Showing posts with label Anacostia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anacostia. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Anacostia's BID a Bit Closer to Reality

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Anacostia has been slow to take off commercially (though making progress), and much like the expectations for a thriving commercial neighborhood, its Business Improvement District may be close to becoming a reality too.

The neighborhood itself has struggled to attract private businesses and office workers, in part because it lacks nearby services and retail.  Service and retail providers in turn have had little incentive to open shop in Anacostia until more businesses and consumers are on the street.  That conundrum is reflected in the embryonic BID formation.  While corporations typically sponsor the BIDs that promote doing business in the neighborhood, that lack of commerce has hindered the Anacostia BID's formation.  Though landowners in the area point to much potential - a historic downtown, a Metro stop, the coming St. Elizabeths project - without a corporate base to fund the BID, lack of money has kept Anacostia's promoter-in-chief from becoming a reality.  That may be starting to change.

The group met last month to appoint ten board members, and will now be funded by a portion of property taxes from local landowners, but the group will have to wait until tax collections occur in March before it can hire a staff and rent a permanent space.

But that’s still a big step forward for a group that’s been pending for years. In 2008, Councilmember Barry sponsored legislation that would allow the area to create a Business Improvement District. It passed, but the business and property owners behind the effort had several hurdles to overcome before the organization could become a reality.

BIDs in DC, while classified as nonprofit organizations, can’t solicit foundation grants. And when DC’s Office of Tax and Revenue and the Department of Small and Local Business Development reviewed the Anacostia BID's business plan - as required as part of the enabling legislation - they didn’t think it was sustainable.

“So we took a break, got a pro bono counsel, and hired consultants to file paperwork, petition the IRS, and get approval to establish a BID out of the 501(c)3,” explained Stan Voudrie of Four Points Development, the group’s new board president. “It took a lot of time; we were doing it with volunteers.” But eventually, he added, the IRS approved of the group’s new status and the various city agencies signed off on the BID’s new business plan.

Other than Voudrie, the board is composed of representatives from 1918 LLP, Anacostia Economic Development Corporation, ARCH Development Corporation, EDC LLC, Grubb’s Southeast Pharmacy, Honfleur Gallery, Industrial Bank,
NSC, Inc., and Urban City Ventures.

Voudrie says the group will use the time between now and March to prepare for their next steps. After hiring a director and renting a permanent office space, the first order of business will be to increase basic services in the business district, particularly from a visual perspective. “All of the BIDs”—there are eight others in the city—“have that kind of program,” said Voudrie. That means increasing trash pickup, sweeping streets and sidewalks, and planting flowers.

Second, the organization will focus on marketing and business outreach, acting like a local chamber of commerce. “We'll reach out to retailers that we think would bring a service the community would appreciate,” said Voudrie. “We want to be a single clearinghouse where people can find out about opportunities in the neighborhood.” 

And by the same token, the group will allow local business and property owners to speak with a unified voice, addressing issues that might need attention from the city or other institutions.

What the BID won’t be doing, according to Voudrie, is independently establishing a vision for what the neighborhood should look like. “We’ll probably do surveys of people who live and work here to find out their interests, but we won’t tell people what we think they need,” he said.

So all that talk about Anacostia becoming the city’s next arts district might not be on the BID agenda, at least for now, but such ideas might soon be more likely to become reality.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified DC BIDs as not being nonprofit organizations; they are, but are not 501(c)3s. Additionally, the new board has 10 members, not five.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Sheridan Station Celebrates Opening, Now Nearly Half Built

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Ribbons were cut today at Sheridan Station, a $100-million effort by the D.C. Housing Authority and William C. Smith & Co. to redevelop 11 acres in Ward 8 that once held the public housing complex Sheridan Terrace, torn down in 1997.

The ceremony this afternoon marked the completion of Phase I (of three), which delivered 114 apartment units (with gym, business center, etc.) to Barry Farm/Anacostia, confirms Carol Chatham, spokesperson for William C. Smith + Co.
Washington DC real estate development news

Construction on the first phase of the project began in May of 2010. Now complete, the apartment building, designed by SK&I, is in the queue for LEED-Platinum certification (the highest certification possible from the U.S. Green Building Council), due to incorporation of rooftop solar panels that will generate energy to cover 30 percent of the building's needs, a rainwater collection cistern, LED lights, and low-VOC materials - among other green building tactics.

Expected to be in attendance today were the appropriate local and federal government representatives on behalf of DCHA, the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, and DMPED - all celebrating the ability to fund the project, which includes the use of a $20-million HOPE VI HUD grant and ARRA funds.

Phase two - 80 for-sale townhomes - is under construction now; 22 of these townhomes are currently for sale and will deliver in February of next year. Chatham added that three are under contract now. The third and final phase is still in development, a start date has not been specified.

