Today in Pictures - Union Station

Union Station's Main Hall is getting a makeover, as is obvious to anyone passing through this week. The work doesn't relate to the upcoming reconfiguration of the transportation hub; but is a repair of damage caused by last August's 5.8 magnitude earthquake that caused plaster to fall from the ceiling. Universal Builders Supply, which built the scaffolding the embraced the Washington Monument, has assembled the movable scaffold to support the repair work that will last nearly a year while allowing tens of thousands of people to pass underneath daily.













Washington D.C. real estate development news. Photos by Rey Lopez.

Green Line "Corridor" Growth Setting The Pace For The Region: Study

(Corrects to show Branch Avenue Metro Station in Prince Georges County)

That well-heeled twenty and thirty-somethings are moving into Columbia Heights and Washington Navy Yard isn't news, but if a recent study is true, namely that growth along the Washington's Green Line "Corridor," as it were, is outpacing that of the Ballston-Arlington Corridor and that of the Red Line, well, then.

Certainly, the most well-off of Washingtonians travel the Red Line north to Shady Grove, or the Orange Line to Arlington, right?

Wrong, says Shyam Kannan of Robert Charles Lesser & Co. who told the Capitol Riverfront BID yesterday at their annual meeting that over the past ten years, the highest growth in six-figure riders and those key demographic 18-34 year olds are along the Green Line corridor between Georgia Avenue/Petworth and the Navy Yard, outpacing the suburban-hip Rosslyn-Balston corridor and its Green line-busting hip-hop music scene.

In fact, according to the study, the average income for new households along 10-stations in the Green Line "Corridor" is now nearly $83,000. Moreover, nearly 3,500 18-34 year-olds moved into the Green Line "Corridor" between 2000 and 2010, more than the 3,400 added in Rosslyn-Ballston and the 2,300 or so added along the Red Line in Northwest.

The study was paid for by the Capitol Riverfront BID, which has a bit of self-interest in promoting the Navy Yard as a destination to work live and play along the Green Line given that it lobbied WMATA to change Navy Yard's name to Navy Yard/Capitol Riverfront.

And the RCLCO study conveniently slices off the more moderate income ends of the Green Line --Anacostia as well as Greenbelt and Branch Avenue in PG County, which might skew the economics that the study's benefactors want to portray. Still, it shows that the Green Line, which first opened in 1991, is well on its way to help produce the type of dense, transit-oriented-development in the heart of Washington D.C.

Washington D.C. real estate redevelopment news.

Maryland Avenue SW Corridor Redevelopment Plan Unveiled

During that netherweek between Christmas and New Year's, when most of us were still in an eggnog-induced haze, the DC Office of Planning released a draft report on the Maryland Avenue SW Plan, which is part of NCPC's Southwest Ecodistrict Initiative, a concept introduced last May. If the suggestions in this report are adopted – and there's little reason to believe they won't - the consequences for Southwest would be drastic and far-reaching.

Development-wise, the General Services Administration (GSA) is considering conveying (selling off) four federally-owned parcels along a proposed rebuilt Maryland Avenue, with an eye towards private redevelopment as mixed-use projects. This is pricey territory, with proximity to the Mall, the Capitol, monuments, the forthcoming Southwest waterfront redevelopment. Currently these parcels are all monolithic office buildings, like much of the area - a reality this report aims to dramatically alter. The report raises the possibility of rezoning the area to accommodate high-density residential structures - though there are obstacles to the plan. For starters, one of the four parcels (Parcel 1) is crowded by the USDA Cotton Annex, which for right now at least is not being considered for conveyance. According to the report, it's going to be hard to reach the desired density (the study suggested a minimum of a thousand residential units) on these parcels without them “being aggregated with adjacent land.” - perhaps this is a hint at future conveyances.

The main problem with the Maryland Avenue corridor, other than the aforementioned homogeneity and its lunar-like desolation post 6pm, is that Maryland Avenue doesn't actually exist for a good five blocks between 7th and 12th Streets. Clearly, any revitalization of the area will require the rebuilding of Maryland Avenue as priority one. The report presents three possible avenues towards reestablishing the avenue: option one is to just rebuild it with a median, and rebuild 9th Street to connect Independence, Maryland, and D Street. Option two would rebuild it only between 10th and 12th, and convert the rest to a park. The third proposes a smaller, pedestrian- and bike-friendly center roadway with an adjacent public square, shifting the existing railyard south.

