Overview/JD's Photos 225 Virginia News Items
The northern facade of 225 Virginia Avenue, as seen from 3rd Street. This side of the building faces the Southeast Freeway. (01/07)
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The northwest corner of 225 Virginia, somewhat overgrown given that the building had been unoccupied since it was sold by the Washington Post in 1999.(07/05)
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The southeast corner of 225 Virginia, at 3rd and I streets, showing the current surface lot (which is where I guess they would build a new parking garage). This corner faces the Capper/Carrollsburg area. (01/07)
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225 Virginia's southwest corner; the two garage doors left of center are where trains used to enter the building directly to deliver newsprint and other goods. The south side of the building at right faces Canal Park. (02/07)
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Looking through what is currently the overgrown footprint of Canal Park at K Street, you get another view of how 225 Virginia towers over the northern end of the new park. (02/07)
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These are renderings released in 2004 showing possible plans of how to renovate 225 Virginia; the top image is of the south side of the building; the bottom image is of the east side of the building. I'm not sure at this point whether these drawings are still operative.
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A bit of neighborhood and family history: This photo of my brother was taken in Garfield Park (at 1st and F) in 1964, and you can clearly see not only the top of what was then the Star Plant, but the construction of the Southeast Freeway. If we could turn back time.... (1964)
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News Items Posted For This Project (Get All Latest Near Southeast News via RSS, E-Mail)
• No Movement on the Post Plant; Teague Murder Still Unsolved
(1/2/09 9:08 AM) A few items to catch up with from my lazy past few weeks: * The Examiner looks (again) at the city still paying $500,000 a month in rent for 225 Virginia Avenue (aka the old Post Plant) even though there are no plans to use it, which apparently continues to drive Phil Mendelson nuts. The city requested expressions of interest from developers to take over the lease in the fall, but has yet to announce any deal. The Examiner piece frames the continued payments for an empty building against the District's budget shortfalls: "The last thing Fenty should do, Mendelson said, is 'dump the building below cost' just to escape the lease. 'It makes sense to me to use it,' he said." If you want the entire sordid past of the city's relationship with this building, browse through my 225 Virginia news items. * Also from the Examiner, a story last week on how the murder of Diamond Teague remains unsolved: "Diamond Teague was 19 years old and going from the rough streets of D.C. on to college when he was gunned down on his Southeast Washington front stoop, and police are still looking for his killer. Teague had earned a scholarship to the University of the District of Columbia by helping with projects for the Earth Conservation Corps, a nonprofit organization for disadvantaged youth. Teague was the drummer at Galilee Baptist Church and an avid basketball player, and friends and family said he had managed to avoid the street life and violence that had marred his neighborhood." The park named in his honor is expected to open this spring. • Mini-Roundup: Metro Station Entrance Closed, Zoning News, Taxation w/out Representation Street Hearing
(11/16/08 5:42 PM) A bunch of items to start the week with: * Remember that the west entrance to the Navy Yard Metro station at Half and M is closed every evening this week from 8 pm until closing, thanks to work on 55 M Street. * On Monday (Nov. 13), the Zoning Commission gave final approval to moving 225 Virginia Avenue into the Capitol South Receiving Zone, which will allow any construction on the block to have greater height and density than the 6.5 FAR/90-ft-height currently allowed. This was approved with two caveats: that there is Zoning Commission review of the design of the portions of a building proposed to rise higher than 90 feet to confirm that the building will be sufficiently setback from the eastern building face, and that any structure will provide a suitable northern focal point for the Canal Blocks Park. Read my entry from the hearing a few weeks ago for more information. * On Nov. 24 at 2 pm, the city council will be having a hearing about B17-0909, the "Taxation Without Representation Street Renaming Act of 2008," which would "designate the portion of South Capitol Street, SE that intersects with N Street SE and Potomac Avenue SE as 'Taxation Without Representation Street, SE." It just so happens that this is the portion of South Capitol Street that runs alongside Nationals Park, where the council was thwarted in earlier attempts to install an electronic tote board showing the federal taxes that DC residents pay while still having no voting representation in the US Congress. * Tommy Wells is taking nominations for the Second Annual Livable, Walkable Awards. * For weeks I've been meaning to post that Nationals Park made the list of Travel and Leisure Magazine's " Must-See Green American Landmarks," thanks to being the first LEED-certified professional sports facility.
• Semi Off-Topic: 1960s Home Movies of Capitol Hill (and Southwest)
(11/2/08 6:16 PM)  (A little diversion while everyone's waiting for Tuesday.) Those few hardy souls who've scrolled down on my 225 Virginia page may recognize the photo at left, which is a picture of my brother on the swingset in Garfield Park in 1964, with 225 Virginia (then the Washington Star building) at rear, and with the Southeast Freeway under construction. In playing with the family movies this weekend (having gotten them transferred to DV tapes from Super 8 film), I found about a minute of footage from that same day, briefly showing the Star Plant along with the rest of Garfield Park.
