Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Georgia Avenue Parcel and Plans Up for Sale
JBG Plots a Mixed-Use Future in Tysons
Labels: JBG Companies, MV+A Architects, Tysons Corner
Dubbed the Tysons West Promenade, JBGR has taken on MV+A Architects to re-conceptualize the former Moore Hummer/Cadillac dealership at 8595 Leesburg Pike – directly across from the Tysons mall and less a thousand feet from the planned Tysons West Metro (now scheduled - in pencil - for a 2013 grand opening). Following demolition of the showroom and single-story structures currently on site, the multi-phase development will kick off with new construction in the form of a 250,000 square feet of retail and office complex, along with a pedestrian plaza and 1150 parking spaces. The only remnant of the site’s gas-guzzling past is to be the dealership’s 6-story parking garage, which JBGR plans to retain.
Phase I of development only scratches the surface of the development team’s vision for the property; current plans for a future second phase call for another million square feet of office, residential and hotel development. James J. Garibaldi, Jr., a Principal with JBGR, told Fairfax County’s Tysons Land Use Task Force in May that the “the site offers a remarkable opportunity for redevelopment into a pedestrian friendly, mixed-use, transit-oriented development in keeping with the goals and planning principles espoused by the [County].”
That redevelopment, however, will have to wait as JBGR reformulates their Promenade site plan. According to Brian Worthy of the Fairfax County Office of Public Affairs:
"The developer...had submitted a site plan to the County. That site plan was recently disapproved...because of concerns about grading along Route 7 not conforming with the work that's going to be happening there in anticipation of Metro. There were also some issues about how they were going to preserve trees on site and nearby...but the developer may be resubmitting their plan."JBGR representatives declined DCmud's requests for comment on the current status of the project. Enquiring minds, however, will be able to investigate the developer’s plans for themselves this May 17th through 20th at RECon: the Global Real Estate Convention in Las Vegas, where the team will be showcasing a scale model of the Promenade.
Dunbar Place Schedules Start Date
Years of planning appear to be paying off for the for NoMa corridor. As other District projects see their timelines extended ad infinitum in the face of market declines, development in the neighborhood surrounding Union Station are managing to stay on track and spawn secondary projects to boot.
One such project is Thoron Development’s Dunbar Place development, which will occupy the former site of six rowhouses at 1322-1330 North Capitol Street and 7 Hanover Place, NW. Despite receiving initial approval in May of 2008 and projecting a late 2009 completion, Thoron’s Robert T. Taylor now tells DCmud that construction will be underway by sometime in “March or April.” Once completed, Dunbar Place will top out at five stories and offer 29 new condominiums (along with ground level green space and a rooftop deck) to the North Capitol corridor.
Other projects currently underway in NoMa include Northwest One (part of which will be constructed at the site of the recently demolished Temple Court housing complex), the Washington Center’s intern dormitory at Third and K Streets, NE, and the Cohen Companies’ Union Place at the very same intersection.
Washington DC real estate development news
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Bethesda's First New Apartments of 2009
Monday, March 09, 2009
St. Elizabeths Gets the Green Thumbs Up
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.”
Friday, March 06, 2009
Midtown Silver Spring Bides its Time
Labels: Home Properties, Kettler, Ripley District, Silver Spring, WDG Architecture
Double BZA Approvals on the SE Waterfront
The first round of approvals centered on Akridge’s Half Street development a block from Nationals Park. Despite a ceasefire in legal wrangling between the Akridge, neighboring developers Monument Realty and WMATA, construction on the 704,000 square foot development – which is slated to include dual office towers, a 300-unit residential building, 75,000 square feet of retail and an open-air marketplace/plaza – has yet to formally commence. The BZA’s approval clears the way for that to change, as Akridge can now clear and prep the site for its planned 2010 start date.
In a concurrent development, the BZA also consented to Forest City Washington’s plans for a second phase of construction at the so-called Yards Park. Those plans call for more than 35,000 square feet of new retail on the site, half of which will be culled from a renovation of the historic, pre-war “Lumber Shed” at M Street and New Jersey Avenue, SE. The development will also include the beginnings of a Capitol Riverfront boardwalk – the highlight of which is scheduled to be a 60-foot stainless steel monument designed by James Carpenter Design Associates. The National Capital Planning Commission previously approved the same development early last month; work on the project’s first phase, a 5.5-acre public park is already under way.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Dual MoCo Apartments Headed for Approval
Labels: Bethesda, MNCPPC, new apartments, Silver Spring
Located between Fairmont and St. Elmo’s Avenues in the Woodmont Triangle area of Bethesda, the 17-story (!), SK&I-designed Monty will usurp the present two and three-story storefronts on site, only to replace them with up to 200 residential units, 7,700 square feet of ground floor retail and a 5,500 square foot public plaza. Developer Monty, LLC - who received previously received Board approval in early 2008 to nearly double the number of units contained in the project at the expense of once expansive floorplans - will dedicate 20 the said apartments to affordable housing.
Meanwhile, in Silver Spring, developer Theo Margas’ Bonifant Plaza project will be moving ahead with its planned 115,000 square foot, AR Meyer & Associates design. Sporting 72 rental apartments – 9 of which will be affordable – Bonifant Plaza will stand on the so-named Bonifant Street – a site, coincidentally, within earshot of the MCPB offices in downtown Silver Spring. Margas told DCmud in January that the meeting will be “only for the budget plan” for the Bonifant, but expects the approval to solidify a timeline for the project, which has been in development since at least 2006.
