Brick façade on 1336 H Street NE collapses; no one injured

Construction halted on 1336 H Street NE today when the building’s brick façade collapsed onto the sidewalk.

No one was hurt in this morning’s collapse, which occurred during an “emergency façade repair,” according to building owner Mark Rengel, who also said the building will mostly likely become a restaurant.

Both Rengel and ANC 6A chair David Holmes said they knew the building could easily collapse, and Holmes said ANC 6A filed a report stating this.

“The façade’s been crumbling for 20 years,” Rengel said. “I had an inclination this was gonna happen … gravity helped us out.

“They did have it caged off and fenced in,” said D.C. Fire Battalion Chief E.R. Mills III.

The bricks from the second floor of the building littered the ground, and a metal garage door was torn from the building. It landed on the scaffolding, knocking out an important metal pin holding it together. Since the scaffolding is two stories tall, it presented the problem of collapsing onto the street into traffic.

The right lane of H St. heading west has been closed for drivers’ safety.

Holmes said the ANC filed a report with DCRA this past September, claiming the building’s façade was on the verge of collapse and presenting a danger to pedestrians and drivers alike on H St. He said the report was not only ignored but insulted, drawing insults such as calling the ANC members “Chicken Little.”

“They were contemptuous of our report,” he said.

DCRA building inspector Delaine Engleberg said it was safe for the construction to resume at noon but suggested an engineer check the back wall of the building. She said the construction team was working on removing the façade anyhow. The only unsolved problem is the scaffolding.

She said only Helder Gil could offer further comment, but he could not be reached by press time.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Your Next Place

Here we have a rock-solid classic old rowhouse that's been extensively renovated inside.  It's like a mint-condition '57 Chevy that when you start it up, you realize can also fly and shoot lasers from the headlights.

The living room, right off, is sleek and modern, with recessed lighting and a simple, open layout. The openish staircase leads up and down to the four bedrooms (the basement one has its own entrance too), all of which are roomy and very bright.

The kitchen is clearly the crown jewel of the house, and very large, with stainless steel appliances and granite countertops and even a little mounted television, so you can get super absorbed in "Judge Judy" while your three-cheese macaroni silently carbonizes in the oven.

The kitchen opens out, via twin glass doors, onto a fine wooden deck that overlooks a flagstone patio and a wide grassy yard.  Behind that is a sizable detached garage, for parking cars in, or using for band practice when your midlife crisis hits.  (Just please remember to lock the doors.  I'm still traumatized from walking in on my dad and his coworkers in the garage, years ago, as they were covering a Sublime song.)  It's also within walking distance to Eastern Market, and H Street, which is my new favorite nightlife neighborhood, if only because I know my ex is too lazy to ride her bike all the way out there.

430 10th Street NE
4 Bedrooms, 3 Baths
$799,900

New Residential and Retail Bound for Edgewood

A new 6-story apartment building with ground-floor retail space could be headed to 2321 4th St. NE in Edgewood on the now-empty lot owned by H Street Community Development Corporation (HSCDC). Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 5C will consider the mixed-use development during a meeting this evening.

View looking south from 4th Street

The proposed building is a joint venture between HSCDC and E&G Group. The new $37 million development will create about 160,000 s.f. of mixed-use space, designed by Bonstra | Haresign Architects and built by Maggin Construction Company.

Plans call for between 155 affordable residential units on the five floors above the first-floor podium. Ground level space is reserved for 3,000 s.f. of retail, various tenant facilities and 40 parking spaces.

Kenton Drury, the project manager from E&G Group, said residential units will vary in size with 5 studio, 85 one-bedroom, and 65 two-bedroom units.

Tenants must be at or below 60 percent of the local Area Median Income (or about $40,000 for an individual). Rent for someone at 60 percent AMI is about $1,000 for a studio.

"We see young professionals wanting to live here because it’s an up-and-coming vibrant neighborhood close to metro and close to areas of employment," Drury said. The target tenant is a young professional entering the workforce or an "empty nester" who is retired or working part-time.

View looking north from 4th Street

Development plans presented at a recent community meeting netted mixed feelings from residents. While they did not seem concerned about the building itself, they did express concerns about its impact on the neighborhood. Drury said some people thought rent was not affordable enough while others thought it was too affordable for the neighborhood. And residents asked about the local economic boost it could bring.

