WASHINGTON, DC | Development News - Page 2

202_Cyclist · #1 Posted **Aug 23, 2010, 3:15 PM**

This will be a great project to bring new housing to the area surrounding Catholic University and the Brookland metro station. This is one of the more affordable neighborhoods within the District and only a few stops away from Union Station on the Red Line.

Abdo Gets Equity Injection, Catholic Plans to Demo University Buildings

Image courtesy of DC Mud

http://dcmud.blogspot.com/2010/08/ab...-plans-to.html

202_Cyclist · #2 Posted **Aug 31, 2010, 3:05 PM**

Here's a link to some photos of the soon-to-open park courtesy of the local blog, JD Land. The Yards Park is directly behind the US Department of Transportation headquarters and very close to the Nationals stadium and only a few hundred yards away from the Navy Yard metro station on the Green Line. Although there are occasionally articles in the local papers about the slow pace of redevelopment in this area of Washington, there has been remarkable growth in the past 3-4 years, considering the recession.

The park will open the weekend of Sept. 10-12.

http://jdland.com/dc/quickgallery.cfm?quickdate=100827

Busy Bee · #3 Posted **Aug 31, 2010, 4:33 PM**

Wow wow wow! Absolutely stunning! I (try to) follow DCMud and BeyondDC but had no knowledge of this park project! Beautiful! Modern, bold yet still natural... Absolutely gorgeous!

Cirrus · #4 Posted **Sep 21, 2010, 10:01 PM**

FYI http://dcmud.blogspot.com/ is the best website to follow for DC real estate development news.

Busy Bee · #5 Posted **Nov 25, 2010, 12:13 AM**

Looks great. I hope the materials and details are top notch.

MDallstar · #6 Posted **Nov 25, 2010, 6:45 PM**

The Constitution Square development is currently under construction in the booming NOMA District of Downtown D.C.

MDallstar · #7 Posted **Nov 25, 2010, 6:48 PM**

The new 1175 room Marriot Convention Center Hotel broke ground this month

MDallstar · #8 Posted **Nov 25, 2010, 7:02 PM**

Yards district which is just one of three sections of the 500 acre SW Waterfront Development under construction

202_Cyclist · #9 Posted **Jan 13, 2011, 4:03 AM**

I attended a discussion about American University's 2010 campus plan last night. American University wants to convert most of the current surface parking lot on New Mexico and Nebraska Ave to student residence halls, leaving only a small amount of surface parking. American also wants to add more student housing on its east campus, directly across Nebraska Avenue from the Department of Homeland Security. Perhaps most interesting, the university proposes relocating the law school (Washington College of Law) from the current quasi-suburban setting in the Spring Valley section of DC (along Massachusetts Ave) to Tenley Circle, along Wisconsin Avenue. In addition to this, American wants to increase enrollment of its law school to 2,000 full and part-time students.

Neighbors were concerned about the usual issues of noise, parking, traffic, etc....

Here is a very informative presentation with renderings of some of the new buildings.

http://www.american.edu/finance/fas/...esentation.pdf

202_Cyclist · #10 Posted **Jan 29, 2011, 3:41 PM**

This will be a good project for the area near the National Cathedral on Wisconsin Avenue. New housing, a new supermarket, and additional retail will replace a dated 1950s era store and large surface parking lot in what is otherwise a very walkable neighborhood. This development and the relocation of the American University law school to Tenley Circle will make Wisconsin Avenue more lively and attractive.

City prepares for Giant construction

By Teke Wiggin
Current Newspapers
1/26/2011

As Cleveland Park residents continue to voice concerns over transportation issues raised by the impending Giant redevelopment, the D.C. Department of
Transportation is making efforts to address their worries, especially those pertaining to truck activity and parking shortages.

“This development [team] knows that many eyes are watching them, so I’d expect them to take extra care,” Transportation Department associate director Karina Ricks said of the “Cathedral Commons” project. The development will create a new, larger Giant supermarket, 72,850 square feet of additional retail, 138 apartments and eight town houses near McLean Gardens.

Residents, concerned that noisy vehicles going to and from the construction site will invade their neighborhood, took up a large portion of a recent meeting’s question-and-answer session asking about the rules governing truck routes and how they are enforced...."

http://www.currentnewspapers.com/adm...N%2026%201.pdf

202_Cyclist · #11 Posted **Feb 4, 2011, 3:36 PM**

Developers add housing, possibly a hotel, to Hine Junior High development

By Jonathan O'Connell
Washington Post
Wednesday, February 2, 2011; 10:31 PM

"Two nonprofit groups, the Shakespeare Theatre Co. and International Relief and Development, have canceled plans to open offices in a planned redevelopment of the former Hine Junior High School on Capitol Hill.

