Today in Pictures - Boilermaker Shops

Forest City has begun work in earnest on the boilermaker shops, its first retail pavilion at the Yards in the Capitol Riverfront neighborhood. The building was constructed in 1919 as part of the Navy's largest shipbuilding factory, what would become the world's largest naval ordnance plant.

Forest City has announced the following tenants: Buzz Bakery and a brewery, both operated by the Neighborhood Restaurant Group, Austin Grill Express, Huey's 24/7 Diner, and BRB, all expected to open in late 2012. For more historic pictures, see the chronicler of all things southeast - JDLand.





Washington D.C. real estate development news. Photographs by Rey Lopez.

Arlandria Redevelopment Gains Momentum

The proposed redevelopment of Mt. Vernon Village Center in Arlandria cleared a crucial hurdle last week, gaining approval from the Alexandria City Council by a vote of 6-1, despite some expected objections from the community.

Arlandria Center will be a 600,000 square foot pedestrian-friendly mixed-use complex replacing the sixty-year-old storefronts-and-surface parking strip mall along Mount Vernon Avenue. Plans call for two massive C-shaped buildings, placed back to back, with retail space on the ground level to go with 478 apartments – 28 of which will be earmarked as "lower-income affordable housing” (60% of area median income, locked in for thirty years), and the rest offered at market value. The two retail anchors at Mt. Vernon Village Center, CVS and MOM's Organic Market, have agreed to stay, and their relocation is being accommodated by a phased construction.

The new complex also slightly increases the amount of retail space, to just over fifty three thousand square feet, and relocates parking underground. The project, designed by Guy Martin at CORE Architects, also aims to increase access to Four Mile Run Park, which is currently blocked off by the current structures. The new Mt. Vernon Village Center incorporates two “green fingers” - clear sight lines that provide park views from the Avenue – as well as pedestrian walkways and bike paths, and a no-vehicles pedestrian esplanade in the rear.

“The architecture is one of the things we're particularly excited about,” said Gwen Wright, Development Division Chief in the Alexandria Department of Planning. “There are lots of plane changes in the facade, breaking it up into smaller pieces, good transitions along Mt. Vernon Avenue and along Bruce Street. It also has great connections to the park – some units have entrances right onto the park. Overall, it's very contemporary – lots of glass, stone, and brick, very exciting. We'd like to see the area revitalized, with more focus on the arts. The Birchmere is already there, so there's a real opportunity to see Arlandria move in that direction.”

Like a lot of planners in the region, Wright hopes that Arlandria's rise will parallel the blossoming of certain neighborhoods in the District “A lot of this reminds me of U Street,” says Wright. “U Street and 14th Street.”

Protests centered on what some considered the meager number of units set aside for affordable housing, as well as the income requirement. Others worried that the whitewashing was already underway, as the immigrant-heavy neighborhood, known by locals as Chirilagua, was being rebranded exclusively as Arlandria.

Despite its relative inaccessibility, developers have long eyed Arlandria – with its proximity to the Pentagon, Crystal City, Del Rey, and Potomac Yard - as an area ripe for redevelopment, and with this step, that project looks to be gaining momentum. Mt. Vernon Village Center is one of three earmarked “opportunity sites” as outlined in the 2003 “Arlandria Neighborhood Plan,” and the first to make significant progress. The other two opportunity sites are the former Safeway/Datatel site at Mt. Vernon Avenue and West Glebe, and the Birchmere to the south. Which one will be next?

Alexandria Virginia real estate development news

Your Next Place

By Franklin Schneider

This Chevy Chase colonial is totally fresh new construction - you know how when you buy a new sweatshirt, the inside is so soft and velvety that it's almost sensory overload? Extrapolate that to an entire house and you get the idea. Everything was so shiny and vibrant, I feel like living here would be like being a kid again. And let's be honest, living in a newly-constructed house is the really the only way to guarantee your new home isn't haunted. If I was an agent, I'd have that stamped on those glossy fliers for any new house I was selling - "Guaranteed Ghost Free!" I suggested this to the agent at the open house, but she just looked at me like "you're lucky I left my pepper spray in the car."

At 6200 square feet, this house is also palatially big. The family room, the dining room, the very fine kitchen - each one of these rooms was bigger than my entire apartment. Upstairs are five bedrooms, all spacious, and a fantastic master suite that features a tray ceiling, a fireplace, and his and her closets. No more intermingling your stuff! Because let's be honest, there's nothing worse than being on the train to work and realizing your shirt is exuding amber vanilla body spray after months of close confinement with your girlfriend's cardigans. I mean, I like it on her, but by mid-morning I was ready to roll around on the floor under the urinals, just to cut down the cute stench.