This led me to a few other clips I think some DC readers might get a kick out of--they're not of Near Southeast, but various streetscapes and parks pretty close by, on the south side of Capitol Hill. Here's three minutes showing both the 100 block of E Street, SE (where we lived) and Marion Park at Fourth and E in 1966 or 1967. You can clearly make out "Turtle Park" as well as the 1D1 police station at Fifth and E in the background. (It's *possible* that the E Street footage is from the January 1966 blizzard, but the Marion Park footage can't be from that storm, because the little blob in white is me, and I didn't come along until the summer of 1966. And yes, that makes me old.) Also note that at about the one-minute mark you see the original location of Weisfeld's Market at 131 E, before it moved to Fourth and E (and eventually became the Capitol Supreme Market). Then there's my brother and I running around in Folger Park at Second and D on Easter, 1968. I like this footage because in the background is Brent Elementary at Third and North Carolina under construction, and a beautiful old school building on the same lot that's no longer there. Finally, there's this clip from Second Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, in 1964, which back then was not the Madison Annex of the Library of Congress but was a wide-open park. This brief pan shows you the block where FedEx and Le Bon Cafe are now, along with the church at Second and C and the townhouses along there, around to the Cannon House Office Building, the Capitol and the Library of Congress. (Sorry the streaming quality isn't better.) (These aren't *completely* outside of the JDLand mandate. They're befores, after all.) UPDATE: And, amazingly, in my grandmother's home movies (which I've never seen before today), I found footage from 1969 of my parents playing tennis on the courts just south of the freeway on the west side of South Capitol, at I. A pretty neat (if brief) pan of the Southwest skyline (and the freeway, and the South Capitol ramp) from that spot. • Brief Zoning Commission Hearing on Post Plant
(10/28/08 10:58 AM)
 On Monday night the Zoning Commission held a brief hearing on Case 06-32a, the request by the city to move the old Post Plant at 225 Virginia Avenue into the "Capitol South Receiving Zone," which would allow the block to receive transferable development rights, allowing greater height and density than the 6.5 FAR and 90-ft-height currently allowed. When this was originally brought before the commission by developer Washington Telecom Associates for setdown two years ago, the Office of Planning indicated that they wouldn't support the request because of concerns about the added density on that block affecting both Canal Park to the south and Capper/Carrollsburg townhouses to the east ( read the transcript for more details). Since that time, the city subleased the building (paying $500k a month in rent), but has decided not to use it to house police department functions and so is in the process of finding a developer to take over its sublease (which also has an option to buy). In their pre-hearing report and during last night's session, OP said they are now prepared to support the move to the receiving zone, "provided that there is Zoning Commission review of the design of the portions of a building proposed to rise higher than 90' " which would confirm that the building "will be sufficiently setback from the eastern building face to avoid shadowing the lower buildings in Square 797 to the east" and that it "will provide a suitable northern focal point for the Canal Blocks Park." The OP report says that this lot would not be exempt from the city's inclusionary zoning requirements. The three commissioners in attendance (Hood, May, and Turnbull) asked a few cursory questions, and noted that there was no report from ANC 6D nor any witnesses in support or opposition. The ZC will vote on this case at its Nov. 10 public meeting. With the OPM page on the 225 Virginia Request for Expressions of Interest saying that notification was to have happened yesterday, I thought there was a possibility that this hearing would give us some hint as to who might be taking over the city's lease, but the Office of Planning said they didn't know who the developer might be.
• FiOS Agreement, 225 Virginia Choice This Week?, and Recognizing a Nice Shout-Out
(10/13/08 9:52 AM) A few items to quickly get posted before I disappear back down the rabbit hole: * As has already been mentioned in some places, the bill to approve a FiOS franchise agreement with Verizon has been introduced to the city council (the agreement itself was announced in early August). The city's press release says that "Verizon plans to begin designing and upgrading its network in the District to all fiber optics and could begin offering its fiber-optic-based FiOS TV service in the District within about a year"--the question is whether the neighborhood that a few months ago saw a sign proclaiming " 1st Neighborhood in DC to Offer Verizon FiOS" will indeed be one of the first areas to get it. (The 70/100 I apartment buildings have said that they are pre-wired for FiOS.) * Proposals to take over the city's lease at 225 Virginia (the old Post Plant) are due by no later than noon on Wednesday. The OPM page on the offering indicates that the winner will be notified by Oct. 27--it seems like a pretty swift decision timeline, but I'll note that Oct. 27 also happens to be the day of the Zoning Commission hearing on the proposed shift of the 225 lot to the Capitol South (or is it Capitol Gateway) Receiving Zone.
