DC's Best Water Views Opening Next Month

A Washington DC address - and a view of the water - are nearly oxymoronic desires.  At least until next month, when RiverPoint opens at the southern tip of Buzzard Point with 485 apartments and 70,000 s.f. of retail next month.  The southwestern promontory of DC was, not long ago, an industrial no-man's land, but real estate development has recently and rapidly shifted the landscape toward much trendier uses, including a strong retail presence on the waterfront.  The mixed use project by Akridge, Western Development, Orr Partners and Jefferson Development Group is close to  completion on what is very nearly the southern tip of southwest DC.  The conversion of the former Coast Guard headquarters was achieved by Antunovich Associates, the same firm that designed the conversion of the Watermark, the other Coast Guard headquarters building a block away, another office-to residential project by Douglas Development that delivered this summer.

In keeping with its location highlighting river views, RiverPoint features a rooftop pool with views that stretch well down the Potomac, and beyond the Frederic Douglass Memorial Bridge (still under construction).  Development of the land also completes one more section of the Anacostia River Trail, which will soon connect under the FDMB, making an easy walk or bike to the Navy Yard or Anacostia. 70,000 s.f. of retail will include restaurants by Greg Casten (of ProFish, Ivy City Smokehouse, Nick's Riverside Grill and Tony & Joe's), and by Spike Gjerde, a James Beard chef that until recently ran A Rake's Progress at the line hotel in Adams Morgan.  Architect Joe Antunovich noted the challenges of converting such a large building from "a very sturdy headquarters, but we were able to carve out atrium spaces to let light deep into the building that created more views of the water."  Antunovich called Buzzard Point "a sleeping giant, neglected for so long, and yet so close to so many things."  The firm had to remove the second floor to accommodate retail, noting the unhelpful 10 foot slab-to-slab floor plates required removal of a floor to allow for 20 foot ceiling heights in the retail.

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Buzzard Point's Turning Point

If there was a moment for Buzzard Point, the tip of DC where the Anacostia meets the Potomac, it might have been the opening of Audi Field, bringing tens of thousands of occasional fans to southwest DC's formerly industrial and empty midpoint.  But perhaps a more significant moment is the transition from parking lots and decrepit office buildings to actual neighborhood status, as long-planned real estate developments begin to fill with residents.  Three recent developments alone add more than a thousand residential units to the waterfront, with Peninsula 88's completion this summer adding 110 condos to Buzzard Point's southern tip, Akridge's Riverpoint residential project converting the former Coast Guard headquarters into 481 apartments and 60,000 s.f. of retail (coming soon), and, beginning delivery this week, the Watermark.

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The residential project by Douglas Development turned an "E" shaped 9-story office building - one of 2 buildings in the neighborhood that housed the U.S. Coast Guard - into 419 apartments, 15,000 s.f. of retail and some of the top water views in the city.  Amenities include views of the suddenly captivating Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, and the building even helps fulfill the dream of DC's bikers with a new stretch of the eventual Buzzard Point Trail, which will round Buzzard Point (avoiding Fort McNair) and connect with the Anacostia River Trail and the Wharf, which already connect well to the rest of DC and beyond.  Add to that a short walk to Nationals Park and even shorter walk to Audi Field, which will someday (sigh) host public sporting events, and you do, in fact, have a legit neighborhood to call home.

Project:  Watermark

Address:  1900 Half St., SW, Washington DC 

Developer:  Douglas Development and PTM Partners

Architect:  Antunovich Associates

Construction: Davis Construction

Use:  481 apartments, 15,600 s.f. of retail

Expected Completion:  Summer 2020

Washington, DC retail real estate and development news

DC's Newest Arches

Replacement of the 70 year old Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, aged well beyond its useful life, will improve a vital link across the Anacostia River when it completes late next year, but has already made its mark on Washington D.C.'s skyline.  Built in 1950 as the South Capitol Street Bridge and serving "upwards of 77,000 cars per day" (pre-pandemic), the utilitarian structure has few admirers, but the replacement is destined to be far more appreciated.  The concept took more than a decade to secure the $200m in federal funding, and is being lead by South Capitol Street Bridgebuilders, a joint venture of design and engineering lead by AECOM.  The project broke ground in February of 2018.  The project will not complete until late next year, but the dramatic arches will soon be fully connected.

