Today in Pictures - Metro's New Offices

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and Jair Lynch Real Estate Partners are jointly developing an office building adjacent to L'Enfant Plaza, a project that gutted and skinned a dated office building, and add 3 new floors to the 7-story skeleton.  When completed in late 2021, the project will serve as the new headquarters for the transit organization, which is being relocated from 5th Street, NW, part of its consolidation plan into a 200,000 s.f. building.

Project:  WMATA Headquarters

Address:  300 7th St., SW, Washington DC

Developer:  Jair Lynch

Architect:  Studios Architecture

Construction:  Gilbane Building Company

Use:  200,000 s.f. of office space

Expected Completion:  Q4 2021

Clark Realty Requests Revision with WMATA's Tenley Property

Yet another version of the redeveloped Safeway in Tenleytown could be in the works if the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority Board approves a proposal to sell an adjacent .25-acre site to Clark Realty Capital. Clark offered to purchase the "chiller site" as an addition to the Safeway redevelopment plan that includes residential units above the new grocery store.

For WMATA, the purchase is a chance to repurpose underutilized land, get a new air conditioning unit for two Metro stations, and possibly bank extra cash. If the sale goes through, Clark will develop the land and put a new chiller plant in the building. The air conditioner for the Friendship Heights and Tenleytown Metro stations is already about halfway through its 20-year life cycle.

“This is an opportunity for us to get some value from the real estate holdings while improving our service,” said Steve Teitelbaum, senior real estate adviser at WMATA.

For Clark, purchasing the extra land means a continuous street front on Wisconsin Avenue and more space for development by increasing the lot to 2.75 acres from the roughly 2.5 acres it now covers. Clark's John Sunter said additional residential or retail space will be created "generally in proportion to the increased size of the site."

Current plans show four floors of residential space above the new Safeway on 42nd Street. Both the lot and the building slope back toward 43rd Street. Other residential units include townhouses and free-standing houses around the property. Sunter said the team is working on revised plans using the WMATA lot and that they "look forward to sharing any changes with the community at the appropriate time."

Elevation along Davenport Street

Redevelopment of the Safeway site has been a hot topic for some time now. Clark, Safeway and Torti Gallas presented revised plans in January to mixed reactions from residents. Among the concerns were issues of height and density in the primarily single-family community. Another presentation in March showed height reduced by one story, among other alterations.

Jonathan Bender, chairman of Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 3E, said that while some residents' concerns were addressed in the revised plans, there still was room for improvement regarding the impact of increased density on the community.

"I, and I believe most of my fellow commissioners, do not object per se to the level of density Safeway/Clark proposes," he said in an email response. "Instead, several of us are concerned that Safeway has not committed to the steps necessary to minimize the burden that such density could occasion. Perhaps the biggest concern is parking in the neighborhood."

He said the ANC has asked that the new residents be ineligible for Residential Parking Permits (RPPs). The project is intended to encourage public transportation in lieu of using personal vehicles.

But the ANC likely would support using the WMATA site, especially if it facilitates the incorporation of other ANC suggestions.

"I and other commissioners actually suggested that Safeway/Clark look into purchasing this property long before we knew they had been talking about doing so with WMATA, and perhaps before they actually had done so," Bender said. "I would especially like to see the WMATA plot used in part for additional retail offerings and enhancements to the streetscape."

The WMATA board will vote on the sale proposal April 26.

Washington, D.C. real estate development news

Streetcar Plan To Boost District Real Estate Values by $8 Billion, District's Chief Planner Says

The District's ambitious plan to restart its streetcar network will cost $1.5 billion -- but could pay for itself more than fivefold with increased property values, more jobs and development along the 37 miles of planned streetcar lines, says Harriet Tregoning, the District's chief planning officer.

Tregoning unveiled the Streetcar Land Use Study and her office's number crunching session today at a smart-growth planning session at the National Building Museum. "It's really our transportation infrastructure that shapes our development," said Tregoning, noting that the District has earmarked $100 million in capital funding for the development and building of the eight-line streetcar expansion. Already the District has two lines under construction, one in Anacostia and the other on H Street NE, where more than two miles of tracks have been laid as part of a Great Streets revitalization. The District recently agreed to expand service over the H Street "Hopscotch" Bridge to connect the streetcar system with Union Station and to buy two more cars in addition to the three in storage in Greenbelt. Both lines are expected to begin limited service starting in mid-2013 with some on-rail non-revenue testing of the Skoda-Inekon-built cars beginning this year, Tregoning said.

