Artomatic Does Southeast in Style

High culture and high-rise office space don't often collide, but they did today as DC arts organization, Artomatic, opened the doors on its landmark 10^th anniversary exhibition at Monument Realty's new 275,000 square foot, LEED silver-certified building at 55 M Street, SE in the Capitol Riverfront. With galleries on each of its nine-stories, this year's Artomatic celebration overlooks Nationals Park and the city's monumental core, while featuring the work of more than a thousand artists of just about every discernible sort – painters, sculptors, videographers, musicians, tattooists, poets, dancers and more. And, to wash down that load of multimedia, bars, retailers and vendors -- including the Hard Times Café, Red Bull, Cake Love, Busboys and Poets and the Flying Dog Brewery – are scattered throughout. The city legislators present, including Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, touted this year’s festivities as the beginning of the “new 20003.”

“We’re no longer an emerging neighborhood. We’re here,” said Capitol Riverfront BID board member and Cohen Companies Executive Vice President Eric Siegel – who, in his acting his role with the latter organization, helped develop the Velocity Condominiums project a stone’s throw away at 1025 1^st Street, SE.

BID officials are projecting that Artomatic will draw some 70,000 visitors to the neighborhood (now dubbed “The ‘Front” for short) during its five-week run. The exhibition is open to the public starting today, Friday, May 29^th at noon. The opening gala will begin around 8 PM tonight and feature a fire dancers, 24 bands and performances and a discussion with PostSecret creator Frank Warren.

Artomatic 10 will close up shop on July 5^th, but until then, the exhibition will available for perusal on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 5 pm – 10 pm; Fridays and Saturdays from 12 noon -1 am; and Sundays from 12 noon – 10 pm.

And, having just returned from the sneak peek, let me state it plainly: it's pretty kick-ass.

Washington DC commercial property news

Work Begins on Capitol Riverfront's "Crown Jewel"

Developer Forest City Washington broke ground today on the latest Capitol Riverfront redevelopment initiative: the Park at the Yards. Located between Nationals Park and the Navy Yard, the $42 million, 5.4 acre park, designed by M. Paul Friedberg and Partners, was touted as "the core" and "crown jewel" of the greater Yards development. Once complete, the area will feature 2700 new units of housing, 400,000 square feet of retail and 1.8 million square feet of office space. The park’s first phase, scheduled for completion next summer, is set to include “vast open lawns” and landscaped gardens along a riverfront promenade that will incorporate an extension of the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail. Future work will include three retail pavilions, including one in the historically-protected Lumber Shed adjoining the site, with the end result of creating a world class waterfront destination.

“A world class city has to have a world class waterfront…This I think is the biggest piece of that and generations of Washingtonians are going to be thankful that this day occurred,” said DC Mayor Adrian Fenty.

Meanwhile, FCW President Deborah Ratner Salzberg told DCmud that other, more retail-centric pieces of the greater Yards puzzle, such as the Boilermaker Shops at 200 Tingey Street, SE, continue to fall into place. According to Salzberg, roughly 50% of that space is now leased and the FCW development team recently returned from a conference with potential retailers.

Despite rumors of business being slow in the from-scratch neighborhood surrounding the ballpark as construction continues, Claire Schaefer, Deputy Executive Director of the Capitol Riverfront BID, said that approximately 1,600 new residents are now in place in the area’s various rental and condo buildings, with that number expected to climb to 2,000 by year’s end. According to the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the Yards alone will host some 3,700 Southeast newcomers once work finally wraps sometime in the twenty-teens. Those figures will surely be helped along by the vast number of transit-oriented, “’smart growth” projects coming along as the riverfront coalesces - expanded bus services, water taxis, street cars and even horse-drawn buggies being among the options explored for a site that once hosted a government compound known as the Southeast Federal Center.

“You have to put all these pieces together to get to today…[This is] how a neighborhood gets transformed,” said Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, who facilitated the nation's first public-private partnership on federal land for the Yards project. “It is especially important to the neighborhood and city that there be a way to reach our river from which we have been isolated forever. This is a part of the city that has been opened to the people.”

DC Announces Contenders for Eastern Market School Site

Fresh off last week’s announcement that Eastern Market will reopen in June, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development has gone public with their short-list of candidates for redevelopment of the nearby Hine Junior High School at 335 8th Street, SE.