• Deadline for Post Plant Replies Pushed to Oct. 15; Hints on Trash Transfer Station Status
(10/3/08 10:10 AM) A recent wander past the Office of Property Management page on 225 Virginia (aka the old Post Plant) brings the news that the deadline for proposals from entities interested in taking over the city's $500,000-a-month sublease has been pushed back to Oct. 15. The page has also been updated with a few other items of note: * One of the results of the case that's coming before the Zoning Commission on Oct. 27 that seeks to add the plant's block to the Capitol South Receiving Zone would be to allow the property to receive transferred development rights, which allows for increased density (i.e., add some floors on top), though the page notes that "[a]dditional height is expected to be subject to some design review by the Office of Planning." * The building is not a historic building, and the city will not be seeking any historic landmark designation for it. There's also this: "The trash transfer station located at 900 New Jersey Avenue, SE is expected to be relocated by September, 2009." I get asked a lot about What The Deal Is with the trash transfer station, so here's a bit of a roundup: The city is working on moving the current DPW operations out of the building to other locations around the area, with that September 2009 mentioned above now being the official timetable (though perhaps some of the functions will be gone sooner than that). In the meantime, the city is still waiting for the little plot of land on the edge of the transfer station known as Reservation 17A to be transferred to District control from the Feds. (That land will then be transferred from the city to William C. Smith to round out the land that will be home to their 1.1-million-sq-ft 800 New Jersey Avenue project.) This transfer has been hung up for almost two years (it's part of the same transfer that would give Federal land at Poplar Point and in Hill East to the city), but there may be some movement soon. The next step once DPW has left and the land transfer is settled would be for the city to start the infrastructure work, environmental cleanup, and demolition around the trash transfer site (including the new section of I Street to be built between New Jersey and Second), which will be paid for via another PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) plan that requires financing via the bond and credit markets--you know, those same bond and credit markets that are wheezing just a wee bit right now. [All together now:] We shall see....
• City Still Working to Get 225 Virginia Off Its Hands
(9/11/08 10:11 AM) Did anyone see some people traipsing around the old Post Plant this morning? There apparently was a site visit was scheduled at 9:30 am as part of the city's move to unload its sublease of the building. The Office of Property Management now has a page devoted to 225 Virginia, with some additional overview documents and rough sketches of how the building could be re-adapted. It also mentions that the original Sept. 26 deadline for responses to the Request for Expressions of Interest is going to be extended, by not less than a week. UPDATE: The deadline is now set for October 3. For those who haven't been following along, in late 2006 the city signed a sublease for the building with the intent of moving many functions of the police department there. But in the summer of 2007 OPM decided not to go forward with the move, leaving the building empty and the city paying over $500,000 a month in rent. They are looking for some developer to completely assume the sublease, that also contains an option to buy the building outright.
• Merritt Cab Being Demolished Today
(8/21/08 10:17 AM)   With thanks to reader J. for the tip, I can report that the cab garage on the northwest corner of First and K is getting demolished today. This is where the DRI/Transwestern Plaza on K may be getting underway this fall. (I'm posting this from my cell, so links will have to wait 'til later.) UPDATED with a link and a tiny before and after photos above. I've also added it as #153 in the Demolished Buildings gallery. • OPM Releases 225 Virginia RFEI
(8/15/08 5:22 PM) It may have been late late on a Friday afternoon, but the city did what it said it would and released a Request for Expressions of Interest for 225 Virginia Avenue, looking for someone who wants to sublease (with an option to buy) the 421,000-square-foot building that was once the Washington Star printing plant, until it folded in the early 1980s. The Post used it as a printing plant until 1999, when it sold the building to the William C. Smith Company, who sublet it to Washington Telecom Associates, who sublet it to the city in 2006. (Got that?) Quoting from the RFEI: "The District's primary goal, in issuing this RFEI, is to assign its leasehold interest, including the purchase option, in 225 Virginia Avenue, SE. The District's secondary goal is to enable the site to be used and redeveloped at its private sector highest and best use." The city currently leases the building for $6.5 million a year; the option to buy can be exercised for $80 million prior to the third lease year. Proposals are due by noon on September 26, with October 13 listed as the notification date.
• DC Getting Out from Under Post Plant Lease? (Updated)
(8/14/08 12:39 AM) Fox5 News blows the lid off of 225 Virginia Avenue, telling the world what us smart people have known for a while about the old Post plant, saying that "DC taxpayers would be outraged to know a building that the city government spent millions on has been left sitting vacant": "The building was supposed to consolidate five public safety functions into one building to increase efficiency of the police department. A year ago the Fenty administration changed their minds on the plans, so the multimillion dollar building is just sitting there, empty. The city spent an additional 1 million for the plans to renovate and has, to date, paid more than $6.5 million in rent." Monthly rent is $500,000. However, there might be some actual news at the end of the piece: "By the end of the week, the Office of Property Management will request someone else take over the lease and option to purchase the vacant building." The Mayor announced the city's intent to do exactly this back in November 2007 (back when the District was wooing NPR for the building before losing them to NoMa) so perhaps this story suddenly appearing now means they've found someone. We'll see. You can read my 225 Virginia news items if you want more of a history on the plans to move MPD (and then not move MPD) there. (Though I bet Phil Mendelson still hasn't given up hope.) UPDATE, 8/14: It turns out my crack about Phil Mendelson was more on-target than I might have imagined--the Fox 5 story (and this more complete one in today's Examiner) were spurred on by a press release from Mendelson noting the one-year anniversary of the city deciding to not move MPD to 225 Virginia and castigating the city for the money being spent on the building. It's not yet posted on Mendelson's site, but it includes this quote: "At this point, I hope the administration won't be so desperate that they will make a bad situation even worse by trying to unload this property in a sweetheart deal with some developer in return for tax or zoning promises." The Examiner indirectly quotes city spokesman Sean Madigan as saying that the city "plans to seek" developers' interest, so an actual deal is not immediately forthcoming--there's going to be a Request for Expressions of Interest to look for within the next few days, I guess. (This is also a good lesson in how news stories are so often driven by press releases, without any indication of their existence. Boo.) Mendelson's comment about "zoning promises" also reminds me to finally mention that within the past week the request to add 225 Virginia to the Capitol South Receiving Zone has suddenly popped back onto the Zoning Commission's calendar (now scheduled for Oct. 27), after lying dormant since early 2007. • Quick Items on Ballpark, Peeps, and Elephants
(3/21/08 3:41 PM) * A reminder that Saturday at 1 pm will the very first baseball game played at Nationals Park, between George Washington University and St. Joseph's University. MLB.com has more--and I'll have photos from it sometime Saturday or Sunday. * MLB.com also has a Q&A with Stan Kasten about the ballpark and other items. "You want all of it to work right, but you know there is going to be a hiccup here and there. We are going to be looking at everything. We'll be getting right back at it that Monday morning [March 31] to see what worked and what didn't work -- to see what we could improve on. Hopefully, we'll have that whole week to improve things even further." * You can't swing a cat today without hitting news of the Metro Peeps. * Poor Phil Mendelson. He still wants to use 225 Virginia Avenue for some MPD functions, and the mayor and the executive branch appear to be ignoring him.
