Today in Pictures - Jefferson at 14W

 

Back in December of 2010, Perseus Realty and Jefferson Apartment Groups (JAG), an Akridge affiliate, broke ground on 14W, replacing the former Anthony Bowen YMCA with apartments and a new YMCA.  The project had languished for years before finally getting the cash infusion from JAG that finally got it going (despite a faux-groundbreaking), and is now reaching its final stage of construction.

The HOK and Dorsky Hodgson & Partners-designed project will feature 231 rental apartments, a brand new, state-of-the-art 44,000 s.f. YMCA, and over 12,000 s.f. of ground-floor retail. The new gym and apartments will deliver later this year.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

NoMa's 'Three Constitution Square' Underway

Add another project to the list for the NoMa BID: breaking ground yesterday morning was

StonebridgeCarras' 345,000-s.f. office building "Three Constitution Square" with 13,000 s.f. of ground floor retail. Like the developer's previous Constitution Square ventures, the building is being built completely on spec, neither office or retail space has been leased, confirms Doug Firstenberg, a founding principal of Stonebridge. The 12-story building, designed by HOK, will be complete by summer of 2013 with delivery to tenants possible the following fall, said Firstenberg, adding a simple endorsement: "It'll be a great building." Three Constitution Square at 175 N St, NE, is part of Phase II in the overall Constitution Square development, bounded by N Street to the north, M Street to the south, First Street to the west, and the red-line metro track to the east. 

Three Constitution Square will be adjacent to the Department of Justice and the New York Avenue metro stop, and across the street from the ATF.  Completed in the first phase of Constitution Square: two office buildings with ground floor retail occupied by GSA and DOJ, a Hilton Garden Inn, and "Flats 130," a 440-unit apartment with ground floor Harris Teeter. The other half of the second phase, underway now, is an apartment-and-retail building, which broke ground this spring. The third and final phase, also an office-and-retail building, is yet to come. StonebridgeCarras built phase 1 entirely on spec, but leased the entirety to GSA before selling it off. 

Washington D.C. real estate development news

LCOR Making Progress at North Bethesda Center

The last beam has been placed on the 14-story, $131 million office building that will accommodate 1,300 General Services Administration employees who work for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The new home of NRC is one of at least eight buildings planned for LCOR's 32-acre development North Bethesda Center, named for its location.

In July of 2010, construction began on the NRC building, which will be ready for initial occupancy in May of 2012, and finished for good in September. The NCR building was designed by HOK, is being built under general contractor Turner, will be LEED Silver upon completion, and is located just east of the White Flint Metro.

When finished, as there is still plenty of work to do after "topping out," the NRC building will join LCOR's previously completed component of the North Bethesda Center, the Wentworth House, an 18-story, 312-unit apartment with a green-roof Harris Teeter which, when finished in 2008, became the first of its kind. Mike Smith, VP of LCOR, says the Harris Teeter is doing well, and feels that the grocery amenity is one reason why LCOR has a healthy retention rate of residents at Wentworth - along with quick Metro access.

The 32-acre LCOR development site, formerly a golf course, is located between downtown Bethesda and downtown Rockville; an area surrounding the White Flint Metro that has grabbed the attention of several developers in the last several years, including Federal Realty (Mid-Pike Plaza), and JBG (North Bethesda Market).

Maryland real estate development news

George Jetson Slept Here

By Beth Herman

Flying over Fairfax County's sprawling, futuristic McConnell Public Safety Transportation and Operations Center, or PSTOC (West Ox Rd. and Fairfax County Pkwy.), one might be tempted to look for a runway - and a lunar module or two in the shade.

Born largely of the cataclysmic events of 9/11 and designed to support the day-to-day emergency communications of a county that is one million residents strong, as well as facilitating operations in the event of another disaster (manmade or natural), the 144,785 s.f. McConnell PSTOC progressively houses the county's Department of Public Safety Communications (911 communications for police and fire), Office of Emergency Management, Virginia State Police Division 7 call takers and dispatchers, and Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). The four entities join strategies and spirit in a cutting-edge structure that might be described as equal parts urban fortress, Alvin Toffler and college fraternity.

