JBG's 13th and U Street Project Moving Forward--But Sans Hotel

JBG has launched big plans for a U Street hotel sometime around 2007 that have been percolating ever since.  But now that the hotel idea has been scrapped, plans to build an apartment building on the site have picked up speed and construction may begin as early as next summer.

The hotel idea was tossed around in early 2012. In its place at the corner of 13th and U streets will be a large residential building designed by David M. Schwarz Architects that will hold around 138 units and include ground floor retail. After many months of community meetings, JBG finally submitted a PUD to the Zoning Commission in September; earlier this week, the commission held an initial hearing action and deemed the project ready for a public meeting. That will probably occur in early March 2013.

It’s been a very long road that’s nowhere near done. A first round of meetings earlier in the year with the U Street Neighborhood Association, ANC 1B’s design committee, and the full ANC led to the developers making some substantial adjustments to the eight-story building: its height was lowered to 86 feet, the seventh and eighth floors were set back by 5-6 feet, and plans for a rooftop pool were eliminated in response to neighbors’ concerns about noise.

That was the plan delineated in the PUD. Once the basics of the building’s shape and contents were worked out, JBG representatives met with neighborhood groups again to discuss the project’s design elements. Those have also been fully approved by the community, and an initial hearing with the Historic Preservation Review Board is scheduled for next Thursday.

As for design, the project won’t need to incorporate any historic facades; the site is currently home to a bland, low-slung strip that holds a Rite-Aid and a Pizza Hut. “But we do need to design a building that’s in context with the historic neighborhood,” said Leary. The resulting design is a classical-style building that led one zoning commission member to remark on the building’s unusually ‘historicist’ look. That was intentional, explained JBG reps, who said that Schwarz has gone to great lengths to look at precedents in the neighborhood and incorporate them so that the building looks as though it's been there for years.


All of the units—a mix of one- and two-bedrooms—will most likely be rentals and will include 12 affordable units that fulfill the District’s inclusionary zoning requirement. At an average of 970 square feet, the units will be a bit bigger than those typically found in new high-rise buildings. “We’re serving a different market—more of a mature renter-by-choice who wants to stay in place,” said James Nozar, a development manager for JBG.

As far as retail goes, the company hasn’t decided on the exact balance yet. So the only element fully in place is the Rite-Aid, which will return to its corner spot after construction is finished.

Some of the meetings that occurred this year between JBG and the neighborhood were an effort to determine the project’s community benefits package. In the end, the PUD submission contained a general clause that JBG would contribute $600,000 for amenities like streetscape improvements, alternative transportation options such as Capital Bikeshare or Zipcars, establishment of a business improvement district, and school or recreation programs. Exactly how the funding will break down will become clearer once the zoning commission's public hearing occurs.

JBG reps say a mid-2013 groundbreaking is possible, but construction is more likely to begin in the third quarter of next year.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Pennsylvania Avenue Office Building Redesign

David M. Schwarz Architects announced today it has been hired to redesign portions of the prominent Pennsylvania Building at 1275 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, and will begin work this fall.  The '50's office building was redeveloped in the '80's by owner Willco Companies, which purchased the building in the late '60's for $6,600,000. The 286,000 s.f. building was modernized in 2007.

The Pennsylvania Building sits across from Freedom Plaza and the Wilson Building.  Construction will entail re-skinning the lower three floors of the exterior stone façade, redesigning the metal and glass office entry marquee, a new rooftop terrace overlooking Pennsylvania Avenue, and a redesigned office lobby.

Shwarz is also designing 2700 Woodley in Woodley Park, JBG's U Street hotel and the addition to Ceasar's Palace in Las Vegas.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

David M. Schwarz Architects announced today it has been hired to redesign portions of the prominent Pennsylvania Building at 1275 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, and will begin work this fall.  The '50's office building was redeveloped in the '80's by owner Willco Companies, which purchased the building in the late '60's for $6,600,000. The 286,000 s.f. building was modernized in 2007.

The Pennsylvania Building sits across from Freedom Plaza and the Wilson Building.  Construction will entail re-skinning the lower three floors of the exterior stone façade, redesigning the metal and glass office entry marquee, a new rooftop terrace overlooking Pennsylvania Avenue, and a redesigned office lobby. 