The 11 acres of Sheridan Station are jointly owned by DCHA and William C. Smith & Co. As lead developer, Smith partnered with Union Temple CDC and Jackson Investment Co. to form Sheridan Terrace Redevelopment, LLC.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Friday, July 15, 2011

Joint Venture to Kick Start Florida Rock on the Anacostia

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Florida-based Patriot Transportation Holding Inc. and DC-based Midatlantic Realty Partners LLC (MRP) today revealed that a joint venture between the two will help develop the Florida Rock property near the Nationals Stadium. The combination will bring the necessary capital - $4.5 million from MRP - to the stalled RiverFront on the Anacostia mixed-use project envisioned as 1.1 million s.f. along Potomac Avenue in Southeast, a project that has been planned but idle for years, nominally run by Patriot's wholly-owned subsidiary Florida Rock Properties Inc. (FRP). A spokesperson for Patriot confirmed that there will be an immediate, transformed approach to the four-phase riverfront development project due to "market changes." The first phase will no longer be office space, as was approved by the District as part of the development's Master Plan, but will instead be apartments. The joint venture will again undergo rezoning before beginning construction on phase 1, projected to commence in the spring of 2013, with lease up from fall of 2014 through summer of 2015. Rezoning was previously requested for the industrial area that has for many years contained an active concrete plant on site. In 2008, FRP asserted that it was hoping to break ground on the river front project in May of this year, but was delayed, also due to unforeseen "market changes."Patriot confirmed that FRP will have a 70-percent stake in phase one of the project; phase two through four remain undetermined. More information will be disclosed after Patriot's third-quarter-earnings meeting, the first week of August. 

Washington D.C. retail and commercial real estate news

Monday, May 24, 2010

Pollin's Parkside Project: Bringing Down the House(s)

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Public housing in Parkside will crumble and fall this summer, not from age or neglect, but by a demolition team, clearing the way for the new Linda Joy and Kenneth Jay Pollin Memorial Community Development. The Pollin project will replace one-for-one the 42 affordable rental units on site, known as Parkside Additions, while adding 83 for-sale units. The project was initially spearheaded by the late Abe Pollin and his Pollin Foundation. The District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA) is seeking permission to raze the row of apartment buildings from 705-721 Anacostia Avenue, NE and, according to DCHA Spokesperson Dena Michaelson, hopes to demolish the buildings over the course of the summer.

Pollin Memorial Community Development, LLC's planned $35 million development would bring 125 new affordable for-sale and rental homes to the northeast site, an assemblage belonging at one time to three different government entities – the District of Columbia, the District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA), and the National Parks Service (NPS). The developers courted the approval of all landowners back in 2006 and received approval for the project from the National Capitol Planning Commission (NCPC) in 2008. The NPS transferred its property to the District in 2007.

According to Michaelson, the developer is putting up $2 million to guarantee construction loans for the project. Michaelson said the entire project will eventually be paid for by the condo sales, and that Pollin, acting as a fee developer, will not gain financially from the sales. DCHA will be the property owner for the public housing and will maintain the units. Financing for development is being provided by the District of Columbia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), the District of Columbia Housing Authority, United Bank, Enterprise and the Abe Pollin Grantor Trust. DHCD is providing a construction loan, explained Michaelson, "a portion of the DHCD loan that applies to building public housing units is forgivable."

The project will provide 125 off-street parking spaces, one per unit, and the new residential structures will not exceed 40 feet or 3 stories. The 83 condominiums will be available to individuals earning between 40 percent and 100 percent area media income (AMI) and the 25 rental units will be offered to residents earning at or below 30 percent AMI.

A ceremonial groundbreaking in December was marred by a community boycott - an effort to convince developers and city officials to be more forthcoming about the project's community benefits which, though not final, had been viewed as skimpy. At the time, Michaelson indicated that a community benefits package would be available to the public upon its completion. When asked if an agreement has now been reached, ANC7C04 Commissioner Sylvia Brown said, "Short answer: no, no community benefits. Medium answer: there was a change in the ANC7D chairmanship and the momentum went out like air from a balloon. There hasn't been any other broad community update or discussion." Michaelson said the Pollin family has committed to giving $350,000 to the community, but was not sure what form the donation would take.

Meanwhile, DCHA will begin relocating residents to alternate public housing until Pollin's project delivers, a process that will determine the demolition date. "It's not a quick thing...it's a process to be able to relocate folks...to find the right size bedroom units, etcetera." explained Michaelson.

Current Parkside residents will have the first right to return to the new units. A press release from the ground breaking indicated the first units would be available in 2011. The phased project will complete in February 2013, according to Michaelson, who added that for-sale units will not be marketed until 2013.

Enterprise Community Investment is one of the development partners on the project. John Stranix, of Stranix Associates, is spearheading the construction effort with designs by Torti Gallas & Partners.

Washington, DC real estate development news

Monday, May 10, 2010

Sheridan Station Breaks Ground

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Sheridan Station, WC Smith, WCS Construction, Washington DCWashington DC commercial real estateToday, Anacostia's Sheridan Station development kicks off with a ground breaking for the first phase of the HOPE VI residential project. The 344 mixed-income housing units are funded in part thanks to a $20 million HOPE VI competitive grant that the District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA) received from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2008. Sheridan Station’s 11 acres in Anacostia are owned jointly by the DC Housing Authority and William C. Smith & Co. Washington DC retail for leaseThough the project was initially set to begin construction in January of this year, DCHA only recently closed on financing. Phase 1 of the 344-unit Sheridan Station, formerly Sheridan Terrace, will revolve around an initial 114 units of public housing and 69 Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) units. The 114 units will deliver in the form of a 104 unit multi-family building and 10 single-family rental units. At least 25 of the public housing units available in Phase 1 will be reserved for current Barry Farm residents. Phases 2 and 3 of the redevelopment will begin once all units in Phase 1 are filled, but the entire project is expected to be complete by 2015. Washington DC commercial propertyThe multifamily building is registered with the US Green Building Counsel for LEED Certification Gold. Green features include a 100 KW solar photovoltaic array which provides 30% of the buildings core energy, a vegetative green roof, and an 8000 gallon rainwater retention cistern underneath the slab of the building. The building will also have a health and wellness center which will provide general family practice care for the neighborhood, provided by Core Health. Construction on the first phase is expected to be complete in December 2011. When all three phases are complete, the 344 units will be almost double the amount of the original Sheridan Terrace - a troubled project that was torn down in 1997. As with the original Sheridan Terrace, the new-and-improved Sheridan Station will contain 183 public housing rental units. An additional 161 units will go up for sale; 117 of these will be sold at market rate and another 44 will be sold as affordable units. Sheridan Station apartments sk&I architect Washington DCAs lead developer, Smith partnered with Union Temple CDC and Jackson Investment Co. to form Sheridan Terrace Redevelopment LLC. Sheridan Station will comprise a small piece of the Barry Farm/Park Chester/Wade Road redevelopment planned for Ward 8. The project was designed by Bethesda's SK&I Architects, which furnished the seven different building designs that will include landscaped green space and a pedestrian trail.