"When the Pentagon (in Arlington County) was hit by terrorists, Fairfax County, where the CIA is located, responded like all the counties did,” said HOK Architects Senior Principal and Director of Justice Architecture James Kessler. “Thirty agencies looked in their packets and said, ‘OK, we go to the Pine Ridge Elementary School and that’s where our center of operations is.’” Once inside, the “center” consisted of a former cafeteria, a handful of telephones and limited number of chairs for dozens of officials to navigate the protracted crisis. "I think, like with many of the institutions around the country and the federal government, the idea of big disasters and responding to them had been overshadowed by more urgent priorities,” Kessler said, noting the shift in priorities after 9/11. “When they investigated the World Trade Center rescue efforts, they found that the (NYC) fire department couldn’t talk to the police, and ‘faulted communications’ was the term that kept coming up in reports,” he recalled. “McConnell PSTOC’s goal was for communications to be seamless.” With the Pine Ridge school inadequate at best, though not unlike other county emergency response facilities the architects eventually visited that all resembled big gymnasiums, the quest was on to design a state-of-the-art hub that brought together all manner of emergency response personnel under one roof. With dual goals of trumpeting leading technology in a multi-team driven setting, articulating the human side of emergency response – the individuals who would staff the center 24 hours a day – was also a design directive.

Those objectives withstanding, two separate facets in the design criteria stood out. The space would need to support a massive emergency communications center, as well as a command center for emergency response in the event of manmade disasters such as 9/11, the beltway sniper and other acts of aggression, or natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, snowstorms, seismic shifts and the like. Additionally, media needed to be accommodated, as did extensive training sessions for the dozens of agencies that would avail themselves of the space and technology, all without disrupting the intensive, round-the-clock choreography of the 911 call takers, department dispatch personnel, VDOT teams and others who would call McConnell PSTOC home.

In the first facet: the emergency communications center, architecture responded to need with a cross-type floorplan design that supports all four PSTOC entities – one in each wing of the cross, with a total of 96 consoles boasting five computer screens each to assist staff (the consoles and screens redolent of a NASA floor design - maybe better!). An oval-shaped raised platform where the cross intersects contains the combined supervisors’ table, facilitating critical, open and immediate communication among the four agencies in the event of another disaster. A 26 by 8-ft. cube wall with rear and front screen projection and LED screens facilitates a fluid visual data flow of freeway information from closed circuit cameras along routes 495 and 66. Various related aspects of the Obama inauguration were monitored and controlled from this room.

Do you hear what I hear

“One of the very important aspects of McConnell PSTOC’s design was acoustics,” Kessler explained, noting that headphones or not, everybody is on the phone at the same time in the same room. Integrating what he called “calming and modern materials” into the mix, high quality acoustic elements that included ultra sound absorbent fabric panels and carpet tiles were used. With a ceiling height of 32 feet and special equipment and personnel that would consequently be required to change light bulbs, Kessler’s team was charged with uplighting along the edge instead. Consequently lighting is along the perimeter and no one walks into the center (and climbs) for maintenance issues – a potential distraction to trauma-focused emergency responders.

Below perimeter rails, accommodation for additional video and digital elements will support emerging and evolving technology that will eventually supersede the center’s state-of-the-art Cat6 cable networking capability. Where the HVAC system is concerned, air comes from floor vents and may be adjusted separately by each of the cross’ four wings. In fact, some of the consoles are designed with ductwork directly from the floor so that much like a car’s interior, airflow can be individually controlled.

With long, intense stretches of work in the cards for many emergency workers, innovative consoles operate on hydraulic principles and can be raised to standing height for variation in the work environment. “Great care was taken about ergonomics,” Kessler said. “A lot of thought went into picking these consoles, whose screens are designed for peripheral vision.”

