Shaw Developers Celebrate Step Forward with Progression Place

One of Shaw's chief development projects, slowed by lost tenants and missed start dates, is finally having its day as developers celebrate a "groundbreaking" Monday for a project that began in late 2010. Developers of Progression Place began work last December on the 320,000 square foot, $150 million development, with 100,000 square feet office space, a 205-unit residential apartment building, 20,000 square feet of street-level retail, but on Monday its developers will fete themselves and the sale of an office condo to anchor occupant United Negro College Fund (UNCF). UNCF officially purchased half the project's office space on December 24th, but developers were already doing site work on the vacant lot in anticipation of the settlement and Eagle Bank's $13m loan made possible by the sale, which was in turn made possible by the city's $3.6m financing subsidy for UNCF. Ellis Development, The Jarvis Company, and Four Points combined forces to build a project that would be hard to overestimate in importance as a beacon for Shaw's development, adding housing, jobs and retail in an area that had little investment in any of those markets. Progression Place is adjacent to the Howard Theater, also being developed by Ellis, and will build in parking for the historic theater and add a rebuilt Metro entrance. UNCF's office condo and the "7th Flats" will both be ready for occupancy in mid 2012. With a new library in place just to the south, and the Convention Center Marriott already underway, the O Street Market remains the largest holdout that could tie together development along the 7th Street corridor. Design is being handled jointly by architects Eric Colbert & Associates and Devrouax and Purnell, and built by Davis Construction and Gilford Corporation. The public ceremony will be held at the Lincoln Theater at 11am on Monday. 

Washington DC real estate development news

DCMud 2010 Year in Review

2010 may not have been a chart buster for real estate, but by most accounts it beats 2009. DCMud presents its annual report of what happened, and what didn't, this year in the world of commercial real estate. 

To start the year, the Coast Guard Headquarters received a thumbs up (Jan 7) from NCPC for the WDG Architecture and HOK designs. Silver Spring will get its arts venue now that the county has reached an agreement (Jan 15) with developers to swap land.  Lee Development Group intends to build a hotel, office building, and 2,000 person music hall in the CBD. Another church sold out to developers (Feb 2), as Lakritz Adler planned to build 200 apartments in place of the First Baptist Church of Silver Spring, just across the street from the library that just got going. Right next door, the county asked developers to submit bids (Feb 3) for another residential project. Progress crept forward on the purple line when the county decided to place it next to the bike trail. The Moda Vista finally took off (Nov 8). Wheaton could be transformed, now that Montgomery County and WMATA have asked developers to submit bids (Jan 21) to control 10 sites downtown, with a B.F. Saul lead team chosen for most of it (July 29). Patriot Realty submitted formal plans (April 13) for 500 apartments above a new Safeway downtown (pictured). EYA began plans to demolish the James Bland Addition public housing project in Old Town Alexandria, which it followed through on, to make way for a mixed-income housing project, now for sale. The Takoma Theater was the subject of a showdown between its owner, who wanted to tear it down and build apartments, and the Historic Preservation Review Board, which liked it just the way it was. The District pushed forward with plans for Skyland, pushing out owners to make room for a developer, testing constitutional boundaries (March 12), even after a national trend by states to stop such practices. Middle Georgia Avenue boomed this year, while the northern and southern ends were a bust. Middle Georgia got a new restaurant (Jan 27), and a new apartment building by Chris Donatelli (March 21), now that both have started construction and are well on their way to completion, as well as a new CVS. NDC got underway on The Heights (May 24), and proposed The Vue (Dec 12). On the lower end, redevelopment of the Bruce Monroe school fizzled (Aug 10), and the planned Howard Town Center went nowhere.