Washington, DC real estate development news

Friday, April 30, 2010

Anacostia's First Green Condos

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A ribbon cutting today in Anacostia marked the opening of Ward 8's first "green" condos in what was once an abandoned eyesore in the community. The new Fendall Heights condos, at the corner of Fendall and V Streets, SE, adds 29 newly renovated units just blocks from the also newly renovated Frederick Douglas House. The affordable housing project, restricted to first time home buyers, was developed through a joint venture with ARCH Development, a non-profit community development organization, Fendall Partners, and $170,000 in pre-development support from the District Department of Housing and Community Development.

Through a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) the development team funded the installation of a living green roof to control surface run-off and reduce heat absorption for structure. Other green features include energy saving double-pane windows, pipes made of recycled plastic instead of copper and 100% energy efficient furnaces. Inscapestudio designed the reconfiguration of the building and the green elements.

The gutting and interior renovation began just about two years ago and the units should be complete by the end of June, according to Anthony R. Bolling, a spokesman for the developer. In addition to the 22 2-bedroom units an 9 1-bedroom units, Fendall Heights provides 3,000 s.f. of community space for artists studios. Condos will start at $125,000. When originally envisioned, some of the condos were intended to be reserved for artists, though none have been set aside. Bolling is confident that the units will nonetheless appeal to artists, not to mention a welcome relief for neighbors who have watched the building "sitting vacant and deteriorating for decades."

ARCH, as a non-profit developer, supported the community and the project through its Training Center. District residents, as part of ARCH's Training program, were trained in construction techniques and gained on-site experience throughout the conversion of Fendall Heights.

Washington, DC real estate development news

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Delivering on Promises in Ward 8

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A previously stalled residential project in Ward 8's Barry Farm community is one step closer to realization. The 99-unit Matthews Memorial Terrace was scheduled to begin construction earlier this year, but economic constraints delayed the promised affordable housing. Now, however, the developers are seeking general contractors and hope to begin construction in the new year. The planned development would bring four stories of affordable rental units to Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. next to the Matthews Memorial Baptist Church, which owns the property (and runs a surprisingly hip website). Developer Community Builders (TCB) along with the Church received final zoning approval for the PGN Architects-designed project in May 2009. The construction would mean jobs and new housing for part of DC hardest hit by the current downturn.

The 79,000 s.f. of affordable housing will provide 32 units of senior housing (1 bedrooms, 1 bedrooms plus den and 2 bedrooms), 34 units of multi-family and individual public housing (most of which will likely go to residents displaced by the Barry Farm redevelopment), and 33 units of affordable housing for individuals and families earning less than 60% AMI. Of the four stories, one will be below grade. Donna Freeman from Matthews Memorial Baptist Church indicated the site currently contains a few structures which will be demolished prior to the new construction. Contractor bids for the residential project, valued at $8.5 million, are due December 14th.

The residential project will sit next to a planned community building also developed by the Church, which received approval in the same zoning process in May. The community building will include a space on the ground floor for public meetings, a second floor dining room and restaurant and non-profit uses on the third floor. The community building is not part of the current bidding process.

Washington, D.C. real estate development news.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Industry Insight: Gabe Klein

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Gabe Klein, Mayor Fenty's pick to steer the future of transportation in DC, began his post as Director of the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) in February 2009. Klein comes from a progressive, private sector background where he cultivated a reputation for partnering innovative businesses with government programs. He served as the DC regional Vice President of Zipcar from 2002 to 2006, making DC the nation's largest car sharing city by both membership and vehicles. He then co-founded and most recently served as the Chief Executive Officer of On the Fly, a boutique food-service company with retail, wholesale, catering and events businesses all-in-one whose green smartkarts are spotted throughout the city. Having achieved a quasi rock start status among urban planners and other pointy-heads for his entrepreneurial, progressive approach to greener transportation and development, Klein has quickly made Washington DC a leader in non-carbon transport options. Klein recently discussed with DCMud his plans for the future of DC transportation.

DCMUD: So it’s been almost a year at this point since you started at DDOT.

GK: Almost…I got appointed in December but I started February 1st. Nine months.

DCMUD: What do you think is the biggest problem with the city’s transportation right now and what are you doing about it?

GK: Well, it depends on if you look at this part of the region or if you focus more on just the city itself, I live just five blocks from here.

DCMUD: Do you walk to work?

