Marion Barry: Don't Build in Ward 8

Ward 8 has the lowest home ownership levels in the city, by far, and Councilman Marion Barry has a solution: Stop building rental property. Barry has proposed a bill that would prohibit construction permits for new apartment buildings within his ward.

In a press release this afternoon, Barry bemoaned the "few opportunities for residents to become homeowners," noting that only 24% of ward 8 residents live in their own home. Barry notes that families in Ward 8 are "driven by a philosophy to just survive, rather than to invest in their future. " By stopping the illicit flow of the "over saturation" of new apartment units into the ward, Barry reasons that families will be better able to purchase homes.

The legislation submitted by Barry does not directly address the connection between the supply of rental housing and the affordability of home ownership, but states the over-construction of new housing "has lead to few opportunities for residents to become homeowners." Taking away rental options, according to the press release, will force renters to purchase. "Renters are paying anywhere from $1,500-$1,800 per month for housing. At the end of twenty years, what do they have to show for it, nothing, not a cent of equity value," said Barry.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Douglas Secures Hecht's Warehouse at Auction

With Patriot Equities having defaulted on more than $44 million for its property known as "Hecht's Warehouse", noteholder Douglas Development picked up title to the property this afternoon as the sole bidder of the auction it held through Alex Cooper Auctioneers. Douglas gained control of the title with an unrivaled bid of $20 million (a hair above the "outstanding debt in excess of $19,999,000") for the entirety of the four-parcel property spanning New York Avenue in Northeast: 1401-1403, 1545 New York Avenue NE, and 2001 16th Street, NE. Meaning, Douglas is no longer the noteholder, but the property owner, and potential developer, of the site.

The City Paper reported last week that Douglas Development had bought the promissory note for the Hecht's Warehouse property from U.S. Bank in March of this year, after Penn.-based Patriot Equities was unable to keep up with a $66 million loan, and the Bank nearly went into foreclosure last year.

Patriot Equities had purchased the Hecht's Warehouse property in 2007 for $78 million and planned a development called Patriot Yards, a warehouse facility that boasted "loading accessibility which is virtually unmatched in the District." At the time of purchase, Abdo was thrilled to have future development in the Northeast neighborhood, with the hopes it would encourage investors for its own 17-acre Arbor Place project, which never happened, nor has development of New York Avenue taken hold.

As reported by the Post on Monday, Norman Jemal of Douglas asserted that his company "is considering a warehouse distribution space at the site or possibly apartments with streetfront retail."

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Plan in Queue for Babe's in Tenleytown

Plans for the former Babe's Billiards site at 4600-4614 Wisconsin Avenue NW in Tenleytown have been knocked around, and ultimately scratched, since early 2004, three years before the well-known neighborhood hangout was forced to give its final last-call-for-alcohol. The site, dormant now for four years, is owned by Douglas Development, and the developer plans to rekindle an earlier vision for the parcel: a six-story, mixed-use development with a significant retail component. Douglas Development, flying as Jemal's Babes LLC, purchased the site at auction in February of 2009 for $5m - in what many insiders considered an overly aggressive bid - after previous owner and developer, Clemens Construction, went into foreclosure and was forced to fold on its plan to turn the site into the 70-unit Maxim Condominiums, first conceptualized in 2006. In 2009, Douglas asserted it would re-establish the site as simple retail, but then filed a request with the Zoning Commission in September of 2010 to rezone the property and develop the site into a significantly more dense mixed-use project incorporating anywhere from one-to-three floors of retail topped with residential. This plan, however, was scaled back in December of 2010 - back to a one-story, one-tenant redevelopment of the existing structure, likely to be occupied by a restaurateur. Following through with this downsized plan would have allowed Douglas to forgo the PUD and rezoning process and develop by right, in line with the property's current C-2-A zoning (low density, maximum height of 50'). Yet, eight months later, with the corner building still empty, Douglas is opting to go big again and has returned to the six-story, mixed-use plan for five stories of residential above 12,600 s.f. of ground-floor retail, confirms Paul Millstein, head of construction-related activity at Douglas (the rendering above is just a concept). Plans are currently in Shalom Baranes' design queue, although there are no active renderings yet, per the architect. The PUD-plans will be submitted to ANC 3 "by September" said Millstein. "If not September, October for sure." Meanwhile, anyone looking for pool can head to Babe's new home in Silver Spring, where the watering hole relocated in November of last year. Anyone looking for vestiges of the neighborhood's seamier days of the '60s and '70s will have a harder time finding it. 

