Clear Sailing for Southwest Waterfront Development

The Congressional Budget Office weighed in just before the holidays with a strong endorsement of the proposed rezoning of the Southwest Waterfront, further bolstering H.R. 2297’s already favorable chances of passing into law when the Senate reconvenes next session.

If (when) passed, the bill would bring the District one step closer to a dramatic revitalization of the largely moribund Southwest waterfront, bringing it in line with the rapidly-developing Southeast waterfront, and creating what planners hope will eventually coalesce into a “second downtown.”

The bill, introduced by Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, has already passed the House and gone through Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee markup, and clarifies the vague and somewhat archaic restrictions governing the waterfront. The District has always technically owned the land, but was barred from selling it, which for all intents and purposes made commercial development impossible. The recent CBO report found that empowering development in the area would have no adverse effects on the federal government, thus clearing the way for the 2.5 million-square-foot blockbuster PN Hoffman-Madison Marquette hotel-office-retail-pedestrian mall project.

The Hoffman-Madison First Stage PUD, as reported on this site, breezed through its NCPC hearing back in October. Bob Rubenkonig, a Hoffman-Madison representative, said Hoffman-Madison is busily preparing for 2012 public meetings, with the Second Stage PUD forthcoming very soon - hopefully in February, according to Hoffman VP Shawn Seaman.

The $2 billion, 2.5 million-square-foot project, dubbed “The Wharf,” takes its cues from Baltimore and Seattle's waterfront promenades, and will feature around 1200 residential units, almost 400,000 s.f. of office space, and 200,000 s.f. of retail space. Over half the site will be public space, much of that a pedestrian-friendly, privately-held waterfront avenue, “Wharf Street,” which will replace Water Street, will feature walking lanes, bike paths, and a streetcar. Development plans also call for a four thousand seat theater, a maritime history museum, and three hotels – a four-star, 268-room hotel from Carr Hospitality and InterContinental Hotels Group, and two others from the JBG Companies.

Developers have also agreed to a community benefits package that will set aside 30 percent of the first 500 units of housing - half earmarked for households making less than 60% AMI, and half earmarked for households making less than 30% AMI. Beyond the 500-unit mark, 20% will be reserved for "workforce housing," i.e. police, firefighters, teachers making 80 - 100% AMI. This unusual formula is the result of the Southwest Waterfront Redevelopment Clarification Act of 2010, which exempts a portion of the development from the District's affordable housing requirements. Furthermore, a quarter of the retail space will go to local businesses, and a third of everything sold in the retail spaces will come from local merchants. Design is being spearheaded by Ehrenkrantz, Eckstut & Kuhn Architects, while construction is being handled by PN Hoffman and Clark Construction.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Art Place at Fort Totten

Coming off its recent zoning approval, the Art Place and Shops at Fort Totten development is now being readied for the initial stages of planning and demolition, in what will be a 2 million s.f. transit-oriented project with a mixture of community-serving retail, residential and arts and cultural space to the area between South Dakota Avenue and the Fort Totten Metro. The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation are seeking bids to work on the nearly 17 acres of land in northeast DC's Fort Totten community. The project will be executed in several stages with one massive building in the first phase and the rest to follow. Developers expect to begin construction in the first half of 2010 and have the first building ready within 24 to 36 months from now.

Initial schematic designs call for the demolition of the Riggs Family Apartments and three warehouses currently on the site. The demolition will make room for the construction of four buildings comprised of 929 multi-family one- to three-bedroom units; 305,000 square feet of retail space; 170,000 square feet of cultural and arts spaces; and a 47,000-square-foot children's museum. Ehrenkrantz Eckstut and Kuhn (EE&K) is the master planner for the site, Shalom Baranes Architects (SBA) has designed the first of the four buildings, and MV+A Architects is designing the retail, all to meet basic LEED certification standards.