The lower level features a rec room, a game/media room, an office/exercise room, another bedroom/full bath, and a laundry room. Like I said, huge. I half-expected there to be a food court down there. The highlight of the house for me, though, was the enclosed porch, arguably the largest and nicest I've ever seen. It's also on the second level, which means your al fresco dining will be able to continue even in the event of flash flooding.

3211 Tennyson Street NW
6 Bedrooms, 5.5 Baths
$2,195,000

Giant Wins Lawsuit for Wisconsin Ave Redevelopment

Giant has won its legal appeals against the longstanding lawsuits of a neighborhood activist group that has litigated to stop the neighborhood grocery-anchored project. Washington CityPaper reports today that an appellate court affirmed the lower court's ruling that development did not violate the District's zoning laws, as a neighborhood group had claimed in its suit. The project's developers had always seemed likely to prevail, and had been given added momentum when Stop & Shop, Giant's parent company, partnered with local developer Bozzuto Group just weeks ago to fund the mixed-use project. Construction of Cathedral Commons is likely to get underway in March or April. 

The historically debated, two-block redevelopment project will bring 137 apartment units and 8 townhomes, more than 500 parking spaces, and 128,000 s.f. of retail including the anchor, a new 56,000-s.f. Giant, to replace the badly aged 50-year-old one currently on site. Opening of the new Giant is "tentatively scheduled for late 2013. After years of trailing Whole Foods and Safeway, and even Harris Teeter as urban pioneers, Giant now seems to be catching up on the urban redevelopment wave, having broken ground late this year on CityMarket at O in Shaw and having started construction of a new grocery on H Street, NE. 

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Your Next Place

By Franklin Schneider

This is the first time this victorian-style home has been on the market since 1961. I don't think you could come up with a more powerful endorsement for a place: "we liked it so much we stayed for half a century." You know how we all know that one hilarious, brilliant, gorgeous person who are always in a relationship, and when they hit the market like every five years everyone around them goes temporarily insane and dumps their significant others and basically follows them around like whipped puppies? This house is the real estate equivalent to that perfect person! Go ahead and drunk-dial it and be like, "Forreal, I've always thought you were the only person to really get me, you know that right?!" Better yet, show up out front late at night holding a boombox over your head! Hey, it worked in a movie - it must be a good idea!

Seriously though, it's easy to see why they stayed for so long. (Sadly, they're only leaving now for health-related reasons.) I mean, they really don't make them like this anymore. This house defines authenticity - it still has the original wood floors and custom moldings, six (!) fireplaces, immaculately aged wallpaper, vintage light fixtures, all of it lovingly maintained. The ceilings are 10.5 feet high and the rooms are large and spacious, there's a rare mature rose garden, and a large, private patio.


My personal favorite was the sleeping porch - some of my fondest memories from childhood are sleeping out on the screened-in porch in the summer, watching fireflies. They're right up there at the very top with my memories of that time I threw a snowball at a car, the driver got out and chased me for two or three, and ended up having a (mild) heart attack just as he was got me cornered. True story! (And people wonder why I don't want to have kids - it's because they're evil!)

1519 31st Street NW
Washington D.C.
5 Bedrooms, 3.5 Baths
$1,785,000

Washington D.C. real estate news

DC's Record Population Growth

The U.S. Census bureau reported this morning that the District of Columbia lead the nation in population growth over the past year, as many major apartment buildings came online and began occupancy.

From April 1, 2010, to July 1, 2011, Washington D.C. grew by 2.7%, seconded by the state of Texas, which grew by 2.1% during the same period. The population, which shrank for decades after peaking in the 1940's, grew 5.7% from 2000 to 2010. The District had 602,000 people as of the 2010 census, meaning an increase of more than 16,000 people during the preceding 16 months.

Most of the District's new apartment buildings have been reporting near-capacity occupancy rates, and many more large apartment buildings are scheduled to come online over the next 18 months.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Today in Pictures - National Gallery of Art

The National Gallery of Art has a new exhibit: its exterior. The 33-year-old East Building is in the midst of a major renovation that recently included the removal and reinstallation of the marble veneer - 16,200 Tennessee pink marble panels with new supports. Each five foot wide, two foot high, three-inch-thick panel weighs about 450 pounds. The I.M. Pei design, completed in 1978, is not holding up nearly as well as the John Russell Pope design of the West Building. A "systemic structural failure" of the facade's design prompted Congressional emergency aid (too big to fail?) and scaffolding to protect pedestrians. On the upside, DC is treated to an architectural undressing thanks in part to an open, vertical-access scaffolding system. Work is expected to be completed by spring 2014.