While eliciting optimal performance from each emergency employee through technology was a program priority, Kessler said the “human element” was a driving design force. “How can we keep their spirits up and imbue the space with positive energy for them?” he posited, citing “esprit de corps” as a key McConnell PSTOC ingredient. Among many things, the answer came in the form of clerestory glass and a north siting to eliminate glare. In this regard, blue sky and white clouds (weather permitting, of course) are not relegated to a 30-minute lunch break, visible at all times of the day to people whose work so often is defined by the darkest of events. A courtyard and terraced eating area, along with a fitness center and men’s and women’s staff locker rooms, promote sunlight and healthy lifestyles.

Rooms with a view

Though the county’s Office of Emergency Management is housed at McConnell PSTOC, the emergency management center – the other facet of McConnell PSTOC’s design – is only activated in the case of a disaster. With a dedicated space defined by appropriate tables, phones, more north-facing clerestory windows and another behemoth cube wall for fluid visual data flow from freeways, the emergency management center is surrounded by breakout rooms, conference rooms, joint operations rooms and the like. In quiet times, which are the norm, this center is utilized for training purposes. According to Kessler, as many as 30 different agencies (some from adjoining counties), including public health and public works departments, come to hone their disaster response skills, with interoperability with the building’s communications center possible. Citing fog and a potential 50-car pile-up as an example, Kessler said video from a police helicopter can be seen on this screen (as well as the other). “Everyone in both centers can see what’s going on and formulate strategies to deal with the specifics of an emergency.”

Where the building’s exterior is concerned, Kessler noted McConnell PSTOC has its own cell tower and maintained while resilience and security were certainly mandated, it needed to align with the neighborhood and not stand out like a bunker. In this respect the structure embraces a berm, and not unlike other secure facilities in and around D.C., bollards and walls are integrated into garden landscaping. Elements like a dramatic truss with a 90-foot span where it pulls away from the building, and skewed glass façade, emphasize the cantilevered entry and reflect the building’s kinetic character. “It’s a building of movement and action, so it looks like the whole lobby is kind of rotating out,” Kessler said, noting this is where tours assemble and the media comes in as well.

Because media coverage is as much a part of emergency and disaster protocol as anything else, in older facilities it is not uncommon for hordes of reporters to infiltrate a center just doing their job. In Fairfax, very close to the bollards, a pedestal wired for television and satellite trucks averts a potential security breach where running cables might otherwise force doors to remain open. Cameras already established inside a dedicated, glassed-in media area facilitate broadcast, and the area itself (on the second level) has a birds’ eye view of the emergency communications center below. When media isn’t there, the area is another training room, or used as a perch for tours that include emergency and disaster data-gathering delegations from different countries.

Redundant communications and mechanical systems and chillers anticipate equipment failures and isolation in the eventuality of a disaster, where the structure would be the axis of the community.

"McConnell PSTOC is a calm and modern high-tech element of public safety,” Kessler said of the $131.5 million project, which also includes a 44,000 s.f. attached forensics laboratory. “It’s one where not only the defensive qualities of what they’re doing are expressed, but the human qualities as well.”

photo credit: Lee B. Ewing

Akridge's Half Street Half Way There?

Since Washington Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA) did its best King Solomon impression, dividing its Southeast Bus Garage properties in half for two quarreling developers, only one recipient looks to be moving slowly forward with development plans, while the other has since gone bankrupt. While developers at Akridge reported making progress with their permitting, financing, and leasing efforts for their 700,000 s.f., mixed-use Half Street project, they insisted it would be a much more interesting news story come February or March, when more details emerge. But progress is progress, and news is news, and DCMud knows its readers are always salivating for every little morsel of information, no matter how small the crumbs.

So here's the latest scoop: Akridge is currently finalizing the construction plans, and expects to apply for permitting in the first quarter of next year. With a little bit of luck, the developers intend to break ground on the residential portion of the project by the end of next year. Although there is a distinct possibility the project ends up being constructed in phases, developers hope to build it all in one fell swoop, or at least in one drawn-out swoop, in which case a full delivery of all three buildings would happen roughly 22 to 24 months after initial construction. As developers, architects, and engineers lock in on the specifics of their construction plans, minor changes may be made, and details like number of units may be tinkered with, says Project Manager Adam Gooch, but nothing drastic.