• NoMa Gets NPR HQ
(3/5/08 1:38 PM) A press release just out from the mayor's office announces that National Public Radio will be building its new headquarters at 1111 North Capitol Street--a disappointment to the buildings in Near Southeast that had been courting the company during its search for 400,000 square feet of available space. (The city may be disappointed as well, given that rumors abounded last fall that they were trying to have NPR take over the lease at the old Post Plant at 225 Virginia Avenue.)
• Quick Links: Cap City Beer at the Ballpark, Pope, NPR
(2/8/08 8:49 AM) * Today's Washington Business Journal print edition ( subscribers only) is reporting that the Nationals are finalizing a deal that would make Capitol City Brewing the "official local beer and the exclusive brew provider at the new stadium's beer garden." WBJ quotes Cap City's president as saying that the company is also negotiating for additional distribution points inside the stadium. * From the Post, word that Benedict XVI will now be hauling out the Popemobile for two trips through the streets of Washington, adding public appearances that weren't originally part of the plan for his April 15-18 visit so that people who won't be able to get into the April 17 mass at the ballpark might still have a chance to see him. The routes haven't been finalized. Also, the Post says that information on tickets for the Mass is expected to be released this month. * National Public Radio, which has been looking at locations in Near Southeast as well as NoMa and Silver Spring to consolidate its offices in 400,000 square feet of space, says it will make its decision by the end of May, according to the Montgomery Gazette, in an article that says Montgomery County has made a formal offer to lure NPR to Silver Spring. It's been rumored that NPR is the " preferred option" for DC officials to take over the city's lease at 225 Virginia Avenue (the old Post Plant). • Monday-Morning Follow-Ups on JPI, Stolen Cars, 225 Virginia
(12/3/07 9:37 AM) A few notes to add to recent items: * I don't get on the Southeast Freeway on a regular basis, so only yesterday did I see the huge Capitol Yards sign hanging on the side of 70 I, facing the freeway. Oops; would have helped me write Saturday's entry on the new project web site a day or two sooner! UPDATE: And, with good timing, here's a new press release touting the "topping out" of 70 and 100 I Street. They are scheduled to open in summer 2008. * Both the PSA 105 and MPD 1D mailing lists (registration required) have been discussing the November spate of car thefts, which included not only Near Southeast but Capitol Hill and other neighborhoods. Apparently the three thefts recently listed for the unit block of L Street (which I didn't blog about because I was a little suspicious that there might be a mistake in the data flow) were three cabs stolen from the same lot. Also, 1D commander David Kemperin says that the Auto Theft Unit was deployed to the area, and that "an arrest was recently made for auto theft and other information obtained from an arrest for unregistered auto that may link some of these thefts." If you're interested in ongoing discussions about crime in the area, a subscription to these lists is probably a good idea. * On Friday I wondered aloud what Phil Mendelson's response would be to Mayor Fenty's press conference on 225 Virginia and the Consolidated Forensics Lab, and, like magic, his complete statement appeared in my inbox. "Learning about today's announcement, I am unsure about what can be considered 'new' news regarding the progress of the Consolidated Forensics Lab and the relocation of various public safety facilities. We learned of the probability of Bowen Elementary School being used to house the First District Police Headquarters at an oversight hearing I held on this issue on September 20th of this year. We also knew then that the administration was looking for suitors for the property at 225 Virginia Avenue, SE; nothing new was announced about this today." Read the rest here. • Notes from the 225 Virginia Press Conference
(11/30/07 10:58 AM) Live on-site blogging via PDA, so it's brief. No actual deal yet for 225--city will be transferring its lease, not subletting. There are negotiations with several interested parties, handout says. More to come. (See the entry below for background on this press conference.) UPDATE: Back at a real computer now. The official wording on 225 Virginia in the press release ( now online): "Today, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty announced that the city plans to transfer its long-term lease of a warehouse at 225 Virginia Ave., SE, to a private entity that will assume the lease's "option to buy," saving the city $19.1 million a year. Although a final deal has not been penned, District officials are in negotiations with several interested parties." The $19 million figure comes from a combination of estimated lease, utilities, and buildout costs that would have been required had the city moved forward with plans to occupy the building. Tommy Wells spoke as well, noting that the original plans for moving many MPD functions to the building "did not make sense," and thanked the mayor's office for working with him and the communities in both Southeast and Southwest on both 225 Virginia and also keeping the First District station in Southwest. He also said that using the Bowen site for 1D makes