The 43-year-old, 131,300 square foot educational facility was shuttered in 2007, in order to redirect $6.2 million worth of school funds towards leasing costs for the District of Columbia Public Schools' headquarters at 825 North Capitol Street, NE. Now, according to ODMPED officials, the various proposals aim to repurpose the Eastern Market site for “combinations of new housing, office space, nonprofit space and neighborhood-serving retail.” The six contending teams are:

1. The Bozzuto Group/Scallan Properties/Lehr Jackson Associates/E.R. Bacon Development, LLC/Blue Skye Development/CityStrategy, LLC

2. Equity Residential/Mosaic Urban Partners

3. Quadrangle Development Corporation/CapStone Development, LLC

4. National Leadership Campus/Western Development Group

5. Stanton Development Corporation/Eastbanc Inc./Autopark Inc./The Jarvis Companies/Dantes Partners

6. StreetSense/DSF/Menkiti Group

District administrators will be hosting a community showcase of all six proposals on June 10^th at Tyler Elementary at 1001 G Street, SE. The meeting will begin at 6 PM and is open to the public.

Southeast Seniors Get New Housing

A vacant lot at 2620 Bowen Road, SE in the Barry Farm community will soon be home to the Bowen Senior Apartments – a 37-unit apartment building for independent sexagenarians of Ward 8. Specifically described as a non-assisted living operation, the 23,502 square foot project is being spearheaded by the Bowen Group LLC – a partnership between Seattle-based senior care developers Second Family Inc. and property owner Shilda Frost-Labule.

"[My] history is that I’ve been a registered nurse for over the last past 30 years, and I have a history in working with pediatrics and elderly care," Frost-Labule told the DC Board of Zoning Adjustment in January 2007, shortly before receiving approval for the project. “I entered a RFP to provide housing for persons with disabilities in 2002, and during that time, I had several conversations with Department of Health, Department of Aging, and the Housing Authority, and they all were supportive of the project, stating that there was a great need for assistance with the elderly in the Southeast area…[That’s] when I bought the property.”

Designed by EDG Architects of Bethesda, the $3 million project is being funded through a combination of private loans, four housing trust funds and tax credits. Beyond providing merely new residences for area residents ages sixty and up, the development will also offer residents a wellness center to “provide services for individuals that might have chronic illnesses,” a multipurpose room and a shuttle service to provide “access to Metro, to shopping, to social, cultural events, as well as medical appointments.”

Once completed, the Bowen development will count the Howard Hill Apartments, Oxford Manor Apartments and another vacant parcel set aside for a future Hope VI housing project among its new neighbors. Hamel Builders will oversee construction when it begins later this year and will be accepting sub-contractor bids until 5 PM on June 9^th.

DHCD Seeks Developers for Vacant DC Properties

Washington DC's Department of Housing and Community Development's (DHCD) Property Acquisition and Disposition Division (PADD) has issued a Solitication for Offers for six long-neglected sites throughout the city with the intent of redeveloping them into a mix of affordable units and workforce housing. All of the residential properties are either vacant lots or dilapidated residential complexes: 3401 13^th Street, SE; 4 -14 Q Street and 14-16 Florida Avenue, NW; 1715-1717 28^th Place, SE; 1335 R Street, NW; 922 French Street, NW; and, lastly, 1713 New Jersey Avenue, NW – the latter being a site initially purchased in January's vacant property auction, but returned to DCHD after its would-be owner defaulted on the first payment.

"For some [of these properties], this isn’t their first showing. This isn’t the first time they’ve been out there. We’ve been looking for opportunities to…convert them into affordable housing…We’re stepping up our efforts to re-introduce these properties, so they don’t just sit and cost the city money to maintain,” said DHCD spokesman Angelita Colon-Francia, who also detailed for DCmud just how and why these six sites were selected from the District’s hundreds-strong catalogue of vacant properties.

“Some were eminent domain, some were tax foreclosures, some were inter-agency transfer of property, but, basically, these are properties that have been in our inventory for a long time…What we’re trying to do is to get them back into use and generate affordable and workforce housing out of them,” she said.

Prospective developers are welcome to bid on as many, or as few, properties as they see fit. The scope and size of the various revitalization efforts, however, will depend on area zoning statutes, as some sites are designated for single-family use, while others are zoned for multi-family development. The wide variety of locales and regulations governing the various sites hasn’t allowed DHCD to predict exactly how much housing will be generated after the projects are awarded – but nonetheless, they’re adhering to strict set of guidelines that makes a clear distinction between which will sites will be required to host affordable and/or workforce units.