Washington D.C. retail and commercial real estate news

Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut-Shaped Park

A media release announcing “Mr. Peanut Goes to Washington!” was nutty enough to work. Like those saddled with an anxiety invoking peanut allergy, not everyone will be able to stomach a peanut park, or the blatant corporate sponsorship, but D.C. residents will soon have a new park as a result.

Children in Lincoln Heights might think they've swallowed a bad sandwich, if they happen to spot Mr. Peanut’s Nutmobile (think Oscar Mayer Weinermobile, but a peanut) zipping around the Northeast neighborhood today.

Joining Mr. Peanut in Northeast were Mayor Gray and Congresswoman Norton; the crew was not hashing out the sticky details of a subsidized peanut butter bill, but instead showing support for a collaboration by Planters and The Corps Network to gift Washington D.C. with a peanut-shaped urban park, and tree-planting event.

D.C. is one of three communities nationwide to receive a peanut-shaped park, and also one stop for the Nutmobile on its 16-city 2011 tour. Notable chunks: the supersized vehicle runs on biodiesel and features smooth interior flooring made from wood yanked from a 170-year-old barn.

Located at 50th and Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue, this new “Planters Grove” peanut-shaped park was designed by New York-based landscape architect Ken Smith and will be surrounded by a greater area of tree canopy once the community-planted fruit and nut trees (39), and serviceberry trees (37) mature.

The focal point of the park, the peanut, is lined by free-standing porch columns that accentuate the delicious hour-glass shape.

Azaleas will border the columns, not only giving a nubby peanut-shell perimeter to the park, but will “note the beginning of America’s urban environmental movement, which began when Lady Bird Johnson responded to the plea of local eight-year-old John Hatcher for azalea bushes for his housing development.”

How many people will run after the Nutmobile, mistakenly thinking that Mr. Peanut is (as he should be) hawking PB&J, as the newest member of D.C.'s growing fleet of food trucks?

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Editors Building Downtown Turning to Hospitality

The "Editors Building," located one block from the White House at 1729 H St., NW in the Golden Triangle, has been owned and occupied by Kiplinger Washington Editors Inc. from the time it was completed in 1950. But after six decades, the family-owned finance publisher is selling its 10-story, 77,000 s.f. neo-classical building to a hotel developer.

The buyer currently under contract, OTO Development Company LLC, has put down a firm deposit, giving Dek Potts, a senior managing director with Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P. (HFF), "reasonable confidence" that the sale is a sure thing.

Settlement is scheduled for October in order to allow Kiplinger time to relocate. HFF has been marketing the property since the summer of 2010. OTO Development LLC is a South Carolina-based hospitality development company with properties nationwide, and in April delivered its first project in D.C., the Hilton Garden Inn at Constitution Square in NoMa.

Located in the downtown core, the new Golden-Triangle property being acquired is C-4 zoned, allowing office, retail, housing, and mixed-use development (up to 110' and 8.5 F.A.R.) by way of right.

Designed by Washington architect Leon Chatelain Jr. in 1948, construction of the building in the subsequent two years was completed under the guidance of John McShain, celebrated general contractor-builder, who has been dubbed "The man who built Washington." McShain and his company worked on over 100 buildings in the thirty-odd years spanning the 1930s to '60s, including the National Airport, the Kennedy Center, the Jefferson Memorial, the Pentagon, the Library of Congress annex, and, the same year as the Editors Building, a revamp of the White House.
The Editors Building is not designated as a historic/landmark structure, allowing the buyer one less fee-trip in the path to redevelopment. A façade of limestone surrounds a red-granite-and-bronze entrance with matching red-granite window accents. Inside, the continuation of neo-classical elements includes an all-marble lobby with 12-to-16' ceilings.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Your Next Place...

