The Wharf's "Resort In the City" Anchor Hotel Appeases Critics, Inches Forward

The four-star Intercontinental luxury hotel in the Wharf - the Southwest waterfront megadevelopment - is inching towards reality, though not without some changes along the way.

"Right now we're in the process of gathering equity," says Austin Flajser, President of Carr Hospitality.  "We anticipate construction starting in the third quarter of 2014, with delivery in the first quarter of 2016."

The 245,000 s.f., 278-room hotel from developer Carr Hospitality and designed by BBG-BBGM, will overlook the Washington Channel, now being developed by the Hoffman-Madison team, and feature a lavish 5,000 s.f. rooftoop lounge.  Plans also call for not one but two restaurants, two large water-facing ballrooms, and up to 7,000 s.f. of ground floor retail space.  The design calls for a red and gray brick facade, intermingled with terracotta, granite, and tinted glass.

Developers were forced to alter their plans, though, after ANC 6D passed a resolution recently in opposition to many of the specifics in the Phase 2 Planned Unit Development (PUD).

"We took down the clock tower, which was really just an architectural embellishment," says Flajser.  "We also altered the corners of the building a little bit, and there's no longer any sign."  (The above rendering depicts the original design; the rendering below depicts the revised design.)

In addition to those changes, the height of the structure - a planned 12-stories/130 feet - was also lowered.  After these changes were announced at a special meeting late last month, the ANC voted 4-3 to reinstate their support.  Carr also has a boutique luxury hotel in the works for Alexandria's contentious waterfront plan and has received objections from neighbors there as well.

Parcel 3b, where the hotel will be built, is near 9th and Water Streets (see map, above), and also abuts one of the development's planned piers; if Carr is able to purchase boat slips from the development group, guests could potentially arrive at the hotel by boat. Rates for the rooms will reportedly be between $300 and $400 per night.

Carr Hospitality notably restored the Willard hotel, a project widely lauded for its successful execution.  The Wharf Intercontinental will be its second hotel in the District.  Monty Hoffman of PN Hoffman has been quoted as saying the hotel will be an "anchor" of the megadevelopment.  The first construction at the Wharf should be begin early next year.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Florida Rock Gives a Little, Gets a Lot on the SE Waterfront

One of the proposed touchstones of the Southeast Waterfront redevelopment, Diamond Teague Park, took a step towards reality yesterday as Mayor Fenty accepted an $800,000 construction contribution from developer Florida Rock Properties - the group behind the Riverfront on the Anacostia development next door to the park’s proposed location. The $16 million, 39,000 square foot park was described by Fenty as a "green destination" that will route foot traffic to and from Nationals Stadium and become a tourist draw in and of itself.

"We are leveraging this investment to create great public spaces that open up the river to the entire community," said Fenty in a statement distributed at the event. In remarks made at the foot of Nationals Stadium overlooking the Anacostia, the mayor went on to express his hope that the river will one day be among "the cleanest in the country" (good luck).

This marks the second such contribution made towards the park. In April 2007, the JBG Companies made a $1.5 million donation to the Landscape Architecture Bureau-designed project. Construction is expected to begin next month.

Meanwhile, Florida Rock is confident that its project will meet its 2011 start date. In May, they received zoning approval for the former concrete plant site on Potomac Avenue SE - pending a donation to Diamond Teague Park. Their Riverfront on the Anacostia development will host 560,000 square feet of residential and hotel space, 29,000 of which will go towards affordable housing. Office and retail space are also planned for the venture, to the tune of 545,000 and 80,000 square feet, respectively. A large waterfront promenade will link the development to the neighboring park. The Riverfront project is being designed by Davis Buckley Architects and Planners.

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.

Bridging the Gap to Roosevelt Island

A plan to physically connect Roosevelt Island to the District by means of a pedestrian and bicycle bridge is gaining momentum. The 90-acre federal island park, dedicated to our nation's 26th President back in 1967, is currently accessible solely by way of the George Washington Parkway, and only via northbound, at that. At least for now. The proposal, heard before the DC Council's Committee on Public Works and the Environment in November, requests that the city work out a relationship with the District Department of Transportation and come up with nearly $35 million to pay for the span.

