Your Next Place

By Franklin Schneider

I like townhouses. Is this a controversial thing to say? I don't know. I said this to my girlfriend, who was with me on this day of openhousing, and she gave me the same look she gives me when we discuss fine dining and I bring up the taco pizza from my midwestern hometown. (Yes, this exists; yes, it features Cool Ranch Doritos as a topping; yes, I'm ashamed to admit it would be my last meal if I ever found myself on death row.)

Okay, maybe I don't like all townhouses, anymore than I like all novelty pizzas. (I'd rather eat my shoe than a slice of ham-n-pineapple.) But this townhouse, I love. And what's not to love? Heart of pine floors, custom Waterworks bathrooms, beautiful, spacious kitchen. It even has a home theater – not like the usual home theater, which is just a family room with a television in front of a sofa and maybe a few tinny speakers, but an actual matte movie screen and projector. It's just like a movie theater experience, only better, because there aren't any strangers packed in on all sides. The last time I went to a movie, the man behind me either took his shoes off or opened a family-size jar of tartar sauce he'd smuggled in – I was afraid to turn around and see which one.

There's a beautiful living room (with fireplace), a cute wooden deck in back, and the master bedroom suite is a full-blown suite, with a generous living/lounge area, and prodigious closets. The master bath has twin vanities and – my new favorite thing – a skylight over the bathtub. It just looked so luxurious, the prospect of bathing in this intense rectangle of sunlight. Of course, my bathtub at home is next to a “wall” made of black plastic duct-taped over crumbling plaster, so pretty much anything seems luxurious next to that.

4025 Mansion Drive NW
3 Bedrooms, 3.5 Baths
$1,499,000

Improvise, Adapt, Overcome, Now Eat. Firehouse-Inspired Sixth Engine Bistro Opens in Mt. Vernon

Old firehouses just seem to lend themselves to classic-looking bar-and-grill type bistros once the last shift has run the last call. And the new Sixth Engine at 438 Massachusetts Avenue near the Mount Vernon Triangle, which just opened this week, is no exception.

The restaurant, owned and operated by Gavin Coleman, Jeremy Carman, Paul Holder, Paul Madrid and Tim Walsh, who also run the Dubliner Irish pub, just down the street, as well as Glover Park's Town Hall, opened in 2005 -- is a smart reuse of the Metropolitan Hook & Ladder Company building, built in 1855 and used by the D.C. Fire Department until 1974. It is the oldest firehouse in the District, and a handful of its era, most built by Leon Emile Dessez (1858-1919) still survive, with some on active duty with DCFD.

"This building presented us with a wonderful opportunity to create a one-of-a-kind restaurant environment, though not without its share of challenges," said Kathryn Bram, Director of Projects for Bethesda-based Streetsense, the marketing and design firm behind Sixth Engine. BuilderGuru Contracting Inc., served as general contractor.

"The firehouse is surrounded by the new 400 Mass condo development, but has its own walls and structure," she said. "We had to solve numerous issues in regard to egress, deliveries, life safety, structural integrity, venting and more." Jenkins Baer Associates of Baltimore also contributed to the interior design.

(Courtesy: DCFire.Com)

The 3,900 s.f. restaurant has two floors, and includes the original "MHL" shield outside the front double doors, as well as a refurbished brass pole.

Douglas Jemal of Douglas Development purchased the firehouse from the city in 2005, recognizing its potential. The Sixth Engine crew leased the space from Jemal beginning in March 2011. The first floor holds a bar and main dining area while the second floor holds the kitchen and a private dining room.

Sixth Engine isn't the only adaptive reuse of local firehouses in the Washington Metro area. Fire

Station 1 Restaurant and Bar in Silver Spring, owned by retired fire captain Jeremy Gruber opened in 2010 in the old Silver Spring Volunteer Fire Department Station 1 House on Georgia Ave. Several other old firehouses in the District have been redeveloped or under consideration, including Firehouse 10 at 1341 Maryland Ave NE. and at Engine Co. 12 at 1626 North Capitol St, the latter of which has seen several restaurant deals emerge in the past few years but fall through.

Washington D.C. real estate development news.

Union Station Shopping Concourse Gets a Facelift

While plans for improving access at Union Station's Main Hall advance, as do earthquake repairs and enhancements outside at Columbus Circle, managers of the retail spaces inside are also making some tweaks to the shopping and train concourse.

Jones Lang LaSalle, which manages the all the interior and exterior retail spaces for

Union Station -- is in the middle of a modest renovation along the easternmost concourse.

