “Can I buy it, fix it up and rent, while staying cash positive?” If you can’t, nobody’s going to finance it. And if no one’s going to finance it, why would you invest a million dollars of your own money to generate fifty grand a year in income? There are plenty of alternative places to put that money.

Where do have to be these days? DC is faring a lot a better than other areas these days, but investors don’t want to invest in DC real estate unless...you can assure them going in. I don’t see much stuff being sold for less than seven (cap rate). Maybe some AAA, pension quality development, like Mass Court, will go…but there’s not a lot of that kind of product out there. But if you’re talking about the kind of stuff that we buy – 20, 30, 40-unit buildings and small retail stuff – you’d better be at an eight cap.

[Look at] the 14^th Street corridor or U Street or Adams Morgan. Christ, look at 18^th Street and the vacancy right here in Cleveland Park. You’d better have a pretty good deal – a good buy, a good tenant and reasonable cap rate – if you’re getting into a small retail or small apartment building. And the interesting thing is that’s what we like to do. We like to find that opportunity.

With that in mind, what’s next for UIP in over the course of the coming year?

I see us moving forward with a very aggressive and very prolific acquisition strategy. Last year, we acquired some $60 odd million worth of real estate and bought five buildings with our equity partners. This year, we’ll be closing on two properties over the next couple weeks. We sold one or two earlier this year, which was opportunistic and advantageous…I see us making between half a dozen and dozen acquisitions over the next six to eight months.

I’ve got a stack of potential properties. We’ve got a couple deals that are small retail, a couple deals that are small residential, we have a couple big, multi-hundred unit deals and a couple that are potential bank deals. And they’re all in DC. We own property in PG County – Hyattsville, Riverdale – and we are good at managing those garden-style walk-ups as well. We own a bunch of that and we’re looking a lot of it too, but I’d say that’s probably 20% of what we do. The 80% of what we look at is DC, from Southeast to Northwest, and distressed owner deals, bank deals, failed condo associations, failed tenant associations and failed development plans. We’re looking at a lot of that.

We’re looking at some properties that are owned by non-District headquartered companies. There are a lot of larger commercial real estate companies that got into the District and are now trying to get out. They hate the District, they hate rent control, they hate TOPA. We don’t love rent control either, but we’re damn good at it and we’ve been doing it for ten years.

Coming Soon(ish): Wheaton Town Square

Spurred on by what they've deemed the "success of Silver Spring redevelopment" and "stagnation" in their own front lawn, Montgomery County's Wheaton Redevelopment Program (WRP) is gearing up to issue a solicitation for offers for a large-scale, mixed-use Town Square project on what is currently a collection of Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) bus bays next to the Wheaton Metro.

"We were hoping [to get the solicitation out] this summer and we think that maybe that's still possible. Once we go the WMATA board, it'll much more realistic to put together a schedule," said WRP Director, Rob Klein.

"We'll go to the community before and show them the elements that we're considering. But, by and large, what we're aiming to do is keep the requirements to a minimum, so that we hire a development team based upon their expertise, their experience, their wherewithal and the creativity they’ve shown with past projects. Then, like Silver Spring, [they'll] work with the stakeholders."

Using recommendations made by the International Downtown Association (IDA) as a model, the WRP is aiming to redevelop the County-owned, triangular site (bounded by Georgia Avenue, Viers Mill Road and Reedie Drive), along with other area parking lots and few select private parcels “that make sense for redevelopment,” via a public-private partnership. Though the ultimate mix of uses won’t be settled upon until a developer is selected, the WRP’s tentative vision sees the Town Square as a new arts and retail destination, ala Silver Spring’s revitalized downtown; part and parcel with that will be a new Metro-centric location for the Wheaton Regional Library.

"[The library] relocation was recommended by the [IDA], instead of proceeding with the renovation of the existing library…If the library comes downtown, the recommendation was that an arts venue be part of it. Another thing we’ve thrown out is possibly an auditorium will be part of it. All that would have to be tied into a massive redevelopment solicitation,” said Klein. The idea of shuttering the current library, however, has drawn the ire of many local residents and a campaign is now underway to preclude the possibility of a move.

Nonetheless, area bibliophiles have plenty of time before their books are due once and for all, as there’s no definitive timeline for the project as it now stands - but not for want of effort by WRP. Program staff will appear before the WMATA board this week to seek a “letter of understanding” from the agency with regard to use of the bus bay parcel.

Furthermore, the Town Square’s fate is linked to that of the Wheaton Sector Plan, first drafted in 1990 and now under revision, that goes before the Montgomery County Planning Board later this summer. According to Klein, changes to the updated Plan will “work in tandem” with the goals of his team, as they select sites for redevelopment, deal with issues like the library and court interest from the development community.

“This [project] is a strange hodgepodge and I have not seen one like it before…This is going to be tricky,” he said.

Burnham Place Idles Toward Union Station

Akridge’s landmark $10 million development agreement with the General Services Administration to build over the rear of Union Station – the so-called Burnham Place project – was announced in 2006 and scheduled to go to ground this year. Their ambitious plans for 3 million square feet of office space, a 400-room hotel and residential towers, however, may have to wait if proposed upgrades to the transportation hub go forward later this year. But the developer posits that any boon to Union Station is also one in the plus column for Burnham Place.