The project's basic programming remains the same: two nine-story, Class A office buildings (totaling over 370,000 s.f.) and one 11-story residential building featuring approximately 280 units (outfitted with the standard amenities: rooftop pool and terrace, private courtyard, fitness center, etc). All three buildings will offer ground floor retail, totaling 75,000 s.f.. The retail spread will be multifaceted, each portion offering distinct sensibilities, and appealing to different demographics. Half Street will be the main attraction for passersby, featuring Class A retail and most likely to attract National's game-day traffic with "name brand tenants and white-table-cloth restaurants" says Gooch. The pedestrian alley in between the two office buildings will offer a more locals-friendly mix of cafes, delis, and boutiques. "It will be a glorified urban marketplace," explains Gooch, "In the vein of Eastern Market, a place where you can come home from work and grab a beer, grab some food, and pick up some flowers for your wife." Most hidden from foot-traffic will be the Van Street retail frontages, which will have a "grittier, more alley-like feel" due to the placement of curb cuts, loading docks, and trash pick ups. Here Half-Street residents might find a dry-cleaners, the local bike-shop, and maybe a sports bar.

Three firms combined forces on the design aspect of the project: HOK shouldered responsibility for the office buildings, Esocoff & Associates for the residential, and StreetSense for the retail. All three buildings will be LEED Certified, with the office buildings expected to earn LEED Platinum. While developers wait to activate the development site for construction purposes, Akridge plans to once again engage the public with their Bullpen Beer Garden during the 2011 baseball season. The 3,200 s.f. tented space will offer beer, wine, margaritas, and live entertainment to the public, and is also available for private events.

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News

14W Breaks Ground

Nearly two weeks ago, Perseus remained mum on the status of the much anticipated Anthony Bowen YMCA redevelopment project at the intersection of 14th and W Streets in northwest Washington, promising only that they'd be ready to reveal "something" shortly. But before Perseus could say anything, let alone something, Jefferson Apartment Groups (JAG), an Akridge affiliate, revealed they had purchased the project from a Perseus entity for $7.5 million, and would join Perseus as partnering developer (talk about awkward) on the project. The sudden announcement signaled that the project, thought by many to be strapped for cash and indefinitely stalled, was and is back on track. And now today, more than two years after a faux-groundbreaking, developers will once again put a shovel in the ground; this time they really, really, actually, totally, seriously swear to start demolition and new construction.

Apparently, equity financing from Rockpoint Group, L.L.C. and a $53 million construction loan from Wells Fargo Bank was just what the doctor ordered. Upon completion, the HOK and Dorsky Hodgson & Partners-designed project will feature 231 rental apartments, a brand new, state-of-the-art 44,000 s.f. YMCA, and over 10,000 s.f. of ground-floor retail. The new gym and first apartments will deliver in the summer of 2012, with the project opening in its entirety later in the fall.

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News

Stonebridge to Start Phase 2 in NoMa

Real estate developer StonebridgeCarras and financier Walton Street Capital are betting on NoMa again, announcing they will start the next speculative phase of Constitution Square in May. Stonebridge is just now completing Two Constitution Square, which it also built without a tenant, a bet that paid off big when it sold the property in May for $305m to Northwestern Mutual, and now Sarah Krouse reports in the Washington Business Journal that the Bethesda-based developer will attempt an encore with another speculative phase. Principal Doug Firstenberg tells DCMud that next May his company will break ground simultaneously on a 200-unit apartment building and 345,000 s.f. of office space and, rounding out a good week, that Harris Teeter will open at Constitution Square on December 8th and that Equinox founder and chef Todd Grey will now open a sit down restaurant in the newly completed phase 1.