“The bottom line is that all of them have a requirement that all buildings have 30% of the units identified as affordable at 60% or less of the Area Median Income (AMI),” said Colon. “There are two exceptions to that: the New Jersey Avenue property and the one on French Street. For those, we’re looking more at workforce. They’ll have to be at or below 120% AMI.”

As of Tuesday, 11 potential bidders have taken up DHCD on their solicitation and Colon encourages developers and non-profits “with the capacity and qualifications” to apply. To that effect, DHCD will be holding a pre-bid conference on June 8^th to “fill in the blanks.” The meeting will begin at 2 PM at DHCD headquarters at 1800 Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, SE.

In the meantime, the solicitation is available in hard copy format only and can be picked up at the DHCD offices. Final proposals are due to agency by 3 PM on June 24^th. Colon-Francia says the selection process timeline will be contingent on the number of responses received.

Eastern Market Set for Grand Reopening in June

Mayor Adrian Fenty announced yesterday that Eastern Market, Southeast Washington’s famed and historically protected marketplace that was damaged by a fire in April 2007, will re-open – with much fanfare – on Friday, June 26th. The surprise pronouncement of the restoration’s completion came at the end of a tour of the facility, led by Office of Property Management (OPM) Administrator Curtis Clay, that highlighted the $22 million worth of both new and soon-to-be restored features in the works for the area landmark.

The development team – led by OPM, along with Quinn Evans Architects, the Minkoff Company, Keystone Plus Construction, FEI Construction and The Temple Group – plans to reinstate the North Hall’s former use a center for community activity and arts events with a new demountable stage and dance floor. Meanwhile, Fenty stressed that all of Eastern Market’s original vendors will return to their former locations in the building’s Southern Hall, while their temporary home across the street will be repurposed for an as-of-yet undesignated community use.

Additionally, Eastern Market’s basement level will feature a newly relocated pottery studio and, in a first for the 138-year-old complex, new amenities which will include air conditioning and separate men’s and women’s restrooms. OPM was also quick to point out a newly-installed sprinkler system, with the hope that it will prevent the type of incident that led to the market’s shuttering for two plus years.

Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells, who was absent from the afternoon’s proceedings due to a family illness, released the following statement via press release:

"I’m thrilled that Eastern Market is on the verge of reopening. The devastating fire was a blow to our whole community, but the way in which the city rallied around the Market as more than just a building proved how important it is to the fabric of our neighborhood."


That neighborhood will be able to celebrate the project’s completion en masse the day after the ribbon-cutting. Fenty, who called the market a “sparkplug” of community activity, went on to announce that a celebration will be held on Saturday, June 27th along the newly refurbished and soon-to-be reopened 7th Street, SE, which abuts the eastern face of the market.

According to the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, “[OPM] and the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) worked together to minimize disruptions and complete projects simultaneously. The new street includes upgrades of the roadway and roadbed and installation of new brick sidewalks, granite curbs, utilities and lighting.” The street will be open to traffic Monday through Friday, but remain closed on weekends to serve as, in words of DDOT Director Gabe Klein, “a pedestrian plaza.”

Financing Trouble Adds Woes to Troubled Southeast Neighborhood

Residents of the beleaguered Washington Highlands neighborhood in Southeast will have to wait at least a little longer for the DC Housing Authority’s (DCHA) planned reinvigoration of the Highland Dwellings public housing complex. In 2007, DCHA selected New Market Investors and Southeast developers Crawford Edgewood Managers Inc. (CEMI) to construct the Highlands Addition – a project that would utilize a vacant 300,000 square lot as the site of a new “physically and socially vibrant neighborhood” with 138 units of mixed-income housing. With the project’s planned summer 2008 start date having come and gone, HR Crawford, President of CEMI and a forty year veteran of District redevelopment initiatives, tells DCmud that project is now locked in a holding pattern.

“It’s all over the place. We need to decide what's getting built and how we’re going to get there,” said Crawford. “Everyone is suffering right now…We have to re-ignite things a bit.”

Crawford, who previously succeeded in luring middle class residents back to Far Southeast with the gated Walter E. Washington Estates project in 1998, chalks the delays up to a lack of readily available financing and the need for infrastructural improvements in the surrounding neighborhood before work can begin. Nonetheless, he says that though the project may be in stasis, his development team – which also includes architects Torti Gallas and Partners and Hamel Builders – is ready to commence construction once those pieces fall into place.

“We had to go through the ritual of getting [US Department of Housing and Urban Development] approval and all the public hearings and those kinds of things…It’s fully approved. We’re ready to go. You might say we’re shovel ready,” said Crawford.