Drury said he told local business owners interested in providing construction services to get their Certified Business Enterprise (CBE) Certification because some work will be designated for CBEs. And residents with retail or service-oriented businesses could open up shop in the retail space on site.

Whatever the final development looks like, it will be a welcomed change from the so-called "Heroin Hotel" that used to stand on the lot. HSCDC demolished the three vacant buildings that had become a hotbed of criminal activity, but the community must wait longer for construction.

After the ANC meeting tonight, the next big step will be a Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) meeting tentatively scheduled for June. Developers will ask for a variance on the loading dock height and parking space requirement. Drury said the only way to keep the 6-story building within the height limits is to reduce the loading dock height. And the triangular lot -- plus debris from the former buildings -- make it difficult to provide more parking spaces.

Drury said he hopes to have funding lined up this summer to move forward with working drawings and permit applications by the end of the year, and he hopes to break ground in early 2013.

Washington, D.C. real estate development news

GW Proposes Campus Museum

George Washington University on Thursday presented to the Zoning Commission its plans for a museum at the corner of 21st and G streets on the Foggy Bottom campus. The plan includes renovating the historic Woodhull House (now home to the University Police Department) and constructing an adjacent 4-story building.

Hartman-Cox Architects designed the project that includes a combined 31,470 s.f. of new construction and renovated space. The new building will be a 24,126 s.f., 65-foot-tall building with 4 stories above grade and 2 stories below. A bridge will connect the new building to the Woodhull House.

Future museum site

Rendering of 21st Street view

Lee Becker, partner at Hartman-Cox, presented plans for the building during the Thursday meeting. He said the facade will be constructed primarily of Indiana limestone with some glass and metal, with a tooled cut on the limestone to create shadowing. The fourth floor will feature office space with a glass exterior, with a painted metal-framed penthouse to blend with the limestone. Bluestone pavers will connect the existing brick walkways and concrete streetscapes.

The $22 million project is slated for completion in 2014. The GW Museum will feature the Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection as well as provide a new home for The Textile Museum now located in two historic buildings on S Street in Kalorama.

Rendering of G Street view

Much of Thursday's zoning discussion focused on the location and procedures for bus and loading areas. Concerns from the community and commissioners included the need for a better plan to regulate where buses will drop off passengers and prevent them from idling on site.

The tight space and precarious design of a loading zone designated for moving exhibition pieces also raised some concerns. The University previously agreed to have trained personnel direct the deliveries, but some commissioners wanted more assurance that staff would be available on demand. The Zoning Commission did not vote Thursday, instead asking for more information before making a decision. The University will return to the Commission May 14.

A postponed Zoning Commission vote does not necessarily translate into a delay in the project. In an emailed statement, the University said the project timeline included flexibility for such an extension.

The University already received support from the D.C. Office of Planning, Historic Preservation Review Board and Department of Transportation. Video of Thursday's hearing is available from the DC Office of Zoning.

Washington, D.C. real estate development news

Tysons Developer Begins Route 50 Apartment Project

Tysons-based Insight Property Group has started construction on a 67-unit "luxury apartment" building in Arlington near the Courthouse Metro station. While this will be the first completed development for the Insight team, it claims to have more than 1000 units "in the development pipeline."

Grayson Flats will be a 4-story ("luxury") building on a 1.67-acre site at 1200 North Rolfe Street, near Ft. Myer, which Insight acquired in 2010, demolishing the post-war apartment building that existed on the site.
Lessard Design and Preston Partnership collaborated for the design, with apartments "larger than typical Ballston/Rosslyn offerings." And forget old school, the building will feature the absolute latest in amenities package - think bocce, Wi-Fi, billiards, cyber cafe, bike storage and an electric car charging station. Such amenities may soon be coming even closer to your own neighborhood, as Insight is planning to dot the area with similar apartments:

"Insight development projects include two buildings scheduled to break ground later this year: one in downtown Silver Spring, MD and one near the Huntington Metro station in Alexandria, VA. Two more projects -- another development in Arlington and one on H Street, NE in Washington, D.C. -- will follow shortly thereafter."