Firstenberg, who pre-leased 100% of Phase 1 to GSA and DOJ before trading the building, said Phase 2 will be "targeted to go after some of these large GSA bids that are out there." Stonebridge will again use SK&I Architects to design the residential space and HOK Architecture for the commercial portion. The residences are expected to be available by late 2012, the office space should be ready for the first tenants in early 2013. The third and final phase of the 7-acre site, still in conception, will add 470,000 s.f of office space.

Firstenberg says the restaurant, to open in March along with the hotel, will be "NoMa's first upscale, sit down restaurant," good news for residents at the Flats 130 where 60 of 440 units have leased since its opening October 1st, and where significant retail leases have already been signed. Stonebridge is expected to flip the office building once lease-up is complete. "We're not long term owners in the project" said Firstenberg.

Washington DC real estate development news

Zen and the Art of Prison Design

by Beth Herman

In a toney Boston hotel bar officially and affectionately known as "The Clink," imbibers toast a promotion, an engagement or a vacation, but steps away the ghosts of storied inmates such as Malcolm X and Sacco and Vanzetti have far less to celebrate.

Located inside the city’s plush Liberty Hotel, The Clink, along with the rest of the property, was part of a $150 million acquisition, renovation and construction process that turned the pre-Civil War era Charles Street Jail into a 300-room luxury hotel, opening in 2007, and retaining some of the former correctional facility’s ambience such as the tiers which guards would patrol and a 90-foot central rotunda.

Prior to the Liberty Hotel venture, however, and about 130 years after the Charles Street Jail opened, a somewhat unprecedented inmate class-action suit had resulted in Federal Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr.’s findings that the facility, with amenities that included an “exercise” yard where inmates simply marched in a circle, did not meet “constitutional minima,” meaning it did not conform to the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. In 1980, Judge Garrity ordered a new jail built on the premises, and newly-minted Washington D.C.-based HOK architect James Kessler, now a senior principal, began an unwitting journey into justice design that to date has spanned 30 years.

Working in conjunction with Boston-based architects Stull and Lee Inc., Kessler recalled the design of a new Charles Street Jail was a situation that involved five parties: the mayor and city council, which had diametrically opposed agendas; the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; the Department of Corrections; the plaintiffs or inmates. “All five parties came to every design meeting,” Kessler said, adding there was little or no trust among the entities. In the end, the HOK/Stull and Lee, Inc.-envisioned project was never built, with the Commonwealth taking over responsibility from the city and building another design at a different site. “It was very unusual. I’ve never had a situation like that since,” he reflected, calling it a great learning experience and most “formative” for him as a young architect, especially in the realm of prison design. “There’s the architect, the technical side, the operational side – all complex and important – all key to its success – but they exist in a world of politics and larger priorities…,” Kessler said.

2010: A Video Odyssey

Increasingly, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, with issues such as sustainability and skyrocketing operating costs at the forefront of holistic justice design, Kessler and HOK colleagues, credited nationally for prison reform of the design kind, and who count among their more regional achievements the Montgomery County Correctional Facility near Clarksburg, Md., Prince William-Manassas Regional Adult Detention Center and Virginia’s Fluvanna Women’s Correctional Center, look for ways to expedite and streamline operational components such as inmate/visitor communications. Because a correctional facility operates 24/7, 365 days a year, much like a hospital, and with 90 percent of the budget spent on operations and 75 percent of that on staffing alone, concepts such as inmate video conferencing with visitors are swiftly replacing conventional face-to-face visitation and resulting in lower operating costs.

In the past, according to Kessler, when someone came to visit an inmate, movement of the inmate through the secure facility was exceptionally time consuming and staff-intensive. In more modern facilities like Prince William-Manassas detention center, visitors entering the facility interact with inmates via video, precluding the need for the latter’s procession through the building and prolonged staff involvement. In the event of an attorney, psychologist or social worker visit where privacy is paramount, the professional can go to an isolated booth also equipped with video capabilities. “Maybe you lose a little something,” Kessler conceded, referring to more personal interaction, “but we know information can be conveyed quite well with video: it’s not just a phone call.”