The first phase of construction will begin with Building A at South Dakota and Galloway Street, which will be joined below grade by a common foundation and parking garage, but above grade will appear as 3 distinct, adjoining buildings. The residential portion of this phase will offer 529 units including 98 units of senior housing and 43 affordable units out of a project total of 161 units set aside as affordable at 60 to 80% AMI. The retail space includes approximately 59,000 s.f. for a grocery store with supporting retail lining the street as residents walk to the metro. Cafritz Foundation Board Member Jane Cafritz speculated this retail could include stores like card shops, dry cleaners and restaurants, and is shopping around for a grocery store to anchor the first stage of development.

Though buildings B, C and D received approval, Cafritz said their exact designs are still up in the air and dependent on market conditions around the time of construction. In the PUD zoning approval, Building B is planned for three stories of retail and cultural use to include the 47,000-s.f. ground floor children's museum, ground and second floor retail and space for a child care facility and seniors' center.

The planned seven-story "cultural and arts spaces" in Building D would potentially serve both the Washington National Opera and the Shakespeare Theatre for storage, rehearsal space and related shops. The developers also offer to provide upwards of 20,000 s.f. in this building for a public library and an additional 30,000 s.f. of "community space;" giving away space like free samples at Costco.

The eight-story Building C is planned as entirely residential, built in two C-shaped wings, joined at the second level, to accommodate the possibility of a new 3rd Street connecting the Arts Place property to the neighboring Food and Friends property, should the neighbors decide to sell or redevelop at a later date. Of the 400 rental units, 30 may be set aside as affordable for artists- everyone loves the arts these days.

All this development does not come without growing pains. Several current community members living in the Riggs Family Apartments were outspoken during the PUD review process. They will be displaced from their current home and moved into temporary housing on the same site until the new affordable spaces in the Arts Place project are ready. One senior from the community and a resident of the Cafritz apartments testified in objection to the handling of the current residents, saying that residents had not been told where they were going or when.

Despite community complaints, Jane Cafritz tried to paint a rosier picture, adding that that temporary homes for the tenants are fully refurbished with new appliances and the developers will try to accommodate seniors with first floor units. Highlighting the benefits of the new project though, Cafritz said the foundation will pay the gap between the rates on the affordable units and the actual cost of a market rate units, absorbing that cost for "20 years or the life of the tenant," whichever comes first. The former Riggs tenants will have first dibs on the new affordable residences at Arts Place and Shops.

Building A images courtesy of Interface Multimedia.

Washington DC Real Estate News.

Ten Years On, GW Puts Finishing Touches on Palisades Campus

When George Washington University (GW) acquired the Mount Vernon College for Women in Northwest’s Palisades neighborhood in 1999, they had planned for an extensive build-out of the 134-year-old former seminary that would include 320,000 square feet of new academic and dormitory buildings.

A decade later, GW's satellite campus is co-ed for the first time in its history, but has achieved less than half of the approved additions once intended for the 26-acre campus. Now, with the tenth anniversary of Mount Vernon's incorporation into the University approaching, GW officials have teamed with EE & K Architects to realize the remaining 167,000 square feet of new development for the college at Foxhall Road and Whitehaven Parkway, NW.


The development team – which also includes EDAW, AECOM and VIKA Capitol, LLC – has been holding monthly community meetings to outline their plans for a 2010 Mount Vernon Campus Plan. At present, there are three differently oriented project plans on the table - all of which, however, would achieve the same result: four new academic buildings, ranging from 25,000 to 45,000 square feet; a new 50,000 square foot, 100-bed residential complex; and, lastly, a new three-story gym/sports and recreation center. According to University reps, the idea is to concentrate the new development towards the center of the campus, thereby giving it the bucolic college green feel so rarely afforded to urban universities, and behind Mount Vernon’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it front gate on Whitehaven Parkway.