sense as well, and said there would be a "community process" to make sure neighborhood concerns about the move are addressed. DC activist Dorothy Brizill (of DC Watch) was on hand, and asked a number of questions that weren't specifically addressed about the structure of the plans to get out from under the 225 lease; she also asked about the fate of the other MPD functions (the evidence warehouse, etc.) that were going to relocate to 225 Virginia; the mayor said that some will go to Bowen, and there will be news on the other ones to come. For people interested in the Consolidated Forensics Lab, there were some renderings displayed; the release says that they'll also be available online at www.cfl.opm.dc.gov, but that site doesn't appear to be live yet. More to come as the media coverage starts trickling in. UPDATE II: It's not on their web site yet, but WTOP is apparently reporting that not only is NPR one of the groups negotiating with the city (as previously speculated), but that it's the " preferred option" of several officials within the Fenty Administration. UPDATE, 12/1: Not really much coverage (but you already got most of the scoop here, anyway). The WashTimes got some quotes from Phil Mendelson about the Bowen/CFL moves, which he called "no 'new' news" and labeled himself skeptical that the CFL can be done on the schedule the city is calling for.
• Mayor to Announce Plans for 225 Virginia, MPD 1D
(11/30/07 9:27 AM) Word is filtering to me that the mayor has scheduled a press conference for 11 a.m. to announce that the city is going to sublease 225 Virginia Avenue--the wording sounds like they've got someone lined up, but I don't know who (we do know that NPR apparently has been looking at the building as a possibility for its new headquarters, but I don't know if they're the ones actually getting the building). The city is paying $6 million a year to rent 225 Virginia (aka the old Star Plant, aka the old Post Plant), so this would actually be a sub-sub lease. And the building's ownership structure itself is very complicated, in a way I don't understand enough to adequately or correctly explain. Mayor Fenty will also apparently announce, as I speculated yesterday, that the police department's First District station will indeed be moving to Bowen Elementary after it is closed at the end of the school year, allowing the Consolidated Forensics Lab to be built on the site of the current 1D station at Fourth and School, SW. It was the idea of moving 1D to 225 Virginia, hatched in the waning days of the Williams administration, that got the city into the lease in the first place. The plan then expanded to moving a bunch of other MPD functions there as well, including the executive offices and the evidence lockup, but it was scuttled after much community opposition to the traffic/parking issues, plus feelings that it just wasn't the right use for the building given its somewhat residential location. (You can browse my entries on 225 for more background.) It will be interesting to see Phil Mendelson's reaction to all of this, given that he clearly has continued to hold out hope that 225 Virginia would still be able to be used for some MPD functions. UPDATE: See this entry for the more updated information from the press conference, and for any subsequent media coverage.
• Quick Notes: Bowl Game at the Ballpark?, School Closings, More
(11/29/07 8:58 AM) A few quick items not earth-shattering enough for their own entries: * The Post reports that there is a group trying to launch a "Congressional Bowl" college football bowl game, where one of the teams would be a service academy, and which would be played at either RFK or Nationals Park. The NCAA should give its answer in May of 2008. * In a story mentioning the problems being encountered by cities trying to sell municipal bonds because of the "credit crunch" mentions that DC's "A" rating means it is probably going to have to pay a higher interest rate on a $350 million bond issuance next month that will fund, among other things, the rebuilding of the 11th Street Bridges, though the city locked into a low interest rate on the $355 million bond issued last year for the ballpark. * None of the 24 DC schools proposed for closure in the mayor's plan are in Near Southeast (Van Ness Elementary School closed in 2006), but I'll note that Southwest's Bowen Elementary is on the list, which brings to mind the continued wrangling over the fate of the move of the MPD First District police station off its current location in Southwest to allow for the construction of the new consolidated crime lab. At various times this fall, there has been discussion about 1D moving to a school building in Southwest (after plans to move them to the Post Plant at 225 Virginia Ave. SE fell through) and perhaps Bowen's closure clears the way for this. UPDATE: Oops, I missed that Phil Mendelson is quoted about the Bowen closing in today's Washington Times, wondering whether Bowen was picked to be closed because it needs to be, or because the city wants to put MPD there. (Though I remember hearing talk of either Bowen or Amidon as possible closures long before the MPD question.) * My Ballpark and Beyond column this week talks about the opening of 400 M (Capper Building #2), the rash of stolen cars, and the ballpark liquor license application. * One more addition: The DC Sports and Entertainment Commission is asking the city council for more money, says the Post, because its budget will suffer thanks to the move of the Nats from RFK to South Capitol Street, thanks to the loss of the $2 million a year that the Nats were paying to the DCSEC for renting RFK. The team will pay $5.5 million in rent at the new ballpark, but that money will go toward paying off the construction bonds. • NPR Looking at Near Southeast (and Elsewhere) for New Home