GK: I walk to work or I bike to work. My commute on foot is about 9 minutes. So you know, from my personal stand point, we have a wonderful transportation system - a very walk-able, ride-able, transit-oriented city. So if you live, work or play in the city, I think it’s wonderful. I think if you’re commuting in - I was talking to one of our guys today - he lives in Baltimore, so his commute, total is between 2 and a half to 3 hours a day. So for folks that live in the region, I would say the traffic during rush hour is a huge problem.

Here in the city I think we need to make sure that the city is as safe as possible for people, particularly when people want to not be in their car. You know, forty percent of the people in the city don’t even own a car.

DCMUD: By safer do you mean as in a transportation perspective on the street as in walking?

GK: [It needs to be] safe for people to walk, to bike, to drive—and so you know we have a big responsibility in terms of safety and we’re looking hard at that, at how we want to arrange our safety resources in the form of a team so that they’re as responsive as possible to the public. Right now we’re looking at the fifty worst intersections in the city and trying to make sure that we focus our efforts on making them safe. In terms of your readers, I think what’s important is that if you’re developing at one of the worst intersections in the city—like Donatelli’s at Minnesota and Benning—what are we doing to make that safe, so his mixed-use development really attracts people to live there. It’s very important to the city to have smart growth, to have transit-oriented development of which that will be both, right, so there’s going to be stores, offices, and residential. And the problem is if we don’t create a safe intersection so people can cross to the grocery store, are people going to want to buy there? Is the real estate going to be worth what it could be? We’re very focused on that. And there is obviously a renaissance in DC, as there is in many urban quarters, and we’re very aware that there are many more children in the city than there used to be. There are people like you and I who are, well I don’t know where you live, but there are people like us who at this age are saying, “we want to live in the city and maybe raise a family,” and the mayor I think is doing a phenomenal job at trying to better the schools; I think our job is to make sure that people feel their neighborhoods are safe from a transportation standpoint. And a lot of that is pedestrian safety. One thing I’ve noticed - I’ve had one hearing season here - and when I go in front of council, the majority of the people who are testifying are testifying about safety - particularly pedestrian safety. So we’re really focusing on that. We’re also going to be launching an expanded bike share program.

DCMUD: Bike share has been pioneered during your tenure, can you address that? Also, I recently spoke with DDOT Transportation Planner Jim Sebastian and he said you’d be expanding the program from 10 bike stations to 90. When can we expect that?

GK: Right now we’re going through a contracting and procurement process, so we’re going to have everything nailed down, I can tell you soon we’ll be making an announcement about our expansion of the program. It will be a significant expansion. We’re hoping to take it to 100 stations. And a thousand bikes, it could be a little more, a little less, and our hope is to create a transit system with bikes

I just went to Montreal about a month ago on vacation…[and]…I wanted to go…to actually see the bike share system. We were the first in North America to launch our system, but they have the biggest system in North America, I think something like 3,000 bikes. Just recently they dropped in 3,000 all at once. It’s very interesting to see biking go from a sort of secondary mode of transportation to a primary mode of transportation and really become its own point-to-point transit system. So we’re very excited. And I think for developers it’s exciting because we can park one of these [systems] right in front of their development. And depending on what system you go with, we’re looking at a few options. It may even be a mobile system, meaning that we can move it seasonally or just move it periodically, you may have seen the SmartBike system out front. That was a construction project, we put that in the ground. We are looking at some other options which will allow us more flexibility in moving them and we definitely will be doing some outreach to the development community to talk about placing them on private property.

DCMUD: Would that be part of their PUD (zoning change) application?

GK: It certainly could be. It could be something that we do after the fact. So yeah, we’re very excited about working with the private sector. I think there’s so much we can do together. And you know one of the great things about our Mayor and working with the Mayor is that he really gets the synergy between the public and private sector - think how more you can accomplish when you’re working together.

DCMUD: Okay, and then regardless of bike sharing stations, in order to have bikes, or Segways, we need a useful infrastructure—bike lanes, bike paths. You said before you’re goal is to level the playing field for bikers, how do you plan to do that?

GK: One of the things I’ve been focusing our staff on around here is the fact that we’ll be launching this expanded bike share system which in many ways is going to hopefully make cycling a primary mode of transportation. It will also be institutionalizing it and bringing it to the masses. You know the early adopters of bike sharing, like the early adopters of car share, are people who are really into it so to speak, or environmental. Then you get the mass adoption, and when you hit mass adoption, you have to make sure you have safe and secure infrastructure. And again something I’ve seen in other countries - and they’ve been working hard on in New York and Portland and some other progressive cities - is dedicated bike-ways, cycle tracks, contraflow bike lanes, etc.

DCMUD: So not just a painted line?

GK: Not just a painted line, although I think we can do more with a painted line, the painted line could really be a painted bike lane, which may actually keep cars out of the lane. And you know, we really want to create a safe infrastructure for cars too. So we’re looking harder at a signal system, signal timing, we’re making significant upgrades on New York Ave. We’re going to have five very large projects, totaling…over $100 million in investment to make sure that some of the main arterials that allow people to get in and out of the city, whether you’re a resident or a commuter, that they are in tip-top shape with the best technology to move as many people as possible. So I think striking a balance also doesn’t mean ignoring vehicular traffic, it means supporting the best technology for vehicular traffic, best infrastructure, it means investing in transit through metro through our own transit system and it means creating new transit systems like bike share and making sure we have the infrastructure so people can safely ride. One of the things I’ve been talking about with my staff is that we’re going to have 75 year-old folks getting on the bike sharing system because we’re bringing it to the masses. So we need these separated, dedicated lanes for people.