Moving to downtown DC, L'Enfant Plaza stands a chance of becoming less frightening, now that a cabal of federal planners and developers are in cahoots (sort of) (Jan 29) to rebuild the '60's era mass of concrete into something less awful. Not quite ready for prime time: a 14th Street condo project in Logan Circle promised for 2009 failed to get underway in 2010, despite ongoing predictions things were "imminent". The Arts at 5th and I took one step forward and two steps back, as Donohoe Companies and Holland Development, which won the rights to develop the site in 2008, admitted they were not ready and turned the Mt. Vernon site into a parking lot (Feb 9). Holland later said (Nov 18) that they were getting "closer." Alexandria pondered how to make the King Street Metro less unfriendly to pedestrians (Feb 10). The District began a long process (Feb 12) of reshaping Dupont's underground trolley station into something useful, long after it failed as a restaurant venue. The District eventually selected an arts coalition (Oct 21) to build out the space. The Corcoran, which had partnered with Monument Realty to convert southwest's Randall School into a large apartment building, gave up the ghost and sold the project to private investors (Feb 18). Senate Square on H Street was sold at auction (Feb 22) to its mezzanine lenders, relieving New York's Broadway Development of one its DC debacles. Broadway had already defaulted on the Dumont, and soon Arbor Place, its investment in Jim Abdo's New York Ave project-that-wasn't, would also fall apart (May 14). M.M. Washington High School was given to a team of local developers who planned to turn it into subsidized senior housing (March 15), construction is expected by mid 2011. A Woodmont Triangle church has been trying to morph into an 8-story, 107-unit apartment building along with a new church, moving through approvals and looking for a partner after Bozzuto backed out (March 16). DC and the feds gave money ($7.2m from DC) to Urban Atlantic and A&R Development Corp. (March 18) for the 8.5 acre Rhode Island Station, which then broke ground May 18th. Greenbelt Station gets more hopeless by the year (March 24). H Street swelters: The Rappaport Companies got ANC approval (March 26) for its Torti Gallas designed, 400-unit building on H Street, heating up the retail corridor just as the trolley lines are finishing up. Clark Realty broke ground on Arboretum Place (Sept 15) at the eastern end, and new supermarkets are planned for the east (Aldi) and west (Giant) ends. After years of litigation, Ed Peete's Bromptons project made a comeback in Arlington (March 27). Alexandria skyline rising: The Hoffman Company will put 1,200 new rental apartments and upwards of 70,000 s.f. of retail adjacent to the beltway in Alexandria, rising up to 31 stories (March 30). An Arlington church cleared its last legal hurdles (April 16) and began building the Views at Clarendon (pictured), a mixed church and residential project, which other urban churches eyed with interest (Oct 11). Arlington kicked off Long Bridge Park (April 21), its 46-acre isolated brownfield on the edge of Pentagon City that it hopes will become a major attraction. DC opened its riverfront park next to Nationals Stadium (April 27). Next door, Canal Park got underway in Southeast's Capitol Riverfront (Aug 26), a neighborhood that added more than a thousand new residents in 2010. Hopes of Utopia were raised, then deflated, U Street developer Georgetown Strategic Capital predicted imminent progress (Apr 22), then got a 2-year extension (June 26) to build his apartment building and retail project. LCOR broke ground on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission building in North Bethesda (April 28). The MBT bike trail opened a new leg in Northeast DC (May 3). Georgetown's Social Safeway reopened, newer, bigger, better (May 4), as did the Georgetown Library (Oct 14) after a devastating fire in 2007 on the same day that Eastern Market smoldered. The Cohen Companies floated plans for a large residential project at 14th Street and Virginia Avenue, SE (May 5). Brookland had a great year, breaking ground on Dance Place and Artspace, EYA broke ground (May 6) on 237 townhouses, and Bozzuto and Pritzker Realty Group partnered up to build Jim Abdo's mixed-use project (Aug 20). Abdo's other grand plan, Arbor Place on New York Avenue, got no such reprieve, and faded away (May 14). The District broke ground on Sheridan Station, a 344-unit public housing project in Southeast, hoping to cure its crime and upkeep problems (May 10), as well as a host of other affordable housing projects. Construction got underway on the Martin Luther King Memorial (May 14). Louis Dreyfus demolished a block of historic homes (May 20) on the edge of Capitol Hill, ostensibly to build Capitol Place, with 302 apartments, but so far have only turned it into a parking lot. Columbia Pike saw several apartment buildings open (May 23) as development of all kinds took hold, but no trolleys yet. The Loree Grand opened to residents (May 31) just after Paradigm opened its doors (May 28) as the first new housing in NoMa in a century. Archstone broke ground on more residences for NoMa (July 21), 469 apartment units (pictured, right) designed by Davis Carter Scott, on track for a mid 2012 opening. DC reached the 100th anniversary of the act of Congress that gave the District height limits (June 1). Southwest DC passed several milestones, as the Southwest station reopened (June 3) along with a new Safeway. It made nominal progress on the Waterfront (Aug 18) with its first demolition and release of early designs (Sept 30), but construction is not expected any time soon. Capitol Hill's Old Naval Hospital began the rebuilding process on its way to becoming a community center (June 10). The Monty, a long-planned Bethesda high-rise, got a new owner (Bainbridge) (July 1) and soon after got ready to break ground (Nov 5). Work got started on 1000 Connecticut Ave, designed by Pei Cobb Freed, perhaps DC's most visible office building (July 12). Post Properties got underway (Aug 9) on phase two of its Carlyle Square apartment project in Alexandria, 344 new apartments designed by SK&I Architectural Design Group. Park Morton got another public injection of cash, likely clearing the way for a large affordable housing project. Developers should break ground on the 500 units during 2011. JBG found a financing partner (Aug 15) for its 14th Street condo project, gave it a new name (Oct 27), and said it was ready to break ground this year, though that hasn't happened yet. A 42-acre parcel in Northeast was planned by Trammell Crow for a big box destination (Aug 17). Capital One proposed a more urban remake of 23 acres (Aug 19) in downtown Tysons Corner. The Bonstra Haresign design, however, is expected to be built only a few bits at a time, if at all. A long time coming, the Howard Theater began a transformation that should help restore some if its former glory (Sept 1). The Smithsonian unveiled revised plans for the the Museum of African American History and Culture, to take up the last free spot on the Mall (Sept 3). Reston Station got underway as the public garage component began construction (Sept 6), and Comstock Partners planned an early 2011 groundbreaking on their portion, more than a million s.f. of development at the end of phase 1 of the Silver Line Metro extension. Urban planners began thinking through a full makeover of Mt. Rainier nearly a century after the city peaked as an inviting community (Sept 22). Washington Property Company started work on its 16-story residential building in Silver Spring's Ripley district, designed by the Lessard Group (Sept 29). After decades in the making, Marriott's development team began site prep (Oct 20) in downtown DC next to the Washington Convention Center, then broke ground on the 1175-room hotel. Equity Residential bought the plans for a Lyon Park project in Arlington and expected to break ground soon on the new apartment building and retail (Oct 5). Arlington selected Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing as the developer of the residential portion of Arlington Mill, a subsidized residence and community center (Oct 6). In Rosslyn, the Artisphere opened, adding a touch of nightlife to the 9-5 neighborhood, a new office building and street got underway courtesy of Skanska (Sept 18), and JBG nearly started work on Rosslyn Commons (Oct 3), 454 new units of housing. Monday Properties began work (Oct 12) on 1812 N. Moore, their speculative 35-story, 390 foot office building (pictured), what will be the region's tallest building when completed. The Davis Carter Scott-designed structure will rise above the new Rosslyn Metro station. Developers of CityCenter DC said they would be ready to fill the gaping hole downtown by next spring (Oct 22), despite the apparent lack of an anchor tenant. Paradigm Development began work on more than 400 apartments in Mount Vernon Triangle (Oct 27). Carr Properties and architects at SmithGroup came up with plans to add an office building onto the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Nov 5). The cash-strapped Perseus sold 14W to JAG, which said it could start building the 14th Street project almost immediately (Nov 24). Next door, work began on UDR's apartment building after delays and extensions (Dec 15). In the last item of note, Shaw's Progression Place started up (Dec 22), though the more meaningful O Street market got nowhere, despite an official groundbreaking (Aug 30).