While much of the grunt-work and operational details are being handled by the District Department of Transportation, its been up to the Office of Planning to detail the 30,000-foot view of the impact to the city as a whole, if the District can return a city-wide network of streetcars, similar to what existed for nearly 100 years up until January 1962, when the last streetcar rolled on a revenue run.

The Office of Planning's study showed that the current $100 billion values of District properties would increase by as much as $ 5 billion to $7 billion over ten years as the plan is completed and would attract investment of $5 billion to $8 billion during the same period. That might allow the District to sell $600 million to $900 million in bonds paid for the by the new revenue, the study claims.

"The streetcar's visibility and permanence will attract private real estate investment," she said, echoing a line long argued by streetcar proponents. "You don't have to worry about the route changing like you do with buses," Tregoning said in a pitch to potential real estate investors in the 100-person audience. "Please look at these corridors for your strategic acquisitions."

While drilling deep into streetcar proponent's talking points, including improving access to schools, expanding an already growing "creative class" and reviving historic neighborhoods, Tregoning poured some cold water on calls for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), which would be cheaper and faster to get into service, saying they won't get the same bang-for-the-buck as streetcars. "BRT does not attract the same level of investment," she said.

Tregoning said that the Office of Planning estimated that the streetcar lines would add 5,000 to 12,000 additional households over ten years, above the increases already projected. That in turn would spur a further burst of retail, as 1,000 households typically support an expansion of 30,000 to 50,000 square-feet of shopping, equal to a large supermarket.

Tregoning however wouldn't answer questions on whether the ridership projections would be enough to pay for the operating costs of the system, or where the financing of the remaining $900 million-plus estimated to fully build out the system would come from. The federal government is always an option, but the study notes typically that the federal government funds only up to 50 percent of the project's cost and can add delays while the community waits for the feds to decide.

The District, according to the study, is counting on increased revenue from real estate development along the streetcar corridors to help finance future construction of the system. "We want to be able to finance the whole system," Tregoning said. That may take the help of the real estate development industry, which, she said, historically supported mass-transit systems as part of building new communities. "We are going to need private partners as well as public."

Washington D.C. real estate redevelopment news

Low Income Housing in Shaw Hits Snag Over "Air Rights"

The Lincoln-Westmoreland apartment complex expansion long slated for 7^th and R Streets NW, next to the Shaw metro station, is being held up by a land rights issue between Lincoln-Westmoreland Inc. and WMATA.
Construction of the 56-unit complex, owned by the Westmoreland Congregational Church (UCC) and designed by Shalom Baranes architects, necessitates the purchase of "air rights" for a small 400-square-foot sliver of land presently owned by WMATA. Lincoln-Westmoreland Inc. sold this sliver of land to WMATA in the Sixties for what Robert Agus, the owner’s representative and development manager for Lincoln-Westmoreland, describes as a “token fee” (“we basically gave it to them,” he says ruefully) but says WMATA is now holding out for “fair market value.”

In their defense, WMATA Director of Real Estate Steven Goldin said that Lincoln-Westmoreland is getting the same treatment everyone else gets. "We're required to ask for fair market value" Goldin said. "It's FTA (Federal Transit Administration) regulations." WMATA can't sell the parcel outright because it contains an important access hatch to an underground section of the Shaw-Howard metro structure.

Phase one of the construction project – a $9 million renovation of the existing ten-story, 198 unit property – is complete, and Lincoln-Westmoreland is well into the planning process for the new structure, says Agus. Plans for the new complex include 3,100 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, as well as a significant expansion of the small greenspace located on the south end of the property. Developers also hope to build a playground at the north end of the complex, though the prospective site for this is a divided property co-owned by the District, which could cause problems.
As for funding, Lincoln-Westmoreland received NIS grants from the District to cover redevelopment costs, and expects to work with District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency (DCHFA) in early January to work out further financing. The units are expected to be leased at 30% - 60% AMI, the lowest income level designations. A majority of the original 108-unit building is dedicated to Section 8 housing.