Clark Builders Group is the general contractor, Buvermo Investments of Bethesda is the equity partner in the $25 million development. Construction began on the project last year and is expected to be complete by this fall.

Arlington, VA real estate development news

AvalonBay's "Hipster" Apartment Building Aims for December Move-In

AvalonBay's latest real estate development, the "AVA H Street" apartment building (which is not technically on H Street - it's at 318 I Street, NE) is set to go vertical any day now, a critical milestone for one of the more unique projects in the booming H Street corridor.

"All the dirt's out of the hole, and they're pouring slabs," said Jeff Wood, development manager at AvalonBay. "We're on schedule for first occupancy in December of this year." The building will be entirely residential, with no ground floor retail.

AVA H Street will offer 140 rental units of "pretty sick apartments," according to the project's Facebook page. Jonathan B. Cox, Senior Vice President of Development at AvalonBay, previously told DCMud the building would be "more contemporary and a more unique architectural style than what's now on the market." Though he was coy at the time about the architect behind the building, it's since emerged that KTGY Group is spearheading the design, and the latest renderings, with their colorful facades and prominent branding, do indeed look more unique that most of what's on the market right now. Blake Dickson represented Avalon in the purchase.

AvalonBay acquired 318 I Street through a lender sale, after original owner Broadway Development lost the property (as well as the adjacent Senate Square) through foreclosure in 2009. AvalonBay, a Ballston-based real estate investment trust (REIT), has posted huge profits in recent quarters by taking advantage of depressed property values to accumulate parcels, and by catering to a rental market that remains strong due to the flagging economy. A recent Wall Street Journal story described AvalonBay's strategy as "hipsters and suburbia" - and if the H Street NE address wasn't a giveaway, AVA's Facebook postings ("so rad!" "awesome!" "sick!") make it eminently clear that this building targets the former group.

AvalonBay had planned to build two more apartment buildings near the future Tysons West metro station, but that project ground to a halt after county officials' request for transportation improvement funds were deemed too high by AvalonBay management. (They did proceed with another Tysons project, the 354-unit Avalon Park Crest.)

AVA H Street broke ground back in November, and is just one of a dizzying number of projects in the immediate area, the biggest of which is the Steuart Investments mixed-use behemoth. It's hard to believe, when you see the flurry of construction on H Street today, that just a handful of years ago over twenty percent of H Street storefronts were vacant - a rate that has been reduced nearly to zero in less than a decade. And when the long-discussed streetcar is up and running, the boom will kick into another, even higher, gear.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

As Streetcar Construction Lifts, J Street Companies Unveils H Street Restaurant

Now that the District has finished street-scaping along H Street NE, including laying tracks for eventual streetcar service, expect more announcements of restaurant and retail openings and re-openings, deals and closings as construction equipment thankfully disappears.

One of those is J Street Companies announcement that Boundary Road restaurant at 414 H Street NE is open for business. The 4,000 s.f. two-story bistro, owned by Karlos Leopold and Brad Walker, was a former barber shop, and now offers 75 seats, including a 20-seat bar along the part of H Street corridor that likes to call itself "Atlas District West" nearest Union Station.

Atlanta-based woodworker, Steve Evans used 150 year-old reclaimed wood beams to help set off exposed brick walls. A Corehaus chandelier from District artist James Kern, sprung literally from a bedspring mattress, hangs in the two-story high atrium.

Boundary Road opens just at the moment when the block wakes up from a two-year plus construction and parking nightmare known as Great Streets.

While many current retail owners complained about the impact of the Great Streets streetscaping improvements and streetcar tracks were having on their business, it turned out to be a perfect time for remodeling of vacant space, including the owners of Boundary Road.

"It was purely coincidental, but it turned out to be good timing," said Anastasia Kharchenko, J Street's vice president for retail leasing, who said the streetcar plans made a difference in where to locate. "The trolley car service was always part of our decision," she said. "Finding a charming street with life on it was key and the streetcar will create a neighborhood and connect neighborhoods." The struggle of H Street to emerge from the ruins of the 1968 riots, which devastated the historically-black neighborhood, is well-known and well-covered, especially when it comes to the familiar District fault lines of race and class.