DCMUD: How are you planning to bring it to masses? Are you thinking advertising or what is your plan for making it more approachable?

GK: Well, you know I come really from a marketing and operations background. I’m a private sector person. I’m used to doing a lot with a little, first of all. And I’m used to having to market without a lot of resources. At Zipcar we actually had no marketing budget for probably the first two or three years—I mean literally nothing. And we were very effective at leveraging partnerships, and grass roots, guerilla marketing to get the word out. So we’re going to bring a lot of those marketing strategies to DDOT. We’re also going to leverage technology quite a bit. We’re going to have new web site that we’ll be launching probably in the winter. We’re using Facebook and Twitter. So we’re reaching people in new ways. And we want to pair that high-tech strategy with feet-on-the-street and continuing to make sure we do a great job - as DDOT really always has - in going to meetings in the community, engaging the public, engaging the business community. We’re aggressively working with kids.

DCMUD: And about car sharing, what are you doing to encourage that, obviously you don’t work for Zipcar anymore but how are you incorporating that into the DDOT plan?

GK: Well when I was at Zipcar I had the opportunity to work with Dan Tangherlini and the folks at DDOT and bring car sharing to the masses and a lot of that - I mentioned we aggressively marketed on the street and in people’s neighborhoods - but we also formed a partnership with the city as we did with Arlington county and actually placed cars on the street. It’s very important to make a new transportation option high-profile. That’s what we did with car sharing. I think the car sharing program needs to be rejuvenated a little bit. Our TDM Program (Transportation Demand Management Program), we plan to enhance that and put more resources into it. We’ve got one great person running that TDM Program, but we need to give her more resources. We plan on doing that next year. Which will allow, not only the promotion of car sharing, but bike sharing, the bike station, our DDOT store that we’re working on…so there are a whole lot of projects. I’m actually working on a slightly different work chart structure which is going to have an Innovative Transportation Services Division. And that Division will receive Street Car, our Mass Transit Group, and what were core partnerships that are incubated through our Policy and Planning Group, but now that we have a critical mass of them - we’re getting up to about six or eight - we’re working on an electrification program so that people can charge their cars curb-side. So as we build more and more of these units we need people that can really manage these contracts, and manage these as business units, which includes marketing.

DCMUD: Street Cars: the overhead wires, you’re making progress on laying the tracks on H Street, but NCPC doesn’t seem to be buying into the idea of having overhead wires. How do you think that issue is going to get resolved and when do you think that’s going to happen?

GK: Well, the first thing I’d like to say is that there seems to be a lot of drama out there about the over head wire issue—for lack of a better term. NCPC, they’re great folks over there, we have a good relationship with them. We don’t publicly talk about this all the time, but we meet with them on a pretty regular basis. We’re working on a compromise of sorts that will protect their interests and protect our interests. We in no way want to upset the North/South “viewsheds” around the monuments. We are working on alternative technologies which include electric, battery-powered vehicles that can drop the wire. So for instance, let’s say that NCPC was okay with us having the overhead wire on H Street but once we got to K near the monuments, they wanted the wire dropped—if that was a concern for them, these cars this new technology that is looking to be built in the US in Portland, Oregon, we could drop the wire for up to a mile. And that’s just one of many different technology options. The roof of the car would be lined with battery. So it would charge while it was attached to the [overhead contact system], when it dropped it would run on battery power—similar to a Toyota Prius which uses gas and charges and then when it’s stopped or coasting it just goes to battery power.

DCMUD: So street cars were purchased for Anacostia. How will this fit into the picture? Do you need new cars? Are those the cars…the cars that will go on H Street, will there be a difference in cars between those [at H Street] and those that go into Anacostia?

GK: Well, we have a Street Car Division, now—a dedicated team that we’re building to work just on Street Car. And that’s very important because I don’t think the Street Car program has historically been treated as its own large-scale project with its own team—the way we’ve treated the 11th Street Bridge, which is a large $300 million dollar infrastructure project. The first thing is that we’re building a group of people to manage it. Second of all, we have an operational segment in Anacostia. The H Street/Benning portion was designed as a Great Street, and we said, okay, if we’re going to do the construction let’s put in the rails. But we are challenging ourselves and the Mayor is challenging us as well to make that an operational segment in the same timeline as Anacostia.

DCMUD: Which is when?

GK: Well, right now we’ve said about 2012. But we’re working very hard now that we have a team in place to speed that up - pretty dramatically. So hopefully, you’ll see an announcement in the next 6 months that gives people an update and hopefully it will be a good update - that we’re going to get up and running more quickly. I actually spent the morning out touring the city looking for maintenance facility locations near H Street. We have a number of places we’re looking at, existing infrastructure we can use - so we’re very focused on this project, we’re putting a lot of our own in-house resources into it. We want this to be, you know, a real win for the city.

One of the things that’s really made me passionate about this is learning the history of Street Car in Washington. The fact that we had over 200 miles of Street Car in and around the city - every major arterial, they all had Street Car. It was the primary mode of transportation in the city. In fact, if you look at old pictures, you see very few cars. You see bikers, walkers, and Street Car. So what’s so funny is that people think, “Oh you know, this agency or that agency is progressive with its New York DOT or Portland DOT,” and you know we’re just trying to put back what was here.

DCMUD: So new buildings in DC are required to provide parking minimums. But there’s nothing in the building process that requires people to do car-sharing, or bike benefits—it’s all like an addition or a community benefit—at what point will that change, or is it going to change? Do you see this as being at odds with your role in integrating transportation?

