Dreyfus Releases New Renderings of Center Leg Freeway

Earlier this week developers at Louis Dreyfus presented their plans to build 2.3 million s.f. in 6 buildings on top of I-395, a stretch known as the Center Leg Freeway, to the Zoning Commission. The developer has now released new renderings for their North Block plans, courtesy of Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo & Associates; so no more reading, just looking...enjoy.

Akridge's Half Street Half Way There?

Since Washington Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA) did its best King Solomon impression, dividing its Southeast Bus Garage properties in half for two quarreling developers, only one recipient looks to be moving slowly forward with development plans, while the other has since gone bankrupt. While developers at Akridge reported making progress with their permitting, financing, and leasing efforts for their 700,000 s.f., mixed-use Half Street project, they insisted it would be a much more interesting news story come February or March, when more details emerge. But progress is progress, and news is news, and DCMud knows its readers are always salivating for every little morsel of information, no matter how small the crumbs.

So here's the latest scoop: Akridge is currently finalizing the construction plans, and expects to apply for permitting in the first quarter of next year. With a little bit of luck, the developers intend to break ground on the residential portion of the project by the end of next year. Although there is a distinct possibility the project ends up being constructed in phases, developers hope to build it all in one fell swoop, or at least in one drawn-out swoop, in which case a full delivery of all three buildings would happen roughly 22 to 24 months after initial construction. As developers, architects, and engineers lock in on the specifics of their construction plans, minor changes may be made, and details like number of units may be tinkered with, says Project Manager Adam Gooch, but nothing drastic.

The project's basic programming remains the same: two nine-story, Class A office buildings (totaling over 370,000 s.f.) and one 11-story residential building featuring approximately 280 units (outfitted with the standard amenities: rooftop pool and terrace, private courtyard, fitness center, etc). All three buildings will offer ground floor retail, totaling 75,000 s.f.. The retail spread will be multifaceted, each portion offering distinct sensibilities, and appealing to different demographics. Half Street will be the main attraction for passersby, featuring Class A retail and most likely to attract National's game-day traffic with "name brand tenants and white-table-cloth restaurants" says Gooch. The pedestrian alley in between the two office buildings will offer a more locals-friendly mix of cafes, delis, and boutiques. "It will be a glorified urban marketplace," explains Gooch, "In the vein of Eastern Market, a place where you can come home from work and grab a beer, grab some food, and pick up some flowers for your wife." Most hidden from foot-traffic will be the Van Street retail frontages, which will have a "grittier, more alley-like feel" due to the placement of curb cuts, loading docks, and trash pick ups. Here Half-Street residents might find a dry-cleaners, the local bike-shop, and maybe a sports bar.

Three firms combined forces on the design aspect of the project: HOK shouldered responsibility for the office buildings, Esocoff & Associates for the residential, and StreetSense for the retail. All three buildings will be LEED Certified, with the office buildings expected to earn LEED Platinum. While developers wait to activate the development site for construction purposes, Akridge plans to once again engage the public with their Bullpen Beer Garden during the 2011 baseball season. The 3,200 s.f. tented space will offer beer, wine, margaritas, and live entertainment to the public, and is also available for private events.

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News

Your Next Place...

By Franklin Schneider

Oh man, I really liked this place. I thought about hiding in a closet until after the agent left, calling a locksmith to change the locks, and then Photoshopping myself a deed to the place. The only thing that stopped me was the fact that I'm still on probation for the last time I tried that.

The unit's a massive New York-style loft in the old Rainbow Auto Body building on Church Street, a quiet-ish side street off 14th. Living here would be just like if you lived in Soho, but without all the models and artists corroding your self-esteem every time you leave the building. The developers have retained a lot of distinctive touches from the building's past life as an industrial space; exposed ductwork and steel beams give you that hint of authentic loft living, without the vermin and black mold of actually authentic loft living. There's a massive den area and a gas fireplace, along with huge
industrial-style windows and 14-foot ceilings. The
space is very bright and there's a feeling of open
space; I've been in a lot of smaller lofts with really high ceilings, and you sort of feel like a frog in a
bottle or something. I didn't feel like that here at all.

You can imagine the rest - exposed brick, hardwood floors and miles of granite counterspace. It's even got a roof deck if you need to take a breather from all this perfection. It's a block away from Whole Foods and Vida and all those restaurants and bars on P Street there, and three or four blocks from U Street. I mean, this place really could be the greatest bachelor (or bachelorette) pad of all time. That's it, this place is going on my Christmas list.

1445 Church Street NW #14
Washington, DC
1 Bdrm, 1.5 Baths
$599,000


Open house this Sunday 1-4

Photography by DS Creative Group

What Makes a Monument?

