Adams Morgan Renovation Yields New Apartments

Everything old is new again, especially in Adams Morgan. In a timely full-circle, yet another of Adams Morgan's numerous Depression-era apartment buildings will be getting a full makeover in the coming months...just as we coincidentally circle the drain of our own financial crisis.

Starting next month, Ellis Denning Construction and Development will begin a $2 million renovation of Urban Investment Partners' (UIP) six-story rental apartment building at 1921 Kalorama Road, NW. Kunal Shah, Purchasing Manager/Estimator at Ellis Denning tells DCmud that the each of the building's 59 units will be receiving a top-to-bottom facelift with new kitchens, bathrooms, flooring, finishes and paint jobs (now lead-free!).

Ellis will be overseeing the selective demolition of certain internal portions of the aging building, from which they're planning to carve three new apartments out of the current 60,000-square foot plan.

In addition to Ellis, UIP has also taken on Bonstra Haresign Architects to design both the renovations and new construction. Given the structurally sensitive nature of the planned procedures, Shah declined to comment on a timeline for the project, but did note that only thirteen of the building's 60+ residents will be permitted to remain in the building once work begins.

The very same team of Ellis and Bonstra is currently at work on another nearby apartment complex at 2525 Ontario Road, NW, while Ellis has also paired with Hickock Cole Architects for a similar project at The Ritz at 1631 Euclid Street, NW. Both of those developments are owned by affordable housing provider Jubilee Housing, Inc.

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

Montgomery Mall Expansion Set for Summer

The expansion of Bethesda’s Montgomery Mall, previously approved by the Montgomery County Planning Board in 2007, will now proceed as early as July. Mall owners the Westfield Group have targeted 200,000 square feet of space in the 40-year-old mall, including the present movie theater on site, for selective demolition, along with the neighboring Westlake Crossing shopping center. In its stead, Westfield and the project’s architects, Gensler, have envisioned a massive 720,000 square foot build out from the current mall complex at 7101 Democracy Boulevard.

At present, the expansion is set to include a new 70,000 square foot multiplex movie theater, an overhauled 20,000 square foot food court, a “fashion wing” devoted to high-end apparel and two new five-story parking garages.

According to the Australia-based Westfield (who also happens to be one of the largest retail property holders on the planet), the “$19 million redevelopment will result in May Company [Macy’s] expanding and remodeling its existing store through the acquisition of the top level of the JC Penny department store. The lower level of the JC Penny store will be utilized to create 5,900 square meters of mall space, including an Old Navy store.” Once completed, the mall is expected to grow to roughly 1.8 million square feet.

The mall’s epically frustrating parking lots, which lure some 11 million visitors to the Montgomery County fortress-like shopping destination each year, will also go under the knife for a transit-friendly makeover. Along with a relocated Sears Auto Center, a new “six-bay bus transit center” will be constructed along the mall’s rear, giving the heavily traversed junction of Democracy Boulevard and Old Georgetown Road a new commuter destination (and for local high schools students to smoke between trips to Sbarro.)

Construction is currently planned to occur in three phases, with the transit center and fashion wing slated to go up first. Whiting Turner will be serving as general contractor.

GMU Courts Commerce in Fairfax

One of the Virginia commonwealth’s largest public educational institutions, George Mason University, will be getting in on a little private commerce this coming May, when it officially breaks ground on its new $30 million hotel and conference center: the George Mason Inn.

Developed in conjunction with University Hotel Partners, the Inn is to be the newest addition to GMU’s flagship Fairfax campus. Once completed, the development will stand between Braddock Road and University Drive on six-acre parcel close to the university’s Patriots Village dormitory complex. Plans prepared by Gensler Architects call for a seven-story, 150-room hotel to be built alongside a 20,000 square foot flex-space conference center that will include a 175-225 seat restaurant, in addition to meeting, banquet, business and lounge areas.