1785: A View to a Kill (or not)

From earliest times and by popular literary example in Dickensian times, when prisons were essentially dungeons with populations randomly consisting of men, women and children thrown together to fend for themselves with no supervision, little thought was given to matters of crowd control. In 1785, Age of Reason English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham had famously conceptualized the Panopticon, a prison concept that went through 40 years of machinations but which, mostly for political reasons, was never built. Largely by virtue of its circular design, the Panopticon would have allowed officials to consistently observe prisoners from key vantage points without their knowledge. In this regard, operating costs would decrease because fewer staff would be required to be on duty as inmates would never be sure who, how many, or if anyone at all was watching (but they’d surmise it was better not to take a chance). Subsequent prisons throughout the world have reportedly been based on the Panopticon principle, which espouses the theory that “observation is control.”

According to Kessler, in prison life observation clearly is control, something he recalls an HOK colleague, formerly with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, explaining to him at an evolutionary time in his own career. Widely self-educated in prison history and inmate psychology (he calls upon experts such as cultural anthropologist Anita Wilson, an expert in prison subcultures), the confluence of both is integral to creating modern facilities that address the needs of changing prison populations that include men, women, juveniles, the mentally and physically challenged, violent criminals and an elderly component.

1998: You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby

Incarcerated women, for example, are more likely to change, or want to change, Kessler said, noting “an incredibly high percentage – more than 50 percent – have been abused as children.” Statistically they also have more health issues than men, and 75 percent are mothers with the added burden of being away from their children, exacerbated by having been abandoned by their own parents in similar situations. “They are in that cycle,” Kessler affirmed, adding that they characteristically suffer from low self-esteem, which essentially indentures them to men, and are also generally the sole support of their families (often parents as well as children). When they serve time, in an interesting twist, they are relieved of all of those constraints and responsibilities with time to spend on their own health and development, so they adjust much better to prison life.

In the past, and sometimes at present, Kessler said parity issues arise vis-à-vis men’s prisons, with fewer opportunities and programs available to women who comprise a much smaller percentage of the prison population. When he and his team embarked on a $38 million design of Virginia’s Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women, which opened in 1998, included in its context were a large medical facility, a computer center where inmates do actual data processing and receive money for their families and an area where they can learn to repair motors and small appliances. In correctional facilities such as Shakopee (Minn.) Women’s Prison,

also an HOK project, in-cell trundle beds exist so children can occasionally spend the night with their mothers to preserve or deepen the parenting bond.

One of the goals during incarceration, Kessler explained, is to ameliorate the anger that defines inmates. According to Kessler, because research has determined women have a much greater need for privacy than men, requiring them to live in open dormitories would very possibly build on that anger rather than helping to relieve it. At Fluvanna, though the initial concept identified 50-person dormitories, Kessler fought to build double cells, though tethered to a dormitory budget which was much less. “We arranged a design where we used four day rooms (surrounded by double cells) and made a very simple, inexpensive cross-shaped housing unit,” he said. Cells were “dry,” with toilets located in common bathrooms, which is better by sustainable standards. With a toilet in each cell, according to Kessler, by code 100 percent of the air must be expelled, and with it the heating and cooling. Without in-cell plumbing, air can be re-circulated out into dayrooms with savings on ductwork.

2003: Field of Dreams

Near Clarksburg, Maryland, the creation of the modern 900-bed (notably expandable to 1,100) Montgomery County Correctional Facility, opened in 2003 with an emphasis on sustainability, presented design challenges that included addressing environmental issues inherent in its rural 300-acre site while providing what officials called a humane environment for inmates. Located at the headwaters of Ten Mile Creek, a registered trout stream, Kessler and his team tipped the site so all the runoff was collected in one area and allowed to cool before it was discharged into the stream. Constructed on the site of a sludge entrenchment area, sludge was tested and found to have aged to the point of zero-toxicity; it was retrieved and stockpiled for organic topsoil.

