DC Breaks Ground on Southeast Waterfront Park

A cadre of District officials, including Mayor Adrian Fenty, were on hand today to start work on Diamond Teague Park, an $8 million waterfront esplanade in the shadow of Nationals Park at First Street and Potomac Avenue, SE, Washington DC.

Construction has already begun on the park’s duel waterfront piers that, once completed, will offer waterfront taxi service and other commercial boating services to service the baseball stadium. A separate, 200-foot "environmental pier" will also host space for school groups and personal watercraft, such as kayaks and canoes. The piers are expected to be completed by the Nationals’ Opening Day on April 13^th; District officials anticipate work on the rest of the park, including a mural by artist Byron Peck and memorial to the Park’s namesake, Diamond Teague, to be completed by July. The Landscape Architecture Bureau-designed project is intended to serve as the linchpin between the ballpark and a projected 20-mile network of trails that wind through the redevelopment areas of both the Southeast and Southwest waterfronts.

The prominently located park is named in tribute to Diamond Teague, a Southeast teen who was gunned down by unknown assailants in 2003. Teague was once a member of local volunteer organization the Earth Conservation Corps – headquartered in the neighboring Capitol Pumphouse – which works to purifying and preserve the Anacostia River

“Diamond Teague committed his life to restoring, protecting and preserving the Anacostia River,” said Fenty. “This park will be a fitting tribute to his legacy and it will mark our commitment as a city to carry on his work.”

According to the Mayor’s office, funds for the project are being “covered through dedicated revenue streams tied to a number of adjacent economic development projects that surround the park.” The JBG Companies previously contributed $1.5 million toward the project; this past October, the developers behind the neighboring Riverfront on the Anacostia development, Florida Rock Properties, made an $800,000 contribution in Teague’s honor.

Washington DC commercial property news

DC Lauds SE Development

Mayor Adrian Fenty, Washington Nationals President Stan Kasten and various District officials gathered at today Nationals Stadium for a press conference with a two-fold purpose. First, to pat themselves on the back for the redevelopment initiatives currently underway in Southeast, and second, to ensure the public that those projects are still very much on track, even as the commercial real estate market remains perilously on edge.

"A lot has happened in just over a year since the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation was dissolved into the rest of the government," said Fenty. "I think, from my perch, that there's probably even more decision-making, fast action and decisiveness by having the Council and Executive Branch in charge - with no fault going down on the input of the community and making sure we follow the original plan."

Fenty also gave a brief rundown of the $8 billion worth of development, infrastructure and community projects targeted at reinvigorating the city’s waterfront: Poplar Point ($2.5 billion), the Southwest Waterfront ($198 million in TIF/PILOT funds), Hill East ($1.4 billion), Park at the Yards ($42 million), Marvin Gaye Park ($7.7 million), Canal Park Development Corp.’s as-yet unnamed Ballpark District park ($13.1 million), the South Capitol streetcar line ($30 million), the 11^th Street Bridge project ($260 million), the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail System ($50 million), Diamond Teague Park ($16 million), the St. Elizabeths plan (as-of-yet unbudgeted) and various community initiatives such as the Green Summer Job Corps, an online water quality monitoring system, a new stormwater rate structure and the Anacostia 2032 plan – which seeks to make the polluted river “boatable, swimmable and fishable in 25 years.”

“I’ll tell you what’s going to happen along the Waterfront in the decades and years and months and days to come,” said George Hawkins, Director of the District Department of the Environment. “We will have a cleaner river. We will have a better environment…At the same time, we are going to bring almost unparalleled economic vitality and jobs to this city.”

With regards to the economy, Mayor Fenty presented an optimistic view of the impact the fiscal crisis is having on projects heading down the development pipeline. “The national economy, as everyone is aware, is having an extremely hard time. The District of Columbia is not immune from that, of course, but there is a certain degree of insulation and there’s a large degree of momentum, which is allowing a lot of projects…to continue to go forward,” said Fenty.

Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, Neil Albert, followed up Fenty’s remarks by characterizing developers with stakes in Southeast projects as “still very bullish,” despite a dearth of client interest in the commercial real estate market. “While some of the surrounding areas are having difficulty leasing space, they're still leasing space here in the District,” said Albert.

Interested citizens will have to chance to examine the marketplace for themselves this coming Saturday, November 15^th, as the District hosts a “Community Education Fair” at Nationals Park. Several District agencies, local developers, community groups, and local not-for-profit organizations will lead bus tours to the site of upcoming projects and panels on the Southeast redevelopment. For more information, visit the District’s website.

Diamond Teague Park Makes Headway in Southeast

Using plans approved by the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) in October of last year, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development's proposal for a new public park along the Anacostia River will finally go before the NCPC once again for permit approval on Thursday, September 4th. If all goes according to plan (cue maniacal laughter), Diamond Teague Park will be completed by fall 2009.

Located at the terminating intersection of First Street and Potomac Avenue SE, Teague Park looks to be the much needed community icing on the commercial cake that the mayor's office has baked - first with Nationals Park and soon to be followed by the Capitol Riverfront. The proposal stresses the importance of using the park to attract pedestrian foot traffic as it moves to and fro from the stadium with amenities that include a water taxi service, several public piers for watercraft, a thirty foot wide, floating boardwalk and a lead-by-example, eco-friendly garden space. All of this will occupy a third of an acre at a cost of $16 million.

Of course, what would a public works project in this day and age be without giving into green fever? The proposal calls for the park to be a “green oasis” and refers to the current condition of the Anacostia River as a set of “diverse environmental restoration challenges.” Buzzwords and understatements aside, those restoration challenges should provide an invaluable showcase for the Earth Conservation Corps (ECC), which is currently headquartered in the former Capitol Pumphouse that adjoins the park’s proposed location. With a staff comprised almost entirely of neighborhood youth, they plan on using the park as soapbox for community issues that dovetail with their environmental mandate – namely fighting the further pollution of the river and trash accumulation.

On the aesthetic side, the Landscape Architecture Bureau, the project’s lead designers, couldn’t have found a better setting to show off their oh-so-tasteful plans for the waterfront vista. Teague Park is to occupy the prime real estate next to the Riverwalk and, as such, will be in plain view from the ballpark’s upper deck and so-called “Grand Stairs.” From this vantage point, the intent is that Teague Park will serve as the centerpiece of the landscape - providing not only a splash of flora and fauna, but some much needed visual continuity between the Riverwalk and several soon-to-be restored DC Water and Sewer Authority buildings that straddle the site. The park is to be one of four currently outlined under the Capitol Riverfront BID.
Presumably, the ODMPED’s proposal faces little in the way of opposition (unless the Army Corps task force charged with investigating the site stumbles upon more of its own unexploded munitions...again), as it's faced with no competing proposals and relatively little criticism, given its community-oriented mandate and ties to the ECC. All that remains to be acquired before ground can be broken is the requisite National Parks Service permit, whose jurisdiction falls over the portions of river bottom encroached upon by the project.

Positive neighborhood developments aside, the name of the park should serve as a grim reminder of Anacostia’s prospects only a few years ago. The park is named in memory of 19 year-old Diamond Teague, a Southeast resident and ECC member himself, who was gunned down on his front porch by two unknown assailants in 2003. The investigation into his murder remains free of suspects and unsolved to this day. A memorial baring his likeness will be completed in time for the park’s grand opening.