GMU has already taken hotel operators Aramark Harrison Lodging, which operates fifteen similar “collegiate conference center/hotels” throughout the country, to manage the day-to-day functions of the center. The University has stated its intent to use the facility as a “campus living room,” since according to their projections, “university use accounts for 55% of meeting [and] guest room space.” Which isn’t to say that GMU will be hurting to fill the rest of their vacancies; as Virginia’s second largest university, GMU draws upwards of three million visitors per year to the Fairfax campus alone.

It seems logical enough then that provisions for a conference center and hotel at the university have been bandied about since 2002, when they were first included in a County Master Plan governing the site. With seven years of lead time, GMU has had plenty of time to secure financing for the project; its $30 million budget is to be drawn from state-backed bonds and, once open for business in the fall/winter of 2010, the Inn will be owned entirely by the University. Balfour Beatty will oversee construction.

Alexandria "Gateway" to Start in '09

Following January approvals from the Alexandria Zoning Commission and City Council, Bethesda's Green City Development (alternatively known as Tall Cedars Development) is moving forward with their plans to add another landmark to Alexandria, at least in name. The so-named Landmark Gateway project is the Northern Virginian city's bid to redevelop an area primarily known for strip malls and warehouses and, for many local officials and community members, the work can't start soon enough.

"The Landmark Gateway proposal has been reviewed in numerous community meetings over the past two years as well as by the Landmark-Van Dorn Corridor Small Area Plan Advisory Group," said Department of Planning and Zoning Director, Faroll Hamer. "This project will be an important catalyst for an area that is struggling to turn itself into a vibrant revitalized community, and with the current economic downturn and difficulty in securing loans, it may be the only chance in quite some time.”

Located on a six-acre parcel at South Van Dorn and Pickett Streets, the Gateway will replace the industrial structures on site with a three building “Art Moderne”- style development that will include 431 rental apartments (with an unspecified mix of affordable and market-rate units), 35,000 square feet of retail space and a 544 space underground parking garage. The designers behind the 550,000 square foot project, Architects Collaborative Inc., are currently working with landscape architects, The FAUX Group, to create “a series of urban…lively streetscapes, public plazas [and] promenades linking storefronts to the retail parking areas, public art elements as well as private courtyards…for area residents.”

Green City is currently projecting a December 2009 start for the first two, five-story buildings in the $100 million project. Both are aiming for a LEED silver certification. 

Greater Washington DC real estate news

DC's Palisades Demolition Clears Way for Single Family Homes

Encore Development and engineers Dewberry and Davis are currently on site at 4800 U Street, NW, where they are parlaying the former site of a single-family Palisades home into eight development lots. Encore purchased the property, which stands only a block from MacArthur Boulevard, in 2007 and subsequently razed the home at the site soon thereafter.

“We actually bought a 3.2 acre parcel there and sold half of it to the St. Patrick’s School. We retained the other half for ourselves,” said Encore principal Steve Kay. According to him, though Encore has already received numerous inquiries from other development teams looking to acquire the property, the roughly 9,000 square foot lots will most likely be sold ala carte to would-be owners once work ends sometime in “the May to June timeframe.”

As Encore’s interest in the site will feature no new construction, the developer needed little clearance to proceed with their subdivision. “It’s a matter-of-right project and all of the lots have frontage on either 48^th or U Streets…We did meet with ANC, but there was no approval process,” said Kay. “But there will be 8 houses there, as soon I release the lots for sale.”

Tenley-Janney Loses Apartments, Gains Consensus

In a surprise announcement from Mayor Adrian Fenty at Janney Elementary this afternoon, the ongoing battle between the Tenleytown community and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development over the mixed-use redevelopment of the Tenley-Friendship Library seems to have drawn to a close. The District announced today that it has split with developer LCOR Inc., which had previously been awarded rights to construct the library at the site, along with 174 rental apartments, by the Fenty administration this past July.