GK: It needs to change. I’ll be honest with you, this year, I have so many projects, it is probably not something we’re going to be able to attack. But, I mentioned earlier that we want to build our TDM resource capability. I would put that in the TDM category. We want to make sure that we’re heavily involved in the PUD process, in zoning, in making sure that we give builders alternatives to building parking which can be up to $65,000 a space as you dig down into the ground. So why are we incentivizing people to dig garage spaces? There was an article in The Washington Post about how nobody is using the garages there [in Columbia Heights]. And the fact is, whoever built that spent a lot of money doing that. So we would prefer that people invest in transit and alternative modes and facilities and infrastructure, to encourage that rather than building parking spaces.

DCMUD: We wrote an article about H Street and how the Steuart Investment Company has a new development underway there. They’re changing their plan to have one-level parking and .7 parking spaces per unit. We had a lot of feedback that so much parking wasn’t necessary. I don’t know that there’s enough information out there about alternatives to parking.

GK: I think 97% of people live within a few minutes of a bus stop. We’re working hard to upgrade buses, particularly with our own DC Circulator, to make it more on-par with something like the Metro or Street Car. I think, 1.5 or 2 spaces per unit, it’s just old school. We need to move into the 21st century. And we don’t live in Reston. And one of the beauties - I mean, I’m not putting down Reston, I like Reston, it’s a nice place. I don’t want to get any nasty letters, but - what’s nice about living in a city, is that you don’t need that 2.2 cars per household, that you can walk to the grocery store or jump on a Trolley. I mean, that’s what makes the city a city. So if we’re trying to recreate McLean in DC, I think that’s a huge mistake. Let’s take advantage of the positives. And it’s a huge cost. It’s just wasteful. One of the nice things about a down economy is that people can’t afford to waste.

DCMUD: So pedestrians, bicyclists, and car drivers all need different kinds of infrastructure to make their lives easier. How do you prioritize different projects for different users and how do you balance all of those needs when you’re redesigning a street, how do we want to approach transportation in the city?

GK: Well, inherently, a huge amount of our program and our budget goes toward asset maintenance. And a lot of our assets are vehicular-focused assets. So by default, we spend probably 70-80% of our budget on asset maintenance, you know, bridges, tunnels, roads, sidewalks—all these things. I think our biggest challenge, though, is when we’re looking at redesigning, re-building, maintaining these facilities, let’s balance the system. So when we’re redoing a road in Columbia Heights, let’s do a wider sidewalk. Let’s create bike lanes. When we’re building a plaza in Columbia Heights, let’s make sure that it’s functional, but that it’s beautiful - which it is. So I don’t think it’s so much about prioritizing one aspect. It’s really about making sure we’re addressing everybody’s needs when we’re out in the field doing our work, and I think for far too long, nationally, we focused too much on cars. So we’re trying to focus on beauty of the public space, sustainability—you know we take care of over 140,000 trees in this city—so every project, we now look very hard at the urban tree canopy. We actually have an arborist over in our permitting office. And we make sure that we’re addressing the needs of pedestrians and cyclists for their safety.

DCMUD: You’ve already answered question how do you get to work, but do you do bike sharing to get here or do you use your own bike?

GK: So bike sharing’s great. I worked in the car sharing industry and the way it works now is you take a car and you’ve got to bring it back to where you found it. So it’s good for leaving home, going shopping, you bring it back. The great thing about bike sharing is it’s point to point. But generally you don’t have a bike [share station] at your house. But the goal is that when we locate more stations, we can actually push them out into the neighborhoods so that people can use them more for commuting. My bike’s down in the garage, so I ride my bike or I walk. If I have to do something immediately after work like in Virginia, I might bring my car. I have a little Smart Car.

DCMUD: You don’t have to defend your car.

GK: Well, you know. I don’t really need it to be honest, but I like it. It’s a cute car.

DCMUD: Do your friends ever complain to you about commuting and transportation in DC? [Do you get complaints like] “It took me 20 minutes to get to work today, you need to fix this…”

GK: Oh, my friends will text me and say, “I think the signal timing’s screwed up at 18th Street.” And yeah, I take all the feedback from friends and people that aren’t friends. Whenever people write us and they want us to look at something we always look at it and we always respond. But yeah, your friends can be your biggest detractors.

DCMUD: Is there anything else you wanted to add about DDOT or your plans for the future? Or what it’s been like to have had this position?

GK: Well, it’s been great. I need to thank the Mayor, Dan Tangherlini, and Neil Albert you know for giving me this opportunity. It’s something I never thought I’d be doing—working in the government. It’s just a great experience. I feel like we’re doing a lot of great work. And it took me probably 6 months to get my feet under me. And now I feel like I’m really putting together a strategic vision for the future that we’ll be able to execute over the next 24 months. So you’re going to see a lot of new energy, and direction, and work out of the agency over the next two years.

Friday, September 18, 2009

11th Street Bridge Under Troubled Wires

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The 11th Street bridges that span the Anacostia in SE DC are one step closer to a transporation makeover, assuming government agencies can play nice. The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) recently reviewed the District Department of Transportation's (DDOT) design, which will replace the 40-year-old 11th Street bridges, improving traffic flow, connecting I-695 and I-295 and creating a pedestrian and bike-friendly addition to the I-295 bridge. The new bridges make accommodations for future street car use of the bridge, including features for (gasp) overhead wires. The bridges will get their makeover, but the street car may have to wait.