National Harbor To Get 350-Unit Apartment Building

National Harbor, the 300-acre multi-use waterfront, Pleasantville-wannabe development on the shores of the Potomac River in Prince George's County, Maryland, is set to receive its first apartment building in the nearish future. With an expected late-2011 groundbreaking and 2013 delivery, the recently-announced project will see 350 new apartments atop 25,000 s.f. of ground-floor retail courtesy of Bozzuto Group. The Peterson Companies, which originally spawned the concept of National Harbor, and has seen nearly 75% of its 400 current condominiums sold, 40% of its 46 townhomes sold, and four manor homes sold, not to mention the construction and opening of the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center as well as a plethora of neatly packaged retail. Peterson contacted Bozzuto over the summer about bringing the “fourth residential food group" (i.e. apartments) this to the development site. With the market steadying, and long-held dreams of building at National Harbor, Bozzuto gladly accepted the offer.

National Harbor, which will eventually feature 10 million s.f. of development programming if Peterson's ambitious plans are left unhampered by any future market meltdowns, already contains a whopping six hotels, two marinas, three condo buildings, and a slowly growing number of shops and restaurants. The new apartment building is proposed for the intersection of American Way and Fleet Street, catty-corner from a new CVS and Potomac Gourmet Market, both set to open their doors within 120 days, according to last week's press release. Even more action is on the way, with a 500-room, 15-acre Disney resort hotel project promised by the entertainment conglomerate in 2009, the 140,000-square-foot Children's Museum expected to break ground next year, and the return of Cirque du Soleil in 2012. The apartment building will be LEED certified and will include the standard throng of amenities, a pool, fitness center, cyber cafe, billiards room, media room, and one wild card feature, a "Zen garden" (sounds mysterious, and also a little cheesy).

For those who wonder what kind of soulless creatures would seek shelter in a cookie-cutter concrete jungle so vanilla and seemingly void of authenticity; first, lose the self-righteousness and nauseating alliteration, and second, you're apparently not alone. Residential population remains only around 500, with condo sales slow after a fast start out of the gate in 2007. However, swaths of convention-goers keeps the area feeling busy.

By no means a full-blown, sell-out hit, the development has, however, had slow but steady improvement and a strange cult following, as well as a heavy influx of visiting shoppers and diners arriving in the summertime. But National Harbor is not without its detractors. Despite the myriad of freeways within reach, and a couple water-taxi services, Smart Growth advocates have cited the limited mass transit options as a significant flaw in the development, and a Metro stop doesn't look to be arriving any time soon. Furthermore, cuts in local public busing budgets have angered Prince George's County residents, all while the County has subsidized a new bus line shuttling tourists and Harbor residents between the Green Line's Branch Avenue and the Harbor's convention center.

While it might not be the most environmentally-friendly operation, or beacon of smart-growth development innovation, it's hard to argue with the market, as the project continues to line up a healthy list of big-name suitors, pack its convention center and hotels with corporate conferences, as well as keep residential sales relatively steady.

Prince George's County, MD Real Estate Development News

Convention Center Marriott: Going Forward, Looking Back

Today it all becomes double super official, as suits and helmets mix it up at the site of the future convention center Marriott Marquis hotel this morning for an official groundbreaking. Construction began last month to build the 1175 rooms that will be owned by The Washington Convention and Sports Authority (WCSA), operated by Marriott, designed by TBS Architects and Cooper Carry Architecture, developed by Quadrangle Development and Capstone Development, on land owned by the District of Columbia. Got that? Okay, for those attending today's event that want to keep the players straight, here's a recap of the last decade of the ups and downs that got us here:

In 2001, the city issues an RFP for construction of a convention center hotel, with the Convention Center then just starting construction; the city calls for a privately funded hotel. DC chose neither of the proposals submitted by Marriott or Hilton, but subsequently announces it has chosen Marriott as a partner. Spring of 2003, the Convention Center opens amid high expectations and early success, but over time conventioneers have difficulty securing large blocks of rooms and opt for other locations; hopes of a post-construction neighborhood renaissance are unrealized. The Washington Convention Center Authority Act of 1994 is amended to further fund the Authority to build a hotel to service the convention center and add yet more convention space. Initial plans call for 1400-1500 rooms in a building that would span both sides of L Street and become the largest hotel in the city.