The several blocks including and surrounding the project were devastated during the '68 riots and were redeveloped as affordable housing in the early 1970's.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Mill Creek Begins Dunn Loring Metro Development

Six years after Mill Creek Residential Trust was selected by WMATA to develop 15 acres of land surrounding the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro stop in Vienna, Va., construction has finally begun, with the first component of the development to be a 250-unit apartment building.

In 2005, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and MCRT completed a development agreement outlining a plan to build 628 apartment units (3 buildings), significant retail space including a 50,000 s.f. Harris Teeter, and a 2,000-space parking garage to consolidate the 1,355 spots now spread across a surface parking lot on site. MCRT has committed to 65,000 s.f. of retail but has the option to build another 60,000 s.f.

As reported by the Washington Post, MCRT secured a construction loan from Pacific Life Insurance Co. a month ago (August 8th), allowing the first phase of the development's estimated 4-year-long construction timeline to get underway.




Virginia real estate development news

Ft. Totten: Hanging Tough, or Just Hanging?

Being on top of a Metro station means that real estate development and rising property values are a given; or so goes the axiom. More so if that Metro line is vermilion and close to downtown. Ft. Totten is proving the exception, with neighborhood-transforming projects sidelined, and now a distressed apartment sale shows why developers have held off.

Despite Ft. Totten's 3 Metro lines (Green, Yellow, Red), its bike trail, its local parks, its juxtaposition at several major traffic arteries and ample developable land, developers have balked at building out what seems on paper to be a model of transit-oriented, mixed-use development.

Clark Realty Capital, the only developer to have built on the site, demonstrated the hazards of pioneering, having recently lost its 5.6 acre property in a distress sale to Greystar, which paid $55m for Fort Totten Station (Greystar also snapped up 909, Axiom, Jefferson at Capitol Yards, all near the ballpark, and Jefferson at Thomas Circle.) Clark had completed the project in late 2007 after obtaining a $47m financing loan in 2006 plus a ground lease from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, but had gotten several foreclosure notices late last year. At the time, Clark called the project "the anchor for a comprehensive revitalization plan for the Fort Totten Metro site...the first of several developments planned for the Fort Totten neighborhood," but hedged its bets with little retail space and low budget architecture.

Clark's vision might still come true, but not soon. The few single family homes in the area sell (after a while) for around $200,000, and commerce is all but forgotten. The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation and Lowe Enterprises, the two biggest private landowners in the area, have both iced plans for development. Representatives of Cafritz refused to speak about their project, and a representative of Lowe would say only that the project has been "put to the back burner." An Urban Land Institute (ULI) study in 2009 (sponsored by WMATA) noted that the project is "a mere 3.5 miles from the U.S. Capitol" but that "the Fort Totten market will support calls for smaller, more affordable units, and basically allow only for wood-frame construction."

If anyone sees opportunity in Fort Totten, it is WMATA. The publicly chartered organization still owns 9.3 acres around the Metro station (on top of the 5.6 it leased to Clark), and can't afford the pessimism of a private developer. The transit agency has been pushing for the past several years for Ft. Totten to be a different kind of example, one that showcases revised concepts of transportation planning, and has been working to corral developers to integrate plans, so that the individual pieces are built in some semblance of an organized whole.

Foremost among those pieces are Cafritz's Art Place and Shops at Fort Totten, 2 million s.f. with a mixture of community-serving retail, residential (over 1200 units) and arts and cultural space to house arts promoters like The Washington National Opera. Cafritz expected to begin construction in the first half of 2010.

The Lowe team (with partners Jack Sophie Development and City Partners Development, and now JBG too) was to include 898 residential units on 9 acres of land (see rendering below right), and was to have preceded Cafritz. Together the projects would have added more than 200,000 s.f. of retail space. But if its clear that projects need to be coordinated, its also clear that the area cannot yet support that much development, at least to its financiers.

Laura Cole, an executive with RCLCO and formerly head of ULI when it issued its Fort Totten study, says that there's a gap between what a financier would typically support and what might work for the area. Cole notes that a financial institution will require traditional parking-to-apartment ratios, a model that is simply too expensive for a neighborhood like Fort Totten, and sites the DC USA site as a model of overbuilt parking requirements.

