Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Your Next Place...
Located in DC's Colonial Village, this striking home (designed by architect David Baker, with an update in 2000 by architect Richard Zambito) looks, at first, sort of like a cross between a flying saucer and a beached houseboat
(but in the best possible way). But it's not just novelty for novelty's sake. Like most architects' homes, all the idiosyncrasies are practical too. The structure is supported by eight internal steel beams (exposed, for a really cool industrial vibe), and most of the house's exterior is made up of windows. You've never seen a house with a view like this; it's almost 360 degrees. And it's right on Rock Creek Park, so the view is spectacular. I mean, my apartment sort of has a lot of windows (albeit nothing like this), but they look out on a bus parking lot surrounded by razor-wire. Not exactly the sort of thing you enjoy looking at while sipping your morning coffee.
The general impression given by the house is light and clean lines and open space; even on a overcast day the house is impossibly bright. It has 3.5 baths and four bedrooms, the largest of which is a newer rooftop addition. This master bedroom is nearly all windows, and being in the room is like being in a light-filled crow's nest. Paradoxically, though it seems quite exposed, it's completely private and discreet, owing to the elevation, no worries about the neighbors snickering about your physique. (Not that they would, all the neighbors seemed totally nice and nonjudgemental.)
2141 Sudbury Place NW
4 Bdrms, 3.5 Baths
$895,000
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
DCRA to Open Small Business Resource Office by Spring
The agency has already established a Homeowner's Center, dedicated to helping expedite permitting for home repair and renovations. And now they're setting up a Small Business Resource Center, scheduled to open at 1100 4th Street SW in the spring.
Will it help? "Your homeowner building permit office is great!" tweeted Margaret Holwill, head of PR for the H Street NE Festival and owner of Holwill & Company media. "Could you do a one-stop shop for small biz?"
Helping people navigate purgatory is not in character for a government agency, but that's the intention. "We are envisioning laying out the steps and serving as a point of contact for updates on progress for the many agencies involved in the permitting process," said Helder Gil, spokesperson for DCRA.
DCRA hopes the new office will cut permit wait time in half by acting as a liaison between business owners and many government agencies. Small businesses that might benefit from the center include new retail, restaurants and non-profits in particular.
Washington DC real estate news
Transforming Dulles
Within the airport itself, other improvements have elevated the dowdy atmosphere. After years of planning and construction, the new security checkpoint opened in late 2009 followed by the new AeroTrain in January 2010. Passengers now descend an escalator from the departure level to a new, 121,700 s.f. security screening area. Moving the security checkpoint opened the rear of Saarinen terminal (terminal interior pictured at right) to light and lifted congestion, making it possible to appreciate the aesthetics of the terminal today in a way that was not possible in the years following 9/11, when security checkpoints popped up like gophers in the rear of the terminal.
Passengers now check-in on the departures level (see diagram, in green), descend an escalator to the new security mezzanine (red), and descend to the AeroTrain station (blue). Arriving passengers take an escalator from the AeroTrain station (blue) to the arrivals level/baggage claim (purple).
After passing through the TSA frisk lottery, passengers descend another level to the AeroTrain, which they take to their concourse - a Tron-like traveling system used in Dulles airport today. The AeroTrain system (pictured, above) has mostly replaced the sci-fi era mobile lounges, which for decades have transported passengers from the main terminal to their concourse or directly to their airplane. Some have operated since the airport opened in 1962.
Other airport renovations continue. Concourses C & D, built in 1985 as temporary concourses, still serve United’s large hub at Dulles Twenty-six years later.
Few will miss the old Concourse C with its low ceilings and lack of windows, or its cramped rush hour condition. The new Concourse C, which will be above the already-built AeroTrain station, will be a more open and brighter place to pass long airline delays.
With a conceptual Concourse C on the way, MWAA placed its AeroTrain station at the site of the future concourse rather than the temporary one. But plans for a permanent concourse are nowhere near finalized, and with an uncertain timeline (delivery could be as late as 2020), and airlines hesitant about expensive infrastructure improvements, travelers are stuck with a station several hundred feet away from the concourse itself, requiring another passageway between the AeroTrain station and the concourse (see picture, below). This will be ameliorated with the opening of the permanent concourse, but until then travelers will continue to enjoy the famously long walks within the airport. Passengers flying from Concourse D must still take the mobile lounges until the new concourse opens.