By early 2007, after numerous iterations of design and location, the District swaps its old convention center site for Kingdon Gould's site at 9th & Mass., Gould retains the northeast corner of what may one day become the CityCenter project. In September of 2007, Mayor Adrian Fenty announces that DC has signed a new agreement with Marriott for the hotel, now dialed back to around 1100 rooms on only one block; Marriott, which does not own the hotels it operates, agrees to lease the property for 99 years. The hotel will feature additional meeting space, an underground tunnel connecting to the Convention Center, and a glass canopied courtyard. The building will feature over 100,000 s.f. of meeting and ballroom space, 25,000 s.f. of retail, and 385 parking spaces. Marriott agrees to earn a LEED Silver rating and hangs on to the land north of L Street, now a decaying row of storefronts.

In June of 2008, HPRB considers plans for an 1100 room hotel, ultimately approving it as long as the American Federation of Labor building (pictured) is spared. With a deal inked involving Quadrangle and Capstone, construction seems near at hand, but the unfolding financial crisis drains developers of financing, halting progress.

In April 2008, the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center opens just south of the District inside a $2 billion project with 5 new hotels, a serious competitor for DC's convention trade. In 2009, an agitated Mayor Fenty pursues a public financing option that would have committed the Authority to picking up the $530,000,000 tab in full and proposed legislation that would have removed Quadrangle in place of a city funded program. The Council balked at the cost, and in July of 2009 the Council passes legislation, the New Convention Center Hotel Amendments Act of 2009, granting the WCSA authority to spend more than $200m to go toward construction, up from the previous $135m, with the rest to come from developers.

In August of 2009, Fenty signs the bill with much fanfare, construction of an 1175-key hotel appears imminent, but just two months later, a JBG-controlled company sues the city to delay consummation of the deal, alleging impropriety in DC's awarding process, in what some suspect was related to JBG's disagreement with Marriott over development of their Woodley Park project. JBG contends the city gave the development team a sweetheart deal financed by the city that it never offered the competition. In January of 2010, the Authority countersues JBG, alleging JBG intended to "extort" the city. JBG's suit was dismissed by a Superior Court judge in March.

In July, Marriott, the city and JBG said they had reached a deal to end the stalemate, planning then goes into high gear. By September of 2010, the city authorized WCSA to release $250m in bonds, and in early October preliminary groundwork gets underway. On October 20th the Authority announces it has sold its entire $250m bond release, clearing the last foreseeable hurdle. Today at 11, with speeches that seem longer than the planning, the parties will officially break ground on the hotel.

The four-star hotel is expected to be complete by the spring of 2014.

Washington DC real estate development news

History, Secrecy, and Preservation in Downtown DC

Call it delicious irony. The U.S. Secret Service, the organization that has seemingly unchallengeable power to take over sites - land, buildings, streets - that it feels it needs to protect the POTUS, are finding it difficult to take over a single building for office space in downtown Washington DC. The building - the historic Webster School - has remained empty for a decade while the agency has been unable to afford renovation, despite its enormous budget and long term lease of the property.

DC residents boxed out of the botched 2009 presidential inauguration and suffering from an ever widening security perimeter around the President may be forgiven a bit of spite toward the enigmatic agency (not that we aren't happy idling in our car for 30 minutes in advance of a Vice Presidential motorcade, and don't even get us started on the Salahi debacle). But the Service says "financial constraints" prevent it from renovating the skeletal eyesore located across the street from the Old Convention Center site and has no plans in the works for the darkened building.

The school, built in 1882, was used to educate naturalized citizens and by DCPS for many years, but saw its last use in the '90s. The National Treasury Employees Union bought the building for $2m and sought to demolish it (claiming special merit for its needs) to make way for a new headquarters, a move thankfully checked by the Historic Preservation Review Board, which then landmarked the building. GSA subsequently exercised eminent domain on behalf of the Secret Service, which hoped to renovate the school as an adjunct facility to its headquarters next door amid rumors of a pending museum for the site. The Service, with an annual budget this year of $1,500,000,000, says it lacks appropriate funding but needs the space for its 7,000 worldwide employees (it won't give the number of employees in DC). "We have plans to make it usable space for Secret Service employees" says Robert Novy, a spokesperson for the Service, dismissing museum theories.

Legally protected from demolition, the building is also being protected from death by natural causes with a minor structural renovation. But with the hole-plugging came exterior scaffolding and plywood sidewalk canopy that has lasted for several years, annoying neighbors, and the Service says it has no immediate intentions, or even designs, to change that until it receives dedicated construction funds. In the interim, the building has been vacant since the Clinton years, a fact that may be noted by an administration that hopes to stanch charges of fiscal profligacy by cutting its inventory of vacant office space, not to mention ax-wielding Republicans that will begin arriving in town over the coming weeks.