According to DDOT, the Southwest/Southeast Freeway (I-695) was originally planned as part of the "Inner Loop Freeway System," a highway system designed in the '50s and built in the '60s that was (thankfully) never fully completed. The portion at issue here was to connect the Inner Loop with the Anacostia Freeway (I-295/DC-295), a plan that was ultimately abandoned; to date motorists have no direct connection between the two highways north of the 11th street bridge complex. DDOT's plan suggests that this inconvenience leads to increased traffic on neighborhood streets like Martin Luther King Jr. Ave, Good Hope Road, Minnesota Ave and Pennsylvania Ave.

The current upstream bridge has four lanes headed north and the downstream bridge has four lanes headed south, for a total of eight lanes (we can add good); the new bridges will have a total of 12 lanes. The upstream bridge (I-695) will get an additional four lanes, or four in each direction, but two will be used as entrance and exit lanes. The downstream bridge (I-295) for local traffic will still have four lanes, two in each direction with the two outer lanes shared, in theory, by street cars and motor vehicles. The local traffic bridge will also include a 14 foot "shared use path" for pedestrians, runners and cyclists.

While the 11th Street Bridge plan does not directly provide for street cars, it does include the tracks, light posts, and overhead wires for the street cars that may eventually help bridge the chasm between the two sides of the Anacostia river. DDOT has been moving full speed ahead on the Anacostia street car program and is pretty excited about it (to anthropomorphize a bit), and weekly updates are now available online. The plan to install track lines in the new 11th street bridge is just another example of foresight by the transportation planning body.

But, DC being a jurisdictional hodge podge of government overlords, enter the turf battle. The NCPC Executive Director's recommendation stated that NCPC "does not support a street car system with overhead wires in the L'Enfant City" and encouraged DDOT "to pursue alternative propulsion technologies...that do not require overhead wires." The same issue was raised about the street car planned for the H Street corridor. The conflict is not going away any time soon.

If you paid attention to our NCPC crib notes last week, you'll remember that their authority over the historic Washington City means it will uphold federal law that prohibits overhead wires from obstructing view of landmarks.

DDOT and NCPC have clear mission statements and long-term plans, which often can work in unison to improve planning in the District. On this issue, however, it looks like we will see a showdown or at least some creative bargaining as the two agencies are pitted against one another in the what future generations will surely call the "Great Street Car Dilemma of L'Enfant City."

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

GSA and DHS Break Ground on Largest Federal Building Project Since Pentagon

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Officials broke ground today on the largest federal building project in the Washington metro area since the Pentagon. The $435 million Coast Guard Headquarters is the first of three phases for the unified Department of Homeland Security (DHS) complex on the St. Elizabeths campus in Anacostia, and the first project to move the federal government into the historic neighborhood. In August, the General Services Administration (GSA) awarded the contract to Clark
Design/Build, LLC
, WDG Architecture and HOK. The site obtained initial National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) approval in January of this year, with full blown construction expected to begin early next year.

The new DHS site is funded partially through $650 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In total, the Recovery Act allocated $200 million to DHS and $450 million to GSA for construction of a new DHS headquarters at St. Elizabeths, $162 million of which will go to the Coast Guard facility alone. The facility will strive for LEED Silver certification by including green roofs, landscaped courtyards to control surface water runoff, and "innovative" heating and air conditioning systems. Occupancy of the new Coast Guard headquarters is expected by 2013.

The Center Building, pictured at left, will likely house the offices of the Secretary of DHS. Construction and renovation on this and other surrounding buildings will not occur until Phase 2. DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and GSA Acting Administrator Paul Proty shoveled some serious dirt along with Representative Holmes Norton, Mayor Fenty, Councilmember Barry- as well as Senator Lieberman, for one of the most eclectic and highly paid ditch digging crews Washington DC has ever seen.

The DHS currently has 222,000 employees working at 35 offices throughout the Capitol region, DHS expects the consolidation will save taxpayers $163 million over the next 30 years. Construction of the new complex will produce an estimated 32,000 jobs, with many going to DC residents, especially if Norton has anything to do with it. The Congresswoman gave her own special welcome, saying "the federal government is crossing the Anacostia today, my friends. Come on over!" The residents of Ward 8, where the site is located, have the highest level of poverty in the city, with 35% unemployment, according to Councilmember Barry.

Despite the expected economic benefits for the area, the GSA has been involved in a series of Section 106 conversations, part of the National Historic Preservation Act by which community concerns are formally addressed. The local community and historic preservation groups raised concerns about public access to the land. Under the current Master plan, the public will have access to the cemetery, which includes soldiers from the Civil War, Hitchcock Hall, a large theater that once served the residents and staff at St. Elizabeths, and an area known as "The Point,"which boasts an expansive view of DC. Other concerns included the fate of Bald Eagles that call part of the campus home. The Master plan sets off a large section as "Eagle Zone" to prevent any encroachment.