The new bridge, at 1445 feet, will have 6 traffic lanes (one more than the current structure) and parallel arches reminiscent of sine waves that appear from the sides to bounce off the water.  An enhanced bicycle and pedestrian route connecting the Suitland Parkway Trail and Anacostia Metro Station to the Anacostia River Trail, will add what the Washington Area Bicyclist Association calls the "best bicycling bridge in the region." Four pedestrian overlooks - two on each side located at the nadir of each arch - will be suspended outside the bridge frame for unobstructed views. The project will also remake the interchanges at each end of the bridge, with traffic circles replacing the South Capitol Street interchange and the I-295 / Suitland Parkway interchange at the southern end.

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Project:  Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge

Architect:  AECOM lead a team as project manager, landscape architect, and engineer

Expected Completion:  Late 2021

Washington D.C. retail and real estate development news

DC's Massive Pipeline Project Being Rethought

Area watersheds.  Image: DC Water

Billions of dollars in spending set aside for a massive pipeline project to keep polluted DC water out of area waters could get delayed and re-channeled to more decentralized infrastructure like rain gardens, rainwater harvesting, trees and rain barrels - that is, if DC's independent water authority gets its way.

The sea change in the city's 20-year timeline for cleaning up area rivers will happen only if DC Water can renegotiate a 2005 federal decree to build the full tunnel system.  That consent decree from the Environmental Protection Agency emerged out of a lawsuit over DC's management of runoff in which several environmental groups were plaintiffs.

A decision on the future flow of the city's $4.6 billion Clean Rivers Project could come in the next week or so, a spokeswoman with the city's water authority, The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority, or DC Water, told DCMud this week.

"It might shift to a more green solution, or it might be a hybrid of the two: green and gray," DC Water spokeswoman Pamela Mooring told DCMud.  Green infrastructure, here, refers to infrastructure that absorbs or uses water before it enters the sewer system in the first place.  Gray solutions refer to engineering to deal with runoff after it happens - in this case, a massive tunnel infrastructure project to build underground storage tanks for overflow.

The water authority is making efforts to re-focus the Clean Rivers Project for an eight-year pilot "Low-Impact Development" program.  The proposal could emphasize infrastructure like rain barrels and rain gardens instead of pipes that have been the mainstay of water channelling.  DC Water says that approach - if it proves successful - could render two future pipelines, planned to keep run-off out of the Rock Creek and Potomac waters, obsolete, possibly saving millions of dollars.  It notes that other cities including Kansas City and St. Louis have already experimented with similar versions of green infrastructure.

Blue Plains Treatment Plant. Image: DC Water

DC Water says revising the plan could save rate-payers millions of dollars and slash $120 from the monthly water bill increases forecast by the end of the decade.

Old System, Old Problem

Regardless, consensus holds that the city must do something about its dirty water problem.  About one third of DC's water system was built in the 1800's, before pipe systems separated storm water, or run-off from non-permeable surfaces, from sewage.  That part of the system is called a combined sewer system (CSS), and when heavy rains like those from Hurricane Sandy hit the low-lying city, the CSS can't handle all the water and dumps it - along with sewage - into area watersheds, reducing water oxygen levels and killing wildlife at 53 documented places.

A portion of the pipeline system planned for the Anacostia River is already under construction.  In 2011, DC Water awarded a $330 million contract to a joint proposal from Traylor brothers-Skanska-JayDee (TSJD) to build the first part of the system.  The pipe, 23 feet in diameter, would be laid 100 feet underground and extend 12,500 feet from southwest DC, along the Potomac and under the Anacostia to about RFK Stadium.  Slated for completion in January, 2018, the massive system will hold dirty water from the CSS until it can be piped to the Blue Plains Treatment Plant for processing in dryer weather.  Of the scale of the project, DC Water General Manager George Hawkins called it "absolutely huge." "The machine our teams will use to build these tunnels is the size of a football field," and needs to be assembled underground.

Image: courtesy Mike Bolinder, @AnacostiaRrkper on Twitter

Riparian Repair - "Not a Zero Sum Game"

Although he supports a low-impact development approach, Anacostia Riverkeeper Mike Bolinder said it's an approach that he supports in combination with the full, planned tunnel system.  "In general I love the idea of green infrastructure, but there is a consent decree in place."

Bolinder said yearly sewage overflow into all three DC watersheds amounts to 2.5 billion gallons.

On the money question, Bolinder said the CSS under the city was built in the time of Abraham Lincoln, so it makes sense that replacing it will cost some money.  There is also the cost of maintaining and monitoring the efficacy of low-impact development.  "If they don't maintain rain gardens, they stop retaining stormwater," Bolinder said.  "Then we have the same system that we had beforehand, with a couple of rain gardens."

Washington D.C. real estate development news