Arlington Approves Tallest Crystal City Office Building

The Arlington County Board voted yesterday to approve 1900 Crystal Drive, Vornado's enormous office building that will be the tallest in Crystal City.  The county's approval allows the developer to demolish the super-block sized building now on the site and replace it with an even larger, more contemporary building.

The building, designed by New Haven-based Pickard Chilton, will feature a number of impressive vitals, including 720,000 s.f. of office space in 24 stories (297 feet), a 5-story underground parking garage, an expected LEED Gold rating, a raised interim park (until replaced by another building), 32 bicycle parking spaces on the street and in the park.  Pickard Chilton is noted for a number of large office building designs, including a senior role on Malaysia's Petronas Towers.  Cooper Carry is the architect of record. The design employs a "ski jump architectural treatment" as part of its glass facade, and will be a major contributor to the upgrading of Crystal City's outdated architecture and infrastructure.

The plan for the block is to eventually demolish another of the office buildings on the block to create a large "Center Park" - a centerpiece of the Crystal City Sector Plan developed in 2010 - to replace the mid-block, concrete-heavy park that now connects the 3 existing office building.  While the project will have a more appealing street view, especially on Crystal Drive where 11,000 s.f. of retail will face the street, the building will still make large concessions to the automobile along 18th and 20th Streets with wide curb cuts for garage access.

The County approval was expected, especially with Vornado's $3m contribution to the county's affordable housing program and $7m of promised community benefits that that county negotiated for a host of improvements to causes like parking meter improvements, utility improvements, and public art.

Arlington VA real estate development news

Lighting the Way into Crystal City

According to its president and CEO Angela Fox, the Crystal City BID focuses on the "ins and outs of Crystal City" - literally. The BID currently has two projects in the pipeline to revamp primary "gateways" into, and out of, Crystal City. One of those projects is the effort to beautify and "light" the southern vehicle entrance at the intersection of Route 1 and Crystal Drive, which will begin its 6-to-8-week-long period of construction, by Rand, next Monday, October 3rd. The ground breaking ceremony will be supplemented by some detailed renderings of what will be responsible for lighting the project, which Fox described as, "Sixteen LED poles, lit two-thirds of the way up... the poles will follow diagonal [pea gravel] paths through the property" as well as "continue up the façade of the building on site." Although paths are walker accessible, the area is not meant to be a public park. Along with LED poles and pea gravel paths, the 30,000-s.f. parcel will be clad in new turf, and planted with 28 trees. The project was planned and approved almost two years ago, however the land was being used by the county in the interim. When finished, there will be "a lovely gateway experience" said Fox, creating "the aesthetic awareness that you are entering Crystal City." Of the design, Fox said, "It was a very creative process; Gensler held a sort of seminar with their young architects, a design competition over the course of several hours." A few of the resulting designs were then refined into one formal design. Fox added that the goal of the BID has been to "re-brand Crystal City [using] light and illumination" with artistic efforts that exemplify the properties of crystal. The other gateway project currently underway by the BID is the improvement of the Crystal City Metro entrance, a partnership with Vornado that is in the final stage of the permitting process. These two efforts, together with the redevelopment of Long Bridge park at the northern entrance to the city, will offer "three new sparkling entrances," Fox said. "By the end of the year." 

Arlington Virginia real estate development news

Georgetown Park Goes Big Box

A recent effort to breathe life into Georgetown's only retail mall, The Shops at Georgetown Park at 3222 M Street, NW, has had the wind knocked out of it. The Georgetown Angels, a trio of ladies with boutiques at the mall and big voices for locally owned business, had banded together last year in a shared cause: to enliven the mall, increase exposure, and boost foot traffic off of M Street. But now, the mall is garnering some attention of a different sort, not what the Angels (think Charlie's, not Guardian) had in mind.

With the pending closure of Barnes & Noble down the street (the massive bookseller did not renew its recently expired lease) murmurs over the future of the mall (and inklings that H&M will move from the mall and take over B&N's corner spot) increased in volume, and are gaining validity now that several mall tenants have not only been asked to leave by the end of the year, but several packed up shop just yesterday.