(11/16/07 6:18 PM) Today's print edition of the Washington Business Journal reports that National Public Radio is looking for 400,000 square feet of office space for a new headquarters to replace their current location on Massachusetts Avenue. In addition to sites in NoMa and Silver Spring, the article lists possible Near Southeast locations 1015 Half Street, 1100 South Capitol, and.... 225 Virginia Avenue? The site for which the city signed a long-term lease last year when it planned to move the the Metropolitan Police Department there, before that plan fell apart in late summer? Is this just a mistake by the reporter, or is this a hint at bigger news afoot about the future of the old Post Plant? Maybe those Capitol views are particularly enticing to the media--two months ago the WBJ reported that CNN is also looking at 1015 Half, 1100 South Capitol, and Lerner Enterprises' proposed building at 1000 South Capitol. (The lower prices on commercial real estate in this part of town probably don't hurt, either.) • Plans for the Post Plant to be Determined 'By the End of the Year'
(10/26/07 3:00 PM) I had one ear tuned in this afternoon to Phil Mendelson's hearing on space needs for the police department (a follow-up to the Sept. 20 barnburner between him and Office of Property Management director Lars Etzkorn). This time it was Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Neil Albert in the hot seat, and he stated that plans for using the old Post Plant at 225 Virginia Avenue will be "finalized by the end of the year." He called the original plan to use 225 for the First Distrct police station, the evidence warehouse, and other MPD functions a decision by "a well-intentioned prior administration" that he can't advise the mayor to adopt. Mendelson disagreed strongly, and also said a number of times that if the eventual uses for 225 Virginia don't include any of the public safety agencies, then his committee has no jurisdiction, but that as a council member he will be very critical of any plans for the building that don't include the various urgent space needs of the police department. Albert also talked about the plans for relocating the 1D station--it appears they have a location in mind, but Albert didn't want to discuss it in public. He did say that it is in Southwest, and that it is permanent space, not swing space. He also said that community leaders would be contacted for input before the plan is finalized. Despite skeptical questioning by Mendelson, Albert said that the timeline for a 2011 completion of the new Consolidated Forensics Lab at the current 1D location is still on schedule, and that with the 1D relocation sites being looked at, he's confident that 1D can be moved and built out without jeopardizing the planned start of construction on the lab in early 2009. Mendelson is clearly frustrated with the decision not to use 225 Virginia, and with the run-arounds he feels he has received over the past few months (he had a long list of questions from the Sept. 20 hearing that he never received answers to), so it will be interesting to watch this continue to unfold.
• Crime Lab Not Ever Planned for 225 Virginia Ave.; Another Council Hearing (Update)
(10/25/07 8:56 AM) I wouldn't have linked to this Examiner article on funding for the proposed Consolidated Forensics Lab normally (since it isn't really a Near Southeast story), but there's a couple of errors in it that need fixing. Here are the two sentences containing boo-boos: "Mayor Adrian Fenty's administration two months ago scrapped plans to build a long-awaited crime lab at the First District police headquarters in Southeast Washington, stalling construction indefinitely" and "In September, Fenty's administration decided not to locate the crime lab in leased space at 225 Virginia Ave. SE, a location that he had chosen five months earlier." The writer appears to have mixed up the scuttled plans for 1D with the plans for the crime lab; contrary to these statements, there have never been plans to build the lab at 225 Virginia; the plans that were scrapped were the move of the 1D headquarters to 225 from its current home in Southwest, to free the location for the crime lab to be built there. I don't believe (unless things have changed since the ANC6D meeting two weeks ago) that plans to build the lab at the 1D site have been scrapped at all; they just can't build the lab there until they find a new home for 1D. UPDATE: I'm just now seeing that tomorrow (Friday, Oct. 26) there's a public hearing by Phil Mendelson's Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary, "Follow Up on Capital Projects and Space Needs for Public Safety Agencies," which presumably is going to be talking about the combined lab's construction. The last hearing, on Sept. 20, was a pretty tense affair between Mendelson and Lars Etzkorn, director of the Office of Property Management. (I mention tomorrow's hearing because I know Mendelson does still seem to be holding out hope that some MPD functions could still move to 225 Virginia.)