But in the past decade, once then-Mayor Anthony Williams announced in 2003 a massive plan to redevelop the avenue, key parts of H Street have finally turned a corner. Steuart Investment broke ground last July on its 286,000 s.f. mixed-use project at 3rd and H, which will include a 42, 000 s.f. Giant and 1,500 s.f. of retail.

Still, Boundary Road, along with the other projects, does little to improve H Street's center where unlike the thriving Arts District at 13th and H NE, near the Atlas Theatre, and nearer in, where Boundary Road and the Giant will be, the middle of H Street still lacks development.

J Street's Kharchenko said that may soon change as soon as the District's long-awaited streetcars finally start running in 2013 and Steuart's 360 H Street 215 unit, mixed-use complex completes, forming one retail-centric zone at the western end of H Street and another surrounding the Atlas Theatre along the east end.

The District recently unveiled a study that argued that its $1.5 billion streetcar investment plan would increase District property values by $8 billion over 10 years, including those in the H Street corridor. "(H Street) is a lot like a mall, with two anchors at either end now," Kharchenko said. "Some parts of H Street have turned the corner, others have not. But when you spend millions of dollars on the transportation infrastructure, it's bound to have results, and that will help the rest of the pockets fill in."

Washington D.C. real estate redevelopment news.

Wisconsin Ave. Giant to Close In March as Cathedral Commons Gears Up

The Giant supermarket at 3336 Wisconsin Avenue, NW will close in March in preparation for the construction of Cathedral Commons, according to a spokeswoman for the supermarket chain.

Sharon Robinson, an outside spokeswoman on behalf of Giant said that construction for the $125 million project will begin this quarter. A raze permit for the building as well as other parts of the 3300 block were approved Jan. 30th by the Historic Preservation Office according to documents released this week by the Office. Meanwhile, the Giant Pharmacy has closed, and Starbucks cafe in the 3400 block also closed this week; its building also has a date with the wrecking ball as part of the project.

(Photo by Ken Johnson)

United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 400, which represents Giant employees at the Wisconsin Ave. store, were also given notice this week that the location will close within the next 30 days to begin razing the old building.

The UFCW employees won't lose their jobs, but will be transferred to other Giant stores in the region, according to UFCW Local 400 Secretary Mark Federici.

Developer Street-Works, which also designed much of Bethesda Row, has designed Cathedral Commons to bring 137 apartments, eight town homes and more than 125,000 s.f. of retail space, including 56,000 s.f. to replace the 50-year old store.

For the past decade, Cathedral Commons has been ground-zero for redevelopment politics, pitting anti-development activists versus the food store and its financial partner The Bozzuto Group.

Meanwhile, Giant, like its fellow unionized grocery chain Safeway, is facing increasing pressure to improve or replace its smaller-footage legacy stores like the one on Wisconsin Avenue, one of the least liked supermarkets in the District.

That's the result of stiff competition from non-unionized upscale chains like Harris Teeter and Whole Foods, which have entered the District in force, as well as discount food sellers like Walmart, which just this week began work for a groundbreaking at its first store in the District at New Jersey Avenue and H Street.

Pleasanton, California-based Safeway Inc. is also looking to replace its 35,000 s.f. Safeway in Tenleytown, less than a mile away, with a five-story mixed use project that will bring a new 56,000 s.f. store to the neighborhood. But that project likely won't get started until the new Cathedral Commons Giant is ready and open for business. Giant also closed their large Shaw supermarket last September, in advance of what will (in two years) become an anchor supermarket and residential project in Shaw.

Update: According to Sharon Robinson, the above-mentioned spokesman, a date has not been set for closure of the Giant.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

801 New Jersey Ave Walmart Set To Break Ground In Spring, Spokesman for JBG Says

The planned Walmart at 801 New Jersey Ave. NW will break ground by spring, according to a spokesman on behalf of developer JBG Companies, one of six stores the world's largest retailer will bring to the District of Columbia.

"The planning and preparation is moving ahead quickly," said Charlie Maier, an outside spokesman on behalf of Chevy Chase-based JBG Companies. JBG Rosenfeld, JBG's sister company which focuses on mixed-use retail and will also partner on the project. Walmart has already signed its lease for the site, which will be known going forward as 77 H, as it will line up along H Street on its southern edge.