Last night several artists participated in a Smithsonian-sponsored presentation and round-table discussion concerning the problematics of modern day "Approaches to Public Art, Placemaking, and National Commemoration." Their essential message was: monuments, as they're traditionally conceived and built, are boring, and they quickly fade from the foreground of our memory and conscious, eventually losing their meaning all together. "Monuments are doomed to be invisible" one artist explained. It seemed a spot-on idea for the dead history capital of the world.

Each artist offered distinct but congruent solutions to the problem of dead war-figure monuments. Krzysztof Wodiczko, Harvard professor and artist in temporary and interactive light installations, expressed his wish for existing monuments to be "reactualized," reconnected to modern life through new artistic undertakings (multimedia, performance art, etc). "There are so many historic buildings and monuments," he explained, "for which the contradictions between the ideals for which they were built and the actuality of the way life really is happening in front of them, is left unexplored." Sounds a bit heady for a stodgy old Washington, D.C. But its a profound thought, that calls for further contemplation.

Julian LaVerdiere, artist and designer of the World Trade Center Tribute in Light, expressed his wish to see monuments not become celebrated for a singular statue or brick, but derive meaning through their ability to offer a "transformative experience" to the visitor. He cited a potato famine memorial in New York City at which the artist had simply picked up an acre of a fallow Irish farm and plopped it in the middle of a city square. Both LaVerdiere and Justine Simons, Director London's Cultural Agenda and Programming for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, voiced their support of temporary public art instillation as a substitute for monuments. Wodiczko said, "I don't mind permanent monuments, as long as they change," eliciting a large laugh from the audience.

Host and moderator Thomas Luebke, Secretary of the U.S. Commission of Fine Art, said what everyone was thinking, or at least what I was thinking, when he observed, "Too oten memorials in D.C. just feel like real estate development." But how does a city with so many watch-dog groups, and so many politicians waiting to get involved, attempt to "wake up the landscape," as Simons suggested? She attributed much of her success in staging the temporary memorials of Trafalgar Square's 4th Plinth to her ability to "rid the process of all politicians and politics." The temporary nature of the projects "rid the process of some of the anxiety," she explained, "and allowed us to experiment and test the boundaries."

At the end of the presentations and subsequent discussion, the audience wasn't exactly left with a solution, but that's never how these kinds of things work. Instead, listeners were left with several provocative ideas to contemplate. How do we wake up the landscape with interactive, meaningful public art and memorials? How do we keep monuments alive? What is the future of place making in a fractious culture, and a divisive climate? And how do we sneak some interesting public art past the NCPC, ANC's, District Council, and the Committee of 100?

14W Breaks Ground

Nearly two weeks ago, Perseus remained mum on the status of the much anticipated Anthony Bowen YMCA redevelopment project at the intersection of 14th and W Streets in northwest Washington, promising only that they'd be ready to reveal "something" shortly. But before Perseus could say anything, let alone something, Jefferson Apartment Groups (JAG), an Akridge affiliate, revealed they had purchased the project from a Perseus entity for $7.5 million, and would join Perseus as partnering developer (talk about awkward) on the project. The sudden announcement signaled that the project, thought by many to be strapped for cash and indefinitely stalled, was and is back on track. And now today, more than two years after a faux-groundbreaking, developers will once again put a shovel in the ground; this time they really, really, actually, totally, seriously swear to start demolition and new construction.

Apparently, equity financing from Rockpoint Group, L.L.C. and a $53 million construction loan from Wells Fargo Bank was just what the doctor ordered. Upon completion, the HOK and Dorsky Hodgson & Partners-designed project will feature 231 rental apartments, a brand new, state-of-the-art 44,000 s.f. YMCA, and over 10,000 s.f. of ground-floor retail. The new gym and first apartments will deliver in the summer of 2012, with the project opening in its entirety later in the fall.

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News

Air Rights Center Gets an Addition

The Bethesda block known as the Air Rights Center, currently featuring a 12-story office building and the 14-story, 216-room Hilton Garden Inn Hotel, is set to become a bit denser, as another 9-story office building will soon replace the smallest building on the southeast corner of the site. Chevy Chase residents adjacent to downtown Bethesda voiced concerns over the scale of the proposed office buildings upon its initial unveiling to the community. Begrudgingly resigned to the fact that the Purple Line train will soon be roaring through their backyards, residents seemingly decided to take their frustrations out on Donohoe. In the wake of the public pressure, developers compromised, using several setbacks to lower the residential-abutting facade to the recommended 60 feet and concentrate the height towards the center of the block, reaching 97 feet at its tallest point. Rewarding the flexibility of developers and their design partner BBG-BBGM, the Montgomery County Planning Board granted the approval to the applicant's proposal.