Although property owner and operator, Vornado Trust Realty, would not confirm an 80,000-s.f. lease with Target, officials from the giant retailer have been exploring the viability of a large retail site with concerns about the traffic-choked location.

It's thought that Target will likely take up the basement (now a sorry food court and a DMV branch) and possibly the ground floor. A deal with Bloomingdales, for around 80,000 s.f., seems to have also been revived after initial talks fell through in 2008, although this is unconfirmed.

Along with a drastically different type of retailer and fewer retailers overall, Keith Sellars of WDCEP sees the potential for new restaurants to front the C&O Canal side of the property.  Retail tenant occupancy at Georgetown Park has fallen since 2009, and Kassie Rempel, DC native and owner/founder of mall-tenant SimplySoles, says of the change, "It's unfortunate, but I can't say it's a surprise." Rempel, one-third of the Angels, will be in the mall until the end of the year, and although considering a few relocation options, moving to the mezzanine level of the mall, as offered by Vornado, is not one of them.

Another Angel, Heidi Kallet, owner/founder of The Dandelion Patch, confirms she too is leaving Georgetown Park but says her shop "will stay in Georgetown." Finishing out the trio of Georgetown retailers, Stephanie Fornash Kennedy, owner/founder of the eponymous, eight-year mall tenant Fornash, has also received her official notice to vacate by year's end. Rempel says it's clear that Vornado, "is clearing out the first and second floors."

There has been talk of redeveloping the Georgetown Park mall since the late '90s; most notably when Herb Miller (of Western Development Corp.) and Anthony Lanier (of EastBanc, Inc.) entered into an agreement, in 1998, to pursue a joint venture to develop the property.

However, the mall, which opened in 1981 as a main component of the $200-million mixed use development by Western Development, was cruising along in the '90s, and into the early 2000s, and owner at the time Georgetown Park Associates (GPA) - which obtained the deed from Western Development in 1989 - wasn't looking to sell until 2006.

In March of 2006, GPA's sale of the property commanded a hearty $84 million, from Miller. Lanier sued Miller for breach of the 1998 agreement. Unease had been brewing between the two for a few years, after disagreeing on how to interpret an amendment, made in 2001, to the joint-venture agreement; Miller asserted that the 1998 agreement was void if not acted on by May 31st 2002.

Either way, the Georgetown Park deed was finalized on March 1st 2007.

In response to Lanier's lawsuit, as reported by the Washington Post in April of 2010, "Western sued EastBanc and Lanier personally for more than $50 million in damages, citing a malicious legal filing and other causes."

Though it was reported that Western defaulted in excess of $70 million owed to lender Capmark Financial Group, the foreclosure was called off in May, and a Vornado led group called AG Georgetown Park I LLC obtained the property from Capmark Finance/GP Partners LLC on July 9th 2010 for $30.8 million; significantly less ($54 million less) than Miller paid four years before.

Now, with Vornado a year into its ownership of the property, the site holds a mall that is a 30-year-old shell of its former self, and rapidly emptying. Long gone are the days when it drew local businesses, Georgetowners, out-of-towners and the like from M Street.

Washington D.C. commercial real estate news

Waterfront Station- Fenty Makes it Official

If no development in DC is official until the Mayor appears for a photo op and a speech, then Waterfront Station became official yesterday.

On the other hand, 1,600 of his employees have been on site since March, when the initial office buildings opened, and have been enjoying the newly opened Safeway. The Safeway closed its old store in March and reopened its "urban concept" store April 16th; the grocery store opening was quickly followed by last month's opening of the newly reconnected 4th Street. The new 4th Street not only creates the new “Main Street” of Waterfront Station, but also a new connecting artery for Southwest.