The District’s relationship with LCOR, however, went suspiciously unmentioned by Fenty or his staff during the duration of the press conference - an especially conspicuous omission, given that Deputy Mayor Neil Albert had previously reaffirmed his office's commitment to moving forward with the LCOR-led redevelopment as recently as January. Off-the-record sources from inside the District government confirmed that the change of direction at the Janney site had little to do the contentious war of words between the Tenleytown community’s reps on the DC City Council and ODMPED, but that instead, LCOR has been forced to the sidelines due the company’s inability to secure financing in the troubled credit market. For the District’s part, they’re leaving the door to mixed-use development open for the near future.

“There is the possibility that after the library is built, sometime in the future, there may be additional mixed-use on that site,” said Fenty, to a mixed reaction of both applause and boos – an illustration of just how divisive the residential component of the school/library redevelopment had become, even among Janney staff and parents.

With LCOR out of the picture (for now) and no residential units stacked atop of it, the library over the metro station will top out at a simple two stories and measure in at 22,000 square feet, based on designs by the Freelon Group. Forrester Construction has signed on as general contractor and the building will seek a LEED silver certification.

Whether today's deal is a bow to market forces or just public relations peacemaking (or both), ODMPED didn’t end the goodwill there; the schedule for construction of the new library and concurrent renovations to Janney Elementary, it was announced, has been significantly accelerated. Fenty pledged that the new library will be open by the end of 2010, while renovations to Janney, once scheduled to begin in 2014, “could begin as soon as December.” Both Fenty and Allen Y. Lew, Executive Director of Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization, agreed that an architect for the renovation will be selected by June; other details, including whether the school will remain open during construction, had yet to be confirmed. According to Lew, the renovation could take as little as thirteen months.

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.

JBG Lays Out Plans for U Street Hotel

JBG has made public more of the details planned for the hotel it intends to build at U and 13th Street, a 10-story, LEED-certified hotel with stacked parking, art gallery, green roof and fitness club.

Matt Valentini of the JBG Companies and Michael C. Swartz of David M. Schwarz Architects met with the Cardozo Shaw Neighborhood Association (CSNA) last night to present plans for their proposed 250-room hotel at the current site of the Rite Aid at 13th and U Streets, NW.

The team began their presentation describing the current Rite Aid-dominated single-story strip mall on site as a "suburban building type" that under-utilizes its prominent location. "The Metro being at the corner of 13th and U really makes this a focal point not only for the neighborhood by the historic district as a whole,” said Swartz. The architect’s stated goal in designing the hotel is to make something more “iconic and memorable,” who went on to identify numerous area precedents for the bayed brick design, including the Dunbar and Whitelaw Hotels.

Their current plans call for the building to top out a 10-stories, though they are alternatively exploring the possibility of limiting it to nine. A final determination on the building's height will be made once the development begins the approval process with local governing bodies such as the ANC 1B, the Historic Preservation Review Board and the Office of Planning.

At its’ current 90 foot height, the proposed hotel would require multiple variances in order to exceed the by-right height limit of 65 feet. Valentini countered criticisms that the hotel was a “colossus” by outlining the various benefits the project would offer: one hundred and fifty permanent jobs (sold!), a gallery showcasing the work of the local artists, future contributions to local community organizations, a public pool and spas, and guest vouchers to promote Metro use were among the items cited. “All those things are out there to be publicly consumed,” said Valentini.

According to the JBG representative, a project at the permitted 65 feet would not be economically feasible, especially considering that the developer must accommodate Rite Aid, which has leased the site until 2026. The hotel will retain the 25,000 square feet of retail presently available, though most of it will be devoted to the pharmacy. The remaining ground floor space will be allotted to glass-fronted retail and Valentini told the audience that JBG is “considering people on U Street today” as possible tenants.

Amenities planned for the hotel include the aforementioned gallery and pool, as well as a hotel restaurant, rooftop bar, meeting space and green roof – in keeping with the project’s pledged LEED silver certification. Furthermore, the development team stated that they had already amended their design to address a primary community concern: parking along already congested U Street. The current design features an all-valet two-story garage that will utilize mechanical stacking devices to far surpass the amount of spaces required by zoning.