In order to make way for this slew of new building projects, some of the institution’s 70s-era academic and residential will be razed, in order to free up campus space. Mount Vernon’s Cole Residence Hall, Gatehouse Building, the Webb and Acheson academic buildings, along with a portion of the Ames academic building, are slated for demolition once a final plan is put together.
Upcoming meetings will adhere to a strict outline of community concerns regarding the project. On July 9th, the development team will present their findings on noise, lighting and population counts, to be followed on August 13th by a presentation on landscaping, storm water management and the green building techniques to be employed in the new facilities. The final scheduled meeting is to be held on September 10th, whereupon a final development scheme will be presented to locals and students alike. All meetings are held at 7:30 pm in the Mount Vernon Campus’ Webb Building.

Washington DC real estate development news

EE&K Tapped for Three District Projects

Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects have been awarded three multimillion dollar contracts in the District of Columbia, according to a statement released by the architectural firm. The first entails designs for a new gateway to the city’s “monumental core,” while the remaining two involve the creation of a master plan for Northwest’s Mount Vernon Square neighborhood and the modernization of Glover Park’s Benjamin Stoddert Elementary, respectively.

The first project reaffirms the city’s intent to install a definitive entrance to Washington’s tourist attractions. According to the press release issued by the firm, “[t]he study will be focused on North Capitol Street from Michigan Avenue to Hawaii Avenue, NE, and Irving Street/Michigan Avenue from First Street NW. The gateway would bring a sense of place to the adjacent neighborhoods and improved balance between the pedestrian focus of those neighborhoods and vehicular traffic flow and provide the initial design ideas for replacing an unsightly highway-style interchange with a more pedestrian-oriented design.” There’s no word, however, on when the first conceptual designs might begin to surface.

Meanwhile, in cooperation with the District’s Office of Planning and Department of Transportation, EE&K will be implementing infrastructural flourishes throughout the Mount Vernon Square with the hope of artfully integrating the borders between the Square, the recently opened Convention Center, and the historic Shaw neighborhood. EE&K has previously worked in a similar capacity with both the District’s Hill East neighborhood and Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

For their third and final District-sponsored project of the New Year, EE&K has been paired with Setty & Associates and KLTH Engineers to "modernize and expand" Ward 3’s 77-year-old Benjamin Stoddert Elementary School. The long overcrowded school will receive a new gym, cafeteria and media center under the guidance of the development team, while the school’s 6.5 acre plot has also been earmarked as the site of a new “intergenerational community center” by the Department of Parks and Recreation. EE&K principal Sean O’Donnell will be overseeing the school renovation and has assured the community that the firm has a wealth of experience when it comes to “[creating] sustainable 21st century schools that are the center of their communities.” EE&K has previously supplied designs for other local educational institutions, such as the School without Walls and Washington University’s Foggy Bottom campus.

Community Center-Library Combo Coming to Deanwood

Mayor Fenty was joined by representatives from the DC City Council, DC Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) and DC Public Libraries (DCPL) this week to break ground on the new Deanwood Community Center and Library. After issuing a RFP back in October, the Banneker Ventures-led development team selected Forney Enterprises, Inc. to serve as general contractor on the project. The double duty community center is being designed by Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects.

The $33 million project will stand on the same parcel as its dilapidated predecessor, at 49^th and Quarles Streets, NE. The new 63,000 square foot DCC, however, promises to be anything but ramshackle with planned amenities that include an indoor swimming pool, gym, game room, daycare center and fully stocked library – the latter being a product of a collocation agreement reached between DPR and DCPL. “[This]…represents an innovative approach to design that urban areas across the country are employing in order to provide residents a variety of services in restricted public space,” said DPR Director Clark E. Ray. The new LEED-certified DCC plans to open its doors in the summer of 2010.

RFP Issued for Deanwood Rec Center

Hot on the heels of last week’s Strand Theater announcement, Northeast’s Deanwood neighborhood is now in line to receive a new $20 million, 63,000 square foot community center. Banneker Ventures LLC (also the developer behind the Strand revitalization initiative), Reagan Associates LLC, DC Housing Enterprises and the Program Manager of the center’s current incarnation, have jointly issued a request for qualifications to builders that aims to have the new Deanwood Community Center (DCC) open and operational by May 2010. The project is the product of a partnership between the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (OMPED) and the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR).