So for the time being the corner of 10th and H will remain dark and fenced off, a less-than-inviting streetscape at night, unless the Secret Service can find a way to make money out of a public nuisance. Perhaps they should ask the Salahis.

Washington DC real estate development news

Officialdom To Inaugurate Convention Center Hotel

The Washington Convention and Sports Authority (WCSA) has announced the official groundbreaking of the convention center Marriott next Wednesday at 11am. Legions of suits and ties, CEOs, Mayors and Mayors-elect will make official what in fact began last month: construction of one of the region's largest hotels to help transform what was supposed to have been a neighborhood-transforming project.

The four-star hotel is expected to be complete by the spring of 2014.

Washington DC real estate development news

Corner of Ninth and Eye Street NW Gets Delicious Makeover

Chalk up the Penn Quarter neighborhood for another trendy, upscale restaurant and lounge. Yes, the entrepreneurial ambitions of David Von Storch and his Urban Adventures Company continue to spill out across the District, with the fourth VIDA on the way to U Street next year, and now a new signature restaurant will serve as a more elegant showcase for the many craft beers of Capitol City Brewing Company (also a Von Storch entity). Yesterday Von Storch's company signed a long-term lease to occupy the restaurant space at 901 Ninth St, NW, situated next to the Renaissance Hotel and directly across from the Washington Convention Center. Von Storch hopes to open the doors in mid to late April.

Taking the first portion of its street address, the new restaurant will be called simply 901. The freshly designed and soon to be renovated 7,500-s.f. space will carve out a "hip, sexy and laid-back atmosphere." Estimated at completion to total some five million in renovation efforts, Stoneking-von Storch Architects of Charlottesville, VA will serve as the architect of record, while Hallock Design Group of Miami, FL will assume the title of "project Interior Design firm." The property is owned by JBG Rosenfeld Retail.

“This vibrant corridor caters to residents and visitors alike and we think patrons will enjoy the creative design and relaxing venue as they settle in for lunch or dinner and unwind from their day," Von Storch explains confidently, "We’ve designed a wonderfully edgy, urban dining experience wrapped in its own unique style of elegance." 901 will hop on the small-plate bandwagon with a concept that is a modern combination of Spanish tapas style portions and an array of international flavors. Here are just a few of the crowd-pleasing finger foods expected on the inaugural menu: Ahi Tuna Tartar, Wagyu Beef Meatballs, a Thai Lettuce Wrap, and All American Bison Sliders. With his growing franchise of gyms, salons, and spas, as well as the brewery, Von Storch has proven himself highly successful at delivering creative urban spaces where the young and wealthy want to come to both work and play. Now he hopes those same professionals want to come eat his food.

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News

Hines Affirms Spring Construction for City Center DC

Developers of downtown DC's last block of empty land are holding firm on their commitment to start building City Center DC, and confirmed in a statement released yesterday that construction could begin as early as April of next year. Colorado-based Archstone and Texas based Hines development plans for the 10 acre site were approved by the DC Council back in 2005, but have since stalled over financing and tenant prospects.

Hines representatives told DCMud in June they would begin redevelopment of the old Convention Center site in the "first quarter of 2011," but have yet to announce a major tenant to occupy any of the space. The project should reach "substantial completion between May and September 2013," said Howard Riker, Vice President at Hines Development. Despite the lack of commitment, The Washington Post reports that Hines issued a statement yesterday saying it still planned to begin construction by next spring. Plans call for several hundred thousand square feet of retail space, more than half a million square feet of office space, 458 rental apartments, 216 condos and a 400-bed “high-end” hotel with its own 100,000 square foot retail plaza, under a 99 year lease from the city.

Hines has already chosen a general contractor team of Clark Construction and Smoot Construction, and has begun subcontractor bidding. Construction will begin first along H Street, building parking first, then office, saving residential for the last component.

Foster and Partners of London and DC-based Shalom Baranes serve as co-architects on the work. Designed to achieve LEED Gold certification, "the design of the landscape, office and condominium buildings relates to the specific sun and wind patterns and the climate. The site and the buildings will also incorporate solar shading, harness rainwater and water conservation and planting" according to Foster's website.

Washington, DC real estate development news

Convention Center Financing Completes, Construction Begins

The Washington Convention and Sports Authority (WCSA) announced today that it has sold all of its $250,000,000 bond offering for construction of the convention center Marriott, removing the final obstacle to building the 1175-room hotel. Preliminary construction began this week, and will last an anticipated 3 and a half years to complete the building, ending in the spring of 2013.

The Marriott project is being headed by Quadrangle Development and Capstone Development, and will help the District compete with National Harbor. With an "A" rating from Standard and Poor's, the WCSA sold the entire $250m bond release authorized by the DC Council on the last day of September. The Authority intends to hold a formal ceremony to mark construction in November.

Washington DC real estate development news

Groundwork Gets Underway at Convention Center Marriott

Construction crews could begin preliminary groundwork as early as next week for the Convention Center's newest addition, the 1,175-room, 15-story Marriott Marquis, a project headed by Quadrangle Development and Capstone Development. The Washington Convention & Sports Authority (WCSA) announced earlier today that it will provide limited early access in order for developers to orchestrate initial site remediation work including: "removal of underground storage tanks, demolition of the Erhlich Building, erecting fences, placing signage around the site and readying the area for construction."