However, Crawford went onto describe the project’s timeline as “questionable” – an unwelcome piece of news for Washington Highlands residents and DC policymakers alike. In the intervening years since the Highlands Addition was first announced, the surrounding community has had to battle some of the District’s highest rates of both unemployment and violence; in 2007, the neighborhood accounted for one-third of all homicides in the District. Media scrutiny of the area only intensified when, that same year, 14-year-old DeOnte Rawlings was shot to death by police inside the very same Highland Dwellings that DCHA has targeted for redevelopment. Despite its' troubled past, Crawford is confident that the area will be in for an image makeover (if and) when the Highlands Addition begins to draw in new neighbors.

“[We’ll be offering] both rental and for sale units. We’ll be a relatively innovative property, in that you won’t be able to tell who the renters are versus the owners,” said Crawford. “We’re going to integrate everyone socio-economically.”

SE Church Bringing Affordable Housing to Barry Farm

Prominent Ward 8 church Matthews Memorial Baptist has partnered with developer Community Builders (TCB) to expand their community servicing mandate into the realm of affordable housing. The Church – which has served the Barry Farm/Anacostia community for 85 years, boasts 1300 members, operates 60 different ministries and frequently hosts speaking engagements for local politicians such as Marion Barry - is now looking to bring a new housing project and community center to a large parcel adjoining their location at 2616 Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue, SE.

According to the Office of Planning, the 79,900 square foot site currently holds five houses and an asphalt parking lot, all of which would demolished to make way for the Matthews Memorial Terrace – a 100% affordable housing development consisting of a four-story apartment building with 100 residential units, roughly of a third of which would be reserved for seniors. Next door, a three-story community center would include a health clinic (possibly an extension of the United Medical Center – itself slated for a large-scale expansion), a community room, a bookstore/café and “a dinner room/restaurant” that, according to Bishop C. Matthew Hudson, Jr., would be “Ward 8’s second full-service sit-down restaurant.” The project is being designed by PGN Architects.

“Upon learning of my desire for the Church to provide affordable housing, Community Builders contacted me and we discussed the possibility of building…on the Matthews Memorial Baptist campus,” said Hudson at a March 5^th Zoning Commission hearing. “The partnership between the Church and TCB is represented a good match to obtain our mutual goals of creating a vibrant, mixed-use affordable rental community.”

Though still in the planning stages, organizations and individuals, including the ANC 8A, the ANC 8C, the Ward 8 Business Council, the Anacostia Coordinating Council and DC City Council members Marion Barry and Kwame Brown, have all voiced their support for the project. The next step in the approval process for the Matthews Memorial Terrace lies with the National Capital Planning Commission, which will review the development team’s proposal at their May 7^th meeting. And it looks be a straight shot, given the altruistic nature of the project.

“[The Church] continuously works to revitalize and rehabilitate the Anacostia community,” said Hudson. “The Church’s goal in pursuing this project is to allow it to further serve the community which we love and are an integral part of…I’m very proud of the many ways in which the new Matthews Memorial Terrace will be able to assist Anacostia…as it continues to grow, revitalize, [and] redevelop itself for the future.”

909 at Capitol Yards Opens

While the Washington Post may be increasingly skeptical about the viability of Southeast's Capitol Riverfront as either a residential or commercial neighborhood, it is certainly a strategy that developer JPI has bet heavily on. Next month, the developer will open the doors on the 909 at Capitol Yards project - their 421-unit "boutique-hotel themed" apartment building and third entry under their greater Capitol Yards development. According to the Capitol Riverfront BID, tours of the WDG-designed complex have already begun for prospective residents and move-ins are scheduled to begin late this month. JPI is apparently targeting that hard to pin down 18-35 demographic the project with an advertising campaign that boasts of amenities like a two-story bar and lounge, yoga rooms, a “pub room” with shuffleboard (?!) and Nintendo Wiis, an in-house movie theater, a rooftop swimming pool for hosting “raucous barbeques,” and a Twitter ticker in every elevator tracking losses in the housing market (no, not really). Should you feel the need for something more “classic and traditional” or an apartment with a little “industrial style,” JPI is directing inquisitive renters in the market around the Ballpark to the first two buildings completed under their Capitol Yards banner: the Jefferson and Axiom. Their marketing whizzes have even gone so far as to whip up a “personality quiz” to help choose from among their properties (sample response: "Call up your fav five and hit Banana Cafe for pitchers of Caipirinhas"). Though JPI still has one project in the pipeline– a 419-unit apartment building with 15,000 square feet of retail at 23 Eye Street – completion of Capitol Yards could be viewed largely as the developer’s curtain call the DC area. The Texas-based company had once targeted DC, along with New York City, as hot spots for condo development. However, after completing projects like The Byron and Jenkins Row – the latter of which is still selling four years on – the market’s prospects seem now much dimmer than they did just a few years ago and JPI has yet to announce any new plans for follow-up developments. Correction: 909 at Capitol Yards was designed by the Preston Partnership, not WDG Architecture. WDG designed two other neighboring JPI projects, the Jefferson and Axiom at Capitol Yards.