It will include new, brighter and more dramatic signage for retail tenants along the passenger concourse, as well as a new walkway to improve pedestrian traffic flow to the easternmost end of Union Station, which is home to a well-trafficked McDonalds but little else.

The renovated retail spaces will include what Jones Lang LaSalle calls "extensive use of glass to provide more visibility to other areas."

Already some changes have come to the passenger concourse. The post office and liquor store on the westernmost end have been moved, with the liquor store, popular among MARC riders, who are allowed to drink on trains -- moving downstairs to the food court.

In its place is Pret a Manger, which despite its French name is actually British. The chain, which has more than 30 locations in Manhattan, is following in the footsteps of other well-known New York-centric retail chains and now has five stores open in the District.

Lakewood, Colorado-based EinsteinNoah Restaurant Group, which owns Einstein Brothers Bagels and Noah's Bagels, and already has several stores in the Washington D.C. metro area, plans a store in the eastern part of the concourse. It will replace car rental counters that have been moved upstairs. Jones Lang LaSalle says the improvements to the concourse will be completed by late April.

Your Next Place

By Franklin Schneider

It's often hard to live up to a name. Pabst Blue Ribbon, for example, makes it sound like there's something exemplary about it, but in actuality it tastes like the contents of a colostomy bag (I still drink it though.) Foxhall Crescent seems like it might be another example of this – could anything be as sophisticated and classy as the name 'Foxhall Crescent'?

Turns out the answer is yes. And this house personifies everything that comes to mind when you hear the name “Foxhall Crescent” - elegance, luxury, classic design, and other things I can't afford. The foyer has marble floors, and the living room is one of the largest I've seen, with several glass doors that look out onto the superlative garden (more on the garden later). There's also a huge kitchen with acres of counterspace, and an awesome sunroom with a curved wall of nothing but windows. The chandeliered formal dining room is fit to host royalty, and there's a one-of-a-kind library, with rich elegant woodwork, a fireplace, and tons of built-in shelves. (Foxhall Crescent!) I'm pretty sure my IQ went up twenty points just from standing in close proximity to so many books, sort of how like standing close to an Xbox 360 makes me continuously say “hurrrrrrr” under my breath.

There are three massive bedrooms (my favorite one had a huge closet, the doors of which were mounted with floor-to-ceiling mirrors, like a Paris hotel room in an Eighties thriller), a two car garage, and yes, the terraced garden. Impeccably landscaped, the huge stone patio is surrounded by a wall of greenery so dense that you could totally forget you were in the middle of the city. I was legitimately surprised when the cops showed up and asked who was discharging firearms. I told them it must have been the agent and then got the hell out of there.

4534 Foxhall Crescent NW
3 Bedrooms, 3 Baths
$1,299,000

Columbus Circle Upgrade Takes Shape

Columbus Circle, the front yard of Union Station, is finally getting a much-needed rehabilitation thanks to the District Department of Transportation, Union Station Redevelopment Corp. and the National Park Service.

The problems with the current arrangement of Columbus Circle, built in 1912, four years after Union Station was completed, are well known.

Pedestrians alighting from Union Station and its accompanying Metro stop, supposedly the grand entrance to the District, are met with ugly Jersey barriers placed after 9-11, forced to walk across the crumbling fountains, brickwork, pavers and impromptu dirt paths where the grass has gone untended, then cross several lanes of traffic consisting of taxicabs, tour buses and the occasional D.C. Duck.

Navigating around Columbus Circle on Massachusetts Ave. was no picnic either for motorists. Bone-shaking potholes along the Circle made a cab ride from Union Station an often-unpleasant introduction to tourists visiting the nation's Capital.

Worse, pedestrians, mostly well-dressed young Capitol Hill staffers, would often emerge from the chin-high hedgerows at the edge of the Circle and dart across Mass. Ave seemingly at random. At night it was even worse, as battered and rusting Washington Globe streetlights cast long shadows across the Circle, making the traverse from Capitol Hill to Union Station a sketchy encounter at best.

The key to Columbus Circle's restoration is rerouting of traffic, with the removal of a central service lane that cuts the Columbus plaza and fountain off from Massachusetts Ave. The service lane will be filled in with brick and pavers, and pedestrian access widened in certain spots and narrowed in others, encouraging walkers to stay off the grass and not take shortcuts. The new Columbus Circle will eliminate the bottleneck at the east end as cabs and passenger cars merged from the hairpin turn of the service lane onto Mass Ave. Now there will be simply a conventional four way intersection on the west end. Drivers on Mass. Ave, which is increasingly becoming a high-speed artery with 20,000 cars traveling on it a day in both directions, will be able to take advantage of wider lanes as well.