A more ceremonial and celebratory start to construction will soon follow, says Gregory A. O’Dell, Washington Convention and Sports Authority President. "The Authority and the District are finalizing the documentation and preparing to close on the bonds as we anticipate a groundbreaking within the next 30-45 days," he explains. Once construction begins, a build-out of 42 months is anticipated, placing the delivery date in the spring of 2014. While this is not the official groundbreaking, convention center authority spokeswoman Chinyere Hubbard confirms that this is indeed the beginning of construction and an indication of nothing but green lights going forward. There are "no further legal obstacles", says Hubbard, who notes that the WCCA board will officially approve the financing bonds tomorrow.

The soon to be active construction site is bounded by Massachusetts Avenue and L Streets, NW. Because of District height limitations, the massive hotel is burying much it's square footage beneath the earth, so the first order of business for contractors is to dig a giant hole and start building back up to ground level. Progress above ground might not be visible for almost a year after construction starts. Upon completion, the building will feature over 100,000 s.f. of meeting and ballroom space, 25,000 sf of retail, and 385 parking spaces. The plan also calls for a below grade tunnel (vehicle and pedestrian) connecting the hotel and Convention Center. The hotel will become only the third Marquis in the country. Developers and District officials hope the already impressive Convention Center will be a world-wide attraction now that an accompanying state-of-the-art, large-scale hotel is on the way.

Last year, Mayor Adrian Fenty signed the New Convention Center Hotel Amendments Act of 2009 that authorized Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and the issuance of bonds, to fund up to $206m in construction and operational costs. Private developers will pick up the remaining portion of the estimated $550 million total cost. With JBG's spat over the project and ensuing lawsuit now ended, today's announcement means the project is officially moving forward.

Washington DC real estate development news

Red Sox - 0; Nationals - 1

by Beth Herman

It would appear baseball’s loss is architecture’s gain. Right around the time most high school students are clomping through chemistry and considering calculus, Marshall Purnell of Devrouax & Purnell Architects and Planners was also considering Fenway, weighing an offer from the Boston Red Sox.


“I said no,” Purnell recalled of his junior year in Michigan. “It was the ‘60s, not yesterday, and there was no money in sports at the time: $10,000 a year with a $5,000 signing bonus. It was more money than my dad was making, but I just knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do. I wanted to go to college.” Four decades later, Purnell, the former high school baseball and basketball star, would stand beside the new 41,888-seat, $611 million Nationals Park in SE D.C. as one of its architects, the first ballpark in the country to achieve LEED certification.

Matters of State


Plying his trade since 1978, the former federal agency liaison for AIA (“the greatest job in the world for a young architect”) had met his partner, Paul Devrouax, at a NOMA (National Organization of Minority Architects) conference three years earlier. Devrouax, who died of a heart attack on March 22 at age 67, had offered his prospective partner something none of the other firms around the country with which Purnell met when he left AIA had offered: a career instead of a job. “Paul basically understood where I wanted to go, and he wanted to go to the same place,” Purnell said. Reflecting on the beginning of their partnership, with contacts that included the Assistant Secretary of State in charge of foreign buildings, who was first an AIA boss, Purnell said he brought in two jobs the first day and spent subsequent weeks as a State Department knight errant in 15 degree-below temperatures in Moscow, Belgrade and T’bilisi. “We ended up doing cabinet drawings for the State Department for the next three years,” Purnell said, which he explained meant taking all the floor plans, elevations and the like for ambassadorial residences around the world and making sure they’re correct, putting them into English and standardizing metric numbers, for 87 nations. “It wasn’t glamorous, but it helped pay the rent,” the architect said.

State Department blessings withstanding, when Devrouax - who would become godfather to one of Purnell’s four children - and Purnell first fused professionally, they’d set up shop in an English basement near DuPont Circle. “I had just come from the AIA where I had a third floor office overlooking the courtyard, right over the president’s office,” Purnell said. “I left because I didn’t want to get too fat and happy without ever practicing architecture, but when the first snow came that winter and we had to look up over it, I told Paul we had to get out of there.”

A move two months later to 1215 Connecticut Avenue was undertaken with the two partners, an intern and a secretary (no real division of offices: just open space). Nine months later, the firm had grown to 16 people precipitating an eventual move to 717 D Street NW, where Devrouax & Purnell, with as many as 50 on staff at one time but currently settling for a navigable 18, has remained for 25 years. “Nobody in their right mind would move into this neighborhood for office space when we did,” the prescient Purnell said, reflecting on the tenuous downtown overtones of the 1980s. “But we saw what was coming. We saw the changes that were being planned for this area.”

Matters of the Heart

Claiming never to have argued in 32 years, Purnell said he and Devrouax could sometimes disagree on something but no one would know they were disagreeing. “We used to say we worked different sides of the street,” Purnell said. “Paul (who’d been a solo practitioner for five years prior to the partnership) had his base here in Washington and was an incredible supporter of D.C., and I brought in a federal and national element, but over the years they began to meld.” Responsible for some of the region’s most significant structures in addition to Nationals Park, including Pepco Headquarters, Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex, the Walter E. Washington Convention center, MCI Arena, the Verizon Center, the expansion of Gallery Place and the garage at National Airport, and cited as the first African-American architecture firm to design a headquarters for a Fortune 500 company: the 190,000 s.f. addition to the Freddie Mac campus in McLean, Purnell acknowledged some early obstacles in their path. His take on race, however, is more Que Sera, Sera than The Sky is Falling. “We are who we are in this world. Race plays a role. Your gender plays a role in whatever you do, but you don’t build your life around it; you don’t build your practice around it and your talents are not based upon it.”