By Franklin Schneider

When I was fifteen, I spent a summer living with wealthy relatives in Germany, near the Black Forest. They lived in a very fine house that on the inside looked a lot like this one. When I think back on that summer, I think of the Old World elegance of their house; the hardwood floors, stone fireplaces, the simple but timeless elegance. That, and the fact that there was no drinking age, and that it was perfectly acceptable for a 15-yr old to stay the night at his girlfriend's house, in her bed. My parents really had no idea what sort of education I was getting.

But back to the Old World elegance. This place has it in spades, with wood and stone wherever you look; from the six fireplaces to the fantastic woodwork to the luxury dining room with a fully-functioning antique dumbwaiter (you don't see many of those anymore). There's a spacious library, with built-in shelves and a bay window/reading nook, a den/office, and a massive kitchen that opens onto a private enclosed patio for al fresco dining. Five bedrooms with two full baths and two half baths; the master bathroom is exceptional, long and white like a luxury traincar, with twin basins and a huge glass-enclosed shower with twin showerheads.




Located at 17th and P, it's close enough to the Dupont Circle metro and everything else (Whole Foods, Safeway, CVS, tons of shops, restaurants and bars) that you really don't need a car. At this point let me direct your attention to the one letter's difference in the phrases “carefree” and “car-free.” Coincidence? Well, yes. But it makes for good copy. Okay, decent copy.

1704 P Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
5 Bdrms, 3 Baths
$1,395,000

What Jill Spaeth Sayeth

By Beth Herman


Inside the American Chemistry Council in northeast Washington D.C., a long wall of custom, internally LED-illuminated panels illustrates some of the District's great landmarks in a formidable photo mosaic. At first glance, the Capitol dome and the Washington Monument appear boldly enough, but further investigation reveals the images are made up of distinct letter forms from the periodic table of the elements.

"According to the ACC, chemistry is in everything, said Jill Spaeth, founder of Fairfax, Va.-based graphic design studio Citizen Creative. “So we subtly put that in there.”

Moving upon graduation in 2004 from New York to D.C. for a position with the then nascent FOX Architects, Spaeth and her communications department colleagues were responsible for the firm’s maverick marketing collateral. This included a mass mailing of socks with text that said, “FOX Architects will knock your socks off, so here’s another pair,” and a Christmas gaggle of blue icicles exhorting recipients to “lighten up: it’s the holidays.”

“We kept doing this and eventually it got out there so well that people wanted to know the creative team behind these projects,” Spaeth said, noting the team began to get some of its own clients separate from father FOX. While they often came in as a byproduct of an architectural project, Spaeth recalled creating an identity for a law firm in a FOX redesign, focusing on letterhead and business cards.

On other occasions, referrals came in that established a graphic design client base for the creatives, independent of architectural projects, with clients seeking critical space identity, wayfinding signage and communication design. In forging its own identity to bid jobs as a separate entity, and with FOX’s imprimatur, the tiny ‘graphics department that could’ became Citizen Creative, with Spaeth then encouraged to strike out on her own in early 2010.

True north and pepperoni

When the nearly 200-year-old Virginia Theological Seminary with its sprawling Alexandria campus came calling, wayfinding was at the top of its dance card, according to Spaeth. “It was a great project because you’re creating design solutions that enable people to do something bigger—enable them to function by getting to their destinations more efficiently, or faster, or more cohesively,” she said, noting the new dean at the time had confided students couldn’t even get a pizza delivered.
Tasked with a comprehensive signage program, the firm strategized primary signs that direct people to the alumni center or the library, for example, and secondary signs that provide names for each building. A tertiary level of signage put numbers on each structure for easier identification and access, but there was much more to the project than simple clarification.