The shrubs at the edge of Columbus Plaza will be removed, and pedestrian islands along the north and south sides of Massachusetts Ave. will be widened. Lighting along Mass. Ave, First Street NE and Columbus Plaza will also be improved, including new lighting for the fountains and flag posts. The National Park Service will also repair the often-dormant Columbus Fountain and its smaller twin sisters at either end of the Plaza with new piping and pumps.

Finally, a new line of security bollards guarding the entrance to Union Station will replace the temporary Jersey barriers.

The rehab by Parsons Transportation Group (which performed the architecture and engineering for Union Station's bike station) and Capitol Paving is more than seven years in the making. But like restoration to Union Station itself, with a hodgepodge of agencies, including Amtrak, Metro, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission all claiming turf, the process was painfully slow. The initial plans came together in 2004 but work only started last September and won't be complete until February 2013 at a cost of $7.8 million.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

It's the Donald! Trump Wins Old Post Office Bid

Donald Trump may never have an inaugural walk down Pennsylvania Avenue as President, but that doesn't mean the billionaire real estate mogul won't get a plush front row seat. The General Services Administration said today it selected the Trump Organization in a $200 million deal to redevelop the underutilized Old Post Office

In a deal was first reported by the Washington City Paper, the Trump Organization will convert part of the Old Post Office at 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue into a 250-room luxury hotel with restaurants and a spa. The GSA said that the Trump-led redevelopment of the aging building, which was completed in 1899, could commence in in 2014 with completion in 2016.

"The Trump Organization plan will preserve the historic nature of the building and improve the vitality of Pennsylvania Avenue, Robert Peck, GSA's Commissioner of the Public Buildings Service said in a statement on GSA's Web site. "This redevelopment represents good business sense on behalf of the American taxpayer, the federal government and the District of Columbia."

Current tenants of the Old Post Office include the National Endowment of the Arts and the National Endowment of the Humanities, who will be moved prior to reconstruction once negotiations over the plans by GSA and Trump conclude.

Washington real estate development news

Hoffman-Madison Details Second-Stage Plans for Southwest Waterfront

PN Hoffman and Madison Marquette, the chief developers of the long planned $1.5 billion Southwest Waterfront project, unveiled revised details of its vision for the 3.2 million s.f. development, which will include offices, apartments, a four-star InterContinental Hotel, four piers and a three-acre park -- part of the District's bid to transform its sleepy waterfront into a destination on par with San Francisco's Embarcadero and Seattle's Pike's Place.

While the first stage of what's to be known as the 23-acre Wharf District was approved by the Zoning Commission in 2011, that stage mainly dealt with traffic issues and building heights and setbacks -- today's Planned Unit Development (PUD) submission will give many in the District their first glimpse of the architectural vision and details.

"Each space is going to have its own experience," said Monty Hoffman of co-developer PN Hoffman in an interview. Hoffman's company has built more than 35 projects in the D.C. metro area, including The Lofts in Adams Morgan, the Mather Building near Verizon Center and the coming Northern Exchange on 14th Street. "There will be a different designer on each parcel so each can put their own DNA into the projects," Hoffman said. "It's not going to look like one contrived development."

Hoffman said that his group, along with partners Madison Marquette, builders of Cityline at Tenley, studied waterfront cities like San Francisco and Seattle to bring elements of the Embarcadero and its Ferry Building and Pike's Place to the Wharf District. That will include laying the groundwork (if not the tracks) for connecting to the District's planned 37-mile streetcar network, which could run on M Street SW and Maine Avenue and connect to the Nationals ballpark, said Matthew Steenhoek a development manager at PN Hoffman. The District has a M Street and Maine Avenue connection as part of its third phase of the streetcar plan. Steenhoek said short-term, the District Wharf would be connected by Circulator buses until the streetcar plan is built.

The project is more than 50 years in the making. Ever since the federal government as part of its "Urban Renewal" plan razed much of Southwest D.C. to build the I-395 freeway and apartments, residents of Southwest have been cut off, for the most part, from the revival of the rest of the city while its natural waterfront remained underutilized.