WMATA is attempting to change that philosophy, and followed up with another study in 2010 with urban development planner Parsons Brinckerhoff. Nat Bottigheimer, Assistant General Manager for Planning at WMATA, seconds Cole's assessment of the financial inviability of traditional notions of housing development, but is also keen to change the way planners see parking in general. Bottigheimer's vision for the undeveloped site is a communal approach to parking, where evening uses (for residents) piggyback on daytime uses (office and retail). "We should experiment with a kind of residential building that doesn't reserve spaces for cars, the building might provide 50 or 75 shared spaces instead of 150 dedicated parking spaces...[y]ou don't want to be just doing standard models, you also want to push the envelope as a public agency to promote the achievement of these public goals that we're in business to support." Hence the ULI report.

"We don't want to find out that we've built adequate parking, and others have developed theirs, and together we all contribute more than the necessary amount of parking...but that requires alot of coordination with other property owners to come up with an overall development plan." Bottigheimer pleads the case for a concept he admits is an "untested product in this market," but points out that "it costs $40,000 per space to build...more than a vehicle. Most of these are just car storage spaces, there's got to be an efficiency to provide a better system than we have now."

While WMATA has no specific plans for its own property, and can't force other developers to abide, it still has an influential voice at the District's Office of Planning. "We will collaborate with the District to get the kind of development that makes sense for the area" says Bottigheimer...we need to do more research with the development community to see how this could work." Admirable as that may be, it still requires developers to invest in an area that now is 0 for 1. At least WMATA seems intent to keep trying. Says Bottigheimer, "all options are open."

Washington D.C. retail and commercial real estate news

Rosslyn's New Metro

Construction on Rosslyn's Metro upgrade will begin this month, adding a new entrance to handle Rosslyn's growing pull on the region, already crowded Metro station, and increasingly taller and denser neighborhood. The Metro station is already Virginia's busiest, with numbers likely to rise in proportion to Rosslyn's ongoing office and residential projects.

An official start date is not yet known, but Arlington officials expect work to commence by late October for a project that will replace the single slow-motion elevator with 3 high-speed elevators, a stairwell, and new entrance mezzanine at platform level. Arlington officials say they see the project as a boon to Rosslyn's development, increasing the capacity on the currently strained infrastructure with a redundancy that will not only handle rising traffic flows (now 36,000 daily), but eliminate the need for transfer buses and rerouting when the single elevator is shut down.
Designed entirely by WMATA and built by Clark Construction, the elevator bank will sit on North Moore Street just to the north of the existing elevator - on land owned by WMATA and by JBG, which intends to build its stalled Central Place project. JBG has granted an easement to Arlington for construction of the shafts. Arlington has authorized $35m in funding for the Metro addition, which it will build and manage until completion, at which point it will turn over the property to WMATA. The completed elevators will empty near the bottom of the existing escalators, creating a small new walkway - same ruddy octagonal tiles - to enter into the platform.

Construction is expected to be complete by early 2013, and will contribute to an intensive downtown construction schedule, coinciding with the start of construction at Monday Property's 1812 N. Moore St, work on which is expected to start immediately.
Arlington Virginia real estate development news

The Giant Mess of Greenbelt Station

If it continues on its current course, the planned, $2 billion Greenbelt Station development may well go down as one of the biggest - though certainly one of many - debacles of mixed-use, high-density construction in the region.

Greenbelt Station is the brainchild of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and the late A.H. Smith Jr. whose estate still owns most of the land that hugs the beltway just south of where I-95 blends into the beltway.

It was Smith's father who first began mining the land around the (then) rail road tracks in 1916 and created the asphalt plants that supplied the I-495 portion of the Capitol Beltway the raw materials that built it.

In 1996, WMATA announced that it would be redeveloping its part of the land adjacent to the Metro. Smith Jr. approached Metro about combining their efforts and creating a ginormous, high-density, townhouse and shopping development. Lessard Architectural Group was brought in to create a site plan, showing the nuts and bolts of how the separately-owned portions of the development could link together. And with that, the ill-fated Greenbelt Development was born.