“There’s a…Circuit Transportation Bill that is coming up before Congress that we’re working on. It would be six years worth of funds that would support Union Station improvements…The private development, of course, is an entirely different matter,” says Mary Margaret Plumridge, Director of Marketing and Communications for the developer. “The Akridge development of Burnham Place at Union Station certainly would benefit from an enhanced Union Station, but the public and private projects are separate.”

Nonetheless, Akridge spokespeople say the Burham Place development team is in constant communication with Amtrak as they tweak a development scheme that will see new construction from the back of the train station, over in-use tracks, above the “Hopscotch” H Street Bridge and beyond. Before lying brick one, it’s a project that some are already valuing at over $1 billion.

“We are working on pre-development work that includes design and engineering studies,” says Plumridge. “We’re working with Amtrak through the design and engineering processes, the project requires that we build while the trains are running…We’re even having some very preliminary discussions with some potential [office] users.”

Despite the incremental progress, a formal timeline for the project has yet to be and Akridge has also been unable to provide any new renderings of the façade, beyond the aerial jell-o mold shot (pictured) released in tandem with the project’s unveiling in 2006. Multiple inquires from DCmud to the project's architect, Shalom Baranes, have gone un-returned.

Santos Tapped to Lead ODMPED

Oh, Neil Albert, we hardly knew thee. In a move that surprised few, Mayor Adrian Fenty has appointed Valerie Santos the new Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (aka, the Mayor’s Affordable Housing Czar), following Albert’s recent promotion to City Administrator. Santos' appointment will be subject to a vote by the DC City Council at as-of-yet unscheduled confirmation hearing.

Unlike her predecessor, who rose to the Deputy Mayor post from the heart of economic development that is the DC Department of Parks and Recreation, Santos is a dyed-in-the-wool real estate maven, having served as a vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle, a manager at Ernst & Young’s real estate division and as a Masters student in Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government before entering the lucrative civil service field to become her old boss’s Chief Operating Officer.

So just what does a Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development actually do? Here’s what Neil Albert told DCmud in a 2008 interview:

I see myself as convener of private sector and the natural community residents who sometimes have needs that complement each other and sometimes oppose each other. In many cases, my role is just to be the arbitrator…Our job is bringing the balance between the haves and the have-nots in DC, so we have the big law and lobby firms and the non-profits and the associations who are squeezed by real estate taxes right now, but that add to the flavor of DC. Instead of them having to relocate to suburbia, we step in and try to provide incentives to keep them here.

Among the overdue projects that Deputy Mayor Santos will be tasked with “arbitrating” in the coming year are, according to ODMPED, the Southwest Waterfront redevelopment, CityCenter DC, the O Street Market and the goings-on along the Minnesota Avenue/Benning Road corridor. That’s on top of her duty to oversee the “cluster of agencies” that fall under ODMPED’s purview, including the Department of Small and Local Business Development, the Department of Housing and Community Development, the Office of Planning and the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.

And in a possible case of Sotomayor fever, Santos had been publicly known as Valerie Santos-Young right up until…well, this announcement. Can't hurt to suck up to and mimic the Obamas.

NoMa Celebrates First Hotel

Not so long ago, there wasn't much reason to go to NoMa, and no place to stay if you did. Now, at least the latter problem has been solved. Representatives of Marriott International, the Finvarb Companies and the DC government came together today to cut the ribbon on the NoMa district's very first hotel - an 8-story, 218-room Courtyard by Marriott with 10,000 square feet of ground floor retail and a direct connection to the Gallaudet University Metro. Elizabeth Price, President of the NoMa BID, told DCmud why the new development is an important stepping stone into the continued redevelopment of Northeast neighborhood.

"This...will really start to change us from an office dominated neighborhood to more mixed-use. It's a place that will attract visitors and tourists, but also support the office space." said Price. "It’s very attractive [to them] because it’s affordably priced, it’s one stop from Union Station and it’s close to the Metro. It has a lot of appeal for many different types of users.”

In addition, in-house amenities like a swank bistro, business center and swimming pool, guests at the $53 million first hotel will also have the privilege of flaunting their eco-awareness from atop the Courtyard’s green roof that will consist of “100 percent grass when fully grown” and offer a world-class view of the Capitol (or the sexy Florida Avenue/New York Avenue interchange, depending on one's orientation). But green initiatives aside, all the parties involved were prideful of another first that the hotel represents, as the District’s first Hispanic-owned Marriott.

Ray Bennett, Senior Vice President of Lodging and Development for Marriott International, touted the project as the latest fruit of his company’s “Diversity Ownership Initiative,” which has more than 300 new, minority-owned locations in the pipeline. Included in that figure are another five locations that the hotelier is pursuing with Bobby Finvarb and his development partners on the NoMA project: Harmon, Wilmot, Brown and Bagwell, LLP and Welburn Development, both of which are local, African-American owned businesses.