Fronting 7300 Pearl Street, the facade seems like a simplistic amalgamation of glass, concrete, and right angles, but a side-view from Montgomery Avenue offers a more textured and interesting vantage. Developers appeased the neighboring community not only with design successions, but will also redevelop a northern portion of Elm Street Park, just south of the development across the Capitol Crescent Trail. While their generosity may be genuine, it's not exactly altruistic, a twenty percent public space requirement is demanded by the Montgomery County development approval process. But all that green wasn't quite enough, as developers will put more on the roofs of the building in their efforts to earn LEED Silver Certification (also a MoCo prerequisite).

The cost to reconstruct the proposed portion of the park totals roughly $1 million. The project's landscape architect Parker Rodriquez has already offered designs for the park, while Donohoe will pony up $550,000-$600,000 for the actual improvements, including infrastructure, paving, lighting, fencing, landscape planting, signs, etc. The Chevy Chase Parks Department must approve a final design for the park, and finance the remaining balance. The Montgomery County Planning Board stipulated that no building use or occupancy permits will be issued until the park improvements are completed. Developers believe their compliance with the required park improvements could happen as early as 2012, with the office building delivery following shortly after.

Bethesda, MD Real Estate Development News

Ribbon Cutting, Taste Testing Tonight, Harris Teeter Officially Open Tomorrow

NoMa finally gets its first grocery store with the impending inauguration of the 50,000 s.f. Harris Teeter store at 1201 First Street, NE, which officially opens its doors tomorrow. Its been two years since StonebridgeCarras announced Harris Teeter would occupy their anchor spot in Constitution Square, and tomorrow brings that promise to fruition. But why wait until tomorrow, when you can get free wine and a sneak peek tonight. Following a ribbon cutting this afternoon, as a sign of appreciation for the neighborhood support, the store will hold a "Taste of Teeter" from 5:30 pm - 8:00 pm, during which the general public may sample wines and products from the store. At eight, with several sampler glasses of red sloshed back and a solid buzz going, attendees will then be set free to do their grocery shopping until the store closes at midnight (Disclaimer: DCMud does not advocate boozing and buying).

The retail scene in NoMa has quickly become more and more crowded over the last several months. With Potbelly Sandwich Works, Georgetown Valet, and TD Bank all opening their doors this past fall, and Roti Mediterranean Grill, CVS, and 7-11 set to cut ribbons in the new year, there are a plethora of new places for The Flats 130 residents to spend their money. And more development is on the way. The first phase of Constitution Square, the 1.6 million SF of mixed-use space located at First and M Streets, has been so successful that just last month developers announced their plans to break ground in May on Phase II, set to feature 345,000 s.f. of office space and an additional 203 residential units. With 21 projects completed since 2001, two currently under construction, and 31 in the pipeline, the NoMa development torch is still burning strong.

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News

Dreyfus Tees Up Center Leg Freeway

Building 3 city blocks on top of an active highway isn't easy. But developers at Louis Dreyfus think they have it just about figured out, and tonight they will make their pitch to the District of Columbia Zoning Commission that their designs to build 2.3 million s.f. in 6 buildings on top of I-395, a stretch known as the Center Leg Freeway, should be approved.

What began decades ago as a horribly misbegotten idea by the National Capitol Planning Commission (NCPC) to create an Inner Loop within the District, an idea that birthed the Southwest Express and tore down swaths of historic buildings, relegating southwest DC for decades to woeful cementitious architecture and federal dependency, may at last be partially healed. The urban planning of the 1940's and 1950's fortunately never realized its goal of extending another half mile north and west, but left a chasm known as the Center Leg that isolated a section of northwest. Dreyfus plans to cover that scar burrowed deep into the city, not only building a platform on which a neighborhood can reside, but doing so while keep the highway operational throughout construction.

Plans have been knocked around for years, but tonight will mark a milestone for its advancement. Dreyfus intends to roof the highway from E Street to Massachusetts, extending F and G Streets to a now-isolated Georgetown Law School. The most recent development plans developed over the past month up the number of buildings from 5 to 6, increase retail visibility, and contemplate additional residential density.

The local ANC gave unanimous approval to the revised concept after developers agreed to "a good faith effort" to raise ceiling heights of retail spaces in the hopes of attracting classier retail, replaced a canopy idea bridging two buildings (ala Tech World Plaza, shudder) with a new building, and agreed to factor in more than the 150 planned residences. "They've been very good at addressing all the issues we've brought up" said Rob Amos, a Commissioner with ANC 6C. "They've been an exemplary developer. We wish more developers were like this."