Two new office buildings flanking 4th Street each now offer 250,000 s.f. of space above the Metro. Development team Forest City Washington, Vornado/Charles E. Smith and Bresler and Reiner, Inc., must have been pleased to have Mayor Fenty on hand, knowing that the DC government has leased 100% of the office space for this phase of the project, a detail that made construction financing a whole lot easier. The building was designed by Shalom Baranes & Associates to achieve LEED certification, though not yet official the green certification is in the works.

To date 88 percent of retail has been leased, with CVS opening in a month and a Z Burger set to open this fall. When Station 4, from owners of Ulah Bistro, opens in the fall it will be the only after-hours restaurant in SW not on the Waterfront.


Washington, DC real estate development news

Southwest Safeway: Hello, Goodbye

While neighbors bide their time, waiting for a new Southwest Safeway to open at Waterfront Station, the old Safeway will likely stick around a little longer; at least its corpse will. Developers have now applied for a raze permit for 401 M Street, SW, beginning the process to demolish the old building. The store closed its doors for good April 6th and the new Safeway will show its wares to new neighbors with a "sneak peak" on the 15th and grand opening on April 16th.

According to Craig Muckle, Spokesperson for Safeway, the team does not expect demolition to begin until sometime this summer, though an adjoining wall between the old and new stores will come down prior to the new store's opening.

Safeway's newest store at the Southwest Waterfront Station will bring relief to residents who have long complained of the lack of necessities, such as bread and milk, that were routine.

Waterfront Station will also include new space for a CVS and Bank of America, as well as an additional 85,000 square feet for restaurants and “neighborhood service-related” retail. The project is a joint venture between Forest City Washington, Vornado/Charles E. Smith and Bresler and Reiner, Inc., and will add more than 2.5m square feet of new development on the site.

Washington, DC real estate development news

Deanwood Swaps Abandoned Apartments for New Housing

In a continuing effort to rejuvenate poverty and crime-ridden areas, Blue Skye Development and DC Mayor Adrian Fenty moved some dirt around a 26-unit housing project at 4427 Hayes Street in Washington's Deanwood neighborhood on Wednesday, a symbolic opening for the project. Having sat vacant for nearly 15 years, the 29,000 s.f. building is now a shell, which Blue Skye has gutted and will renovate. The $5 million project is expected to deliver new homes by summer of 2010.

The District acquired the land in 2005 using federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Development Block Grants, and has since gone through several aborted development attempts. In March of 2008, the District selected Blue Skye Development to develop the space after a competitive solicitation process. The architects for the project are PGN Architects. PNC Financial Services Group, working with Vornado/Charles E. Smith, contributed $700,000 toward the project as part of a community services benefits package tied to PNC's new downtown building’s zoning approvals. “We are committed to enhancing the quality of life in our city—not just through development downtown, but through transformational projects like this that help make our DC neighborhoods great places to live,” said Mitchell N. Schear, President of Vornado/Charles E. Smith.

These 26 new one and two-bedroom units are part of the District's New Communities Initiative, which aims to replace highly concentrated low-income neighborhoods with mixed-income neighborhoods that still protect low-income residents by offering one-for-one replacement of previous units. The Hayes Street project includes nine replacement housing units for families currently living in the Lincoln Heights/Richardson Dwellings community.

Pentagon City Project Gets Restacked

Pentagon City's mega mixed-use project will get a mix-up to help it move forward. The Arlington County Board has approved a reallocation of density between two parcels in Pentagon City for stages 4-8 of the 8-phase Metropolitan Park. Originally slotted for 300 hotel units and 930 residential units (for Parcels 3 and 1D, respectively), the Board reallocation means the developers will have flexibility in determining where to build the 930 residential units and 300 hotel rooms. VNO Pentagon Plaza LLC previously received approval from the Arlington County Planning Commission in June. After the Board's July 11th approval, the process of drafting a site plan begins.