“It’s the oldest theological seminary in the country,” Spaeth said, “with gorgeous brick buildings to which we wanted to pay homage.” Affirming she also wanted to integrate the campus’ newer building design into its signage, the resulting product is a marriage of a brick masonry base with the top consisting of aluminum to withstand the weather. “We painted the new identity in these bold colors on the top that really brings the two pieces together,” Spaeth said.

What lies beneath

When meeting with clients to ascertain their needs, and referencing ACC in particular where FOX Architects had retained Citizen Creative as a consultant in 2010, Spaeth said she probes deeply by asking targeted questions such as what they represent, why they are here, and why what they does really matters. “This tells me more about the client than they realize,” she said, adding that because the ACC is largely about educating lawmakers on Capitol Hill about the role chemistry plays in developing new ideas and solutions, the graphic-paneled Washington wall with its embedded periodic table of the elements was created to trumpet the message.

At IBS Millwork in Manassas, the celebrated custom millwork fabricator sought to expand its reach and skew the aggressive D.C. architecture and design market, but fell short in its materials presentation, according to Spaeth. Collateral colors like “undecided grey” (a paean to the owner’s cherished Ohio State Buckeyes) failed to make a powerful statement, and a portfolio that included long shots or lobby-wide images made prospective clients “do all the work” about what work, exactly, IBS had done in the space. Creating everything from a bold-hued brochure to a qualification package and more, and even hiring a photographer to reshoot elements of spaces that accentuated the FSC-certified client’s achievements, Spaeth said “crisp and current” materials and project-specific images are critical to successfully navigating the saturated D.C. market.

Recently concluding a two-year term as president of the 900-member DC chapter of AIGA, the professional association for design (Spaeth was the youngest chapter president in the organization’s history), she is also newly certified as a SWMOB (Small, Women and Minority-Owned Business) in Va., which she explained may garner a higher proposal ranking for clients bidding on government projects.

“We are truly citizens of design,” Spaeth said of the firm’s unconventional name. “We have an allegiance to providing clients with gorgeous, thoughtful design ideas that really showcase who they are and what their message is.”

ACC photos courtesy of Ron Blunt

U-Turn for Residential Building on 14th Street

Three residential projects will rise up 7 stories along the 14th Street Corridor between R and U Streets NW in the next two years, but Level 2 Development's project sited for Wallach Place and 14th (1905-1917 14th Street) won't be one of them - at least not yet. The project's architect, Eric Colbert & Associates, went up against the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) - and up against two handfuls of Wallach Place residents - last week at the HPRB's monthly meeting, only to be unanimously denied design approval.

As first reported by U Street Dirt, the HPRB was openly critical of the design and urged Colbert to rethink the building's rhythm, scale and greater context in the U Street Historic District.

The Colbert design presented was a 7-story apartment building, with an approximately 16,000 s.f. site footprint (150' wide x 106' deep). Although materials alternated between brick and metal "to break the building down into smaller pieces" with for 5-story projecting bays along 14th Street, the Board verbalized dissatisfaction with the look and feel, saying it wasn't 14th Street appropriate and ultimately didn't have "that Colbert magic" (apparently preferring the Floridian.)

It seems inevitable that the one-story "bunker" - officially "The Edna Frazier Cromwell Shopping Center" - currently lying low at the site, will not escape demolition. Built in 1986, the center was the first privately financed real estate development on 14th Street after the destruction of the 1968 riots. However, the structure has widely been regarded by the immediate community as an "eyesore." Previously on site was a 5-story brick building (demolished in 1970).

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Winner of President's Park South Design Competition

Rogers Marvel Architects, a New York-based firm, was announced as the winner of the President's Park South design competition at the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) meeting held today.  Rogers Marvel was selected amongst five semi-finalists out of a field of 25 entrants. In a statement, NCPC described the Rogers Marvel design as "adding a seating wall with integrated pedestrian lighting, while subtly raising the grade of the Ellipse. This establishes a security feature, reinforces the Ellipse as an event space, and minimizes the visual appearance of adjacent parking." The design adds a new E Street terrace that joins the modified Ellipse with the White House South Lawn, a design that "could also accommodate re-opening E Street, NW without requiring significant changes," according to NCPC. The next, and more formidable, portion of the project will be to wrangle the money necessary to build out the winning design.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Partial Preservation Prevails Over Parking

The request submitted to the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) for partial preservation of three historic rowhouses at 1232-1236 New Jersey Avenue NW, was unanimously approved by the HPRB Board on June 30th. The applicant, The Third Street Church of God, had petitioned for a full raze of the properties to make way for 5-7 parking spaces.