Dupont Circle resident David J. Mallof proposed the idea back in November, and has now sought the requisite sanctioning by the federal government. Mallof went to the Feds in early April and got a sit-down with James Oberstar, chair of the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee - apparently the Feds are not opposed to the bridge (no Ted Stevens jokes here, please), but won't do anything 'official' until the DC Council and Mayor Fenty support it. The Council won't approve without some show of public support for the project, so the next step is for a public hearing. If supported, the Council would only need to earmark 20% of the overall cost, with the feds potentially picking up a generous 80%. This puts the timing of the bill at least into next year, because it will be nearly impossible to get the financing inked into the new budget by budget deadline of June 3rd. If it gets that far, it will still have to go to the Washington Council of Government, which is chartered to oversee multi-jurisdictional issues. In this case, WCG would be mediating between the federal government, the DC government and the Virginia government, because a second bridge would then connect the island to Rosslyn, Virginia.

The proposal is to connect the land in front of the Watergate Hotel to Roosevelt Island, then across to Virginia. Mallof chose the Virginia location to connect the bike paths that nearly converge in the area, and proposes that the bridge could not only provide recreational use, but also serve as a main thoroughfare for sweaty commuters biking in from Virginia, who currently have a more complicated route after crossing Key Bridge, which involves either descending stairs or threading Georgetown's traffic, though even at this location bikers would still have to face a series of frogger-like challenges to get to the Mall. Still, some are concerned about the visual obstruction down the river, which has few open vistas thanks to the series of vehicular bridges.

Aside from the practical uses, Mallof stresses that the park falls within DC's perimeters, not Virginia's, forcing DC residents to cross the Potomac and park their cars on Virginia soil in order to take advantage of their park. Roosevelt Island remains so lightly trafficked, thanks in part to its inaccessibility, that it still boasts a mature white-tailed deer population.

Washington DC commercial real estate news

Master Planner Selected for Southwest Waterfront Project

It has been some time since we last heard word regarding the massive $800 million redevelopment plan for the Southwest Waterfront along the Washington Channel. Now home to middling touristy restaurants and asphalt lots, developer Hoffman-Struever Waterfront LLC (PN Hoffman and Struever Brothers, Eccles & Rouse) and the Anacostia Waterfront Corp. (AWC) are hoping to transform this prime real estate into a mixed-use maritime, commercial, residential and cultural destination by the year 2017. And now comes word that Hoffman-Struever and the AWC have selected New York-based Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects as the master planner for this project from a pool of 15 applicants. Ehrenkrantz was selected based on its past waterfront experience on Manhattan’s Battery Park City and Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

When completed, the Southwest Waterfront project is expected to contain up to 825 mixed-income housing units, 200,000 sf of cultural space (such as a museum, church and civic space), a 450-room hotel, 84,000 sf of office space, 317,000 sf of retail space, and 2,000 parking spaces. The project will also improve public access to the waterfront with 13-acre waterfront promenade, public piers, and public plazas. The fish market now on the site will be preserved and renovated. Other items on the drawing board include a possible aquarium, space for Cirque du Soleil, and a facility for the Living Classrooms Foundation.

Georgetown Waterfront Park Finally Moves Forward

With all the recent excitement over plans to redevelop the Southwest and Anacostia waterfronts, it’s been easy to forget the lack of activity surrounding the long-on-the-board plans for the Georgetown waterfront. However, this is about to change, as work is now starting on the $15 million Georgetown Waterfront Park, which is to occupy 10 acres between Washington Harbour and the Key Bridge. When completed by the end of 2007, the park will include pathways, a new promenade to integrate the shore line from Key Bridge to Washington Harbour and the Kennedy Center, gardens, a bike path connecting the Rock Creek Trail to the Capital Crescent Trail, and “environmentally sound bio-edge spaces that preserve native plants and enhance water quality” … guess we’ll see what that means in 18 months.