The two parcels in question are held by Vornado, which would sell the remaining portion of Parcel 3 to Kettler for the realization of Metropolitan Park's next stages. Vornado previously sold the part of Parcel 3, where phases 1-3, stand to Kettler. When Metropolitan Park's design guidelines were set in 2004, it called for 3,212 residential units on Parcel 3. The Pentagon City Phased Development Site Plan shortchanged Kettler, allotting 2,282 residential units and 300 hotel units. Through a little bit of density reallocation magic, Kettler can now have it's 3,212 residential units (2,282 + 930 = 3,212). That leaves Vornado with 300 hotel rooms to use, or not, on Parcel 1D, assuming the Metropolitan uses all 930 allocated residential units remaining.

The first stage of the massive development is bounded by 12th, 15th, Eads, and South Fern Streets. The Gramercy, pictured above, is a luxury rental high-rise building from Phase 1.

Waterfront Station 1 Tops Out in Southwest

Waterfront Station officially topped out today, and while that alone may be cause for celebration, backers must be more pleased that the office building is entirely leased. Once completed, the Southwest Washington, DC development - a joint venture between Forest City Washington, Vornado/Charles E. Smith and Bresler and Reiner, Inc. - will add 2.5 million square feet of office, residential and retail space to the former site of the Waterfront Mall at 4th and M Streets, SW.

District authorities, in particular, have reason to commemorate the project's construction milestone. City agencies, including the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Office of Planning, District Department of Transportation and Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, have already leased the entire 628,000 square feet of phase one’s Shalom Baranes-designed dual office buildings and are currently scheduled to move in once construction ends in March of 2010. The towers, which abut the Waterfront/SEU Metro station, will also include new space for the present Safeway, CVS and Bank of America locations on site, as well as an additional 85,000 square feet for restaurants and “neighborhood service-related” retail. Both buildings are aiming for a LEED silver certification. Clark Construction is currently serving as general contractor on the project.

Mayor Adrian Fenty, on hand to officiate the proceedings, also took time to wax nostalgic about his history with the project. “I’ve been the mayor for twenty-six months and ten days and I can tell you that this has been a priority of our administration for that entire time," he said. "I was on the City Council before that and I followed, as an interested appropriator, all of the discussions around Waterside Mall."

Meanwhile, Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells and Councilmember-at-Large Kwame Brown applauded the project for revitalizing a long-neglected Southwest site and proceeding as planned, despite the current state of the real estate market.

“I believe the financing [for this project] was closed on the day the Dow dropped 700 points [on September 29th, 2008]. This team saw it through,” said Wells. “You may see other cranes that have stopped working, other places that they stopped digging, but these guys are work because of this great development team.”

In between accolades, not much mention was a made of the development’s projected phase two component, which is intended to include nearly 1,000 residential units, along with more retail and office space, to fill Waterfront Station’s eventual 2.5 million square footprint. The current timeline calls for design work on the next phase of development to begin this coming May and Deborah Ratner Salzberg, President of Forest City Washington, Inc., was optimistic that the project will a be success based on its convenient location and the inroads made so far.

“People are going to come up from this Metro, they’re going to head home, they’re going head to school, they’re going to go to work and they’re going to shop. Waterfront Station will be an active retail hub,” said Salzberg.

Washington DC real estate development news

Vornado Hits Crystal City Again

Sticking with their strengths, Vornado/Charles E. Smith is recycling an old 13-story office building, turning it into a 19-story - you guessed it - "luxury tower" at 220 20th Street in Crystal City. Designed by global firms HOK Architecture and Dorsky Hodgson & Partners, 220 Twentieth Street will be a 270,000 s.f. mixed-use tower that will include 265 luxury rental apartments and 1,600 s.f. retail space at its completion in mid 2009. The developers will recycle the concrete structure of the old building while adding six floors, rebuilding the façade, systems, and interior space. “We’re thrilled to bring 220 20th Street to market. We believe this new sustainably-designed residential project will bring a sparkling new level of quality and visibility to the new Crystal City,” said Richard Smith, Senior Vice President of Development. Two blocks from the Crystal City Metro, developers say the project will be LEED Certified for such features as its water efficient landscaping, bike storage, and use of recycled material during construction, and that from the rooftop pool deck it will boast panoramic views of the planes touching down at Reagan National Airport, the not-too-distant District, and surrounding clusters of the vertical, but newly-walkable, neighborhood of Crystal City.The developers intention for the project was to bring more residents to Crystal City and “set a design standard” for the area. Modest goals, perhaps, but here's to hoping they succeed...