The partial raze compromise was reached in the "11th hour," as HPO Staff Reviewer Brendan Meyer stated during his testimony; HPRB Chair Catherine Buell explained that the role of the HPRB is to preserve "contributing structures in a historic district." With that said, Buell then acknowledged that the Church could revisit the Board with a new (full raze) request, or petition the "Mayor's agent" using the plea of economic burden.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Plans Submitted for Southwest Wharf Waterfront

Visions of a "world class" waterfront destination along the Washington Channel in Southwest had been dancing in developers' heads for years before a contract was awarded by the District in 2008. On June 28th the winning team's vision became more clear when PN Hoffman and Madison Marquette filed a preliminary report with the D.C. Zoning Commission, clarifying its plans for the 52 acres (including build out on the water) that will be radically revamped as "The Wharf" to be constructed in three phases over the next 10 years.

Phase one of the project - encapsulated for approval as the "Stage 1 PUD" - will be reviewed by the Commission on July 18th. In addition to reviewing Stage 1, the Commission will rule on the request to rezone the area from R-3 to C-3-C on land, and from unzoned to W-1 in the water.

If approved, the initial stage will be valid for 18 months, allowing developers that long to submit the final Master Plan to the office of the Deputy Mayor's for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) for approval. Construction of the first phase is projected to begin in late 2012, and is expected to last until 2016. In those four years, phase two will undergo the review and approval process.

Phase 1 will begin in the middle section, roughly from 7th Street to 9th Street, in between the entertainment-heavy section closest to I-395, which focuses on water-transit-oriented piers and redevelopment of the Municipal Fish Market (phase two), and the residential area at the southern end (phase three). Redevelopment of the Municipal Fish Market will take place in phase 2.

Phase one includes the restructuring of portions of 7th, 9th, N St and M Place; a new Capital Yacht Club; two new piers - "City Pier" off of 9th and "7th Street Pier" - and a major infrastructure overhaul of Water Street. The grand scheme is to turn Water Street into a promenade with 60' of width shared between pedestrians, streetcars, bikes and outdoor diners.

The parcels in phase one (2,3,4 and 5) will be developed as office, retail, residential and hotel space. Parcels 3 through 5 could potentially be 130' high, as is permitted in a C-3-C zone. The plan shows that parcels 3 and 4 will have ground floor retail and office and/or residential towers, parcel 5 will hold two hotels, and parcel 2 is slated to become a concert/entertainment venue with seating for 4,000 to 6,000.

Parcel 3, at the corner of Maine Avenue and 9th Street, has been claimed in part by the Graduate School USA, which will take up 190,000 s.f. of space and operate 18 hours a day. A temporary Kastles Stadium, now located near parcel at 9th and Maine Street and intended to be temporary, is now being considered for parcel 2.

Holland & Knight, legal counsel for PN Hoffman and Madison Marquette, submitted the project's prehearing statement to the Commission in May, and the more recent "20 day [in advance of hearing] submission" on June 28th. Significant changes in both prehearing documents that will affect phase one include a decreased F.A.R. (floor area ratio), the removal of residential use at parcel 5, reduced parking spaces and increased bike docking areas. Most encouraging is the reduction of subsidized housing required by the District from 30% to 20% of total housing.

A community workshop was given by the developers on June 7, where several issues were raised, most of them surrounding the riparian development, including the depth of the channel, and the extended length of several piers, which cuts the width of the channel from 400' to 200' wide.