Still, don't look for Baltimore Inner Harbor-style national chain attractions at District Wharf, Hoffman said. "We're not inviting large national brands, we're not going to be dominated by national chains," he said. Instead, emphasis will be placed on integrating D.C. icons like the Maine Avenue Fish Market into a larger community, he said. "We're going to be more Washington-centric."

What it will share with Baltimore's Inner Harbor is an emphasis on water-related activities and entertainment. The Washington Channel is 16 feet deep, which would allow some deeper-draft vessels to sail up to the many planned piers, including 180-foot tall schooner ships. "Water activity will be central, so whatever we can draw to the water will be critical," Hoffman said. To that end, Hoffman plans a partnership with the Capital Yacht Club to bring more boating activities to the piers, including regattas. The Washington Kastles, the District's tennis team, will also remain at the Wharf, although moved from their current location atop the demolished Hogates restaurant, Hoffman said.

So far, Hoffman-Madison has lined up $50 million for pre- development, partly through Monty Hoffman's own pocket as well as Madison-Marquette. "We're self-funded," he said. "We're spending about $1 million a month, but we've got the capital to work with for pre-development." Hoffman didn't say who will be financing the rest of the construction but said that he's got multiple avenues from potential investors. The District's Southwest Waterfront Redevelopment Bond Financing Act of 2008 also provides $148 million worth of related infrastructure improvements along Maine Avenue. The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) last July began rehabbing parts of Maine Avenue in advance of the Wharf project. The Wharf District is expected to bring in $40 million in taxes to the District a year.

The Land Disposition Agreement, or LDA with the District will close at the end of the year,

which puts Hoffman on track for a groundbreaking in the first quarter of 2013, he said.

Here's how the project will break down:

Stage 2 is being designed by Rockwell Group and Perkins Eastman, which absorbed the former master planner of the Southwest Waterfront from Ehrenkrantz, Eckstut & Kuhn in 2010. It includes parcels 2, 3, and 4 along Maine Avenue. Parcel 2 will include 135,000 s.f. of entertainment-related venues, nearly 500 residential units in 357,000 s.f. and 39,000 s.f. of retail.

Parcel 3a will consist of 218,000 s.f. of Class A office space and 15,000 square feet of retail by Perkins Eastman. Parcel 3b will include a 245,000-s.f. InterContinental Hotel featuring a clock tower and 278 rooms. InterContinental operates the Willard Hotel. Carr Hospitality is the developer and BBG-BBGM is the architect.

Parcel 4 will be designed by Handel Architects, creators of the Ritz-Carlton D.C. and Ritz-Carlton Georgetown, and feature industrial and dockyard-related waterfront structures. It will include 168 rental units on 124,000 s.f. along with 130 condominiums on 179,000 square feet and 77,000 s.f. of retail including a fitness club.

Hoffman-Madison plans a public presentation of the plans on Feb. 27 at 6pm at Arena Stage.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

MRP and JBG To Develop the Exchange At Potomac Yard

MRP Realty and JBG Companies this week announced plans to jointly develop a new 1.9 million s.f. mixed use project at Potomac Yard, just one mile south of Reagan National Airport.

The joint-venture plans for the 17-acre development along Route 1, to be known as The Exchange, call for a town center featuring 800,000 s.f. of office and hotel space, with two hotels offering 625 rooms, along with 534 residences. The town center will include a plaza that features a seasonal ice skating rink.

SK&I is the residential architect and Gensler the master planner, according to MRP spokeswoman Julie Chase. MRP also hired SK&I and Gensler for its Washington Gateway project, set to break ground this year.

The development will also be served by the region's only Bus Rapid Transit system which could begin operating along Route 1 by 2013-2014. Further out, the long-awaited infill-station on the Metro's Blue and Yellow Line could serve both Potomac Yard shoppers, located just north of the planned development, and The Exchange residents and office workers.

Metro is in the process of drafting an Environmental Impact Statement on how to best locate and construct the infill station site and a final decision on the station is expected in late 2013.

Groundbreaking for The Exchange development's infrastructure began in December 2011 and construction on the first 323 residences will commence in the second quarter of 2012, the companies said.

Arlington, Virginia real estate development news

GWU Gets OK to Demolish Washington Circle Building

George Washington University's plans for a new school of public health are moving forward. The District's Historic Preservation Review Board last week approved demolishing 2300 K Street on Washington Circle, better known as the Warwick Memorial Building, to make room for a seven-story structure that will take up the entire lot.