A Zoning Commission approval would greenlight the project for purchase of the air rights from the city, a deal that is expected to net the city $60m. Developers would then build a separate platform for each of the 3 new city blocks, 247,000 of new "ground," in sum, beginning work on the buildings as each platform is finished. The plan allots 3 buildings in the north block (up from 2), 2 in the center block, and 1 in the south block. Each of the office buildings will rise the usual 12 stories, and developers are contemplating where to put unspecified additional housing at the behest of the ANC, a move it hopes will keep the area from vacating at night. "We're looking forward to putting those 2 pieces back together again" said Amos of the Berlin-style east and west sides of the highway, but added that it would be 2012 at the earliest before the project begins construction.

Years of wrangling came together in 1966 when construction of the freeway got underway, culminating in $81m in spending, 7.5 miles of flourescent tube lighting, and the dislocation of enough neighborhoods to do a Beijing bureaucrat proud. The cosmetic surgery to remove the scar is expected to cost well above $400m and drag on for at least another 3 years. Connecticut's John Dinkeloo & Associates is designing the buildings, while New York's Skidmore, Owings & Merrill is serving as master planner.

Washington DC real estate development news

Fish Market Concept Takes Shape, SW Waterfront PUD Application Coming Soon

While developers of the Southwest Waterfront still aren't ready to promise much in the way of architectural specifics or set-in-stone timelines, they've become rather adept at presenting their vision of transformation. Such acumen is attributable to the vivid imagination of the planners and developers amassed from the project partnership between PN Hoffman, Madison Marquette, and design firm EEK. But if practice really does make perfect, their busy itinerary of power point presentations can't hurt either. Last week, Madison Marquette and master planner Stan Eckstut, Principal of EEK, attended the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) meeting to share their most up to date concepts.

While these informational meetings are important, developers expect to truly kick off the planning review process with their Stage One PUD application submittal in late 2010, early 2011. This will initiate a more intensive public communication process, followed by a Stage Two PUD as more details are hashed out, and fingers crossed, a late 2012 groundbreaking. A full build-out will take seven to eight years from the start of the construction. Although not concrete, developers expect a middle portion of the development, including three buildings and the parks and public space surrounding them (it sounds vague because it is), to be the heart of Phase One. Like all phases of the project, construction will be focused on creating captivating public space first, and erecting buildings second. But as buildings do spring up in each phase of development, they will always do so as a balanced mix of office, retail, and residential, never all one or the other. Developers are also hoping that secured financing and improving market demand will allow them to reach as far west as to include the Fish Market and Market Square in their Phase One plans. "As probably the most dynamic and active aspect of the redevelopment, we want the Fish Market to be an early stage part of the project," says Anselm Fusco, Senior VP of Investments at Madison Marquette, "It would really help set the tone and put a flag in the sand."

But what exactly will Market Square be? What will it look like? After listening to Eckstut's NCPC presentation last week, Office of Planning Direct Harriet Tregoning characterized the concept as a "happy collision of pedestrians, vehicles, and bicycles, where everyone is forced to slow down." Angela Sweeney, Vice President of Marketing at Madison Marquette, seconded this appraisal. In an analogy using the redevelopment site as a giant domestic entity, Fusco described Market Square as "the kitchen of the house, the most dynamic, vibrant, and bustling space." Eckstut promised to preserve the unique and gritty character of the Fish Market, saying "we want to keep the same messiness, the same crazy parking scheme."

The goal is "to preserve the integrity of what's there and intelligently augment it," explains Fusco. A trip to iconic West coast marketplaces such as Granville Island Public Market, Seattle's Pike Place Market, and San Francisco's Ferry Building served as inspiration a plenty for the project planners. This indoor-outdoor marketplace will be re-imagined at the Fish Market/Market Square with fresh seafood spread out on 90-foot long blocks of ice, complemented by a seasonal green market where not only neighborhood foodies will frequent for a bushel of fresh produce, but where also local chefs and restaurateurs will come to cultivate long-term relationships with local farmers and producers. "The idea of what was once the Head House will be re-appropriated as Market Hall (think Pike's Place), an indoor space, but a very permeable place that will feature more permanent tenants selling both prepared foods and hard goods," says Fusco. Supplement the water-meets-land Marketplace concept with a plethora of picnic tables, public plazas, piazza lighting, cafes, bakeries, and a standalone microbrewery, then color it with the "whole neon sign thing" of the Fish Market (as Fusco calls it), finally, populate the space with a dynamic demographic of people, and you've got what Eckstut believes will be "a place that feels authentic and alive and real...a jolt from the federal Mall experience." To top it all off (literally) developers intend to accentuate the Marketplace with a large iconic sign, for purposes of place-making and way-finding.