• More ANC 6D Doings
(10/16/07 8:43 AM) In other news from Monday's ANC meeting: * Council Member Phil Mendelson spoke about his concerns that the new consolidated crime lab construction schedule is continuing to slip. The new lab, which is supposed to be built at Fourth and School streets, SW, can't get underway until a new home (temporary or permanent) is found for the police department's First District station currently located there. Up until recently, of course, 1D was supposed to move to the old Post plant at 225 Virginia Avenue, but with that now scuttled, the Office of Property Management is hunting for a new 1D home somewhere in Southwest, perhaps using either the Amidon or Bowen elementary school buildings, both of which are at only 60 percent capacity and could be consolidated by moving the sixth graders to Jefferson Junior High School. Mendelson, "irritated" at how the city is handling the space shuffling, wants the process of finding a new 1D home speeded up, even if it means taking 1D out of Southwest, which of course was viewed as a nonstarter by this ANC that represents Southwest; Commissioner Sobelsohn commended Mendelson on his "bravery" for coming to Southwest and telling the residents they shouldn't have a police station. (It also sounds like Mendelson is still hoping for a return to using 225 Virginia, given his numerous references to the $500,000 checks the city is writing each month to lease the empty building.) * The Randall School redevelopment project by Monument Realty and the Corcoran Gallery was approved, thanks mainly to a negotiated community benefits package that includes a $200,000 contribution by Monument to the ANC's Community Investment Fund, preferences for ANC 6D residents when filling the affordable housing component of the project, and agreements with the Corcoran to support various neighborhood art projects and arts education offerings for Southwest residents. The vote was 5-0; vice chair Andy Litsky did not vote, after expressing his displeasure with what he sees as Monument's threat to slow down the Navy Yard Metro station expansion when the company did not win the right to buy WMATA's Southeastern Bus Garage. Monument executive vice president Russell Hines, who attended the meeting, reiterated the points he made last week in an e-mail to Litsky, that the station expansion is not behind schedule as has been reported and that Monument is committed to getting the work completed by Opening Day 2008. * A local resident informed the commission that three historic police and fire call boxes along First Street have recently gone missing. Those with x-ray vision can see them in my photos (up until yesterday) of First and N and First and O, deep in the heart of ballpark construction territory and along the stretch of First Street being renovated by DDOT; the now-missing First and L box is pretty hard to see behind the Onyx fencing. There's an effort called Art on Call, led by Cultural Tourism DC, to find and restore these boxes, and kids from the Earth Conservation Corps have been painting the boxes in Near Southeast and Southwest. Calls are in to the District Department of Transportation to see if the boxes have perhaps just been temporarily moved, or if they're, um, history. (The box at First and K is still in place, at least.) • A Blogger is a Person In Your Neighborhood....
(9/27/07 9:32 AM) Capitol Hill's Voice of the Hill newspaper has a co-profile of two local bloggers in its new issue--Elise Bernard of Frozen Tropics (covering H Street NE) and yours truly. Descriptions of me and JDLand include "fastidiously issue-neutral" and "almost aggressive in its lack of color"--but those are actually compliments. And there's a photo that perfectly captures my perpetually bemused state, but that might just be because I was suffering through the replay of the 225 Virginia hearing when the photographer arrived (those with x-ray vision can see Phil Mendelson on one of my computer screens). It's kind of a sequel to the piece they did in 2005.
• More on End of MPD Move to 225 Virginia
(9/26/07 10:22 AM) I was out of town during last Thursday's oversight hearing on space needs for public service agencies, and since The Post published a piece the next day on the big news--the confirmation that the police department's move to 225 Virginia Avenue is indeed off--I've been dragging my feet on posting my notes from the hearing, which I watched on a replay Monday night. Here's what Office of Property Management director Lars Etzkorn said in his opening remarks about 225 Virginia: "While initial plans focused on co-locating several police functions in this leased building, a review of estimates revealed that total improvement costs exceeded the $100 million provided for in the lease. Hard costs alone were estimated to exceed $150 million. In addition, there were issues with compatibility in implementing the full program in the neighborhood. These include MPD's 24-7 operations and parking demands for 658 vehicles. Currently, we are examining potential alternative uses for the space, including the possibility of using it as office space for government agencies." During questioning by Tommy Wells, Etzkorn said that he anticipates being able to come to council members by the end of October with recommendations on uses for 225; Wells remarked that the city needs to make sure that "we don't stack a bunch of uses" in the building without thinking of their impacts on the surrounding area. There was a lot of back-and-forth between Etzkorn and Phil Mendelson about whether the police move to 225 is in fact called off--I don't think it's too much of an editorial statement to comment that Etzkorn clearly embraces bureaucracy-speak and well-parsed statements, which frustrated Mendelson to no end during the hearing. When Mendelson asked if everything that was planned to go to 225 is now not going there, Etzkorn's response was "the recommendation is that they not go there." Mendelson pressed repeatedly on 225 remaining an option for various police agencies, given that there are currently no other viable alternatives on new locations coming from OPM (though lots of possible locations are being reviewed). And there were disagreements between Etzkorn and Mendelson about whether the 225 landlord has indeed been told to stop work on the buildout plans, which Mendelson said he'd been told had not been stopped but which Etzkorn said were in fact stopped but that the landlord had been asked to do some pricing of potential other uses for the space. One other tidbit mentioned in the hearing I had never come across before--there were apparently plans late in the Williams administration to move the headquarters of the Office of Corrections to leased space at Maritime Plaza at 12th and M, SE, but those were called off earlier this year. And, as I'm finishing up, I see that Voice of the Hill has posted its piece on the hearing (on their newly redesigned web site!), which also covers the issues surrounding the possible move of the MPD 1D headquarters in Southwest, since the hearing did cover more than just the issues surrounding 225 Virginia. If you're interested in not only the content of the hearing but also in watching the thrust-and-parry between Mendelson and Etzkorn, keep an eye out for any replays of the telecast (look for a Sept. 20 oversight hearing replay).