As of this writing, both projects have been earmarked for approval by MCPB staff – an opinion that the Board itself rarely dissents against.
Prospects Announced for Park Morton
Labels: Affordable Housing, Georgia Avenue, Neighborhood Development Company, Neil Albert, Park Morton, Petworth
The teams named by Albert are the Park Morton Partners (Pennrose Properties, LLC, FM Atlantic, LLC, and Harrison Adaoha, LLC); another Park Morton Partners (Neighborhood Development Company and Community Builders, Inc.); and, lastly, Park View Partners (Landex Corp., Warrenton Group and Spectrum Management).
"We need a partner that [is] capable of more than just building housing,” said Albert in a prepared statement. “We are looking for someone who is committed to building a healthier, safer new community. This response, especially in light of the current economic conditions, speaks volumes about the value of this opportunity.”
The Park Morton project was greenlighted under the of the New Communities initiative – a District-led program to transform blighted public housing complexes into “mixed-use, mixed-income communities." Other such developments targeted for redevelopment by the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (ODMPED) include the long-gestating Northwest One, Barry Farm and the Lincoln Heights/Richardson Dwellings in Northeast.
According ODMPED, the bidding development teams will make public presentations regarding this plans for Park Morton at an unscheduled time “later this spring.”
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
First Look at the New Whitman-Walker Site
Labels: 14th Street, JBG Companies, Shalom Baranes Architects
Update: JBG is currently projecting that the 120,000 square foot 14th Street project will feature between 130 - 140 units, in addition to 18,000 square feet of retail .
SE Development Parcel Up for Grabs
Monday, March 02, 2009
JBG to Build 4-Star Hotel on U Street
Labels: 14th Street, David M Schwarz Architects, hotel, JBG Companies, U Street
Currently under design by David M. Schwarz Architects, the JBG-developed hotel looks to revitalize the Rite Aid site with a four-star, "boutique and independently managed" hotel that could include as many as 250 guestrooms, 4,500 square feet of conference space and a robust 23,000 square feet of retail. Though still in the planning stages, JBG has presented the Cardozo-Shaw Neighborhood Association (CSNA) with a tentative outline of their plans for the development, which include “a signature restaurant,” rooftop bar, swimming pool, full-service neighborhood gym, a publicly accessible arts component and requisite LEED Silver certification. Fancy accoutrements aside, JBG isn’t entirely forsaking the parcel’s past; the local Rite Aid will remain, albeit in an updated and reconfigured space. Gone, however, are tentative plans to add condos to the top floors.
JBG has yet to formally partner with a hotelier for the project – though the smart money’s on Marriott International, with whom they’ve partnered for a host of metro area co-developments. According to a statement from the CSNA, in the coming weeks JBG will “continue to participate and host community meetings with project neighbors, CSNA, ANC 1B, and other government officials, boards, and agencies, including the DC Historic Preservation Review Board and the DC Zoning Commission.” JBG will make good on that pledge, in conjunction with the CSNA, when they make the first public presentation regarding the hotel at 1835 14th Street, NW on Thursday, March 12 at 7 PM. Despite slowing their residential developmnet profile, JBG also just received HPRB approval just 3 blocks away at 1800 14th St., for a large residential building.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Eden Comes to Adams Morgan
Labels: Adams Morgan, Bonstra Haresign Architects, DB Lee
Southeast DC Hospital Set for Mixed-Use Expansion
Labels: Beyer Blinder Belle, Hord Coplan Macht, Perkins Will, RTKL, Southeast
Thursday, February 26, 2009
JBG’s Whitman-Walker Revamp Approved
Labels: 14th Street, JBG Companies, Shalom Baranes Architects
Following a December denial from the HPRB, JBG this month presented revised conceptualizations to the Cardozo Shaw Neighborhood Association (CSNA), who previously voiced concerns –along with the Board of Zoning Adjustment, ANC 2B, Dupont Circle Conservancy and local residents - about the project's design and accessibility.
"The previously proposed large glass facade would overlook a very busy and noisy 14th street - and its useful to note that several busy establishments, including the Black Cat nightclub, are directly across 14th Street. On paper, the use of glass was creative and may look nice, but the real life application and impact of so much glass is the creation of a sounding board for street noise,” said CSNA President Bryan Martin Firvida, following this morning’s approval. “There was [also] the general feeling that the November 2008 plans displayed a poor connection between the old and new buildings. This was addressed by JBG in the current plans by different use of masonry and a complimentary vertical design."JBG’s initial plans call for the 7-story residential building to measure in at 120,000 square feet with a sizable base of ground-level retail and “high design, efficient [residential] units." The as-yet untitled development could still hit its targeted groundbreaking date of late fall 2009, and the project remains scheduled for a 2011 completion – a date the CSNA looks forward to seeing
"It’s always exciting to see another project move forward in the U Street neighborhood, especially with a developer that is committed to working with the neighborhood throughout the life of the project,” said Martin Firvida. “Ultimately, this project will bring new residents, new activity, and a new experience to the west side of 14th Street. Where we currently have a mix of buildings and parking lots, we'll have a full block of daily activity and life.”
Three Teams Compete in SW Fire Sale
Labels: Adams Investment Group, Beyer Blinder Belle, Chapman Development, City Partners, CSG Urban Partners, Gensler Architects, Southwest, Trammell Crow Companies
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Another Addition to Affordable Arlington
Labels: Affordable Housing, Arlington, Harkins Builders, Wiencek + Associates