Such a commerce-centric place would go a long way towards meeting the 20% local business minimum requirement of the Land Disposition Agreement (LDA), but developers believe throughout the Waterfront redevelopment, not just at the Marketplace, the retail makeup will skew towards community-based merchants. There will certainly be a mix of local, regional, and national tenants," says Fusco, "The retail experience in each area will vary." Continuing his "rooms-of-a-house" analogy, the 7th Street Park and kayaking pier dubbed The Landing "will have a very different feel: largely green, with lots of trees and landscaping, more like the dining room of the house, formal and quieter." This unique space will feature a different character restaraunt, a boutique, not a nationally franchised, big-boxed retailer, while 9th Street's City Pier will be "larger scaled with a big long, wide pier, a ferry landing, with lots of activity and tall ships coming in." Here is where the national tenants would be more likely to find a home, Fusco postulates. Further down the Wharf to the east we find the M Street Landing, the family-friendly rec room of the house, possibly featuring an ice rink in the winter and big water fountains for children to frolic in the heat and humidity of the summer--a little more fun and less formal than the dining room. Even farther east, a meandering pedestrian finds an expansive well-scaled public park, featuring a large halo of trees insulating a rolling lawn. As Fusco puts it: "It will be a park in the traditionally conceived sense of it, enabling passive recreation, and providing a sense of quiet."

Although it may be sometime before this impressive vision becomes reality, Angela Sweeney promises that her development team is "focused on creating and activating the site before an actual groundbreaking happens. We will continue to offer expanded and enhanced on-site programming." Another reason for optimism is the LDA stipulation that the $198 million tax increment financing promised by the District must be used for public amenities--further emphasizing the developers genuine focus on creating an assortment of vibrant, diverse, and inviting public arenas, not simply a canopy of concrete. So far, developers have proven they can dream big. How these dreams mesh with the practical parameters of the Planning Office and feasibility of the financial climate remains to be seen.


Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News

Le Mans In Your Mouth

By Beth Herman


There’s an absence of regulation three-foot tall posters urging patients to brush, floss and smile in this office, and in fact a dearth of paper altogether. For Dr. Youssef Obeid, a Chevy Chase, Md.-based prosthodontist and assistant clinical professor for the Prosthodontics Residency Program at the University of Maryland Dental School, a digital office (including reduced radiation digital X-rays) was a key component in creating a space that met the requirements of an evolving 21^st century specialty practice, reflected his interests as a race car driver and extended itself to patients in disposition and hospitality.

According to principal Andreas Charalambous of Forma Design, whose firm focuses largely on health care design and branding, trumpeting the client’s identity is tantamount to creating an environment that assures patients they’ve come to the right place. “The doctor didn’t want the space to look like any hospital,” Charalambous said, “or any 95 percent of dental offices that you go to and they all look alike. Dentists come out of school and are not educated in this aspect of things.” Noting that many professionals simply rely on choosing equipment and having suppliers do a basic office layout for them, Charalambous said they settle for a contractor building some walls and little else. “There is no thought to that. This is an opportunity for professionals to brand themselves, do something that reflects their personality and attracts the kinds of patients they want,” he affirmed.

For Obeid Dental, 8401 Connecticut Ave. NW, Charalambous said the team dealt with a small space that needed to be very functional, concentrating on elements of “precision” associated with a specialty practice and the split-second sport of racing. Sited on a corner with optimal street exposure, the 1,600 s.f. office is defined in part by strategic glass exterior panels that illustrate the practice and allow natural light in. There are also no corridors at Obeid Dental, the open space concept, including four operatories, divided by interior glass film panes for privacy. Stone floors provide continuity, and stainless steel– redolent of strength, power, technology and shiny race cars–is seen on a wall with footlights, as well as in the concierge desk (“concierge” being the operative word here). “It’s a free-floating desk,” Charalambous said. “You sign in, sit in the lobby area, and they get you coffee from the coffee bar.” A raised ceiling is dropped in some areas, such as the reception space, for more intimacy or definition, with “pill” ceiling cutouts made of drywall and a central uplight providing interest and a bit of distraction, perhaps, from the fact that beautiful as it is, one is indeed in a dental office! For contrast and warmth, the architects used a textured stacked stone wall in one area, with a shade of blue which is the client’s corporate color, also seen in his Forma Design-created logo and sign.