Developers EastBanc and Stanton are reducing the size of the project at Pennsylvania Avenue and Seventh Street SE by 85,000 square feet, said Joseph Sternlieb, vice president of acquisitions for District-based EastBanc. The modified plans call for a 557,000-square-foot project that will add housing units, and possibly a boutique hotel with 120 to 140 rooms, at Seventh and C streets.

The District closed Hine and 22 other school buildings after the 2007-08 school year.

The withdrawal of the Shakespeare Theatre and International Relief and Development, an anti-poverty group that had planned to move its headquarters from Arlington County, leaves the developers with no office tenants for the property. The Tiger Woods Foundation had opted against opening space on the site after the golf icon's personal scandal in 2009..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...020207034.html

202_Cyclist · #12 Posted **Feb 4, 2011, 5:30 PM**

Thirteen parking spaces for nine units is pretty excessive.

EastBanc switches offices to residential

Developer EastBanc has changed course again on a planned addition to the Georgetown PostOffice at 1215 31st St.

Following a directive from the city’s Office of Planning, EastBanc is planning a residential project behind the post office, abandoning previous plans for an office building.

The project will be a three-story, nine-unit building with 13 parking spots, architect Guy Martin said at Monday night’s Georgetown advisory neighborhood commission meeting.

The addition will join to the rear of the original 1850s post office, once a customs house and office of the last mayor of Georgetown..."

http://www.currentnewspapers.com/adm...EB%202%201.pdf

202_Cyclist · #13 Posted **Feb 15, 2011, 4:52 AM**

This is ridiculous. This location is within a 10-12 minute walk of three metro stations. The District simply does not have the funds to give a $800,000 subsidy to build and additional level of parking that will only encourage more driving and undermine transit ridership. I'd say no thanks to the Whole Foods. There is a beautiful new Safeway one stop away on the Green line.

Developer: Whole Foods deal near Nationals Park would require $8 million in tax breaks

"Whole Foods Market and a D.C. real estate firm are interested in building a new store in Southeast Washington near Nationals Park, but the developer says that luring the grocer would require $8 million in tax breaks.

William C. Smith and Co. is proposing a 39,000-square-foot Whole Foods for 800 New Jersey Ave. SE as part of a building that would include 375 apartments.

The arrival of the popular grocer on the site, which is currently a parking lot, would possibly inject new life into a neighborhood where dozens of development plans have stalled after the recent economic collapse. The developer, however, is asking that the city provide an $8 million property-tax abatement over 10 years in order to make the project financially viable, a difficult request because the city filled a $188 million budget gap for this fiscal year and might face a shortfall of more than $440 million next year..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...021405717.html

202_Cyclist · #14 Posted **Feb 15, 2011, 5:00 AM**

Yet another subsidy for driving while our metro system is crumbling. I think the entire Capitol Bikeshare network cost less than $4M to build. We should absolutely not give $800,000 per year to finance more off-street parking.

202_Cyclist · #15 Posted **Mar 10, 2011, 7:54 PM**

AU set on dorms despite ANC’s vote

By BRADY HOLT
Northwest Current
3/10/2011

“While neighbors have formally requested that American University not build student housing on the site of its Nebraska Avenue parking lot, university officials say they remain committed to building dorms on the East Campus.

The Spring Valley/Wesley Heights advisory neighborhood commission voted last Wednesday to send the university a nine-page letter outlining dozens of requested changes to a draft version of the American University campus plan — with the housing stipulation among them.

Neighbors are concerned about noise and the aesthetic effects of putting hundreds of students on a plot that backs to the Westover Place town houses. Many residents have said they would have no complaint if the parking lot were redeveloped into administrative space, if the new buildings were shorter and if there were more green space.”

http://www.currentnewspapers.com/adm...CH%209%201.pdf

202_Cyclist · #16 Posted **Mar 10, 2011, 7:55 PM**

Appeals court hears debate over Giant redevelopment
Zoning: Neighborhood groups challenge procedures

By ELIZABETH WIENER
Northwest Current
3/10/2011

The decade-long battle over the Giant supermarket site on Wisconsin Avenue is now playing out at the D.C. Court of Appeals, which heard arguments Tuesday that the city Zoning Commission erred when it approved an ambitious retail and residential development for two blocks in 2009.

A three-judge panel handling case was clearly interested not only in arcane zoning questions but also in the impact — on both the city and immediate neighborhood — of a new 56,000-square-foot supermarket and other shops, set to go south of Newark Street, and a five-story residential and retail building planned for the low-scale block to the north.

Controversy over the project that has divided the community for years may not be resolved until the court rules. “We all want a new supermarket,” said Dan Hecker, who lives across the street from the project site. “But nobody in the community is cheering for a five-story building to the north.”

http://www.currentnewspapers.com/adm...CH%209%201.pdf