In a vote last night, the DC City Council unanimously approved the agreement with development partner PN Hoffman to develop DC's Southwest Waterfront. The Land Disposition Agreement (LDA), signed by both the developer and District back in September, calls for an estimated $1.5 billion redevelopment of the Southwest Waterfront into one of Washington DC's most massive land projects, with 770 residential units, 3 hotels, vast commercial space, and a significant retail venue.
Officially titled the "Southwest Waterfront Disposition Emergency Approval Resolution," the agreement with Hoffman-Struever LLC codifies the recent land deal, and makes way for the next stage of development planning. And while the Council's approval permits the team to "commence entitlements and design in early 2009," it will likely be at least three years until real construction begins.
Entitled by the LDA to “master developer” status, Hoffman-Struever will now be allowed to name, design and develop the $1.8 billion (including $198 million in publicly financed assets) project with little government direction.
In statement released shortly after the passage of the resolution, Hoffman said, “Our collective concern for the success of this project is very real and we are pleased that all sides have come together. We can now focus on the matter at hand – moving this vision forward.” The development team attached to the project is officially comprised of PN Hoffman, Struever Bros., Eccles & Rouse, McCormack Baron Salazar, ER Bacon, Gotham, City Partners, Triden and the recently added Paramount Development. Acresh, another developer initially attached to the project, has since parted ways with the development team. Washington DC real estate development news
5 comments:
Has anyone seen a copy of this deal? I hear it leases a substantial piece of valuable waterfront property to PN Hoffman for 99 years for a buck.
Has the bidding closed?
Us Southwesters are thrilled the waterfront redevelopment can finally move forward! It's too bad it happened during an economic slowdown, though. We've been waiting a long time for our waterfront to be revitalized, but the credit crunch might delay things further. Since the development team still has more planning to do before a shovel hits the ground, hopefully the credit markets will improve by the time they are ready to start construction.
With construction starting in '11 or '12, its way too far out to worry how the credit markets will affect it. The housing market will revive, and we're already seeing that the current inventory won't last nearly that long.
They may get the land for $1, but don't forget this is a very complicated deal and it isn't a 100% market rate project. There will be significant mixed-income housing requirements, infrastructure work that I would guess exceeds the support the city is giving the project in public financing, requirements for locally owned small business participation which means they will pay a cost premium for construction, and significant costs trying to deal with all the other companies that control land on the site. I would bet that the developer isn't getting much of a steal on this one.
design is uninspired.. hopefully these renderings are just placeholders for something much better looking.
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