Located at 49^th & Meade Streets NE, the new DCC will sport “an in-door leisure swimming pool," gymnasium, game rooms, full library, a child care center, and dedicated senior space, as well as swanky designs by Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects (EEK) and a projected LEED silver certification. Everything currently on the site – including the swimming pool, tennis courts and the existing building – will face demolition in the coming weeks.

Proposals are due to Banneker by 12 PM on Monday, October 20^th.

Fort Totten or Bust

Northeast’s Fort Totten will be almost unrecognizable (a good thing) by 2012 if a group of local developers are able to get their proposals off the ground. In presentations made at yesterday's DC Economic Partnership Annual Meeting and Development Showcase, developers brought forth not one, but two major development proposals for the intersection of South Dakota Avenue and Riggs Road NE. Together, they plan to bring more than million square feet of retail and nearly 2000 units of housing to the area - essentially the same model of high-density shops, apartments and arts space that Montgomery County planners used to such great effect in Silver Spring.

First on the block is Lowe Enterprises Real Estate Group and JackSophie Development’s Fort Totten Square. Plans for which have been bandied for the past 2 years, but according to Lowe's staff and publicity literature, the project is now on track for a 2010 completion. Designed by Hickock Cole Architects, their 9-acre parcel will feature 900,000 square feet of residential and retail space, complimented by 100,000 square feet of “grocer-anchored” retail. Residential units will arrive in the guise of The Dakotas – an 875 unit development that will also sport on-site parking.

In a concurrent phase of development is the Fort Totten Arts Place – a 20-acre redevelopment project being funded by the Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. Standing right next door to Fort Totten Square project – and on top of the neighborhood enclave that currently stands at 4^th and 5^th Streets NE – the EEK/MV+A-designed stretch of storefronts and apartment buildings will almost be a neighborhood in and of itself. For starters, the development will include 1220 residential units (220 reserved for seniors) and 147,000 square feet of retail. The latter will be reserving 9,000 square feet for a brand new Safeway supermarket, 82,000 square feet for neighborhood businesses and 6,000 square feet for a major banking branch.

You might be thinking, “Where is all the art at Arts Place?” The Washington National Opera might be a good place to start – they’ll be getting 75,500 square feet of rehearsal space, costume shops and production and administrative offices. The Shakespeare Theatre Company will also join them on the block will their own 75, 500 square foot space of administrative offices, costume and prop shops, and, yes, rehearsal space.

It’s also been seen to that the local community will get their fair share of benefits out of all redevelopment hoopla. There will be a new 27,000 square foot DC Public Library, 15,000 square feet of public performance and meeting space, a 20,000 square foot senior center, a 10,000 square foot daycare center, a gym, a health facility geared towards seniors, a cyber café, and a renovated and reconfigured plaza in Morris Square. Altruistic organization Food & Friends, which delivers meals to the terminally ill and is already located in Fort Totten, will also receive an expansion of its existing facility.

These twin packages of development should serve as a fine compliment to the joint Clark Realty – Washington Area Transit Authority apartment complex at the Metro station that completed Phase I of its’ $58 million, 3-building development earlier this year. If the Lowe and Cafritz projects make it out of the planning stages, we're going to be looking at very different Fort Totten in the future.

DC Signs Agreement with SW Developer

Deputy Mayor Neil Albert and PN Hoffman CEO Monty Hoffman today signed a noteworthy Land Disposition Agreement (LDA) enabling Hoffman- Struever Waterfront LLC, the developer selected last January, to move forward with plans to bring 2 million square feet of mixed-use development to the Southwest Waterfront.

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. Deputy Mayor Albert, via a press release issued by PN Hoffman, described the project as “a true public-private partnership.”