Shwarz is also designing 2700 Woodley in Woodley Park, JBG's U Street hotel and the addition to Ceasar's Palace in Las Vegas.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

JBG's Woodley Park Residential Tower Reborn as 2700 Woodley

Construction on The JBG Companies' long-planned residential tower in Woodley Park, just east of the Marriott Wardman Park, is well underway with excavation nearly complete, and the project - formerly known as Wardman West - has been rebranded as 2700 Woodley.
Upon completion (delivery is anticipated in Q1 2014), the upscale David M. Schwarz Architects-designed tower will offer 211 rental residences. Ongoing speculation has centered on whether the project would be condos or apartments, and it turns out that developers have decided to go the "premier apartment community" route, a savvy decision considering the almost complete absence of new high-end rentals in the immediate area. Matthew R. Blocher, Senior Vice President at JBG, said a full-scale marketing campaign will launch in the fall. (Possibly from New York-based SeventhArt?)

A new rendering acquired by DCMud (top) shows a building structurally similar to the Esocoff-designed concept depicted in the earlier renderings (below, right), but with a vastly different, and more attractive facade. Whereas the previous design verged on minimalistic (if not outright post-Soviet Eastern Bloc), the new facade is more texturally interesting, and much more in keeping with the character of the nearby hotel.

While the 2700 Woodley tower will likely be successful, the building also represents something of a defeat for JBG. After buying the nearby Wardman Park hotel and its 16-acre parcel for $300 million in 2005, JBG and partner CIM planned to convert the hotel into residences, in addition to building the new tower. Marriott objected, the project stalled, and then the recession hit. The project lay dormant for some years before resurfacing in seemingly unrelated litigation between JBG and Marriott over a new Marriott hotel at the Washington Convention Center. After a JBG-affiliated entity filed suit to block construction at the Convention Center, a Marriott countersuit claimed JBG's suit was a mere tactic to force them to renegotiate regarding the Wardman Park hotel. JBG denied this, and eventually all suits were dropped.

Regardless of what it was really all about, the Marriott Wardman Park, the city's largest hotel, and onetime home to three former U.S. presidents (I'll buy you a drink if you can name all three without looking on Wikipedia), continues to operate, even as construction kicks into high gear just to the west.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

A Candyland Vegas, Built inside the District

One way to remind the local real estate industry that your architecture firm is a DC-based business is to create a memorable community event, and then invite industry professionals to be an integral part of it. That's what David M. Schwarz Architects did five years ago. "We were having a conversation about something that we could do to remind the architectural community in DC that we're here," explained DMSAS' marketing director Katie Garrett. "We are a DC firm and have been the entirety of our 33 years." As the architects sat around a table in their firm on L Street, in Farragut North, in the late fall of 2006, an idea stuck - Gingertown, a master planned community constructed in the delicious coppery brown of gingerbread, festooned with the arc of candy cane streetlamps, the shimmer of foil-wrapped chocolates, and the flare of gum drops. 

Given the global nature of most of David M. Schwarz's work, there was a time period where "we weren't doing any work locally," said Garrett. "People were forgetting about us here in DC, especially among the younger architecture community... we wanted to remind them that we are here. This is our home, where we live and work. We wanted to make it something fun." Gingerbread lends itself to amateur architectural creations in kitchens around the world, why not get architects together to create on a miniature scale, and give the proceeds to charity. It worked, the event has been snowballing since its creation, and DMSAS has seen an uptick in work in the DC area. 

The first year of Gingertown brought in $300 for each charity. Last year, charities received around $700. And this year, seven DC-area charities will receive over $1000 each. The recipients are all, "DC institutions," said Garrett. "We wanted to support the organizations that support our community" - My Sister's Place, Children's National Medical Center, Martha's Table, So Others Might Eat, St. Elizabeth's, Washington Home, and the Wendt Center. With a master plan laid out by David M. Schwarz, anyone from the building industry - architects, engineers, construction firms, etc. - was invited to gather a team, claim a site (for free) and spend four hours one candy-coated night creating a gingerbread structure alongside numerous industry professionals. This year's theme is "Elf Vegas," and plots are strung along a miniature Las Vegas Strip, offering up sites with clever names such as, the M&M Grand, Hershey's Excali-bar, and The Marshmellagio. 

Due to a flood of interest this year, DMSAS just recently expanded the master plan to accommodate everyone, and there will be 45 sites. Teams, made up of 2 to 10 people each, will create an edible masterpiece using materials - over 250 pounds of gingerbread, 100 pounds of icing and 10 pounds of gumdrops - provided by David M. Schwarz, in the lobby of Washington Square on Connecticut Avenue on Monday, November 28th, at 6 p.m. The sweet-smelling event will be open to the hungry eyes of the public, and will remain on display in the Washington Square lobby from November 28th to December 2nd, before the town is broken up and individual buildings distributed to charities, along with the proceeds. Sponsors of the event, also participating in the building event, include Walter P. Moore, PageSoutherlandPage, Davis Construction, Perkins + Will, ZGF, ECS, Studio39, AIA Emerging Architects, and Frankie's Folio. 