JBG has yet to formally announce a flag for the hotel, but did say that they have reached out to hotelier Denihan Hospitality Group about the U Street project. “They do smaller boutique hotels, but we like their style and one of the things we’ve really talked about is this idea of a hotel club,” said Valentini. “Whereby, when we a build spa, when we have a pool, when we have a fitness center, that’ll be open to the public too.”

Following the meeting, CSNA President Bryan Martin Firvida told DCmud:

While JBG was able to speak to many of the questions and concerns raised during the meeting, there are a still a number that will need to be addressed as the plans move ahead...Even though we're only in the concept and planning stages today, this project has already made an impact on our neighborhood, and will continue to do so, during planning, construction, and most importantly, long after the front doors of the hotel open for business....The end goal of course, is to ensure that once complete, this project makes a positive impact on our already great U Street neighborhood.

Though JBG has yet to formally submit their application to the Office of Planning, the development team projects that the PUD process will begin in “late spring/summer.” At present, construction is tentatively scheduled for 2011, followed by a 2014 completion. In the meantime, the CSNA has opened up a website devoted solely to JBG’s 14th Street Hotel project: http://ustreethotel.csnadc.org/

The Residences Delivering on Georgia Avenue

The Neighborhood Development Company’s Residences at Georgia Avenue just finished construction, thanks to Hamel Builders. The 72-unit "affordable" apartment building sits in the heart of Petworth at 4100 Georgia Avenue, NW.

Financed by $28 million from a laundry list of contributors, including the District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency, the District of Columbia Department of Housing and Community Development, the Wachovia Affordable Housing Community Development Corporation and MMA Financial, NDC founder Adrian Washington says, “The Residences is a shining example of what can be accomplished when the private sector works hand in hand with the community and the District government to move neighborhoods forward.” The project was designed by local architects, Wiencek and Associates.

The project, which broke ground in September 2007, will also be home to the District’s second Yes! Organic Market in as many years (the first opened at PN Hoffman’s Union Row development in November). The new, 10,000 square foot Yes! - Petworth’s first boutique grocer – will open this coming summer following completion of its own independent, interior build-out.

In the meantime, the Residences at Georgia itself will become an official addition to the Georgia Avenue corridor after a ribbon-cutting ceremony – to be attended by Mayor Adrian Fenty and Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser - on March 31^st at 10:30 AM.

Washington DC real estate development news

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

Unwanted Condos Get Affordable in Germantown

Prolific affordable housing providers, AHC Inc. - whose resume includes developments such as The Shelton and Macedonia in Northern Virginia - have just inked their first deal with Montgomery County. Using a total of $5.4 million in loans from County's Housing Initiative and Community Development Block Grant Funds, AHC has purchased 29 new condominiums at Fairfield Residential's Ashmore at Germantown development for the purpose of converting them in to long-term affordable rentals. According to the developer, "After the units are leased, AHC will refinance the property and return a portion of the funding to the County to be recycled into additional affordable housing initiatives."

While certainly not a boon to the development’s marketing strategy, the sale is certainly a relief for Fairfield; this past November, when faced with a declining market and a glut of unsold units, the developer put 45 two and three-bedroom units at the Ashmore up for auction - with some going for as little as $140,000, or one-third of the initial asking price, for those counting. Despite being sold to AHC at well below original point (the developer picked them up for approximately $186,000 each), the units at the Ashmore still boast standard amenities, including “custom cabinetry, ceramic flooring, crown molding” and a community center with a pool and fitness center.

For the County’s part, they seem pleased to have funded an arrangement that will provide affordable housing, while sidestepping the obvious the downsides of providing for a ghost town smack in the middle of the County (see the current market conditions in Florida for numerous examples of less fortuitous outcomes).