MV+A Architects, which designed the Whole Foods at 15th and P as well as mixed-use projects in Tyson's Corner, Alexandria and Herndon, along with The Preston Partnership, creator of the Kentlands plan in Gaithersburg will serve as designers, Maier said. JBG has already gotten its construction and zoning permits for the apartment and retail complex that will be built on the site, he said. "We've already started planning for a groundbreaking," he said.

Earlier this week, parts of the Ward 6 site along H Street, not far from Massachusetts Ave., and Union Station had been fenced-off and signage erected. The complex will include about 300 apartments on 280,000 feet along H Street and an 80,000 square-foot store. The red-brick exterior matches other commercial buildings in the area, including the Chicago-style Government Printing Office at North Capitol and H Street and 800 North Capitol, which was built in 1991 and designed by Hartman-Cox Architects

The entrance of red-state Walmart into deep-blue D.C. is not without controversy. As with other proposed Walmart openings in other states, many local businesses feared losing out to the retail giant, a view backed by unions like the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represented Safeway and Giant workers in the District, who said their members would be threatened by Walmart's lower wages and benefits.

Walmart, in response, launched a Web site to help convince skeptical residents and activists that its presence would be a boon to improving access to groceries in poorer neighborhoods as well as provide jobs to DC residents, at least 1,200 spread out amid the six stores, and also 400 construction jobs. Walmart says that Washingtonians spent $40 million at its stores outside the District in 2010. Walmart also noted that the stores would contribute $10 million a year in tax revenue to the District. "The District is anxious to see something happen," Maier said. "It's not all 100 percent approved but its pretty close," he said.

Walmart now has expanded its plans in the District to six stores, all of which it says will be open before the end of 2012. Besides New Jersey Ave, there will be two in Ward 4 with one at Georgia Ave and Missouri Ave. (rendering at right), where some site prep work is happening as well.

Another store, known as Fort Totten Square will be built at Riggs Road NE and South Dakota Ave. NE (rendering above). Another is planned for Ward 5 at New York Avenue at Bladensburg Road, while two are planned for Ward 7, at East Capitol and 58th and one at Good Hope Road and Alabama Ave.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Streetcar Plan To Boost District Real Estate Values by $8 Billion, District's Chief Planner Says

The District's ambitious plan to restart its streetcar network will cost $1.5 billion -- but could pay for itself more than fivefold with increased property values, more jobs and development along the 37 miles of planned streetcar lines, says Harriet Tregoning, the District's chief planning officer.

Tregoning unveiled the Streetcar Land Use Study and her office's number crunching session today at a smart-growth planning session at the National Building Museum. "It's really our transportation infrastructure that shapes our development," said Tregoning, noting that the District has earmarked $100 million in capital funding for the development and building of the eight-line streetcar expansion. Already the District has two lines under construction, one in Anacostia and the other on H Street NE, where more than two miles of tracks have been laid as part of a Great Streets revitalization. The District recently agreed to expand service over the H Street "Hopscotch" Bridge to connect the streetcar system with Union Station and to buy two more cars in addition to the three in storage in Greenbelt. Both lines are expected to begin limited service starting in mid-2013 with some on-rail non-revenue testing of the Skoda-Inekon-built cars beginning this year, Tregoning said.

While much of the grunt-work and operational details are being handled by the District Department of Transportation, its been up to the Office of Planning to detail the 30,000-foot view of the impact to the city as a whole, if the District can return a city-wide network of streetcars, similar to what existed for nearly 100 years up until January 1962, when the last streetcar rolled on a revenue run.

The Office of Planning's study showed that the current $100 billion values of District properties would increase by as much as $ 5 billion to $7 billion over ten years as the plan is completed and would attract investment of $5 billion to $8 billion during the same period. That might allow the District to sell $600 million to $900 million in bonds paid for the by the new revenue, the study claims.

"The streetcar's visibility and permanence will attract private real estate investment," she said, echoing a line long argued by streetcar proponents. "You don't have to worry about the route changing like you do with buses," Tregoning said in a pitch to potential real estate investors in the 100-person audience. "Please look at these corridors for your strategic acquisitions."