Maximum Velocity Design

A Fulbright Scholar, artist and photographer, Charalambous came to his profession through painting (one of his color fields hangs in the Obeid reception area) and espouses a kind of full concept architecture that includes furniture design, graphics, advertising, branding and more. Explaining that the idea is not just about laying out the space in which to do a job, attention to detail must reflect the doctor’s qualifications, he said, recalling a personal experience where he’d quickly exited a specialist’s office in great disarray years ago without ever meeting the doctor. “I don’t feel comfortable being in a place like that,” Charalambous said. “You need to feel as though they speak your language and understand what you need. Every little thing matters.”

Winning multiple design awards from entities in four states as well as IIDA, and with an office walk-through available on YouTube, Obeid Dental’s singular design, while unique to the client, is within the realm of most every practitioner. “We’ve done offices for prosthodontists, periodontists, pediatric dentists, facial plastic surgeons and family dentists,” Charalambous said. “You don’t need to be a specialist. You just need to care about your practice, the message, your patients, your staff. It’s an opportunity to resolve issues for the long term–to design a space that reflects your personality and one you’ll want to use for the next 10 or 20 years.”

Washington DC real estate news

Federal Realty's Mid-Pike Plaza to Rival JBG's NoBe

Earlier this month, Federal Realty's plans for "Mid-Pike Plaza" passed under the noses of the Montgomery County Development Review Committee. Apparently, it passed the sniff test; but unfortunately it takes a lot more than that to get development projects approved and rolling in Montgomery County. The development site spans 24.38 acres to the west of Rockville Pike and just north of Old Georgetown Road. Developers have plans big enough to warrant the massive site, calling for a whopping total of 1,725 residential units when all is said and constructed. Residents will be joined by roughly 300,000 s.f. of retail, over a million square feet of office space, a 125-key hotel, and a carbon imprint of 4,145 parking spaces (all structurally built). It's yet another sign that White Flint is destined to become drastically denser in less than a decade.

Being still in the wee hours of the project's preliminary planning life-cycle, drawings, courtesy of architect Tim Mount at Street-Works are are rather sketchy (pun intended) and offer only a distant perspective. This fuzziness cannot be attributed to lack of a steady hand, but is rather typical of the master planning stage in which details are scarce, and reveals the wiggle room necessary for developers and architects to successfully navigate the often tumultuous and always tedious planning process. But that process is getting easier and more efficient thanks to the newly approved White Flint Sector Plan, says Federal Realty developer Evan Goldman. "Our Sketch Plan follows almost exactly to the White Flint Sector Plan, which the citizens were already highly involved with," Goldman explains, "making the process a lot quicker, and minimizing disputes." Goldman and Federal Realty will present their Sketch Plan to the Montgomery County Planning Board next month, and hope to submit their Site and Preliminary Plan applications shortly after.

If the market continues to cooperate, and the planning process goes smoothly, Goldman believes they'll be ready to break ground in 2012. He thinks that would place Mid Pike Plaza as the front runner of major developments currently in the pipeline. LCOR has already broken ground on the new U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) building at North Bethesda Center/White Flint Metro, and JBG's North Bethesda Phase II should follow right behind Mid Pike Plaza. ProMark's North Bethesda Gateway also looks to get in on the action in the coming years.

Phase I of Mid Pike Plaza will land White Flint three new buildings: one high-rise residential, a small office atop retail, and a low-rise residential over retail. "These will anchor our Main Street and usher in improved streetscapes and a community park," promises Goldman. The second phase will complete the streetscapes, the street grid and public space for the retail plaza, and several more pockets of public green spaces, while future phases will proceed to fill in the block with larger buildings, one by one. As for architectural details, those will emerge later. The next step is "to meet with Street-Works in order to create design guidelines for our main storefronts and streetscapes," says Goldman.

With Bethesda having been the economic engine of the region for the last 20 to 30 years, many of local developers concur with Goldman's assessment of White Flint as the "logical next step" for development. "We're setting up a really good street grid, with all sustainable buildings, great pedestrian friendly roads, and great transit," says Goldman. The blank slate that is the area surrounding the White Flint metro will enable developers' smart growth ambitions to play out on a large scale; and it seems that developers and the community are taking this precedent seriously. Aside from the many proposed development projects, the newly established special taxing districting in North Bethesda will also help improve the area's infrastructure: a ten percent commercial property tax increase as part of the new Sector Plan will help finance $208 million in construction during its lifespan. With Montgomery County officials projecting that new growth in the White Flint area could bring in as much as $6.8 billion, it seems like White Flint is ready to take the torch from Bethesda whether they want to pass it over or not.