“Creating and preserving affordable housing is one of my highest priorities,” said County Executive Isiah Leggett in a statement announcing the sale. “I am pleased that the Housing Initiative Fund is being used to acquire more than two dozen condominiums and make them affordable for eligible residents.”

Maryland real estate news

Georgia Avenue Parcel and Plans Up for Sale

Dying to buy land on Georgia Avenue, but just can't find a vacant lot? Now's your chance. Georgia watchers know that late last year a sign was erected at the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Kenyon Street, NW (3205 Georgia Avenue) proclaiming the imminent construction of a new mixed-use development, courtesy of a team known as the “Carthage Group.” Like many promising parcels, development did not materialize. The developers were unreachable, their displayed web address led nowhere, and shortly thereafter, both the sign and chain-link fence surrounding the site disappeared overnight.

Now, with the Carthage Group out of the picture, the land is now in hands of one Mike Noorishad – perhaps best known to area residents as the one-time owner of Mike’s Chicken at 1110 U Street. Not only has Noorishad put the parcel up for sale along with the previously approved plans – designed by Ajalli Architects of Maclean - for a residential, office and retail complex at the site.

According to Nasir Bajwa of Sperry Van Ness Commercial Real Estate Services, the plans on hand call for a 21,424 square foot, 5-story building with 4,500 s.f. of ground floor retail and 4,137 square feet of office space, topped off by 9,789 square feet of residential (or 18 units) – all of which was previously approved and permitted by District authorities in early 2008.

If there are any takers for Sperry Van Ness’ $3 million list price, the untitled project – formerly the Capital Building by Carthage - would be the southernmost entry in ongoing redevelopment of Georgia Avenue with a beachhead by other projects such as Park Place, 4136 Georgia, Lamont Lofts and the Heights. Hurry, act now, time is running out.

Washington DC commercial real estate news

JBG Plots a Mixed-Use Future in Tysons

Though commercial and retail development within the District has ground to a standstill, the reinvention of Virginia suburb of Tysons Corner is proceeding, at least on paper. In the wake of large scale projects such as BF Saul's Park Place II and Quadrangle Development's Towers Crescent, a JBG Companies subsidiary - JBG Rosenfeld Retail (JBGR) - intends to develop a sprawling 7-acre mixed-use development in an area that hosts not only the nation’s tenth largest mall, but its twelfth largest business district as well.

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 17^th through 20^th 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

Bethesda's First New Apartments of 2009

While a number of large projects in downtown Bethesda failed to lay brick one during 2008 (Trillium, Edgemoor, 4823 Rugby Avenue, The Monty, 4913 Hampden Lane), smaller projects are making it to the finish line sans marketing blitz and loan defaults. Such is the case with the Jaffe Group’s new apartment building at 7809 Woodmont Avenue – right next to such familiar locales as the Tastee Diner and Veterans’ Park. But, hey, financing is easy when your development partner is a bank.

The 12,000 square foot project will add not only three new rental apartments to one of Bethesda’s most trafficked thoroughfares, but an expanded Eagle Bank location as well. As Gary Jaffe, principal of the Jaffe Group, tells DCmud: “The building is four-stories and a basement. On the first floor is Eagle Bank with a drive-thru. The second floor is for the Chairman of Eagle Bank. Then we have two one-bedrooms on the third and a bedroom and den on the third with a large rooftop patio.”

Coming in at a cost of $6.5 million, each of the project’s three residential units will measure in “just shy” of 1,000 square feet and feature the design work the Bethesda-based architectural firm, Michael Fanshel Associates, plus all the requisite modern amenities (plenty of stainless steel). And completion is now just weeks away. “We’re hoping [to end construction] in about three weeks on April 4th or 5^th,” said Jaffe. “We plan to be completed and have our construction done, but the bank will probably still be doing some outfitting on their space. We’ll be ready to lease in mid-April.”

Bethesda Maryland commercial real estate news

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.”