Washington DC retail and commercial real estate news

Anacostia to Get its Own Boathouse Row

With the District-led attempt to bring development to Southeast Washington DC's Poplar Point now stalled for the foreseeable future, both the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (ODMPED) and the Office of Planning (OP) have now turned their collective bureaucratic eye across the Anacostia River and towards a section called Boathouse Row.

In the spring of 2008, the District agencies assembled a team to consider options for the riverfront, which has now gone public with a Planning Study for the stretch of land that runs along M and Water Streets, SE on the Anacostia’s west bank. As is, the site - largely overlooked by development next door at the Capitol Riverfront - is currently home to half-a-dozen maritime operations, including a cadre of "yacht clubs," the former Anacostia Marina, and installations servicing the DC Department of Public Works, the US Army Corps of Engineers and the DC Water and Sewer Authority. Rehoboth Beach it won't be, but for the local government, redevelopment at Boathouse Row represents a shot at making the Anacostia River a recreational destination again for the first time in half a century.

The outcome of the study hinges on the proposed dredging of the polluted and endangered river – a procedure that has yet to be budgeted or approved by the DC government. As such, the team presented two concepts for the site – one contingent on a clean-up, the other not.

Concept I, which assumes dredging will in fact take place, would see the Anacostia Community Boathouse Association expand its location underneath the 11^th Street Bridge, while the other boat clubs along the riverbank will be permitted to build-out “either perpendicular or parallel to the shore.” The team envisions three open “community spaces” at intermittent points along the river with amenities like canteens and bike rental kiosks, in addition to a revitalized and expanded Anacostia Marina for motorized watercraft.

Concept II, “a response to the possibility that dredging the Anacostia River will not take place,” assumes that the river will remain impenetrable to boats of any significant size. The locations of the various yacht clubs would be reconfigured, while the Sewer Authority’s work station would be relocated off-site in order to provide for a “continuous waterfront edge.” This plan too calls for three large community spaces along the river, but improvements to the Anacostia Marina would be significantly downsized and it would be outfitted to service only non-motorized boats.

No matter which route the District takes at Boathouse Row, neither will be realized soon. According to the report, “Several District infrastructure projects will need to be completed before improvements to Boathouse Row can be implemented.” That includes renovations to the 11^th Street Bridge, completion of the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative’s Riverwalk Trail and the possible relocation of the Federal Channel. At present they’re projecting those procedures to run until at least 2014, with implementation of either concept expected to be complete by 2020.

It should also be noted that control of Boathouse Row currently sits with the National Park Service; a formal transfer of the land to District government is planned for later this year. The entire Planning Study can be read in its entirety at the ODMPED homepage. homes are for sale in washington dc.

Factory 202 Gets Mixed-Up in Southeast?

Forest City Washington's aggressive development of the Capitol Riverfront via The Yards project is still keeping pace with its brisk timetable, but one component in particular might be getting a little retooling before it sees the light of day. The SK&I-designed Factory 202 project - a renovation and expansion of the Navy Yard industrial building formerly occupied by Federal Protective Services - had initially been inked as a 271-unit condo project. Now, whether due to the enduring pain of the condo market or saturation from competing projects in the area, Forest City is exploring the possibility of a different development scheme for the property.

"We're currently evaluating whether it will be all residential or include some mixed-use retail," said Gary McManus, Marketing Manager for Forest City.

Another contributing factor to the planned renovation and two-story addition to the historic warehouse/factory - still slated for a 2011 completion - is the fact that the property remains in the hands of the General Services Administration (GSA). Said McManus:

That’s former federal land…GSA actually owns that site and we’re partnering with them...When we actually begin development of a new building or redevelopment of one of the existing buildings, we buy that parcel from GSA at that point. But…nothing is happening on that building yet, we haven’t bought [it].