Montgomery County, MD Real Estate Development News

If Faith Had a Color

By Beth Herman

Ecclesiastes 11:1 - “Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again.”

When members of approximately 300 congregations in 11 faith communities in the greater Washington, D.C. area set their sacred sails toward sustainability, the goal is not so much to find the bread again for personal gain, but to bake it into a world community that honors the resources of all religions, cultures and species resulting in an environmentally solvent planet.

Guided by the tenets and resources of Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light (GWIPL), a chapter of the national organization and project of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, congregants avail themselves of an organization that promotes green living and response to climate change with a three-pronged approach: education, replete with a faith-appropriate speaker’s bureau and film screenings of such titles as “An Inconvenient Truth” when it came out; greening congregations; advocacy. According to GWIPL Director Joelle Novey, the bottom line is that the group asks a fundamental question about what it looks like when people “really live their values.”

Liturgy and LEED

For Barry Lemley, past president of and current owner’s rep for Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church (CELC) of Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Md., GWIPL was highly instrumental in raising their awareness about what a small congregation can do to work towards changing the planet. A series of seminars called “Creation Care,” which spoke to ideas on improving the local and global environment, ensued both from the Church’s association with GWIPL and also Blessed Earth, an educational nonprofit that works with faith communities on environmental issues. Lemley also credited simple practices such as exchanging old light bulbs for energy-saving ones and reinforcing the idea of turning out the lights, as well as replacing windows in the congregation’s 1950s-era building, with raising CELC’s green awareness quotient. And while educating members about greening their own homes was a big part of CELC’s objective, perhaps the largest component for change is that the Church has been calculating a plan since 2003 or 2004, Lemley said, to redevelop its two-acre site on old Georgetown Road. “To just upgrade certain things and change some of the leaks wasn’t really the way to address environmental issues,” he maintained, adding it wasn’t the direction in which they wanted to go for the community. On October 26, Lemley said the county council approved CELC’s request to rezone the entire property with a goal of LEED Silver certification for the facility.

Chutzpah and Compost


At Congregation Beth El of Montgomery County, Md., Green Tikkun (as in Tikkun Olam: repair of the world) Committee Chair Michele Lieban Levine, already an environmentalist who bikes or takes public transportation whenever possible, recalled attending a GWIPL-hosted meeting on faith-based environmental action in 2007 which resulted in a GWIPL-sponsored energy audit of her congregation. In search, initially, of what Levine and others called the “low hanging fruit,” the first matter of business was to reduce and eventually eliminate all use of Styrofoam that came from a daily breakfast, a regular Saturday lunch buffet following services, pre- and religious school refreshments, and other food-related activities of which Levine said there were many in the 1,100-family member congregation. Beth El also started a designated tax-deductible fund to receive contributions earmarked for green projects. “If it was going to cost more to buy recyclables or compostables,” Levine said, “that would be covered by the fund.” A decision to use dishes as much as possible, as opposed to any disposable products, followed, as did a series of “dumpster dives,” facilitated by a congregant in waste management, to analyze their waste content with a goal of 50 percent recycling. Funds were used to hire a professional composter to pick up compostable waste, and on Tu Bishvat, the Jewish holiday that celebrates the New Year of the trees, nursery school students learned about sustainability by utilizing a bag of compost to help plant parsley seeds.

Epiphany and Electricity

Following a stint at Green America, a national environmental nonprofit, and with lay training in clinical pastoral education where she participated in chaplain training at Washington Hospital Center (“…you talk to people from every background and no background, and you need to be a good listener and respond to their feelings more than anything else,” Novey said), Novey, who is GWIPL’s sole paid staff member, took the helm from the organization’s second director in September, 2009, when she realized the organization and its mission were a confluence of everything she cared about. “What does it mean to put our concerns about the world at the center of our religious community?” she asked, noting that because of our assault on the environment and accruing climate change, one-third or even one-half of the world’s current wild animal species population may not survive another 200 years. When Novey addresses groups about electricity, she examines that half of electricity which comes from coal, the environmental rigors of mountaintop removal mining, and pollution from coal processing and coal fire plants that precipitate climate change. “I bring it all back to the light bulb,” she said, indicating the connection immediately raises eyebrows and consciousness. “That’s the very first step.”