The other permanent midfield concourse, Concourse A/B, initially opened in 1998 and was extended in 2008. A modern, bright, and airy terminal (see picture, below. Copyright Dan Brownlee) it serves every other airline at Dulles, excepting United, whose passengers don't have use of this terminal.
Elsewhere at the airport, a new Air Traffic Control Tower opened in 2007. A fourth runway opened in 2008 and a fifth is planned. Unlike most airports in the country, Dulles' remoteness from urban centers - an inefficiency multiplying the expense of the rail line - endows it with a surplus of land for expansion in the coming decades, despite the persistent onslaught of sprawl. Dulles has seen a steady expansion of international flying over the last decade; in the last four years alone Dulles has gained non-stop flights to Rome, Geneva, Moscow, Accra, Istanbul, Doha, and Bogota.
To process the increased number of international passengers, MWAA renovated and expanded the Customs and Border Protection hall. When the expansion is complete this year, the facility will approximately double in size and capacity, processing 2,400 passengers per hour.
Over the years, despite the new look, MWAA has made a conscious decision to maintain airport signage in vintage 1960's/70's historic font. Due to smart planning and investment by MWAA a decade ago, Dulles Airport now has much of the infrastructure necessary to propel the airport forward in the coming decades. Once the Metro serves the airport, Washington D.C.’s two major airports will both have convenient rail access, a rare feat for an American city. The growth at Dulles will be even more substantial in coming years with development of the Silver line and growth of nearby Tysons Corner. By the end of the decade, Dulles's two modern concourses, direct rail service to downtown, and efficient security screening area should put an end to disparaging comments by travelers comparing Dulles to third world airports. And while many still don't consider the original design fetching or worthy of an international gateway, Dulles Airport has a come a long way towards becoming a world-class airport.
Story by Reese Davidson (RJDavidsondc @ gmail.com)
Monday, February 07, 2011
Reston Station Announcement Heralds Coming Development
Labels: Comstock, Davis Construction, Reston, Silver Line
Comstock's massive mixed-use project is planned 3/4 of a mile east of Reston town center, the developer plans to build the 500,000-s.f. residential component as the first step in the process. The two towers will have 205 and 370 units, 19.5% of it designated for workforce housing.
Reston, Virginia, real estate development news
Bethesda's Smashing Summer
Labels: Bethesda, Bethesda Row, SK and I Architects, StonebridgeCarras
Stonebridge Associates and PN Hoffman, real estate developers selected by the county to joint-venture the project, have approved plans for an 88 unit condominium on the east side of Woodmont and a 170-unit residence (sale or rentals not determined) on the west side of the rebuilt street, a public-private underground parking garage 5 stories deep with 300 private spaces and 1100 public ones, and 40,000 s.f. of retail that will grace Bethesda and Woodmont Avenues, extending Bethesda Row south by a full block, built for small scale retailers. The buildings were designed by Bethesda's SK&I Architectural Design Group,
But all that infrastructure can only come with construction, and lots of it. And while developers are breaking eggs for the $150m development, they will also take the opportunity to remedy the distorted "X" of the intersection, shortening crosswalks and drawing together corners, giving Woodmont a more graceful, traffic-calming arch. Developers intend to close Woodmont south of Bethesda Avenue for up to 20 months, build the garage underneath, then deed the street back to the city.
The first building will be the Darcy, an 88-unit condominium (pictured, top), with 60 market rate condos and 28 home buyers getting subsidized views overlooking Bethesda Row; marketing and sales by PN Hoffman is expected to start "very shortly" says Stonebridge founding principal Doug Firstenberg. Retail will wrap around the building's first floor.
Next at bat is the more complicated west side of Woodmont, with 170 or so units still in the design phase and carrying the brunt of street-grade storefronts. Retail will be mostly parceled into smallish shops that roughly match Bethesda's current shopping district, with an anchor tenant as large as 9,000 s.f., large but significantly smaller than the Barnes & Noble across the street.