The report seems to lean in favor of the second and third options – surveys taken of area residents and workers showed an overwhelming majority specified “parks and open spaces” as their number one preference in regards to improving the area. The report also lays out a strategy of using public spaces to draw pedestrian traffic and “establish an identity” for the area, which will (theoretically) lead to “demand for residential,” which will in turn “create population that attracts retail.” And reading the report – which is detailed, well-written, and ambitious – you get the impression it just might be that easy.

The plan also calls for a long-overdue expansion of the L'Enfant metro and commuter rail stations, and wholesale improvements of Reservation 113, the greenspace where Maryland and Virginia Avenues intersect, into a “dynamic urban park” as neighborhood centerpiece. The report estimates this project would cost around $430 million, a cost defrayed by the sale of the aforementioned federally-held parcels. Other funding sources, according to the report, could include TIF or PILOT funds, developer/railroad contributions, and various federal grants.

The western side of the Maryland Avenue corridor roughly abuts the soon-to-be-revitalized Southwest Waterfront, which is now revving into high gear and the Eisenhower Memorial is slated for 2015 right next door, all of which could very well create a domino effect, perhaps spurring the much-discussed creation of a "second downtown."

Check out the full report . The public can also offer feedback on the full report, and comment until February 3.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Your Next Place

By Franklin Schneider

I liked this house so much it made me want to go to law school. After five minutes inside, I was like, "whatever it takes, I need to get my hands on a million and a half dollars, asap," and law school was the quickest way I could figure out to do that. I also considered drug dealing and bankrobbing, but I figured that with law school there's much less chance of me being shot in the face.

But man, this place. A beautiful semi-detached townhouse, it has four fully-furnished levels. Yeah, bummer, four levels is a lot of walking up and down, maybe too much. OH WAIT - it has an elevator!! The lower level family room is incredibly wide and spacious, and opens out onto the lush garden patio. There's a chef's kitchen with everything you need to make an incredible multicourse gourmet meal, which let's be honest you'll never do - but you could, technically. The master suite has a fireplace and is very masterful indeed, with a wonderful master bath (check out the tub) and a private balcony from which you can see Georgetown AND Rosslyn. I didn't even know that was possible. After that, and the elevator, I don't think anything would've surprised me about this house. "And here we have the zero gravity room, which is powered by elfin sorcery." I wouldn't even have blinked.

There's also a sauna and a wet bar (two things that were meant to be together) and a garage and driveway. The house also overlooks Book Hill Park, which is an immaculately landscaped picturesque and little-known park through which I walked after the open house. As I passed a mom and her two kids, I saw her give me a look like "what's this longhaired degenerate doing in my park?" and I started to tell her how I'd just decided to attend law school and become a respectable citizen and enrich myself while also enriching society, but by that time I'd already decided to just buy a Powerball ticket instead. America!

3242 Reservoir Road NW
3 Bedrooms, 4.5 Baths
$1,645,000

Washington D.C. real estate news

Founders Square DARPA Building Complete, Residential Tower Next

The first stage of Ballston mixed-use mega-project Founders Square, a 13-story 350,000- square-foot office building at 675 North Randolph, is now complete, with the first (and only) tenant, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), now taking possession of the property. Developer The Shooshan Company now has a clear runway to break ground on the next phase of the five-building, 1.2 million-square-foot complex, the 17-story, 257-unit residential building at 4000 Wilson Boulevard.

“We’re in the very final stages of completion of 675 North Randolph, the new DARPA headquarters,” said Kevin Shooshan, Director of Leasing at the Shooshan Company. “It’s basically complete. [DARPA] is in the process of accepting the building, and transferring over floor by floor, a process which will go on the next few months, probably into the second quarter of 2012.”

DARPA, a secretive federal intelligence and research agency that, according to some reports, invented everything from the internet to GPS, was formerly headquartered down the road on Fairfax Drive in Virginia Square, and almost left the state on the recommendation of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission in 2005. But state representatives and two consecutive governors used a $10 million grant to convince the federal agency to stay in the area, pointing to the 800 jobs (including contractors) provided and $33 million dollars in city and state taxes paid by the agency each year. DARPA is paying $14.7 million a year on their lease.

The new DARPA headquarters, which is certified LEED Gold, is also the first office building in the area to meet the Department of Defense’s Level IV security standards, and will incorporate a secure parking facility and an 82-foot secured perimeter, and is a surrounded by a sizeable lawn that segregates it from the other buildings in Founders Square.