For his part of the project, Smith took on a partner, developer Daniel Colton. Together they formed GB Development to develop the South Core and, until 2007, their townhouse/retail/multi-family residential project seemed to be on track for a 2008 groundbreaking. But then things got messy.

The development was supposed to be the apotheosis of a from-scratch, mixed-use community, with retail, entertainment, office space, hotel, and literally thousands of new homes in the heart of Prince George's County.

Designed by SK&I, the 240-acre parcel was to be split between a South Core of Pulte Homes townhouses and a North Core consisting of 2.3 million s.f. of office and retail space, plus 2,200 new homes. Built between neighborhoods where pickup trucks populate the driveways of unassuming one-story homes, and where there is no architecture to speak of, the development would replace a large mining operation still in use, a large surface parking lot, and at least some of the forested hills - with died-in-the-wool neocontemporary suburbanism at a Metro station.

But then everything that could go wrong, did. And today Greenbelt Station finds itself tangled in news of bankruptcy, allegations of fraud, dissolving partnerships, and inaction. Assistant Planning Director for the City of Greenbelt, Terri Hruby, tells DCMud that as far as she knows, the Smith portion of the development is "basically on hold," adding that to date "what's been approved has been a concept plan and one portion of the townhouse site plan. Another plan has been submitted, but hasn't gone anywhere."

In the northern part of Smith's parcel, Urban Design Supervisor Steve Adams, from the Prince George's County Planning Department, says that his department has "heard through the grapevine now and then about various commercial enterprises that might be trying to get something going in the northern part," but adds skeptically that, "nothing has come in to date."

Hruby speculates that "with the financial times being what they are," it's unlikely movement is going to happen in any part of the development any time soon and says that "there are still over-arching issues the developer needs to address." Like how to get someone to finance a gargantuan new suburban development project, for instance.

Bottom line: It's unclear if the developers even have the financing they need to move forward and they won't be getting a green light from planners unless they can make assurances that they are financially viable enough to follow through with road improvements and other existing land covenants.

This all brings us to the question: Who's developing this mixed-use masterpiece, anyway? On paper at least, the developer for the Smith parcel is Metropark LLC. But who are the entities behind Metropark? That's a question that leaves even city and county planning officials scratching their heads.

In December of 2007, Smith died at the age of 74, leaving the project jointly in the hands of his estate and with his business partner, Daniel Colton.

According to a 2008, WUSA News 9 Now report, Patrick Ricker, a developer working with Colton on the Greenbelt Station development, became the subject of an FBI raid aimed at high-level officials with ties to fancy development contracts. That same report revealed that Colton had once served time in prison for bank fraud and that the Greenbelt Station Development itself had also become part of the FBI's investigation.

After the fallout, Colton filed for bankruptcy in 2009, severed his ties to the project, and left the community at large even more exasperated and confused.

Hruby can tell us that original partner in the townhouse project south of the tracks, Pulte Homes, is now officially out of the project, but says that "there have been several town home developers and I don't know who the current players are."

Edward J. Murphy, Town Administrator for the adjacent Berwyn Heights community responded in much the same way, saying that as far as their town planners know, "the developer for the entire Smith project hasn't changed," but "the people that run the development have."

Murphy was equally fuzzy on details about who's now running Metropark LLC, which is not so surprising when you take into account that since 2006, at least nine different partners and LLC's have been cited as partners in the joint Smith-Metro Greenbelt Station project.

Now it's time for some more bad news: the saga over the Smith family parcel is matched on the WMATA land, where developers are suing Metro for backing out on an agreement that would have allowed Greenbelt Ventures the rights to develop the Greenbelt Station Towne Centre.

For its part, WMATA representatives have failed to respond to DCMud's inquiries into where its part of the development stands now. When a public agency won't return your phone call about very public project, assume the worst.

Maryland Real Estate and Development News

Banneker Ventures Questioned on Development Process

Pressure on Mayor Adrian Fenty heated up today as questions increased about the Mayor's developer selection process amid news that WMATA may be backing away from Banneker Ventures as a development partner. Banneker has been awarded numerous projects worth tens of millions of dollars by the Mayor's office despite its perceived lack of development experience.