Inspiration for the Elf Vegas theme of this year's Gingertown were two David M. Schwarz Architects' Las Vegas projects: a Strip-adjacent retail, dining and entertainment district for Caesar's Entertainment with Observation Wheel, which will be recreated in Gingertown, and opens in 2013, and the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, which includes Symphony Park, and opens in early March 2012. As for work locally, DMSAS is behind the design for the renovation of The Pennsylvania Building for Willco, a 250,000-s.f office at 1275 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, to be under construction next year. Schwarz is also responsible for the design of The JBG Companies' "Boutique Hotel" at 13th and U Streets.  

Washington D.C. real estate development news

13th Street Hotel: Signs of Life?

Though early plans, enthusiasm and controversy took off like a shot for 1310 U Street, plans for JBG Companies' Four-Star, U Street Hotel project fizzled with the economic downturn. Despite radio silence since 2009, the project is seeing early signs of resuscitation in the form of renewed design activity.

But surely a Goliath like JBG has access to the funding it needs, right? "JBG, like anyone else, had been affected by the downturn," said Matt Blocher, Senior Vice President of Marketing for JBG. Blocher did not confirm whether the project is now adequately capitalized, but that it's seeing signs of life is prima facie evidence that funding has arrived, and behind it, development.

Plans for the hotel are "actively in the design phase," said Blocher. Under the original plan, the hotel at the site of the Rite Aid on 13th at U Street was proposed as a ten-story LEED-Silver certified luxury hotel with 250 rooms, 23,000 s.f. of retail, and 4500 s.f. of conference space with an art gallery, spa and fitness center, restaurant and stacked parking. To appease community concerns, the planners trimmed it to nine stories when the building was called "a collossus" at an ANC meeting to suss out the plans. The Rite Aid that currently occupies the corner would be moved to the hotel's retail space. David M. Schwarz Architects was selected for the original design.

It will take awhile before the party starts: groundbreaking likely won't occur until the end of 2012. The scope of the project is what will account for the slow roll out, and the site will need to be rezoned, says Blocher.

JBG is also investing just a stone's throw from the proposed hotel, with the 125-unit 14th Street District Condo project for which initial demolition commenced this past January.

Washington, D.C. real estate development news

A Place in the Sun: The Orioles Dress for Success

By Beth Herman

Brooks Robinson, your table is waiting. Well, almost. If he had one, it would (no surprise) be located just behind third base, in a sparkling new climate-controlled pavilion lounge. In fact, right about now, and because it exists, we can all sit there.

Felicitously fronting Euclid and 12th Streets in sunny Sarasota, Fla., the newly redesigned Ed Smith Stadium propelled the Baltimore Orioles to a 12-6 win over Tampa Bay on Tuesday – opening day of the 2011 exhibition season. Designed by D.C.-based David M. Schwarz Architects and architect of record Sarasota-based Hoyt Architects, the 85,000 s.f. addition to a nondescript precast concrete existing building went up at breakneck speed, about 18 months from firm selection to opening day. With up to 150 Hunt Construction workers logging double shifts, and the team having signed a 30-year agreement with Sarasota County last spring, the opening of the spirited new stadium came not a moment too soon.

“The best thing you can say about the (old) stadium is that it was utilitarian,” said Michael Swartz, David M. Schwarz Architects principal and project manager. “Though it was sound, it looked like it was picked out of a catalogue. It was 7,500 seats and a place to play baseball.”

Expanding to 9,000 seats, Swartz said the best thing about the former stadium was that it was set back far enough from the edge that the architects had room to extend and engage the street, reusing the existing structure to preclude filling yet another landfill. LEED Silver- or Gold-bound and boasting sustainable features that include light colored paving and Cool Roof Council-approved cement tiles for sun and heat reflection, the stadium’s redesign embraces both the players and the fans in robust and equal measure. With a 21st century spin on the classic peanuts-and-Cracker Jacks stadium model, that features an air conditioned café, two-level concourse and triple the number of concession spaces, the Ed Smith Stadium also forges a new identity that reflects the dignity and architecture of the community that supports it.

“Sarasota basically has two architectural traditions,” Swartz said, affirming that both were incorporated into the project. The first, a Mediterranean or Spanish Revival style characterized by the region’s stucco buildings and gracious hotels of the 1920s, cues the stadium itself. The other, a 1950s modern approach referred to as the Sarasota School of Architecture, defines a renovated 20,000 s.f. Buck O’Neil minor league clubhouse a couple of miles south of the ballpark at Twin Lakes Park. An even more expansive project than the ballpark, Swartz said the clubhouse was long and low with no personality but now has a Sarasota Modern theme.

