DC Metrocentric

This week the Arlington Retail Task Force will be meeting with the County Board to make recommendation based on a two year study of the county. Apparently one major element of the recommendation centers around loosening the current requirements around zoning and site plans for street retail.

If adopted by the board, the change would have a major effect on an area that owes a lot of its success and responsible development to these very rules.  We understand that retail doesn’t work in all areas but the rule has allowed developers to be creative in their use of the first floor, and things like art galleries and public spaces have been successful too.

Clearly there is a happy medium between the right amount of retail and being flexible with the specifics of the location, but we will have to wait and see where the County Board falls on that divide. We will keep you posted!

[Photo: Smart Growth]

Now that the new owners of the project at 10th and G street NW are back to work, we’ve seen a lot of progress lately including the installation of the main site crane and now the concrete is officially flowing as they work on the foundation. What we are really interested to see though, is once the construction starts going vertical so we can judge how this monstrosity is going to actually look compared to the renderings!

[Photo: DCMetrocentric]

It has been a while since we heard any updates on the Dakota Crossing project planned for the Fort Lincoln neighborhood in NE. The main issue delaying the project has always been getting retailers to commit to the project so the developers can secure additional financing, and even the involvement of Costco is still only a non-binding letter of intent. However recently, we have started to see some significant progress!

The latest site plan was approved for the site earlier this Summer and once the wetland remediation plan is approved by the District (as you can see on the left the entire site is wetland right now), we have heard from multiple sources that the developer wants to break ground this time next year on the retail. Big news on a project that has been in the works in some form or another for 20 years!

[Photo: Pictometry]

Big news today about the large mixed-use development planned for the Catholic University property across from the Brookland Metro Station. The first venture of the newly-formed Bozzuto Group/Pritzker Realty Group is going to be the Jim Abdo lead Catholic University project. As part of the deal, Bozzuto Construction will serve as builder and Bozzuto Development will serve as co-developer.

The Districts Zoning Commission gave the go ahead last November and with this update, the development is scheduled to break ground by the end of next year.

[Rendering: Abdo Development]

The site of the long abandoned “Club at Quincy” in Arlington officially has a new owner and a big set of new plans. The original 120 unit condo project (site pictured below) was scrapped after the developer WCI filed for bankruptcy, but now the prime property in Ballston has new life.

The best part of the news is that locally based Crimson Development plans to keep the community amenities from the original design, including a public theater space… though we will have to wait a while as the plan is to not break ground till Spring 2012.

When the Department of Transportation relocated to their cool looking new digs down by Nats Stadium, the owner of their old building at 400 Seventh St. SW undertook a missive renovation, but until now didn’t have any tenants to actually fill the new space back up. Well the developers and real estate agents can breath a sigh of relief, because the SEC has signed on for almost all of the over 1 million sq-ft of space.

The upgraded building included a full interior build out as well as a new glass curtain exterior and security upgrades.

If you remember, the building also got a nice makeover of its interior courtyard, which we spent some time drooling over last year.

It sure didn’t take long for the folks at Skanska to get things started back up on the 1015 Half St development in Southeast. The project was sold at auction at the beginning of the year after the original developer Opus East went bankrupt.

As you can see, construction is well underway and they expect to finish up by year end. The Sweedish based Skanska has been scooping up unfinished projects all over town lately, we wonder if they are on to something?

[Photo: DCMetrocentric]

The new building going up in Ballston next to the iconic Peck site is finally getting the Cooper Carey designed curved glass facade we have heard so much about. Since this is the first (and less impressive) of the two buildings going up on the site, we’re interested to hear how you think it stacks up to the design?

As we mentioned way back in 2008, the first building at 900 N Gleb will be used by the Virginia Teach foundation for offices and a research center.

Though we’re more excited to see how the amazing second building ends up looking!

One step in the right direction for the massive East Campus development this week as the University of Maryland announced an additional partnership with the Cordish Company for close to $1 Billion mixed-use development. Plans eventually will include 425,000 sq-ft of retail, offices, a 1,500 unit apartment building, as well as a hotel.

Last year we reported that the project would be broken down into smaller pieces to allow for development to start earlier and the addition of Cordish will hopefully facilitate some more action.

The relatively new glassified building at 1225 Connecticut which we have been critical about in the past, has just this week been put on the market by owner Brookfield Properties. We have always had issues with how these buildings with floor to ceiling windows end up looking once occupied, but this one should fetch a nice price given the location.

The buildings main tenant is the World Bank and we estimate it goes for over $200 million. What do you think? [Photo: DCMetrocentric]

The beautiful abandoned nuevo-Spanish style building at 1626 North Capitol St NW was once the DC Engine Company #12 Firehouse but has unfortunately been empty and boarded up since the 1980s. The building has had its fair share of failed plans over the years and so with that in mind we were excited to hear that the project was back before the ANC board this week.

The plan is for a three level restaurant with late night dinning. Now the idea should sound like a familiar one, since this was the exact same plan back in 2007 before the financing fell through and the building was put back on the market. Hopefully with the right community support and solid financing the amazing building will get the love and attention it so rightly deserves!

[Photo: Parkview DC]

We just got word that one of the biggest potential new tenants of the CityCenter project on the site of the old convention center has decided to back out of the development. Mega law firm Skadden is staying put in their offices near the White House on New York Ave. Over the last two years, developers Archstone and Hines have been trying to sign major tenants to help kick start the construction phase of the the six building 2.5 million square feet of development to mostly no avail… so this comes as a big blow.

Considering the location out of all the places to start building on spec, this may be one of the best bets in town, but we understand how the developers want to secure their tenants before breaking ground.

Guess we have a few more years of a giant parking lot, instead of a vibrant “city center” like the rendering above. At least the trapeze school will be around for a little longer! [Renderings: Shalom Barnes]

What’s going to happen when the close to 13,000 workers occupying over 3 million sq-ft of office leave Crystal City next year as part of the Army Base Realignment and Closure program? The Washington Examiner files an interesting report on how Arlington officials plan to deal with the exodus and use the change as a catalyst to transform the area into more of a community.

The massive transformation includes doing something about the highway that bisects the area (see rendering above) as well as changing the mix of buildings to a more residential composition to keep people on the streets even in the evenings.

Areas with a high density of offices always suffer the weeknight exodus (see downtown’s Golden Triangle as a prime example), and bringing in a more healthy mix of retail and residential is certainly the first step in the right direction, though we think they may want to focus on refilling the current inventory of emptying offices, because a lot of business already in Crystal City depend on those office works, and a worse case scenario would be to lose them in the transition.

What do you think?

We just got word that a little slice of Pennsylvania Ave is up on the block, for sale for a cool $152 million. The Leo A Daly design glass tower at the corner of Pennsylvania and 19th Street, has 186,000 sq ft of prime class A office space.

The development of the property was finished in 2002, but the building was actually one of those refurbishments of an older shell (ie just add lots of glass). We shall see how much it actually goes for.

That’s right, we got confirmation that the planned massive Utopia development at 14th and U is finally going to happen. This year the project will finish up with financing, permits and site prep… with Winter 2011 as the plan for officially breaking ground.

In an area that has already added a considerable amount of density over the past few years this project will include over 200 apartments and  20,000 sq-ft of retail which we are happy to report will include the preservation of some of the facades currently on the street (as you can see in the above rendering).

[Rendering: Eric Colbert Associates]