As such, a definitive start date for project has yet to be scheduled. Nonetheless, work continues on several other mixed-use Yards projects. The Park at the Yards is under is construction, while the adjoining “Lumber Shed” renovation, new retail pavilions and stainless steel spire all recently received approvals from the DC Zoning Commission and National Capital Planning Commission. Meanwhile, the Boilermaker Shops at 200 Tingey Street, SE continues to court retailers for what (one day) will be space along the linchpin of the Capitol Riverfront boardwalk.

New Capital for Capitol Gateway?

Almost a decade after it was first announced, Washington DC’s Marshall Heights neighborhood, bordering the Prince George's County line, may soon receive its long overdue shot in the arm. Developers just last week filed an application with the District government to demolish the abandoned towers on the site (or, in the words of the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, the "unclaimed" property). The Capitol View Plaza public housing complex and neighboring 14-story building, at 5901 and 5929 East Capitol Street, SE will soon be razed to make way for a 110,000-square foot retail center and mixed-income housing.

In 2000, under the administration of former DC Mayor Anthony Williams, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) allotted a $30.8 million grant under its Hope VI program to the redevelopment of Capitol View Plaza's 12-story tower - then designated public housing for the elderly and disabled - across from the Capitol Heights Metro. Though the project had initially been scheduled to proceed in 2003, this is the first public sign since 2007 that the redevelopment remains on the District radar.

"5929 we purchased from HUD because it was foreclosed upon. Then we had some issues with FHA when we purchased the building because we had a financial gap. We decided it wasn't worth taking the risk if we didn't have a way to close that gap," said DCHA's Kerry Smyser of the delays. "FHA provided an upfront grant of about $12 million, but you have to use it on their footprint and there's more to do on that site than just to do with that building."

Indeed there is. Originally dubbed “New East Capitol” by the city government, the project has now been twinned with neighboring Capitol Gateway residential project, produced by the A&R Development Corporation and the Henson Development Company. Phase I of that development has delivered “nearly 240 duplexes, townhouses and single-family homes” to an area once notorious for its violence; time and development have gone a long way in imbuing the immediate area with a suburban je ne sais quoi.

That, however, is merely prologue to the 3.4 million square feet of office space, 1450 residential units - including 669 condominiums - and 300,000 square feet of retail space slated to spring up on both sides of East Capitol once construction of the Gateway project begins. Just last year, the development team confirmed that Shoppers Food & Pharmacy will be opening its very first DC branch, a 61,000-s.f. Shoppers Food Warehouse, as part of Capitol Gateway’s mixed-use component...someday. According to Smyser, DCHA is not currently projecting a timeline for construction, nor is A&R committing to a schedule. In total, the cost of the ambitious project is expected to exceed $1 billion.

Washington DC commercial real estate development news

Canal Park Gets New Architect, Timeline

The Capitol Riverfront BID yesterday announced that OLIN, a Philadelphia-based landscape architectural firm, has been selected to supply designs for the long in-the-works Canal Park – the pedestrian-friendly makeover of what is currently a school bus storage lot spanning three blocks between I and M Streets, SE and one of the proposed touchstones of area's redevelopment.

Unfortunately for green space aficionados, this means the project’s managers at the Canal Park Development Association (CPDA) will be throwing out the park designs previously approved by the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) in 2006 and starting back at square one - a process that will involve re-submitting plans anew to that very same body.

"We should be done with the schematic design in about 12 weeks. Then we’ll start interacting with Commission of Fine Arts and NCPC at that point,” said Chris VanArsdale, Director of the CPDA. “We won’t be done with the [final] design for 10 months, 12 months. So when the design is sufficiently complete, we’ll bid it out.”

According the Riverfront BID and VanArsdale, the site will be begin to be cleared in early June with construction planned in early 2010. Newly announced amenities planned for the Southeast redevelopment initiative include “a new pavilion, a cafe and a possible summertime fountain and wintertime ice skating rink.” The CPDA is currently in negotiations with the BID about possible operators for those park components. Funds for the project are being drawn from $13 million in City Council appropriations, as well as private donations.

Though the strip of land set to host the park was initially to be transferred from the District government to the now dissolved Anacostia Waterfront Corporation, the CPDA has reached an agreement with government authorities that will allow them to oversee the park well beyond its projected 2011 completion. “[The land is] still technically under the control of the DC government, but we have a license agreement with the District to develop and maintain the park,” said VanArsdale.