Of sweet spots and sun spots

With shade, or the lack of it, a popular caveat of the former stadium which critics in one publication called “depressing,” the architects embarked on an earnest series of sun studies in the redesign phase. The result is the use of lightweight, economical canvas to extend the existing roof, as well as “sympathetic” landscaping that involves the use of trees between the stadium and street to create and extend outdoor patio areas.

At the Orioles’ Camden Yards in Baltimore, a lack of connectivity to the game ensues when fans visit the concession stand or restrooms and have to follow the action on a monitor. In Sarasota, Swartz said because the stadium was an existing structure with the same issue it couldn’t be entirely eliminated, though an upper concourse was added off the top deck and seating bowl. Fans accordingly can avail themselves of another concession stand and restrooms without forfeiting the live experience.

In left field, a special picnic area Swartz called “the park in the park,” and which the Orioles reportedly were very keen on creating, became an instant success with fans on opening day. Two hundred feet long by 100 feet deep, the elevated space boasts terrace seating and palm trees along with a slightly different concession menu. “We went through a lot of different design iterations until we got it the way we wanted it,” Swartz recalled.

Of bullpens and baselines

Prior to the redesign, and not unlike other parks, bullpens at Ed Smith Stadium were behind the outfield wall. “This is spring training,” Swartz affirmed. “We wanted it to be a lot more interactive between the players and fans so we moved the bullpens to the baselines.” In this respect, fans have the continuous advantage of looking down into them, watching the warm-up, among other things.

All four practice fields – three full-sized baseball fields and a smaller diamond designated for end field drills – received upgrades that included new grass and infields, increased foul territory, new backstops and dugouts, ameliorated drainage issues, an improved batting tower and new fences in the outfield to prevent balls from traveling to the street: a community issue.

With left and right foul poles pulled in a few feet and the outfield wall lowered from eight to six feet, Swartz indicated it’s fun to facilitate more home runs in the Grapefruit League. “Spring training is really about being festive and inviting the community to watch baseball, but in a much more relaxed setting,” he explained.

At a price tag of $31.2 million, in addition to the stadium and the minor league clubhouse, a major league clubhouse gutting and renovation will commence on May 1. Sited next door to the stadium, the redesigned structure will boast a state-of-the-art weight training room, sauna, whirlpool and everything else to accommodate and/or rehabilitate injured players. “If someone sustains an injury in Baltimore during the season, more than they can accommodate at Camden Yards, they’ll send them down to Sarasota,” Swartz said.

Despite the fact that Ed Smith Stadium is not their first rodeo, with the firm designing such entities as Arlington, Texas’ Rangers Ballpark, Swartz said the firm doesn’t have a prototype. “We treat every project differently. We treat it as if it’s the first one we ever did. We really strive to find out what works for that particular team on that particular site in that particular community,” he affirmed, adding that with an eye to sustainability, Sarasota now has a facility they will probably never want to tear down.

Has anybody called Brooks Robinson?

JBG Adds More Office to Mega Rockville Development

If the JBG Companies keeps 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.

JBG to Build 4-Star Hotel on U Street

With their new plans for a residential project on 14th Street locked, the JBG Companies are moving ahead with their proposed "Destination Hotel" at 13th and U Streets, NW - currently the site of a Rite Aid outlet and, promisingly enough, directly across from the first shot fired in the war of U Street redevelopment, the Ellington.

Currently under design by David M. Schwarz Architects, the JBG-developed hotel looks to revitalize the Rite Aid site with a four-star, "boutique and independently managed" hotel that could include as many as 250 guestrooms, 4,500 square feet of conference space and a robust 23,000 square feet of retail. Though still in the planning stages, JBG has presented the Cardozo-Shaw Neighborhood Association (CSNA) with a tentative outline of their plans for the development, which include “a signature restaurant,” rooftop bar, swimming pool, full-service neighborhood gym, a publicly accessible arts component and requisite LEED Silver certification. Fancy accoutrements aside, JBG isn’t entirely forsaking the parcel’s past; the local Rite Aid will remain, albeit in an updated and reconfigured space. Gone, however, are tentative plans to add condos to the top floors.

JBG has yet to formally partner with a hotelier for the project – though the smart money’s on Marriott International, with whom they’ve partnered for a host of metro area co-developments. According to a statement from the CSNA, in the coming weeks JBG will “continue to participate and host community meetings with project neighbors, CSNA, ANC 1B, and other government officials, boards, and agencies, including the DC Historic Preservation Review Board and the DC Zoning Commission.” JBG will make good on that pledge, in conjunction with the CSNA, when they make the first public presentation regarding the hotel at 1835 14th Street, NW on Thursday, March 12 at 7 PM. Despite slowing their residential developmnet profile, JBG also just received HPRB approval just 3 blocks away at 1800 14th St., for a large residential building.