Now, says Shooshan, the focus moves to the residential building at 4000 Wilson Blvd. “Two hundred fifty seven units, seventeen stories, with construction set to begin in the first quarter of next year, and finishing in the first quarter of 2013,” says Shooshan. “The site plan has been approved for over a year now. Permits are lined up and we're going to pull them in a matter of weeks."

The 1.2 million square foot Founders Square project, designed by RTKL Associates, is also slated to include a 183-room Marriott Residence Inn at 650 North Quincy, and a 420,000-square-foot office building at 4040 Wilson Blvd.

Arlington, Virginia real estate development news

Today in Pictures - NoMa

With numerous projects planned and under construction, Noma's face is changing more quickly than any area of Washington D.C.

Archstone's First & M residential project

NPR Headquarters at North Capitol and L Streets

NPR Headquarters

NPR Headquarters

Washington D.C. real estate development news

A Modest Icon Returns to D.C., The Washington Globe Streetlight

Iconic street light design has long been part of A-list cities like New York, Boston and Paris. Paris, mais bien sur, naturally, is nicknamed, "The City of Light." And in the United States, New York indeed, might just be the streetlight capital, where there are more than 34 models, most with intricate ironwork, with names like "The Corvington" and the delightfully-named 24A-W "Bishop's Crook." The street light design, not surprisingly, has added to Gotham's mystique and sense of place.

Not surprisingly, there are even Web sites devoted to preserving New York's streetlight heritage.

The Big Apple actually held a design contest in 2004 to standardize and unify the more than 300,000 streetlights in the city, mainly with an aim to ending the tyranny of the banal 1960's era "form-follows-function" cobra head light.

The cobra head light, otherwise known as a Westinghouse OV25 Silverliner, first designed in 1957, is still a staple in many cities, especially Washington D.C. For many years, streetlight design in a "no-frills" government town like Washington meant cobra heads rearing up everywhere.

Oddly enough, they fit well amid the acres of Brutalist concrete of the 1960s and 1970s as the federal government needed to expand its bureaucracy quickly. And as confidence in city management waned in the Marion Barry years, more concern was understandably paid to getting burnt-out streetlights replaced quickly rather than what they looked like.

That's not to say Washington didn't have its own iconic design. The Washington Globe and its bigger brother, the "Twin-20" was, and still is a recognizable staple along Constitution Avenue, New York Avenue and other historic routes. "The Washington Globe is the most pleasing design, architecturally," the city's Fine Arts Commission declared in 1980.

But decades of neglect and disrepair took its toll on a Washington icon. Part of which was due to cost of the globes. A glass globe was the hardiest design, and didn't yellow when exposed to sunlight, but cost more than $300 each and were a danger to cars and pedestrians alike if the heavy, inch-thick glass shattered. The District sent its inventory of glass globes to a dumpster more than 20 years ago.

Replacements for the glass were far from perfect. Polycarbonate globes were tougher, could be bought for less, but yellowed when exposed to sunlight and the lights lost their luminosity. They only last about 5-10 years to boot. Acrylic globes didn't yellow, lasted longer, about 10-15 years, but they weren't cheap either, about $125 a globe.

Indifferent administrations, and the District's subordinate relationship to the federal government also contributed to the lack of appreciation of such uniqueness. During the energy crisis of the 1970s, the Carter administration urged electricity savings. At the White House's prompting, many federal agencies in town disconnected street lighting and eschewed illuminating government buildings, save the Capitol, the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, and the Washington Monument.

The issue of streetlights in the District played a role in one of the more tragic, and galling incidents in the city. According to the DC Inspector General's report on the death of former New York Times editor David Rosenbaum in January 2006, inadequate street lighting along Granmercy Street was a contributing factor in both his attack and the inability of responding police, firefighters and EMTs in determining the seriousness of Rosenbaum's condition, who was presumed to be drunk, rather than a victim of a robbery with a serious head injury which proved fatal.

While treating Rosenbaum, firefighters needed to turn on side floodlights of their engine to illuminate the scene, the inspector general's report said. "The area was dark, even with the fire (engine)'s lights on," the report said.

Even before Rosenbaum's death, attention had begun to focus on the dismal state of DC's 62,000-plus streetlights and their design. In 1998, the city adopted streetscape and sidewalk standards for downtown DC. Streetscape standards required that builders of commercial properties, among other things, incorporate Washington Globe streetlight design.