Stonebridge-Hoffman also has an agreement with the county to rebuild the adjacent section of the Capital Crescent bike trail, better integrating the path into downtown and fixing its dead end into Bethesda Avenue, where developers will widen and landscape the path with pavers. "Now there will be a place to stop" says Stonebridge's Firstenberg. "You will have a beautiful hardscape telling you you're in the middle of this urban area." Firstenberg also has plans for a bike drop-off on Woodmont once the residences are complete, now that bikers are loosing their unloading point, with a connection behind the building to the trail.
But developers will bury the most controversial portion, the project's 1400-space garage, for which the county approved $89m in 2008, a decision many saw as unwise, unnecessary, and wasteful. The complex land agreement with the county, which owns the land, requires developers to pay the county in a plan Firstenberg calls "tantamount to an air rights deal." The county will pay the Stonebridge team for its costs to build the public parking, up to $89m. "We're certainly hoping to spend less" says Firstenberg, who notes falling construction costs. "The construction world has changed." Project architect Federico Olivera Sala of SK&I notes that the team is "trying to reduce" the overall number of parking spaces.
But transit and smart growth organizations, while applauding the overall development as urban in-fill and transit-oriented, have called parking a boondoggle that puts cars before public transit, with a Metro stop two blocks away and the Purple Line coming soon across the street. "Montgomery County could lease parking from nearby office spaces. We need more flexible strategies...I think looking at pricing is the only way to effectively manage parking, there's plenty of parking within a couple of blocks. Given everyone's budget crisis, spending $80,000 per space hardly seems like a strategic investment," says Cheryl Cort of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, which opposed the spending. Firstenberg disagrees. "There is clearly a parking shortage in Bethesda... Bethesda is one of the county's prime economic engines. Other developers have large projects coming up in the area, those are all major plans. There's a parking shortage today, much less when all the development takes place."
Parking shortage or not, in 3 years Bethesdans will have another garage, an extended Bethesda Row, and calm, freshly paved streets for quiet meandering. Which should be just about the time that JBG digs up the opposite intersection to build a 200,000 s.f. office tower and 250-unit residential tower, and most likely the start of construction for Bethesda's Purple Line station in 2014 right next door. Looks like Bethesda is about to get busy.
Bethesda, Maryland Real Estate Development News
Saturday, February 05, 2011
Shaw Developers Celebrate Step Forward with Progression Place
Labels: Davis Construction, Devrouax and Purnell Architects, Ellis Development, Eric Colbert, Four Points LLC, Gilford Corporation, Jarvis Company, Shaw
Friday, February 04, 2011
Arlington Mill Ready to Build
Labels: APAH, Arlington, Columbia Pike, Davis Carter Scott, Kishimoto Gordon Dalaya Architecture
The first phase of the project has a projected cost of 24 to 25 million dollars to build a new community center with a gym, learning center, public plaza and garage, designed by Davis Carter Scott. Residences on the north side developed by Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) and designed by Kishimoto Gordon Dalaya Architecture (KGD) are scheduled to go under construction in 2012 with a targeted completion date of May 2013.
APAH will be applying for the Low Incoming Housing Tax Credit March 11th. The group is slated to build 122 subsidized residences in the second phase of the project, which starts after completion of the community center. In the original plans, 192 residences were to have been built, with 61 slated for affordable housing. Public Private Alliance was unable to secure financing for the market-rate apartments so the county went back to the drawing board in the planning stages, said Maureen Markham, Arlington County Development Specialist. "We had a couple of rough years for the housing market and funding, but things are looking up," she said.
Arlington, Virginia real estate development news
Thursday, February 03, 2011
Hine School Project Shifts Plans
Labels: Capitol Hill, Eastbanc, Eastern Market, Stanton
As reported by Michael Niebauer in Washington Business Journal, residential space has been allocated an additional 100,000 square feet, up from 144,594 in 2009. Though the additional residences will alleviate the District's current housing pinch, the shift was the result of the Tiger Woods Foundation decision to nix youth center plans and the International Relief and Development aborting a headquarters move. The total square footage has dropped nearly 100,000, to approximately 558,000 s.f. square feet of retail, office and residential space.