Inside the facility, which utilizes recycled rubber flooring in parts, low-VOC paint and sealants, a day room made of sustainable oak and 30 small pulse boilers instead of one large boiler for hot water conservation, tiers of glass allow natural light to permeate the space from an outdoor recreation yard. Each cell has a window, something Kessler’s research and experience reveals is critical to an inmate’s emotional well-being and resulting behavior, which consequently affects the need for special staffing measures that can translate into dollars. Double cells do contain toilets, which Kessler said “…is a very important administrative tool: It means they can lock them in their cells.” Direct supervision, a modern metamorphosis of “observation is control,” means the guard is situated at a desk right in the middle of things. “It’s not based on physical force,” Kessler explained. “It’s based on authority and psychological authority. It’s based on mutual respect, and that’s from where the authority derives.”

Kessler summarized his work in justice design by affirming that the first priority is to make the facility as efficient as possible, because that’s where the “big dollars” are. He maintains this is balanced with keeping it safe and secure, keeping the staff safe, keeping inmates, visitors and the community safe. “As architects,” Kessler said, “we have social responsibilities and certain sensitivities, perceptions and skills to deal with unusual situations for the people that work in them, the people that visit them and for the people that are in them, because they are still human.”

Breaking Ground, Nuclear-style

Today marks the groundbreaking for the new U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) building at North Bethesda Center/White Flint Metro. Approximately 1,500 NRC employees will occupy the new 14-story building, across from the NRC campus, which has been designed by HOK to meet LEED Silver certification.

About a year ago, LCOR, in a partnership with USAA Real Estate Co., won out over several competitors for the opportunity to build the project for the General Services Administration and in October signed a lease that will make the new building home to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for at least 15 years.

The new government building will join LCOR's residential project, Wentworth House, which delivered in 2008. That project brought 312 units and a brand new Harris Teeter to North Bethesda, on a 32-acre site approximately halfway between downtown Bethesda and downtown Rockville. In total, LCOR's project are to bring eight highrise buildings to the area, encompassing eight city blocks (when subdivided), and will include 1,274 apartments at its completion, but little has happened on the site, which remains nearly in the state as it was when it served as a golf course.

The $131 million development is expected to take 27 months and building completion is expected in August 2012.

North Bethesda real estate development news

North Bethesda's Latest Project to Break Ground

North Bethesda better brush up on its knowledge of protons and neutrons because there will be a lot of particles moving around when construction starts this summer on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission building. On Monday, developer LCOR received a final approval from the Montgomery County Planning Board to build a new 362,000 s.f. office building at North Bethesda Center Metro, a.k.a. White Flint, a.k.a Rockville. About a year ago, LCOR, in a partnership with USAA Real Estate Co., won out over several competitors for the opportunity to build the project for the General Services Administration and in October signed a lease that will make the new building home to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for at least 15 years. According to Mike Smith, VP of LCOR, the project should begin construction in mid to late May; a formal groundbreaking will take place May 17th.

Approximately 1,300 NRC employees will occupy the new 14-story building, across from the NRC campus, which has been designed by HOK to meet LEED Silver certification. The new government building will join LCOR's residential project, Wentworth House, which delivered in 2008. That project brought 312 units and a brand new Harris Teeter to North Bethesda, on a 32-acre site approximately halfway between downtown Bethesda and downtown Rockville. In total, LCOR's project are to bring eight highrise buildings to the area, encompassing eight city blocks (when subdivided), and will include 1,274 multifamily housing units at its completion, but little has happened on the site, which remains nearly in the state as it was when it served as a golf course.

Smith was hesitant to predict the future of any of the other buildings, saying "we are waiting for market conditions to improve" before beginning work on the "next residential or another commercial project." The developer has not filed any plans with Montgomery-National Capital Park and Planning Commission for additional developments on the site.

CB Richard Ellis and Transwestern represented the LCOR-USAA joint venture (officially North Bethesda Center Office One, LLC) in the lease transaction, commercial real estate tenant rep firm Studley represented the GSA. Turner Construction will serve as general contract.