Arlington Virginia commercial real estate news

Crystal City Goes Metropolitan

While DC developers boast of the number of cranes in their neighborhood, Arlington residents are becoming more Metropolitan by far. At least in name, anyway, as Kettler moves into the next phase of its mega real estate project that borders Crystal City, Pentagon City, and Pentagon Row. The behemoth project has already delivered two 300-plus unit residential buildings, The Metropolitan at Pentagon City and The Metropolitan at Pentagon Row, in 2002 and 2005, a feat that would have earned satisfaction enough for many serious developers. But now Kettler continues to work on the remaining eight phases - 10 buildings - on 19.6 acres of real estate within eyesight of the District. The whole site is bounded by 12th, 15th, Eads, and South Fern Streets. The next of the remaining eight phases, The Millennium at Metropolitan Park, will include 300 rental apartments and 8,100 s.f. of retail, potentially with a restaurant. 

The goal of the project was to contribute to the "vertical communities" in the area, a response to the demand for luxury apartment housing in transit-friendly areas and a contribution to the towering architecture of Crystal and Pentagon City residential developments - a Virginia-style Co-Op City. Kettler had been leasing the land from Vornado, and purchased the first eleven acres in Pentagon City in May 2007 for $104.4 million. Kettler will eventually pay $220.4 million for the entire soon-to-be shadow-casting site. Currently on the lot is The Gramercy (Phase I), six warehouses for demolition, and a lot of empty space. "With the projected job growth in Arlington, there is current and future demand for housing in communities with high-end finishes and amenities as well as existing neighborhood-serving retail projects,” said Cassie Cataline, Vice President of Communications for Kettler. The nineteen-story "luxury" building referred to as a "signature project" for the developer was designed by HOK architects and Cleveland-based Dorsky Hodgson Parrish Yue and will deliver in winter 2009, bringing with it the majority of a 2.5 acre park the eight buildings will eventually surround. The 300 foot long Millennium building will face the park and have a three-story glass lobby to allow those on the other side of the building to glimpse the park. "The goal for the second phase was to make it compatible, but distinct and more contemporary. It has a unique position because it faces the park directly rather than being perpendicular to it like the other buildings," said Sandy Silverman, Partner for the project at Dorsky Hodgson Parrish Yue. "Met Two fits in in the sense that it has similar masonry materials and color pallet, but it's cleaner, simpler. The development is like the Battery Park City complex, it's a community but it has a large-scale guideline to bring it together," Silverman said. The name of phase three has yet to be determined - long shot, but we're guessing it will be "The Metropolitan" - it will also reach nineteen stories with rental apartments and retail, this time 410 units and 16,000 s.f., respectively. Also designed by Dorsky Hodgson Parrish Yue, delivery is scheduled for spring 2011. 

Phases four through eight will bring an additional 1,000-2,000 residential units, but because their delivery is so far in the future, the developers will let the market determine the unit types, whether they be apartments, condominiums, or hotels. Design on phase four will begin next year and it will be another ten to fifteen years before we see the final phase. What's with the repetitive names? "It’s about branding and marketing and building a strong identity for our high-end urban apartment series," Cataline said. The Gramercy at Metropolitan Park, part one of the eight, is a retail and residential eighteen- story building that opened in October 2007. The building included 399 rental apartments as well as 11,000 s.f. of retail space. “This location is served by two metro stations (Crystal City and Pentagon City), VRE and National airport as well as potential ferry service; it is at the convergence of virtually every major commuter route into Washington, DC.,” said Cataline.

Arlington Virginia commercial real estate news