Today, the WMATA board removed the Banneker project "The Jazz @ Florida Avenue" at 8th and Florida Avenue from the agenda for the real estate committee next Thursday, at which time it would have taken-up a joint development agreement for the WMATA-owned property. Today's move comes after WMATA issued a 120-day extension on the agreement in September 2009. Banneker was chosen for the project in June of 2008, but has not yet started work on the site. More than a year later it announced it would partner with Bank of America and had petitioned for government funds, advances that were to have moved the project forward. The developer had already been pledged a $7m TIF grant from the District.

The move by WMATA likely comes in response to questions raised first by this publication about justification for awarding so many projects to a team with so little apparent experience, then by the CityPaper and Washington Post about the how the relationship between Banneker's founder and D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty may have affected the selection process. The two men attended Howard University and were in the same fraternity.

In addition to the WMATA site on Florida Avenue, the virtually unknown Banneker has been selected by the District on numerous multi-million dollar projects throughout the city, despite a large roster of construction and development firms available for such projects as private financing for construction was drying up. Banneker's luck began in late 2007 when it was selected by the District to be part of the $700 million Northwest One project. Around the same time, Banneker was named as a master planner on the monstrous Park Morton project (see DC's summary). Despite lack of movement in those two projects, or on its private projects (see more below) it was then selected for a string of projects such as the WMATA site in June of 2008, and by DC for the iconic Strand Theater in July of that year, then in October to head the $33m Deanwood Community Center project. In October of last year the District named Landex Corp, Spectrum Management and the Warrenton Group as developers of Park Morton. The Warrenton Group is run by a former Banneker member that has also had a contentious relationship with the city.

Park Morton raised eyebrows at the Mayor's development process for yet another reason; the District announced just last October that the Mayor had selected its team members for Park Morton in part because that development team said it controlled and would bring the Central Union Mission site into the development plan, increasing its scope. DCMud learned a few days later that the Missions' owners had never agreed to transfer their property to the development team, calling into question the District's selection process and the claims made by the development team to secure the project. Banneker is also being considered for its development offer at Hill East, a massive 50-acre parcel on the Anacostia River. Banneker's publicly-funded projects at the WMATA site, the Strand, Park Morton have yet to break ground.

In a contentious radio interview on the Kojo Nnamdi show following the announcement, Omar Karim, founder and principal at Banneker Ventures, called out the WMATA board for further delaying review of the agreement on the RFP awarded in 2008. In the interview, Karim, who dismissed suggestions that the board had legitimate concerns, argued that WMATA continued to "move the bar" on his project for "political" reasons. The Jazz @ Florida Avenue would theoretically bring 124 apartment units above 20,000 s.f. of ground floor retail and a 61-space parking garage to 3 flea market-sporting lots.

Tom Sherwood, resident analyst at NPR, asked Karim how many contracts he had received prior to Fenty taking office, to which Sherwood ultimately answered his own question with "none." Asked specifically about his experience, Karim answered that he had solid development experience at a large firm prior to starting Banneker, but would not name the firm or elaborate on the experience. As for Banneker's experience, Karim could only cite that his firm held an office building in Silver Spring and an unspecified site in which he "has been in conversations with Safeway about developing." At the time of publication, Safeway was unable to confirm or deny these conversations.

So what about that Silver Spring office building? That would presumably be 814 Thayer Avenue. Banneker purchased the site in May of 2006, submitted plans later in the year, and in July 2007 obtained Montgomery County Planning Board approval of a preliminary plan for a 52-unit residential building, a plan that was reviewed in November of 2007. The next step would be site plan approval, but, to date, the team has not even submitted a site plan to the planning staff for certification. Banneker will need a certified plan before the group can file for any construction permits for the property, making the September 2010 ground breaking date seem, at best, optimistic.

The 5-story Thayer project, designed by Sorg & Associates, would entail construction of a 53-unit condominium, in place of National Association of the Deaf office building. Joshua Sloan, a staff reviewer at the MNCPPC, provided an update on the project, "my understanding is that they want to amend their proposal, but I have not seen anything. I suppose it is "officially still pending." Sloan and his comments are the last stop before Banneker can proceed, a process which "can take a week or a year...depending on the Applicant’s response time to comments."