According to the NoMa BID, the new hotel, at 1325 2^nd Street, NE, will also soon be getting a new neighbor, as work labors along right next door on developer StonebridgeCarras’ large-scale Constitution Square project.

“[That project] continues to grow and that’s where we’ll have our first Harris Teeter, along with residential, hotel and office space,” said Price. She also provided a status update on Akridge’s Burham Place development behind Union Station, saying that the project and is still “several years away” and that the stimulus-funded restoration of the DC landmark it shares space with would likely have to conclude before work could begin.

In the meantime, for those keeping tabs on development in the area, that’s one down and many more to go. But, for a more up close and personal look, check out NoMA for yourself when the BID’s Summer Screen Festival starts up on June 10^th.

District Announces Contenders for Downtown School Redevelopment

In their second announcement in as many weeks, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Planning has revealed the teams vying for redevelopment of a DC public school – this time for Thaddeus Stevens Elementary School at 1050 21^st Street, NW. The school was "the first modern school in the District built for African-American students,” is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was the last DC public school to host a First Child when Amy Carter attended in the 1970's. Much like last week’s announcement of competitors for the Hine Junior High School site near Eastern Market, ODMPED says the proposals they’ve received include "various combinations of new housing, office space, hotels and neighborhood-serving retail" for the surrounding K Street/Foggy Bottom area.

The Stevens project has only seen three would-be development teams: Peebles Development LLC/The Walker Group; the Moddie Turay Company; and, lastly,the Neighborhood Development Company, in partnership with Equity Residential (which also has a bid in for the Eastern Market school) remain in contention. After initially soliciting the project in late 2008, the Deputy Mayor’s office has apparently knocked two-thirds of the responsive developers – including the Capitol Hill BID, Akridge and Donohoe Development – out of contention.

"[The final] three teams have presented some interesting ideas and demonstrated the capacity to get the project done,” said newly minted City Administrator Neil Albert via press release.

The three teams and ODMPED reps will be on-hand to present their competing plans at a community meeting on June 11th. The forum will be held at the Francis-Stevens Education Campus at 2425 N Street, NW and begin at 6:30 pm.

NYU to Build Student Center in Downtown DC

Downtown DC will soon be getting a little taste of Greenwich Village, now that New York University’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) is moving forward with plans for 75,000 square foot, LEED gold-certified “multipurpose center” at 1307 L Street, NW. Entitled the NYU-DC Center, the educational/dormitory facility will house some 200 students studying off-campus at the site of former local dive bar Stoney’s (since relocated to swankier Logan Circle).

The Hickok Cole-designed complex will feature a lecture hall, seminar rooms and office space for NYU’s Office of Government and Community Affairs and John Brademas Center for the Study of Congress, below five-stories of student housing - should be easy to concentrate there. Though the NYU-DC Center won’t be operational until 2012 or 2013, the University is already attempting to spark interest in the center amongst its student body by lauding the selected site as “close to many NGO’s, and near one of Washington’s newest cultural centers, the 14^th Street corridor” – two factors that make it ripe for both cushy summer internships and late night downtown escapades. Students of economics, politics, art history, journalism and other CAS mainstays will be eligible for study at the Center. The project was spurred by a recent donation (of an undisclosed sum) from NYU alum and Washington litigator, Ronald Abramson.

Once completed, the Center will serve as NYU’s thirteenth off-campus (but first domestic) study abroad site; the University already has other locations across five continents in far-flung locales like Abu Dhabi, Shanghai, Ghana, Buenos Aires and Prague. However, seeing as NYU is one of the most expensive colleges in the nation (if not the world), student transplants to the District might be able to get a break on rent at Paradigm Development’s new Washington Center student housing complex, currently under construction in NoMA.

Arlington’s First LEED Gold Apartments Get a Name (and a Game Plan)

As reported last month, the Arlington County Board has approved the very first LEED gold-certified residential project in their fair portion of Northern Virginia. Now, Erkiletian Real Estate Services (ERES) informs DCmud that while the building may not quite start on time, at least it has a name – The Tellus (as in, "Tell us if going green is an actual selling point") – and a means to achieve the US Green Building Council’s second highest rating. Quoth the press release:

The Tellus will use storm water retention for on-site irrigation, obtain a portion of its power from a green source grid, and incorporate on-site solar. A beautifully landscaped outdoor plaza using native, drought-resistant plants will replace an old impervious parking garage. Bicycle and smart car options will be available to residents. Additional green building elements include low-flow plumbing fixtures and modern recycling systems. Plans also include a $75,000 public art project in partnership with Arlington Parks, Recreation & Cultural Resources.

The Lessard Group designed the building that will replace the Arlington Courthouse’s aging Executive Office Building at 2009 14^th Street North and include 254 rental residential units, 8,127 square feet of office space, first floor retail and an additional 2,257 square feet of "flex" space. A further selling point is the Tellus’ planned 26,000 square foot park that, from its perch atop a neighboring three-story parking garage, claims to offer views of downtown DC in all of its monumental gridlocked glory.

The current office complex on site, however, still stands and a date for demolition has yet to be decided. Though originally set for a third quarter 2009 start, ERES Development Manager, Bill Denton, says merely, “Construction plans are coming together well.”