In a more profound example of the scars of race that Purnell recalls, however, when it came time to break ground for the 16,000 s.f. state-of-the-art King Greenleaf Recreational Center in SW, a Devrouax & Purnell project built in a public housing complex, hostility and organized protest quickly ensued from the surrounding community. Purnell noted residents were “up in arms because they thought it was the beginning of the end” – that gentrification like this may portend the end of public housing. Sitting in the stands at the ribbon-cutting, the architect said he was shaken by a woman who stood up and admitted that the reason she’d panicked when the building was going up – when she saw the design – was because she knew “no one in the city would build something this nice for us.” That’s what she said, Purnell frowned. “I was sad that she, in her life, had come to feel like that about anything – that they didn’t deserve it.”

What Matters Most

Designed in conjunction with the Kansas City-based former HOK Sport (architects), now Populous, and opening in 2008, Purnell said research for Nationals Park involved visiting a host of stadiums around the country including venues in San Diego, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Baltimore and Atlanta. “We saw a lot of good,” Purnell affirmed of his stadium safari with HOK’s Joe Spear, specifically about Baltimore’s Camden Yards. “I saw things that make that ballpark special, but I didn’t see a whole lot of things that I thought should be at Nationals Park. As an architect, and as a person, I’ve learned to look at what shouldn’t be done.”

For example, at Camden Yards, when on the concourse for food and other necessities, people have to look up at monitors to see the game. “I couldn’t stay connected to the field,” Purnell said. “A ballgame is a long process: You want to be able to get up and walk around sometimes” without losing that personal connection to the action. “The way we designed Nationals Park, if you get out of your seat for the restroom or a hot dog, or walk over to the third baseline or the first, you’re still very close to the field. You can still see the game.”

Where the locker room was concerned, Purnell recalled a visit to Giant stadium where Barry Bonds was playing at the time. Bonds had cordoned off a corner of the locker room, with his own Barcalounger and monitor, and all the other players knew it, Purnell had observed. “He was the greatest player, he was there on the team, but I didn’t like the idea of him setting himself apart like that.” Accordingly, in the seat of the nation, a few miles from the White House and in a nod to equality and shared values, the architects first created a round design for the Nationals’ locker room, which quickly evolved into a famous oval – for obvious reasons.


Reflecting on his high school baseball years in Michigan, Purnell said he believes it helps if you’ve played the game. Understanding distances to left field, right field, center field and what plays are exciting, as well as building either a pitcher’s park where the fences are a little further back, or a hitter’s park where they’re closer, are all integral to stadium science. At one point, Purnell said, they designed the Nationals Park fence at 14 feet all the way around, but by doing that it detracted from the excitement of the outfielder going up to catch the ball. “If you put in an 8-foot fence, he can jump high into the fence and prevent a home run. Let’s don’t take away one of the most exciting plays in baseball!” Purnell declared.

Speaking to his three-plus decades in practice, Purnell said that architecture is so much a part of his soul, he “doesn’t feel like (he’s) worked in 32 years.” With the loss of his valued partner and friend, he relies perhaps more heavily upon senior designer Anthony Brown who has been with the firm for 27 years.

“With Paul, I miss his voice, I miss his presence, and like in many marriages, we finished each other’s sentences,” Purnell said. “But with Anthony,” he said, brightening slightly, “we’ve been known to finish each other’s drawings.”

Vacant Properties on the Chopping Block Wednesday

Tomorrow, DC's Department of Housing and Community Development will shed itself of 18 vacant, government-owned properties at a public auction. The single-family townhouses, multi-family buildings and vacant lots cover neighborhoods in almost every Ward, but take note: not everyone is welcome to bid. Buyers can include only prospective home owners that will occupy the property, non-profits and Certified Business Enterprises (CBE) registered with the District. Buyers must bring a $15,000 deposit to participate in the bidding.

There may be deals in waiting (for the buyer, not for the District taxpayer), given the restrictive qualifications on purchasers. Buyers looking to get in on the Shaw transition can bid on 1713 New Jersey Avenue, NW (pictured), which tax records show sold for just under $300,000 in 2005. Neighboring properties have sold for as much as $750,000 in recent years. A lot at 805 7th Street, NE, near H Street, zoned for residential use, could command some interest given the District Council's recent approval of overhead wires for the future streetcar. Though a buyer could snag a bargain, the buy-in and then the required 10 percent deposit within three days time could be a bit of a deterrent for the do-it-yourself buyer.

The District auctions the properties in the hopes of returning them to the tax roll, creating additional revenue and removing blight. The vacant properties were acquired through negotiated friendly sale, eminent domain, donation, and tax sale foreclosure when owners were "unwilling or unable to maintain their properties." The auction, run by Alex Cooper Auctioneers, will take place at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center tomorrow beginning "promptly" at 2 PM.