One of the key features of the park that will remain intact, despite the change of design teams, is its goal of accruing “zero net energy.” According to the BID, OLIN will be exploring green features like stormwater management systems and “solar panels on lightpoles and possibly neighboring buildings” to make the project as low impact as possible. Michael Stevens, Executive Director of the Capitol Riverfront BID told DCmud last year that "Canal Park will be a model of environmental sustainability, it will catch storm water runoff from surrounding blocks, capture, filter, recycle, and reuse the water on sight. We are hoping to capture it on the rooftops of other buildings as well. A lot of that was planned before ballpark."

Secy. Napolitano Offers Thoughts on St. Elizabeths

Secretary of Homeland Security and former Arizona Governor, Janet Napolitano, toured her agency’s new home at the St. Elizabeths West Campus in Southeast Washington D.C. this week with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and, in doing so, revealed some previously unheard details regarding the relocation. In her own Special Olympics-like gaffe, the Secretary referred to St. Elizabeths as being in “a very run-down part of the District of Columbia.” Not a Bush league malapropism, but take a cue from Mayor Fenty…it’s “ripe for economic redevelopment.” But Napolitano did reveal news that bodes well for Ward 8. According to the Secretary, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is aiming to do the same thing for the surrounding neighborhood that the CIA did for Langley and the Pentagon did for Northern Virginia. Namely, they'll be focusing attention on areas once thought undesirable or outside of the metro area development bubble. In a response to a question from Blitzer, Napolitano said: “I think when the Pentagon was created there were many of the same arguments were made about being a bad neighbor, not helping the local economy and the like and those have not been borne out.” And who doesn't want to live next to the Pentagon now.In the course of the interview, Napolitano also stated that, in addition to the $346 million set aside for the DHS relocation Fiscal Year 2009 congressional budget, the project will be receiving funds from the Stimulus Package - making it the first DC area development to get a boost via the controversial bill. Said Napolitano:

This project [will receive] $650 million and it will equate to 33,000 jobs in this area, $1.2 billion immediate stimulus to the local economy and if you look at this area of the District you’d understand that this will be very beneficial to the overall quality of life in this area of this District.

Unfortunately, CNN has yet to post video of the interview, which also included a tour of St. Elizabeths landmarks, including future staff offices, including Napolitano’s, and the former cell of poet, and one-time inmate, Ezra Pound. In the meantime, a full transcript is available here.

Washington DC commercial property news

Coast Guard First to Deploy at St. Elizabeths

With favorable environmental impact and National Capital Planning Commission reports in the bag, the General Services Administration (GSA) will issue a Request for Qualifications on March 23rd targeted at a new 1,100,000 square foot US Coast Guard headquarters at the St. Elizabeths Hospital West Campus.

Bidders on the design-build contract will be expected to meet “high performance green building design criteria” and to include provisions for a 990-space parking garage. Also of note, though the Coast Guard facility has been bundled together with the federally-owned West Campus, part of it will actually be erected on a northwestern piece of the DC-owned East Campus – a compromise resulting from the 1987 land transfer that the ceded the East Campus to District control. At present, the Office of Planning is proceeding independently with their plans for 2 million square feet of private sector, mixed-use development south of the Coast Guard site.

Funds for the new HQ will be drawn from the $346 million allotted to the GSA specifically for the St. Elizabeths redevelopment by Congress in the Fiscal Year 2009 federal budget. GSA spokesman Mike McGill told DCmud last month that “In terms of putting people in place on campus, the Coast Guard is going to be the first tenant. We anticipate that to be far enough along for them to begin moving in 2013.” GSA is currently projecting a April 2010 start for the Coast Guard project.

St. Elizabeths Gets the Green Thumbs Up

After years of preparation and political wrangling, DC's famed (but rarely visited) St. Elizabeths may at last have the authority it needs to begin a titanic redevelopment effort to turn the one-time insane asylum into the next headquarters for the Department of Homeland Security. Thanks to a pair of approvals over the past two months, the General Services Administration (GSA) has prevailed in their effort to relocate the DHS to the vacant St. Elizabeths West Campus, in Southeast Washington DC. According to GSA, the only hindrance now is to allocate the funds and select the team.

In December, the agency received a favorable Environmental Impact Statement concerning the project; the following month, the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) sealed the deal with their approval of the GSA’s master plan for the site. In all, it’s a green light for the first relocation of a federal government agency east of the Anacostia - and one that paves the way for the District to pursue their own redevelopment initiatives in the surrounding Congress Heights neighborhood.