The historic nature of the campus added a high level of complexity to the design and construction plans. On campus, 62 buildings are classified as "contributing" to the historical significance of St. Elizabeths. Of the 62, 52 will be retained and of the 10 that are scheduled to be demolished, 8 are dilapidated greenhouses. During a campus tour for media, GSA paused to showcase the demolition of one of the non-contributing buildings, the Mechanical and Electrical shop. St. Elizabeths was the first national mental health care facility in the country.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Manna Plans 24 New Condos in Anacostia

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George Rothman, Manna President, Washington DC subsidized housing
On August 17th, the DC Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) will hold a public hearing on the disposition of the six townhouses on W Street, SE in Anacostia. Barring the unexpected, the properties will transfer to non-profit Manna, Inc, which offered $200,400 following the Solicitation for Offers DHCD issued in July of 2008.retail for lease, Washington DC commercial brokerage Manna's plans, designed by an in-house team, preserve the architectural integrity of the exterior walls, but execute a gut rehab of the interior. The end result will be 24 two-bedroom, two-bath for-sale units. The units will be approximately 900 s.f. each; four will be "accessible." A quarter of the units will be made available to households earning 60% or less of the area median income (AMI), the remaining 16 units will be available for households earning 61-80% AMI. Manna expects to begin construction in the first quarter of 2010. The project will be executed in two phases, and George Rothman, Manna President and CEO, estimated completion 12 to 18 months after the start of construction.

Washington DC commercial real estate news

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

DHCD Opens Affordable Housing Center

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Mayor Adrian Fenty today officiated the opening of the Department of Housing and Community Development’s new Housing Resource Center. As a real world counterpart to DCHD’s recently launched online housing database, DCHousingSearch.org, the first-floor addition to the agency’s Anacostia Gateway headquarters offers District residents an array of services to ensure easy access to affordable housing.

The new Resource Center, located at the at the prominent intersection of Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard and Good Hope Road, SE, was made possible through a $300,000 contribution from Fannie Mae – which, along with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, will provide literature on their own affordable housing initiatives in the metropolitan area. "All the time when I’m in and out of the neighborhoods of DC, people ask about jobs…They’re excited about school reform and they also want to know where they can go to find housing – specifically affordable housing,” said Fenty.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Southeast Seniors Get New Housing

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

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

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

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

Monday, April 27, 2009

SE Church Bringing Affordable Housing to Barry Farm

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Prominent Ward 8 church Matthews Memorial Baptist has partnered with developer Community Builders (TCB) to expand their community servicing mandate into the realm of affordable housing. The Church – which has served the Barry Farm/Anacostia community for 85 years, boasts 1300 members, operates 60 different ministries and frequently hosts speaking engagements for local politicians such as Marion Barry - is now looking to bring a new housing project and community center to a large parcel adjoining their location at 2616 Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue, SE.

According to the Office of Planning, the 79,900 square foot site currently holds five houses and an asphalt parking lot, all of which would demolished to make way for the Matthews Memorial Terrace – a 100% affordable housing development consisting of a four-story apartment building with 100 residential units, roughly of a third of which would be reserved for seniors. Next door, a three-story community center would include a health clinic (possibly an extension of the United Medical Center – itself slated for a large-scale expansion), a community room, a bookstore/café and “a dinner room/restaurant” that, according to Bishop C. Matthew Hudson, Jr., would be “Ward 8’s second full-service sit-down restaurant.” The project is being designed by PGN Architects.

“Upon learning of my desire for the Church to provide affordable housing, Community Builders contacted me and we discussed the possibility of building…on the Matthews Memorial Baptist campus,” said Hudson at a March 5th Zoning Commission hearing. “The partnership between the Church and TCB is represented a good match to obtain our mutual goals of creating a vibrant, mixed-use affordable rental community.”

Though still in the planning stages, organizations and individuals, including the ANC 8A, the ANC 8C, the Ward 8 Business Council, the Anacostia Coordinating Council and DC City Council members Marion Barry and Kwame Brown, have all voiced their support for the project. The next step in the approval process for the Matthews Memorial Terrace lies with the National Capital Planning Commission, which will review the development team’s proposal at their May 7th meeting. And it looks be a straight shot, given the altruistic nature of the project.

“[The Church] continuously works to revitalize and rehabilitate the Anacostia community,” said Hudson. “The Church’s goal in pursuing this project is to allow it to further serve the community which we love and are an integral part of…I’m very proud of the many ways in which the new Matthews Memorial Terrace will be able to assist Anacostia…as it continues to grow, revitalize, [and] redevelop itself for the future.”

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

"Affordable Luxury" Coming to Southeast DC

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With a style they're labeling "affordable luxury," M&A Development and the Neighborhood Development Company are bringing 15 new condo units to 1751-1759 W Street, SE. The development is being marketed with some flair, such as the third dubbed "Fab Five” units – affordable apartments reserved for the "income restricted" - "once in a lifetime" prices that start at $104,900. (Maybe true if you were born after 2003, anyway.)

Coming in with 2, 3 or 4-bedroom floorplans, development at the W Street Condos will be divided between adjoining rowhouses, backed with 21 parking spaces, and surrounded by what the development team describes as "secure, gated landscaped grounds." Sizes of the 3 and 4-bedroom units is said to surpass 1,800 square feet, while residents are expected to benefit from the development’s lack of through traffic.

Uniquely, the homes are modular, built and assembled off-site, then inserted into their respective building’s frame. Although originally intended to open for business in fall of this year, NDC is now projecting a second quarter 2009 completion date for the new condos.

Like some other small scale projects underway in the burgeoning community, the W Street Condos are already touting their close proximity to major Southeast redevelopment initiatives in the offing. The W Street Condos press packet lists no less than 13 projects in "Anacostia and Congress Heights" that it reassuringly directs attention towards – none of which have have yet moved beyond the initial planning stages but which, nevertheless, may someday actually occur. These include the redevelopment of St. Elizabeths East, the Poplar Point Soccer Stadium, the Anacostia streetcar line and the Anacostia Gateway. We hope they do. Axis

 

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