Solar Sabbath

At the 25,200 s.f. Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda, Md., Rabbi Fred Dobb, who is also Chairperson of GWIPL’s steering committee and a religious environmental educator since his junior year at Brandeis University in 1990 when took a year off to join a cross-country environmental education march (nine months: L.A. to NY), leads a community rooted in green. With its structure - which incorporated, rather than demolishing, a single family dwelling on the property into its design - completed in 2001, recycled carpets, the use of cork, organic gardens, Energy Star appliances and six individually-controlled HVAC zones, among other things, have set the pace for a building about to make synagogue history, environmentally that is. While Adat Shalom was already heralded as one of the greener congregations in the region prior to its association with GWIPL, shepherded largely by Rabbi Dobb’s affiliations with such entities as the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL.org) and the national interfaith environmental organization Religious Witness for the Earth, this year GWIPL Director Joelle Novey “…was an indispensable part of a solar working group within Adat Shalom which will lead to the installation of a 45-killowat solar array on the synagogue roof,” Rabbi Dobb said. The array, which will displace one-fourth or more of the building’s electric use for decades to come, will be operational by the end of the year.


Based on the premise that accountability is challenging and climate change - with its often irreversible repercussions - is daunting for many and has become highly politicized as well, Novey observed that even in the five years since GWIPL’s inception, fewer people think the science of climate change is sound. “People are shutting down (to the concept),” she said. “It’s sobering to realize that in the largest sense, we’ve failed to educate the public.” With that in mind, GWIPL’s objective is to stay on message in a safe forum – the congregation – where people do not feel isolated and in fact already experience a sense of connection to one another. “It’s a place where they come to strive to be better, whatever that means in their tradition, or strive to walk a holier path,” she explained. “It’s exactly the place where we do think about changing our lives, our choices, our habits.”

Speaking to GWIPL’s continuing and evolving work in light of its global goals, Rabbi Dobb said, “We have wonderful leadership and a fabulous, wider faith community in the area which has long supported GWIPL. We want to bring more congregations into the orbit so they can receive (GWIPL-sponsored) energy audits, take advantage of our many ongoing resources and so we can hear their success stories.

“We see defending creation as a religious imperative no less than worship or ecclesiastical education,” he continued of the group’s mission. “We are called to the sacred service of securing a sustainable future for all of God’s children and all of God’s critters.”

Images 1-3: Adat Shalom
Image 4: Washington National Cathedral

NDC Proposes Redevelopment of Georgia Avenue Strip Mall

The Neighborhood Development Company (NDC), busy with their efforts to revitalize the Georgia Avenue Corridor, is now proposing a new mixed-use development just a block north of their already approved project "The Heights," set for the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Lamont Street, NW. "The Vue," at southeast corner of Georgia and Morton and just beginning the rezoning application, will rise seven-stories above the 7,000 s.f. ground floor retail and offer 112 residences. Forty-nine parking spaces will be provided below grade. Unlike The Heights, where developers reserved half of the units as affordable housing in return for special financing options awarded by HUD and a large tax abatement granted by the District Council, the $30 million Vue project will be privately financed and almost wholly priced at market-rate (the bare minimum of 8% of the new project's square footage will be marketed at 80% AMI in order to satisfy Inclusionary Zoning requirements).

NDC purchased the property for $2.2 million in 2009 and will raze a rather unremarkable strip shopping center to make way for their 118,160 s.f. project. A post office at 3321 Georgia Avenue, also on the site, will remain, the U.S. Postal Service could not be enticed out of their long term lease. With the help of project architect Grimm and Parker, NDC will incorporate the one-story post office into their new construction plans. "The entrance to the post office will be repositioned facing Georgia Avenue," explains NDC Principal Adrian Washington, "and the facade will be recast with brick to match the look of the first floor retail component."

Washington reports that while not many of the details have yet to come to life, several green features are in the works, as well as an indoor gym and media center. He expects "some really good, local retail" to occupy the ground floor spaces, likely restaurants and cafes. Down the street, where many online commenters were clamoring for Trader Joe's to become the 10,000 s.f. retail anchor of The Heights, a deal has not been reached with any specific tenant. "We've been in talks with Gary Cha [President] of Yes! Organic Market and a couple hardware supply stores," says Washington, "but no commitments have been made."

Back up the street, The Vue's zoning application was recently set down by the Zoning Commission. NDC's legal representative Kyrus Lamont Freeman at Holland & Knight expects the hearing to be scheduled for late February, about the same time Washington's team anticipates a groundbreaking at The Heights. In anticipation of the Zoning review process, developers have already briefed local entities on their new development plans; most recently NDC met with the The Georgia Avenue Community Development Task Force and have scheduled an informal meeting with ANC 1A for December 8th. While the Vue's completion is distant, Adrian Washington expects to deliver the building within sixteenth months of a construction start, placing a ribbon cutting somewhere during second quarter of 2012.

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News