DHS’ workforce is currently housed in 70 buildings at 40 locations throughout the city, which, in the words of the report, “adversely impacts critical communication, coordination and cooperation across components.” Hence, over the course of five years of research, GSA determined a move to St. Elizabeths “to be the only reasonable alternative.” It’s a maneuver that will require the construction and renovation of some 4.65 million square feet of office and shared use space, plus construction of a new Coast Guard headquarters and the requisite parking.

According to the GSA’s own legally-mandated environmental assessment, any strain on the eco-system related to the move would be negligible at best. Though the report does point to “moderate” impact on streams, wetlands, groundwater and vegetation at the site, it finds them tolerable and expected, given the large influx of population, vehicles and infrastructure that will accompany DHS.

Approvals in hand, the federal government expects actual construction to commence by the third quarter of 2009. Mike McGill of the GSA detailed just what steps remain before shovels hit the ground at St. Elizabeths. "We have to get an appropriation in the Fiscal Year 09 Omnibus Appropriation Act passed by Congress. Right now, we’re operating under a continuing resolution that expires March 6th," said McGill. "The present FY09 budget asks for $346 million for St. Elizabeths. That would cover the cost of construction of Phase I, the Coast Guard Headquarters and the cost of design for Phase II. Assuming that we do get that appropriation, we would then advertise this summer for proposals from general contractors, select a contractor and have them under contract before the end of the fiscal year [on September 30th]."

What's not to be crazy about? For one, locals fear the project may become a high-security fortress that fosters no interaction with the local economy. Others decry potential harm to the environment, government assurances aside, that such a massive build-out would risk. But preservationists have been fit to be tied about changes to St. Elizabeths historic character.

The NCRC report makes no bones about damage to St. Elizabeths buildings, despite the fact that the West Campus was designated a National Historic Landmark by the Secretary of the Interior in 1990. It almost guarantees “direct, major, long-term, adverse impacts on [St. Elizabeths] historic buildings,” including the demolition of an unspecified number of the century-old (or more) structures. Richard Moe, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which had previously included St. Elizabeths on its 2002 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Places, wrote the following in a Washington Post editorial designed to rebuke the GSA’s feel good assessment of the hospital’s prospects as the DHS headquarters:

“[DHS] needs and deserves a consolidated headquarters – but this campus isn’t the place for it. The National Park Service calls the GSA plan ‘wholly incompatible’ with the preservation of St. Elizabeths. What’s more, the government’s own projections show that after all the tearing down and building up and paving over are done, the St. E’s campus still would not provide all the office space that DHS needs…in the meantime, a unique urban asset would be wasted, a historic treasure would be turned into a fortress and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spark revitalization in a long-neglected neighborhood would be lost.”

Since the West Campus is a federally-owned parcel, the District's own, typically stringent Historic Preservation Review Board has no bearing on what happens to the structures on site; however, the preservation thread was one picked up on the following month, in the NCPC ruling – albeit without the same level of tenacity. After taking into account the historic nature of the West Campus and its contribution to the evolution of modern medical and psychiatric care, the security needs of both the DHS and its staff were found to trump the historicity of the present facilities. At the same time, the NCPC stressed that the gross majority of the vacant buildings on site will not face demolition and, in fact, receive their first renovations ever in their decades-long history.


“[St. Elizabeths] includes 82 contributing buildings, 62 of which are on the West Campus. Fifty-one of the 62 contributing buildings would be rehabilitated in the accordance with the Final Master Plan,” states the NCPC report. Measures will also be undertaken during construction to ensure it would “minimize impacts to historic landscapes.” At the same time, the few West Campus areas left open to the public over the past decades – the Point, the Cemetery, and Hitchcock Hall – will remain so, and receive infrastructural overhauls. Overall, the NCPC sees the project as boon to not only a historic landmark that has been vacant since 2002, but to a part of the District that has been isolated from the rest of DC development for far longer.

That’s because NCPC approval – one of the final steps for the DHS relocation - means that the Fenty administration, Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development and Office of Planning can proceed unimpeded with plans to redevelop the District-controlled Eastern Campus into more than 2 million square feet of mixed-use development.

All of it would put an increased strain on the infrastructure of the surrounding Southeast neighborhood, tempered by proposed infrastructural improvements to Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenues, SE - two Congress Heights traffic arteries that could not cope unaided with the expected increase in daily use.

St. Elizabeths West is to be built in three phases over the next 8 years – the first of which is intended to start by the end of the year. Though the District has yet to commit to a timeline for their development of the campus' eastern flank, McGill says that, “In terms of putting people in place on campus, the Coast Guard is going to be the first tenant. We anticipate that to be far enough along for them to begin moving in in 2013.”