While drilling deep into streetcar proponent's talking points, including improving access to schools, expanding an already growing "creative class" and reviving historic neighborhoods, Tregoning poured some cold water on calls for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), which would be cheaper and faster to get into service, saying they won't get the same bang-for-the-buck as streetcars. "BRT does not attract the same level of investment," she said.

Tregoning said that the Office of Planning estimated that the streetcar lines would add 5,000 to 12,000 additional households over ten years, above the increases already projected. That in turn would spur a further burst of retail, as 1,000 households typically support an expansion of 30,000 to 50,000 square-feet of shopping, equal to a large supermarket.

Tregoning however wouldn't answer questions on whether the ridership projections would be enough to pay for the operating costs of the system, or where the financing of the remaining $900 million-plus estimated to fully build out the system would come from. The federal government is always an option, but the study notes typically that the federal government funds only up to 50 percent of the project's cost and can add delays while the community waits for the feds to decide.

The District, according to the study, is counting on increased revenue from real estate development along the streetcar corridors to help finance future construction of the system. "We want to be able to finance the whole system," Tregoning said. That may take the help of the real estate development industry, which, she said, historically supported mass-transit systems as part of building new communities. "We are going to need private partners as well as public."

Washington D.C. real estate redevelopment news

DDOT Planning 14th Street Facelift

Washington D.C.'s fast-growing 14th Street corridor between Thomas Circle and Florida Avenue may finally get some much-deserved street-scaping improvements soon, says John Lisle of the District Department of Transportation.

Plans that have been in the works since 2009 may get accelerated after DDOT commences on a similar street-scaping project for U Street later this year, Lisle told DCMud. The 14th Street design, which wrapped up last April at a cost of $450,000, includes iconic "twin-20" Washington Globe lighting along pedestrian walkways and "teardrop" pendant lighting for street illumination.

Included will be dedicated bike lines and pedestrian "bulb-outs" for safety. At key intersections, such as Rhode Island Avenue, Florida Avenue and U Street, crosswalks and sidewalks will get special iconic identification. Cracked cement sidewalks will give way to London pavers, similar to those required in the Downtown DC Business Improvement District. New street furniture such as garbage bins, tree boxes and bike racks are also in the works for the 14th Street upgrade.

Already, parts of 14th Street in the downtown area have gotten similar treatment. The District was able to use $3.6 million in federal Recovery Act funds in 2009 and 2010 for improved street lighting and sidewalks for a stretch of 14th Street between K Street and Thomas Circle, which got its own facelift. A stretch of 11th Street between Massachusetts and O got its own similar upgrade in 2009.

Lisle says that the city has focused on completing its "Great Streets" programs first before tackling major upgrades of other corridors. The "Great Streets" program, started in 2005 by then Mayor Anthony Williams, is working in conjunction with the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development to jump-start retail and development on long-dormant corridors that have historically been gateways to the city, such as H Street, Pennsylvania Avenue and Georgia Avenue.

The H Street "Great Streets" corridor has just completed, and includes tracks for the District's trolley car plans, while the $3.6 million Georgia Avenue "Great Streets" project is also nearing completion. Pennsylvania Avenue's Great Streets construction, running from 27th Street to Southern Ave, will finish next month at a cost of more than $25 million in federal Recovery Act money. The District has also used $4.5 million in federal funds to rehab stretches of 17th Street, NW with similar lighting upgrades and street furniture, as well as a project on 18th Street in Adams Morgan to improve lighting and pedestrian access, scheduled for completion in May.

The 14th Street Logan Circle corridor has been ground zero for the District's inner core revitalization. Whole Foods, between 14th Street and 15th Street on P Street, which opened in 2000, now anchors the corridor.
Washington D.C. real estate development news

Union Station's Main Hall Set For Big Changes

Entering Union Station's grand Main Hall, amid all the construction netting and scaffolding resulting from the emergency ceiling repairs prompted by August's earthquake, you'd be hard pressed to spot preparation for two shafts set to penetrate the Main Hall's pink marble floor.