North Bethesda real estate development news

NoMa's Constitution Square is Green, and Now Gold

Constitution Square, NoMa's largest mixed-use project, received a Gold ranking today from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The project was awarded an enviable Gold ranking in the LEED ND category for sustainable neighborhood development.

But don't think of waterless toilets and recycled material; the "ND" standard is a fuzzier version of the older sustainability rankings. Rather than rate only the physical building, which can only be evaluated after construction completes sometime this summer, ND instead ranks the overall sustainability of the development with respect to potential impact on the surroundings. Factors that go into the certification include street width and building height, with an emphasis on mixing uses that allow more integrated living. According to the USGBC website, the system "integrates the principles of smart growth, urbanism, and green building" into one rating. Alicia Call at HOK Architecture adds that the ND ranking "its a little bit more stringent than the other rating systems...but with a focus on community development." In short, the ranking is an endorsement of Metro-oriented, mixed-use, sustainable construction.

Liz Price, President of the NoMa BID, says Constitution Square is one of the first ND-approved projects in the country, having been part of a pilot program to factor location and neighborhoods into green techniques and to "look beyond the footprint of the building." Price says the BID and DC's Office of Planning promoted NoMa to the USGBC as a candidate for the pilot, and that Constitution Square was the obvious choice within NoMa, being the largest development in the neighborhood and one DC more ambitious projects.

The project broke ground in April of 2008, a joint venture between Bethesda-based StonebridgeCarras and Walton Street Capital, which acquired the land in early 2006. The development will include a 206-room Hilton hotel, 440 apartments, and 340,000 s.f. of office space in 5 buildings, including a new Harris Teeter. SK&I Architects designed the residential space, which will begin renting this summer and will deliver by August, according to Doug Firstenberg, a Principal with StonebridgeCarras. Office tenants will begin taking delivery next month. Planners hope the buildings themselves will also qualify for LEED Gold certification, with the outside chance of a Platinum ranking. The office space in Phase I is 100% leased, with only about 4000 s.f. retail space remaining up for grabs.

Bethesda-based Clark Construction is performing construction.

Washington DC real estate development news

14th Street YMCA: Short on the Dough

Despite the mini-boom taking hold on the 14th Street corridor - View 14, Room & Board, JBG's large condo project, and a surfeit of new retail - not all projects are having an easy time of digging up money. In addition to UDR's iced over plans up the hill for the Nehemiah Center, the latest financing casualty is the redevelopment of the Anthony Bowen YMCA into a large apartment building. The planned mixed use development at 14th and W Streets has not disturbed any earth since the project "broke ground" in September 2008, nor does it look like it will make any progress soon. The 231-unit project was planned by Perseus Realty LLC in conjunction with Capmark Investments LP and the minority owned DC-based FLGA Real Estate Group. In 2008, the team optimistically estimated a 2010 finish date; now an optimistic view would be a 2010 start date.

Brian DeBose, spokesperson for Councilmember Jim Graham, whose ward the project sits in, told DCMud, "The project is stalled. There is no financing and there has not been a breakthrough." In short, DeBose surmised, "Nothing is going on."

DeBose added that the District does not have the money to provide a TIF or any seed money to help bolster the stalled development, even if the will was there. To be fair, the District has already done its share during more flush times, including the District Council's 2008 decision to grant a hefty 20 years of tax abatement and $1 million in forgone sales taxes on construction materials for the project's development.

Clark Construction is the general contractor, if it comes to that, for the planned 236,000-s.f. apartment building with 18 affordable units. The project is also supposed to include a new 46,000-s.f. YMCA and 12,200 s.f. of retail space. Designs for the project are by Davis Carter Scott and HOK. The Anthony Bowen YMCA was named for a Prince George’s County slave who relocated to Washington after purchasing his freedom. Bowen went on to co-found the nation’s first African-American YMCA in 1853. Developers for the project were either unwilling to comment or did not return phone calls requesting additional information.

Washington, DC real estate and development news