"We're still early in the process on this project," says Dave Garrison, Commissioner for ANC 6B. "We're not sure how static the plans are. There are still many layers to go before the formal submission of design." Stanton-EastBanc will feature slides on its website that reflect the changes in the design within the next couple days.
Garrison says the the plans will be formally reviewed by the Historic Preservation Board in early March, with a second hearing before the ANC board later in the month. It would then go on to the zoning board, at which point there will be a special meeting regarding the project's community benefits and amenities, since it creates greater density than is currently permitted by zoning. "This is an idiocyncratic process that will be shaped by circumstances, timing and the economy that really is a wide open discussion about the plans," said Garrison.
If all goes smoothly, the projected calendar for development is to apply for permits late this year, with construction to begin in 2012, with a completion date of 2015.
Washington DC real estate development news
Your Next Place...
A literal stone's throw from the Eastern Market metro station (please do not throw stones at the Eastern Market metro station), this is an incredibly appealing 2BR/2BA unit. With multiple skylights, and high ceilings, the space feels open and dramatic. There's a fireplace, a compact galley kitchen with stainless steel appliances, a washer/dryer, and two roof decks, from which you can in fact see the Capitol Dome. Now, when you see something on the news about the government doing something you don't like, you can dash out onto the deck and shake your fist at the thing itself! I bet that would totally make you feel better! It's also about as effective as voting. (Just kidding. Sort of.) The place also comes with garage parking which, if you're a car owner, you recognize as one of the greatest pleasures in life. I mean, there are few things more demoralizing than looking for parking. After circling my neighborhood for almost half an hour late at night last week, consistently rounding corners just as some other driver slid into a recently-vacated space, it hit me like a lightning bolt: life really doesn't have any meaning at all, does it? (I finally just parked it illegally.)
But really, what more could you want from a place? If I was the agent for this property, I would silently lead prospective buyers through each room, up to the decks, down to the parking garage, and then, at the conclusion of this tour, grab them by the shoulders and shake them violently while screaming, “WHAT MORE COULD YOU POSSIBLY WANT!?” But then that's why I'm not a real estate agent.
350 9th St SE #25
Washington
$528,500
2 Bdrms, 2 Baths, Parking
Neighborhood Report: NoMa
Labels: J Street Development, NoMa, Skanska
Gillian Clark's Kitchen on K: Clark's new restaurant, inspired by her now-gone Colorado Kitchen is between four and eight weeks away from permitting. A bigger space and proximity to the Metro means Clark, now the chef at Silver Spring's General Store, plans on daytime and late night hours. In a nod to its progenitor, the menu will showcase French technique via comfort food favorites, as well as donuts during brunch her customers keep asking about. Opening dates? "Ideally spring, but there is no such thing as ideal."
On Skanska's NoMa Development: Sara Krouse of Washington Business Journal reported on the Skanska deal earlier this week, which Executive Vice President Rob Ward says is slated to become office buildings, hotels and potentially residential space. The 63,790 square foot property is located at 1st and M Streets N.E.
NoMa Living: The Loree Grand, which will house Clark's restaurant, was the first new residential projects in the area in over a century. Of the 212 residential units, 66% have been leased. Archstone also has a residential project underway, 469 apartments set for completion in late 2012.
Constitution Square: Of the 440 residential units in The Flats 130, 90 have already been leased since its opening late last year, with 19 new leases just in January. Also set to open in the area is Roti as well as the largest location of The Perfect Pita, which has leased space across from The Courtyard Marriott.
90K: Of the space that's primarily for offices, 50% has been leased. The 412,000 square foot office building also houses retail, which has yet to be claimed. Built by Clark Construction, designed by SmithGroup, the building is the newest office building by Trammel Crow Company.
111 K Street: Sales of J Street's corporate condo (pictured, right), initially fast, have stalled as buyers such as Sierra Club and YWCA have backed out.
50 Florida Avenue: This former Metro Ice warehouse just sold as a redevelopment project to B & B Realty Investments. "We are in the middle of contemplating what we want this space to become," said Rick Brown, a Principal of B&B. "We had a three to five year plan but recent growth in the area has prompted us to reconsider."
Washington DC real estate development news