Subsequent development will include a revamped Banneker Park and the Southwest Ecodistrict of 10th Street (not controlled by Team Wharf), which will ideally provide a link from the waterfront to the Mall.

Other elements of the overall development (all three phases) include a combined 3.2 million s.f. gross floor area (3.87 F.A.R.), 8 to 12 acres of park/open space with "programmed public activities" catering to year-round use, 625 hotel rooms, 1,200 "mixed-income" residential units, and 400 to 500 Marina Slips

The entire project is estimated to need $2 billion; the District pledged $200 million in 2008 in tax increment financing. The redevelopment, say developers, has the potential to bring in $40 million in tax revenue annually.

ANC 6D will hold a meeting, in advance of the Zoning Commission hearing, at the Dept. of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) at 7pm, next Monday, July 11th.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Safety First: Dissecting the Mexican Cultural Institute

By Beth Herman Its array of explosive Latin American murals propels one through history, geography, space and time. Standing before the dramatic interior walls of the Mexican Cultural Institute, tilling the fields or tickling the gods are well within reach. For Monarc Construction Principal John Bellingham, upgrading the Institute’s labyrinth of safety and security systems, and addressing handicap accessibility issues, without disturbing its signature murals and coterie of antiques, gilded objects, cut crystal, tile and ornate grille work was not your grandmother’s construction challenge. "It is magnificent inside," Bellingham said of the series of galleries that define the 40,000 s.f. space, and his commission to expand them. “It’s a four-story (Italianate) structure with 20-ft. ceilings that had been neglected badly.” Built as a residence at 2829 16th Street NW for President Taft’s secretary of the treasury in 1910-11, the building was sold to the Mexican Embassy in 1921 and then designated as a cultural center in 1990 by President Carlos Salinas de Gortari of Mexico (the embassy had moved to another venue the previous year). While adroitly circumventing artist Roberto Cueva del Rio’s masterful murals was indeed part of the challenge, major concerns included inadequate 30-inch-tall handrails in the building’s sprawling three-story stairwell, often utilized as space during receptions, as well as antiquated electrical, plumbing, fire and other safety systems, and also interior environmental issues. In fact when the Institute’s executive director, under whom the work began, was replaced by current Executive Director Alejandra de la Paz, elements such as an exterior envelope upgrade and restoration were added to the already comprehensive task list, with an emphasis on windows.

Of wind and mortar “I remember standing there in the winter and the curtains were just blowing in the breeze because the air was coming in so much,” Bellingham said, adding for sustainability and preservation purposes the goal was not to replace but restore them, some 16 feet tall. Brick work was cleaned – the limestone repointed, and Bellingham noted because the bricks are German (thin and long), repairs had to come from cutting other bricks when nothing comparable could be found. In what was once a greenhouse in the back of the building but is currently a public space for presentations and the like, exquisite Calavera tile was restored with tremendous effort. When a match could not be obtained from its manufacturer in Puebla, Mexico, Richmond, Va. celebrated artisan and sculptor Charlie Ponticello was commissioned to replicate the tile. Scalpel, please “In buildings of this age, typically there are a lot of vertical chases as they were heated with hot water radiators,” Bellingham explained, adding the question of how to cut the art-laced walls for equipment upgrades was a painstaking issue. “It’s a matter of finding the chases again, opening them up, taking out abandoned piping in some cases and replacing it, and forming new chases,” he said. In the third floor library, with its polished walnut ceiling, years of incursions for construction or mechanical purposes had damaged it considerably, and Monarc also had to install components of its safety systems. Bellingham said by the end of the process, there was no way to determine where any work had been done, resulting in a great enhancement of the space. With the original wood balustrade just 30 inches high, safety concerns abounded for those gathered on stairways, especially during parties and receptions. “You could be pushed or literally fall backwards,” Bellingham said, “with the handrail coming up only to the back of your legs – not your waist.” Seeking not to impinge on the beauty of the balustrade or disturb it any way, a glass handrail was fabricated to stand in front of it. And among the project’s more prickly challenges was the method in which to “sprinkle the stairs,” Bellingham recounted. “It’s a four-story lobby with an atrium that goes all the way from the ground floor to the roof,” bathed in murals and more. A decision to enhance the original cornice – which ran up under the stairs – and hide new pipes between the old and new cornice work camouflaged necessary pipes, Bellingham explained. Located on 15th Street in back of the structure, a 1,500-s.f. carriage house with collapsed roof was also restored, transformed into a new housing unit for visiting dignitaries and other personnel. “The whole building is a solid masonry structure,” Bellingham said of the Institute. “There was a lot of exploratory work, and we took down parts of the ceiling, went through walls, cut passageways and took down moldings to hide pipes and wiring, not to mention working around an old organ. We had to protect these great artifacts.” 