And in 2005, the city followed New York's lead and initiated its own streetlight design committee which identified so-called "Special Streets" and "Historic Streets" to upgrade streetlight design as funds permitted. "The historic significance of the City must be reflected through all aesthetic elements including the appearance of streetlights," the committee declared in March 2005 in its final report.

Still, city administrators will freely admit that not every "Special" or "Historic" street will get the upgraded lighting, given other more pressing budget priorities amid an economic downturn. Teardrop lights cost as much as $600, compared to $200 for a cobra head light. But DC recently used Recovery Act funding to replace outdated streetlights along the Dalecarlia Parkway in Northwest. The Dalecarlia Parkway is one of 120 "Special Street" corridors the city has identified for upgraded lighting, including Wisconsin and Connecticut Avenues, MacArthur Boulevard, and the roads making up DC's borders with Montgomery County and Prince Georges County.

But where the city is lacking funds, some of the Business Improvement Districts are stepping up. The Downtown DC BID has also used its funds to pay for new pendant lights, such as the one above seen at 12th and F NW downtown, as well as Washington Globe lights around Gallery Place. In addition, the National Park Service included new "Twin 20" lighting as part of their $10 million remake of Constitution Avenue to be completed in March.

Former Mayor Adrian Fenty also made it a priority for a portion of DC's new streetlights to be green, as well as iconic. The District uses 60.7 million kWh annually and has a lighting bill of about $3.6 million, according to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. The new Metropolitan Branch Trail along the CSX-right-of-way includes nineteen solar-powered LED streetlights. The District is also using $1 million in Recovery Act money for new LED lights in alleys.

Washington D.C. redevelopment news.

Archstone's "First + M" Apartments Doubles NoMa Housing Stock

Walk by Archstone's First + M apartments in NoMa at night, and you’d be forgiven for thinking they’re done and ready for move-in. While the building is still surrounded by some scaffolding and a few traffic barriers, the sleek mixed-use complex, with its distinctive wavy concrete panels and vaguely fortress-like glass towers, looks very much like a present ready to be unwrapped. “Construction is on or slightly ahead of schedule,” says Peter Jakel, Communications Director at Archstone. "We're currently on schedule for preleasing in March, for first move-ins in May."

Next up? An adjacent 435-unit building, tentatively titled “First + M II,” at 35 M Street NE.

First + M (the first), which was designed by Davis Carter Scott and broke ground in June of 2010, features 469 units – 192 one bedrooms, 206 two bedrooms, and 71 three bedrooms – as well as 2500 square feet of ground floor retail. The finished building will also offer tenants a long list of amenities, including a communal chef's kitchen that opens onto an outdoor dining area, a 5000-square-foot 24-hour gym, a massive green courtyard, a “Rooftop Resort” that features a heated lap pool and sun deck, an internet cafe, a theater, two soundproof music studios, a bike workshop, and, yes – a pet spa. This list, along with the overall dearth of housing in NoMa – the 496 units in First + M will boost NoMa's housing stock by a full 50% - should ensure the project's rapid success.

This is just the latest development in NoMa's swift rise from federal office hinterland to arguably the District's buzziest real estate hotspot. Even today, walking north from Union Station or east from Shaw and into the heart of NoMa is a bit like stumbling across a stand of sunflowers in the middle of a desert. Wasn't this a parking lot just last month?

According to the NoMa BID, the neighborhood's resident population is expected to double in the next two to three years, and projects in the planning stages – a total of 9 million square feet of office space, 860,000 square feet of retail space, and another 6500 residential units - will more than double NoMa's available square footage.

Doug Carter, founding principal at Davis Carter Scott, has been

quoted in these pages as saying he wanted the First + M building to be “a little more forward looking,” and it is. Emphasis on “a little.” Standing at the intersection of First and M Streets, one might experience a temporary wave of vertigo, so identical are the recently-completed buildings and the almost-completed First + M project. Conventional mixed-use structures – ground-floor retail, underground parking, residential units up top – are no doubt efficient, and good for the community, but NoMa might be approaching the “too much of a good thing” saturation point. The blossoming of NoMa is a very good thing for the District, and a checkerboard neighborhood of monolithic glass towers is, without question, preferable to a desolate expanse of surface parking lots and abandoned warehouses – but then, these aren’t the only two choices, are they? Building a neighborhood essentially from scratch is a rare and precious opportunity. Why recreate Ballston?

Washington, D.C. real estate development news