The new 115,000 s.f. building will stand 90 feet high and house the School of Public Health and Health Services, which has about 900 students. The University has long sought to place the school in one building, which is currently spread over seven properties amid the University and along K Street and the Golden Triangle, said GW spokeswoman Michelle Sherrard.

The 38-foot tall Warwick Memorial Building, built out of Indiana limestone in 1954 by Charles Tompkins, houses GW Hospital's oncology department and several other medical and administrative offices and includes a surface parking lot and a small park.

2300 K Street, also known as Square 39, sits astride Washington Circle, which saw the construction of the new George Washington University Hospital building in 2002 and Square 54, which became 2200 Pennsylvania Avenue in 2011.

The new design, from Boston-based Payette, which designed Georgetown University's new

Science Center, and Ayers Saint Gross, will not include below-ground parking to minimize curb cuts.

In fact, the current entrance to the surface parking lot on New Hampshire Avenue will be eliminated. It will however include 15 bicycle storage spaces inside the building as well as 66 spaces on the exterior, with shower and changing facilities provided.

A green roof, along with streetscaping enhancements, such as concrete pavers, cobblestones and brick walks will also be included. Widening the sidewalks along Washington Circle, as well as a planting strip to discourage jaywalking, is also part of the design as well.

Sherrard said that staff and students will move out in spring and demolition will begin soon after. GW plans to have the new school completed no later than 2013 at a cost of $75 million, she said.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Florida Rock Development Reboots, Meets Resistance

With demolition of the concrete plant finally complete, RiverFront on the Anacostia, the on-again off-again Southeast waterfront mega-project is on, again - pending various hearings, presentations, meetings, and ultimate approval of some very substantial changes to the zoning application.

Developers Patriot Transportation Holding Inc. and Midatlantic Realty Partners LLC (MRP) filed a modification with the Zoning Commission last month to, among other things, modify the Phase One building from an office complex to a residential building. The proposed residential building would be nine stories tall and include up to 350 units, 286 underground parking spaces, and 300,000 square feet of gross floor area (8% of which would be set aside for affordable housing at 80% of AMI). The new filing retains the 12,500 s.f. of retail space for lease, but now wants to earmark 7,000 s.f. as "flex space" or "residential amenity space."

Last week, the Zoning Commission gave their first impressions of the new plans, and it wasn't pretty. One commissioner called it "an affront" and a "bastardization," even going so far as to suggest the developers might have to start the PUD process from square one. Another excoriated the developers from reducing the initial 80,000 s.f. of retail space to under 24,000 s.f. in the latest filing, with 7,000 of that possibly being converted to non-retail "flex space." Even the most positive board member damned the project with faint praise - characterizing it as an improvement on the original PUD, but "boring" and "simplistic." In the end, the board deferred a decision, and the next public hearing is on February 13.

The new building, designed by SK&I, is U-shaped, facing the river, with a private inner courtyard. On the east side is a planned greenspace (Anacostia Plaza) and on the west side, in between the Phase One building and the Phase Two (also residential) building, another large plaza (the Mews) that "privileges pedestrians over vehicles." The new landscape plan, by Oculus, uses the idea of "ecotone" (in the report, this is defined as "an ecological term referring to the transitional zone between two ecologies") to create an impressive stormwater management and filtration system that will both provide lush public native plant green spaces, and filter runoff. (And the Anacostia River can use all the help it can get.)

Phases II (a 262K s.f., 130-foot tall residential building), III (326K s.f., 130-foot tall office building), and IV (275K s.f., 130-foot tall hotel) are unchanged. FRP anticipates a Q2 2013 groundbreaking, with move-ins starting in Q1 2015, and everything wrapped up by that summer.

Big picture, the plan is cut from the same cloth as the plans for the Wharf and the Maryland Avenue redevelopments. (There are only so many ways to skin a cat, after all.) Much like those plans, this latest filing is hoping that their conversion of the Phase One building from office to residential "will provide the critical mass of people necessary in order to support future office and retail uses." Of course, this could take a while, which is the thinking behind the "flex space." What if they build it, but people don't come? The plan also asks for permission to use the Phase II/III/IV sites for interim projects like a farmer's market or temporary retail, rather than letting those spaces remain dormant. It's a good strategy to lure more people to the area, and can only help not just their development, but the neighborhood as a whole as it gears up to make the transition to world-class waterfront. But first, developers need to win over the Zoning Commission, which is proving to be a harder task than they may have anticipated. 

Washington D.C. real estate development news