Washington DC commercial design

No Mo' for East NoMa This Year?

Charles "Sandy" Wilkes founded The Wilkes Company over three decades ago and began investing in NoMa - North of Massachusetts Ave - shortly thereafter, acquiring property as early as 1985, when Reagan was in office, Mandela wasn't free, and Back to the Future was the highest grossing film in the U.S.  That investment may soon pay dividends, as Wilkes plots a course to finally develop the block of property at 3rd and M Streets, NE, in Noma's long underdeveloped eastern branch. While signs of construction have been evident at the site for several months, Wilkes is holding back on development until the moment is right. That moment may well depend on Douglas Development and its development of Uline Arena; restoration of the historic 60-year-old Uline/Washington Coliseum, according to Douglas, depends on finding a marquee tenant, which they are actively seeking. Despite other real estate projects in the Northeast area rolling forward - Valor Development's 49-unit condo at 3rd and L, slated to begin in spring of 2012; the AvalonBay's 215-unit apartment project at 3rd and I; and Guy Steuart's Giant project at 3rd and H - Wilkes seems to be keeping an eye on what may be the city's most unique entertainment venue just across the street. 

 In addition to the combined Uline and Ice House project by Douglas and 300 M St NE, there are two other substantial planned projects on the boards for East NoMa proper: Union Place II, a 500-unit apartment with 30,000 s.f. of retail by The Cohen Companies, now in the design phase and looking to break ground in first quarter 2012, according to TCC's executive vice president, Eric Siegel; and the long-way-off Burnham Place project, a massive, billion-dollar build by Akridge.

300 M Street has long been idle and is being used for parking in the interim; the reason for the long wait time, according to Wilkes, is that he is "taking the time to determine the right mix of uses [at the site] and determine the right timing." The market is a big factor, specifically the uncertainty of the market for office space in the immediate area, and the unknown effect of substantial commercial density being added to west NoMa. Wilkes is familiar with the market, as well as the ongoing changes in NoMa: along with being an owner of substantial property for over 25 years, he invested in the construction of the New York Avenue Metro stop, and serves as vice chairman of the NoMa BID (a map with the boundaries of NoMa is found below). 

Although the specifics may change given Wilkes' earlier statement, an original design for 300 M, conceptualized by D.C.-and-New York-based Beyer Blinder Belle , incorporated retail, loft-style residences, and office space catering to a large organization: a non-profit HQ, government agency or trade association. One thing is clear about the future use of the site,"It will require zoning relief," explains Wilkes. The Ward 6 location is zoned C-M-1, low bulk commercial and light manufacturing uses, with a maximum height of 3 stories or 40'. Wilkes asserts that the zoning process will take some time, and that ground breaking at the site is not imminent. Wilkes also claims that east NoMa will eventually develop as more of a nod to New York's SoHo and Tribeca than anywhere else in DC, and "patience" is required, but that patience is wearing thin for some. For now, it seems Wilkes' project will sit on the sideline for the rest of the year, as west NoMa continues to witness the highest concentration of construction in Washington D.C. With over $3 billion of private investment shuttled into the whole of NoMa since 2005, 15.7 million s.f. of the neighborhood has been developed, and with 16.8 million more square feet to go, more patience may be a necessary asset. 

Washington D.C. real estate development news