The same statement outlined the developer’s intentions to make the site a “world class mixed-use waterfront destination” with public parks, three hotels, a Maritime Center, commercial office space, retail outlets, and more than 700 housing units. Hoffman envisions the site as serving as the missing link between the Baseball District and "revitalized M Street corridor" and the National Mall. In all, the project will encompass 26 acres of land and another 25 of marina area.

Still, any construction at the site is years off. The LDA is essentially the developer's contract to purchase; the city will not be able to transfer the massive parcel to Hoffman-Struever until 2011, at the earliest. The City Council must still vote on the LDA, which will get its first vetting at hearings on October 6th before the Committee on Economic Development. The Mayor's office expects a vote on the subject by November. Ehrenkrantz, Eckstut & Kuhn was named the master architect in June of last year, officially making the team - officially comprised of PN Hoffman, Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, McCormack Baron Salazar, ER Bacon, Acresh, Gotham, City Partners and Triden - the most unpronouncable development team on the east coast.

China Brings Its Baggage to Porter Street

Cleveland Park residents may have noticed the new home development breaking ground on Porter Street, where construction is underway on Porter Street Residences, a 27-unit apartment building (pictured), to be completed in 2010, the only new residential project in the vicinity. Less observant residents might have missed, however, the uniformly Chinese work crew. The outsourcing is not a cost-cutting measure, however. Beginning in 2010, 2708 Porter Street NW will be home to the diplomatic staff residences of the Education Office of the People's Republic of China, a companion project to the recently completed $250 million, 345,500 square foot Chinese Embassy. The nature of the construction is only the first in a series of eyebrow-raising questions posed by goings-on at the site.

Designs for the 27-unit apartment building (12 two-bedroom units, 10 one-bedroom units and 5 studios) and 30-car underground parking garage were prepared by New York’s Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn, the firm that is currently designing the Southwest Waterfront, with construction overseen by China Construction America Inc., the American face of the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), the largest “conglomerate building enterprise” in the People’s Republic of China. Hence the dozens of Chinese workers in the Washington area to staff the project. Why bring workers so far for a paltry 27 units? One word: security. International politics being what they are, the seldom-neighborly Chinese government surmised that "American" workers (ahem) might pose a security risk, planting recording devices (or worse) for the benefit of those in the CIA, NSA or likewise acronymic agency. (Lest we forget the secret listening post constructed under the Soviet Embassy in 1970s that remained undiscovered until 2001, or the brand new Moscow embassy Uncle Sam abandoned in the 1980's after finding it infested with (electronic) bugs.)

This appears to be standard operating procedure for China Construction. The company has previously transported emigrant work crews to America for other projects throughout New York, California and Florida. The process also echoes their practices for construction of the Embassy itself, another instance in which they have sought to bar other non-Han crews’ from having any involvement on a work site – a move which prompted severe criticism from stateside union organizations such as Unite Here! and the AFL-CIO.

While the apartments themselves have drawn little flak from the surrounding community, the conditions afforded the Chinese construction crew have been the subject of scrutiny. Reports of the workers' long hours and confinement within a defunct, barbed-wire enclosed Days Inn on New York Avenue NE have been circulating since 2005, when the Embassy first began construction. According to one Chinese speaker who posted a report of an encounter with a Porter Street worker at Prince of Petworth, the workers are fearful of being seen talking to local residents and won’t be permitted to tour the city until their work is completed.

A press release issued by Holland & Knight, the law firm responsible for securing the building’s requisite zoning and land use permits, describes the Porter Street Residences as a “spacious living environment for the diplomats and staff and their families, as well the visiting delegations, scholars and officials.” Seeing as the record of the People's Republic is far from spotless on human and labor rights, it’s no surprise that the imported workers aren’t being afforded the same style of "living environment" as the one they are building. What is surprising, however, is the lack of mainstream media scrutiny regarding the subject. To date, no local television, newspaper or radio outlets have filed a single report on the development. Given the constant stream of activists calling for action outside of the Chinese Embassy, perhaps Porter Street will soon be seeing a few protests to call its own.