Washington, DC real estate development news

A Neighborhood Runs Through It: The Hilton Washington

By Beth Herman

Frank Lloyd Wright was right. The story goes that in the 1940s, the iconoclast architect stood on the site of the future Hilton Washington, next to a once grand but derelict Victorian mansion known as "The Heights," declaring it a prime location for a hotel. Two decades later, Conrad Hilton shared that vision and on March 28, 1965, built in the signature 1960s and '70s Brutalism style of the American modernist movement by architect William B. Tabler Sr., the hotel - at 1919 Connecticut Ave. NW - opened its doors to what continues to be a Washington keystone.

With more than one million s.f. of space and following a massive, three-year (concept-to-champagne) $150 million renovation - and in many spaces a painstaking restoration - the Hilton Washington is still going strong, having reinvented itself in time for a re-launch on May 25. Shepherded by OPX Global architects, under the auspices of owners Lowe Enterprises and the Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund which purchased the property for $290 million in 2007, the hotel has achieved historic preservation status in its quest to become a coveted landmark property, and also included community focus groups, to reestablish itself as a seminal neighborhood landmark.

Up to the Challenge

“They’re really trying to be a hotel that lives in Kalorama, lives in DuPont, lives in the U Street Corridor,” said W. David Owen, OPX principal, explaining that among other things, his firm opened up the property by improving the clarity of glass on the public levels so neighbors could see into the lobby when illuminated at night. Conversely, the profile of the landscaped dome outside was lowered for more visual access from the inside out to the sidewalk. Soon-to-be realized plans for a Starbucks just inside the lobby will serve both hotel guests and area residents, and in an effort to improve relationships with most of the neighbors, according to Owen, the loading dock, where facilitating large exhibits has been known to impede street travel, was redesigned in ways that included reworking turn planes and improving capability to accept larger bay trucks.

In the big picture, among the many design challenges for OPX Global was an effort to establish a sense of flow and make every space feel seamless, according to Owen, who noted it had been “chopped up” in prior renovations. In part this was achieved by establishing a basic palette at the front door with very light finishes in contrast to dark woods, something that resonates throughout the property. Bringing the building back to its modernist roots, in light of prior renovations, also posed a challenge, as did a 21^st century dictum for the integration of pervasive and visible technology vis-à-vis “raising the hotel up into the luxury market.”

Down to Business

To meet increasing demands of the thousands of annual convention and business travelers who call the Hilton Washington home, the concept of lobby as business center is now illustrated by a communal table for laptops, with seating, and with connectivity possible just about everywhere. The division between lobby, dining room and bar is gone; ordering food or drink while “laptopping” is encouraged, with surrounding flat screen TV’s that flash news and sports landscapes replacing what might have been prints of Frederic Church landscapes in the 1960s. Lobby vistas also include interactive signage - upwards of 30 touch screens - many positioned just outside meeting rooms that enable guests to investigate what’s going on in the hotel, throughout D.C. and flight schedules for that matter. A series of state-of-the-art meeting rooms (drop down projection screens; whiteboards; blackout drapes) that open to outdoor spaces have names such as Katharine Graham and John Jay – with brief histories – which reflect the more familial and community aspects of Washington, as opposed to allusions to the federal city which may characterize other establishments. This is something the architects decided would better define a community-oriented hotel, one where neighbors even have pool memberships.

Around the Room(s)

According to Owen, when the hotel was built, “…it was kind of an interesting hybrid because the latest trend at that time was motor courts.” Accordingly, the 1,250 guestrooms – all of which faced out and curved per Tabler’s design – were very small, emblematic of the “clean, efficient, moderately priced” motor court credo. “It stood in contrast to some of the grand hotels that were here, which serves well for a convention market where people are not in their rooms for most of the day,” Owen explained. Efficiency withstanding, and without altering the guestroom footprint, OPX Global rallied to visually expand the stark, small, utilitarian “pie wedge-shaped” rooms to include warm bathroom granite-topped cabinetry that “looks like a piece of furniture,” and replace doors with translucent glass sliders. Bathroom floors are marble, and combination light/mirror fixtures both conserve and open up space.

The hotel is renowned for its legendary 35,815 s.f. International Ballroom which seats 2,700 and, according to one source, is one of the largest public hotel spaces south of NY and east of the Mississippi. The ballroom is the annual scene of the crime for the White House Correspondents Association dinner, among other glittering events, including one of 2008’s inaugural balls. A brand new 15,000 s.f. exhibition space, Columbia Hall, is part of an additional 20,000 s.f. of public space added to the hotel, and can be used as a whole or partitioned into four separate rooms or two banks of two with a center corridor. “Actually I believe there are almost 10 configurations they can do with walls around the center,” Owen said, with the center portions having 14-foot ceilings to comply with Hilton brand’s requisite for social event rooms.

“All of the construction was done while the hotel was operating,” Owen stated. “It never closed, except for one two-week period after holiday parties when things slow down, in order to relocate a massive amount of plumbing that involved the ceiling in the lobby area. Forfeiting 100 of the hotel’s 1250 guestrooms to the renovation, the hotel anticipates creating long term rental suites for business travelers replete with kitchenettes and other extended living-type amenities. The owners have also received approval from the District to build a condo tower on the property, wherein residents will be able to share hotel amenities such as maid service, health club, catering and more, according to Owen.