The sinking of what will become two 750-square foot escalators openings are just the start of a grand "less-is-more" redesign of the hundred year-old-plus Main Hall, which among other things, will eliminate the Center Cafe and the two circular marble planters, while adding more seating and retail and improving sight lines, signage and pedestrian flow. It's what Union Station Redevelopment Corporation chief consigliere David Ball hopes will create more "vertical circulation" -- improving access to an expanded level of retail space on the venerable station's lower level, freed up with the closure of the much-maligned Union Station 9 movieplex downstairs in 2009.

The remake is the biggest overhaul of Daniel Burnham's Beaux Arts gem since Union Station's 1988 restoration and the largest repair job since January 1953, when 200-plus tons of locomotive and coaches of the Federal Express en route from Boston, sans brakes, plunged into what is now the lower level food court.

Still, getting this far hasn't been easy. Union Station has a virtual who's who of multiple stakeholders, including Amtrak, Union Station Redevelopment Corp., The Federal Railroad Administration, Metro, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., which owns the lease to Union Station through Union Station Investco LLC, and Jones Lang LaSalle, which manages the retail spaces.

The replacement designs for what came next became became a bureaucratic slug-fest between alphabet-soup agencies including the Commission on Fine Arts, The D.C. Office of Historic Preservation, and the National Capital Planning Commission who couldn't come to an agreement on what they liked. Compounding the difficulty was the 1969 declaration of Union Station as a National Landmark, which made it subject to the complex Section 106 proceedings of the National Historic Preservation Act.

It was easier to reach an agreement on what they didn't like -- Center Cafe smack in the middle of Main Hall. While the double-decker libation center was popular with 20-something Capitol Hill types, many said the sight lines in Main Hall were spoiled.

"The distracting Center Café makes visitors pause in confusion and forces travelers to circle around the pedestal and stairs to find the trains," said Nancy Metzger of the Capitol Hill Restoration Society in comments to the Union Station Redevelopment Corp. last August.

But the first design by GTM Architects, unveiled in June 2010, was almost a wreck on the scale of the Federal Express. Reminiscent of the 1970's Bicentennial visitors center, the design would have cut a giant hole in the center of the Main Hall, creating a glass and steel platform flanked by two elevator/escalator shafts.

The suggestion of re-opening the floor in the main hall recall(ed) memories of the ill-fated slide show pit," said Wesley Paulson, a member of the National Capital Trolley Museum. Critics such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation said the initial design (left) used too much glass and said that the redesign was no better than the behemoth Center Cafe it was designed to replace. In July 2010, USRC and GTM unveiled round two of the redesign, eliminating the center elevator/escalator shafts while seeking a retro-approach in an attempt to make the Main Hall look like more like its passenger station heyday of the 1920's and 30's, with long high-backed mahogany benches.

But this time, Amtrak police, perhaps channeling their inner-TSA, sought to nix the iconic mahogany, saying that the proposed high-backed benches made it hard for their explosive-sniffing police dogs to do their work, while giving potential bad guys plenty of places to hide.

Finally in December 2010, a compromise was reached. Two, smaller, but parallel escalator shafts closer to the front entrance but on opposite sides of the Main Hall so as not to impede center flow traffic. The escalator shafts would be detailed with wood, brass and marble signage and fittings to help pedestrians find their way to trains and the new retail.

Instead of the high-backed benches, the design called for functional if unimpressive low-slung pedestals that can be easily scooted out of the way for black-tie corporate shindigs in the evenings that the Main Hall routinely attracts, something the long benches would have impeded. Also added would be two new retail kiosks or "luxury marketing units" and an information booth in the center, reminiscent of the original layout.

Construction on the Main Hall improvements will follow the emergency work already being done on the ceiling as a result of the earthquake on August 23. The emergency work will be finished in late 2012.

The improvements in the Main Hall aren't the only ones. Already underway outside Union Station is a redesign of Columbus Circle in junction with the National Park Service, along with plans from Union Station Investco to improve the passenger waiting area with "Best In Brand" stores and new fixtures.

Metro too, is looking to upgrade access to its own station at Union Station as well, with a new improved entrance along First Street NE and a tunnel to H Street, in advance of Akridge's massive Burnham Place project, set to begin preliminary construction in 2014.

Washington D.C. real estate redevelopment news.