Banneker's website also boasts the Pattern Shop Lofts on the Waterfront, a project led by Forest City Washington that has not yet broken ground. Banneker registered with the District government as a small, minority-owned business in 2005.

Washington, DC real estate development news

Making Metro Pretty(ish)

Two metro stations will soon get a much needed touch of culture when the public art, approved at Thursday's Metro Board of Directors meeting, is installed. Farragut West and Takoma Metro stations will get new art installations as Metro tries to encourage ridership, make the commute a little less drab and support the arts.

The south entrance of Farragut West (17th and I Streets NW) will get its cultural infusion from artist Michael Sirvet, whose work was recently featured in DC's Artomatic. The artist designed low-relief "botanically inspired" aluminum and LED light sculptures to light the walls at the top of the escalator. The art at Farragut West will be funded by the DC Arts Commission and the Golden Triangle BID, WMATA will pay for upkeep.


The Takoma art work will be on display at the Metro's underpass. Artist Sam Gilliam created an abstract mosaic tile mural, which the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities will fund and donate to WMATA. There will be no costs to metro for the upkeep of the Takoma installation. Metro worked with the partner organizations to select the winning pieces that will be featured in the District.

Washington DC real estate development news

Transforming Tysons?

Fairfax planners want to flip the image you have of Tysons Corner on its head, transforming a commercial district with acres of traffic, where cars are a must, into a pedestrian friendly, mixed-use residential zone with less congestion and more public transit. In the most recent Tysons Corner Urban Center Draft Plan, planners detail how they will accomplish this makeover, hoping to piggyback on the four planned metro stops on the Silver Line that will fall within the Tysons environs. The plans are ambitious, but then the County is giving itself a forty year time frame for implementing these new strategies.

Today's Tysons has over 100,000 jobs but only 17,000 residents, which translates into Tysons' ubiquitous traffic. Planners hope that encouraging high density mixed-use development within walking distance of future metro stations will mean 100,000 residents and 200,000 jobs, or four jobs per household rather than the current ration of almost 6 to 1. Brian Worthy, Public Information Officer for Fairfax, said the goal is to "make [Tysons] a real place and not just a suburban office park."

The new proposed standards include maximum floor-area ratio (FAR) of 4.75 within one-eighth of a mile of the Metro stop and should be "developed primarily with multi-family housing." In the transit-oriented districts, planners recommend phasing the intensity, so developments from the one-eighth mark to the one-fourth mark will be allowed an FAR of 2.75 and those developments in the one-fourth to one-half mile mark a 2.0 FAR. The greater density closer to the metro would theoretically reduce car usage.

Slightly contentious elements of the draft plan are the proposed density bonuses for developers willing to build to LEED standards. Green bonuses come on top of more traditional bonuses for affordable housing or open public space. "For example, if a developer obtained a 20 percent density bonus for offering 20 percent affordable housing, the additional bonus for LEED certification would be for 10 percent of the resulting density cap, for a total bonus of 32 percent." Some think that's pretty dense - especially when you consider the initial 4.75 FAR. To put it in perspective in the"core area" of Tysons where you find Tysons Corner Center and Galleria at Tysons, the current FAR ranges from 1.0 to 1.65. But Worthy said "density really is the key incentive for development." Worthy added the community has been involved from the beginning in the vision and planning process; the public has had and will continue to have ample opportunity to give feedback on the plan.

To deal with the congestion and car-laden roads, planners suggest reworking superblocks to create a grid system with more streets and to improve connections to major transitways. The draft also recommends creating a new circulator system and local bus routes to serve the Tysons area. The plan suggests creating multi-modal hubs near the metro stations that offer car sharing, bike storage and bus service to allow residents to get to and from their destinations without cars. Just last month the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors authorized the Department of Transportation to apply for a grant from the Federal Transit Administration to support an Urban Circulator Program.

At next week's Planning Commission, Tysons Committee meeting staff will present the Draft Zoning Ordinance Amendment and the Tysons Task Force will provide comments on the Draft Plan Amendment. The public will have two opportunities to comment on the plan, on March 11th and 17th. Worthy said tentatively the Board of Supervisors could approve the plan as soon as this spring. From that point, "it's up to the developers and the market to take advantage of the opportunities" available in Tysons.

Tysons Corner real estate development news