Photographs by Rey Lopez. 
 Washington D.C. real estate development news

Low Income Housing in Shaw Hits Snag Over "Air Rights"

The Lincoln-Westmoreland apartment complex expansion long slated for 7^th and R Streets NW, next to the Shaw metro station, is being held up by a land rights issue between Lincoln-Westmoreland Inc. and WMATA.
Construction of the 56-unit complex, owned by the Westmoreland Congregational Church (UCC) and designed by Shalom Baranes architects, necessitates the purchase of "air rights" for a small 400-square-foot sliver of land presently owned by WMATA. Lincoln-Westmoreland Inc. sold this sliver of land to WMATA in the Sixties for what Robert Agus, the owner’s representative and development manager for Lincoln-Westmoreland, describes as a “token fee” (“we basically gave it to them,” he says ruefully) but says WMATA is now holding out for “fair market value.”

In their defense, WMATA Director of Real Estate Steven Goldin said that Lincoln-Westmoreland is getting the same treatment everyone else gets. "We're required to ask for fair market value" Goldin said. "It's FTA (Federal Transit Administration) regulations." WMATA can't sell the parcel outright because it contains an important access hatch to an underground section of the Shaw-Howard metro structure.

Phase one of the construction project – a $9 million renovation of the existing ten-story, 198 unit property – is complete, and Lincoln-Westmoreland is well into the planning process for the new structure, says Agus. Plans for the new complex include 3,100 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, as well as a significant expansion of the small greenspace located on the south end of the property. Developers also hope to build a playground at the north end of the complex, though the prospective site for this is a divided property co-owned by the District, which could cause problems.
As for funding, Lincoln-Westmoreland received NIS grants from the District to cover redevelopment costs, and expects to work with District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency (DCHFA) in early January to work out further financing. The units are expected to be leased at 30% - 60% AMI, the lowest income level designations. A majority of the original 108-unit building is dedicated to Section 8 housing.

The several blocks including and surrounding the project were devastated during the '68 riots and were redeveloped as affordable housing in the early 1970's.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Today in Pictures - Florida Rock

Just below Nationals Stadium, Patriot Transportation Holding Inc. and DC-based Midatlantic Realty Partners LLC, (MRP) began demolishing the concrete plant to make way for RiverFront on the Anacostia, 1.1 million s.f. of residential, office, retail and public access to the riverfront. Construction is expected to begin in 2013.




Washington D.C. real estate development news. Photos courtesy Rey Lopez.

"Ultra-luxury" Georgetown Hotel Secures Financing

The long-simmering Georgetown luxury hotel project has secured financing and is finally moving forward, with an eye towards a December 2012 completion, just in time for the 2013 presidential inauguration.

The Capella Georgetown will be an “ultra luxury” hotel at 1050 31^st Street NW, the former American Trial Lawyers Association building. The five-story building, which overlooks the C&O Canal, will feature just 49 rooms and interiors designed by German firm Peter Silling & Associates. The design also calls for a public restaurant and bar overlooking the canal, but details aren't in place just yet. The project, spearheaded by Capella Hotels and Resorts, ICG Properties, and D.C.-based Castleton Holdings Inc., recently brought in Point Ford Management Ltd., an investment firm based in Indonesia, to complete financing for the project, which is estimated in the $45 million range.

"The [financing] process was challenging because of the market," says Nick Demas, Partner at Castleton Holdings LLC. "But in challenging markets there is also great opportunity. We worked through the market fluctuations and successfully secured all the funds needed to complete the project this past July. Our lender, PNC Bank, has been really supportive of the project and our partnership. And we are very excited about our relationship with our new equity partners, Point Ford Management Limited. They are terrific partners and are committed to our program of assembling an ultra-luxury hotel portfolio. As a developer, you really can’t ask for anything more."

The Capella Georgetown will cater to foreign dignitaries, captains of industry, and other international clientele (discussion at an October meeting of the Georgetown advisory neighborhood commission touched on possible entourage-related traffic jams), and the hotel will be accordingly discreet. While the interior has been gutted, the drab office building will receive only minor cosmetic changes to the exterior – new window frames and a slightly larger canopy - in deference not only to future guests' desire to keep a low profile, but also to neighborhood preferences for aesthetic continuity. By restricting the heavy redesign to the interior of the site, the developers have sidestepped the community backlash that often follows these sorts of projects. Demas says of the locals: "We are thrilled that our plan was so well received by our neighbors, the ANC and the Old Georgetown Board." And ANC2E Commissioner Tom Birch was quoted recently as praising the developers for "turning a sow's ear into a silk purse." The contrast between this hugfest and, say, the ongoing drama of the Friedman/Schrager Adams Morgan hotel could scarcely be greater.

Still, despite Demas' demurrals, this project was never realistically going to have problem attracting financing. Hotels, especially luxury ones, have proven to be safe money through the recession, and the District hotel market has historically been one of the strongest in the nation. Local occupancy rates have held steady in the low seventies, and while average luxury rates softened in the past few years, they’ve recovered to nearly the level of their 2008 peak.

This will be Atlanta-based Capella’s second hotel in the United States (its other property is in New York), and the company plans to expand into several other U.S. cities in the near future.

Washington D.C. real estate development news