• MPD Move to 225 Virginia Officially Off
(9/21/07 11:54 AM) (Sorry for the earlier problems with this entry; I've been snakebitten these past two days, buit I should be back now.) From today's Post: "The District has formally abandoned its plan to move police headquarters to an industrial building in Southeast Washington that it began leasing in July but plans to use the building for other government offices, officials said yesterday. The statements, made at a D.C. Council committee hearing, were the latest twist in the on-again, off-again project to move the headquarters from the main municipal building downtown to a vacant warehouse at 225 Virginia Ave. SE." I haven't had a chance to watch any replays of this council hearing, but I hope to catch one if available and get more detail as to what was said. One item from the article that might need clarification: it says that "the police headquarters move has been discarded because it would cost more than $100,000 to renovate the building" -- that is indeed the case, but a number closer to $100 million was what had been being bandied about for the cost to renovate the building. One more quote: "Carrie Brooks, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said that Etzkorn asked the landlord to stop the design work for the police headquarters but that the building might be used as offices for other government agencies." If you want background on this on-again off-again move, read the Past News tab on my 225 Virginia page.
• This Week's Ballpark and Beyond Column
(9/13/07 9:17 AM) My Ballpark and Beyond column in today's District Extra covers the new historic streetscape photos in DDOT's nascent online archive (the print version of the column displays the 1957 South Capitol Street photo with a current one taken from the same location, as I've done on my South Capitol Street page) and the various upcoming council meetings covering Near Southeast-related issues such as Canal Park and the MPD move/not-move to 225 Virginia Avenue.
• Oversight Hearing on Canal Park, and Other Council Events
(9/7/07 9:27 AM) With the August recess over, the city council is swinging back into action, and there's a number of Near Southeast-related hearings scheduled over the next few weeks. The most interesting one is a Committee on Economic Development public oversight hearing on "Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Transition of Projects on the Southwest Waterfront, Hill East, Poplar Point, Canal Park, and Kingman Island", scheduled for Oct. 1 at noon. The progress of Canal Park (or lack thereof) continues to be of great interest to Near Southeast residents, and perhaps by the time of this hearing there will be some movement on getting the school buses relocated. There's rumors afoot that the buses could be moved to a temporary lot once a long-term home is secured--and apparently there may soon be a contract before the city council approving a new permanent lot in Prince George's County. Other council hearings over the next few weeks that touch on Near Southeast issues include a Sept. 26 Committee on Finance and Revenue public hearing on B17-0292, " Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg Public Improvements Revenue Bonds Approval Amendment Act of 2007" and a Sept. 24 Commitee on Economic Development public hearing on B17-0340, " National Capital Revitalization Corporation and Anacostia Waterfront Corporation Clarification Act of 2007". There's also a Sept. 20 Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary public oversight roundtable on "Capital Projects and Space Needs for Public Safety Agencies," which I'm guessing may touch on the plans for a new home for the Metropolitan Police Department and whether the move to the old Post Plant at 225 Virginia Ave. is indeed called off--you may recall that one day after the Office of Property Management said that the move was canceled, the Post reported that that the mayor was saying he had made no decision one way or the other. See my Upcoming Events Calendar for times and locations. Some of these may be available on DC Cable 13 and live webcast. (Also, as an aside, the ANC 6D agenda for Monday night's meeting is now online.)
• Roll Call on the MPD Move
(8/13/07 10:35 PM) Those of you who have a subscription to Roll Call might be interested in "Speaking Up Pays Off on Capitol Hill," which discusses how public input from Capitol Hill residents can alter the city's development plans, with much of the piece centering around how citizen feedback seems to have helped scuttle the planned move of the police department to 225 Virginia Ave. The July 18 public meeting--which I summarized here--did get many issues about the move raised to the Office of Property Management, even though director Lars Etzkorn probably needed a few stiff drinks when he got home that night after the pummeling the plan took. But is the move truly off? There's been no news one way or the other since the Post wrote the not-so-fast piece (which no other news outlets have followed up on), so at this point we're probably going to have to wait until the DC government starts back up again, after Labor Day. (h/t to reader B for the link)
• Fenty Backpedaling on Canceling the MPD Move
(8/9/07 11:56 PM) If Wednesday's news that the city had decided against the planned move of many functions of the Metropolitan Police Department to the old Post Plant Department at 225 Virginia Ave. was a shocker, then tonight's headline is doubly so: "Police Move is Not Off After All," says Friday's Post. "Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's office said yesterday that the city has not abandoned plans to move police headquarters into an industrial building the city is leasing in Southeast Washington -- contradicting statements made by the District's top property official. [...] [A Fenty spokeswoman] said that the mayor had made no decision and that statements to the contrary were premature and made without his knowledge or approval." City council member Phil Mendelson, quoted yesterday as saying that calling off the move was a bad idea, is quoted as saying that he thinks that OPM director Lars Etzkorn would not have made Wednesday's announcement without getting approval from the mayor's office, and that he believes "maybe the administration is changing their mind, and that's good." The article does quote the mayor's spokeswoman as saying that the deal to lease the building still "could make sense for the city but not necessarily the police department. We're figuring out what our best option is." In other words, this news doesn't appear to mean that the MPD move is back on. But we'll wait and see what the principals say next. And then wait a few days to see what they then say after that. And then perhaps wait a few more days to see if it changes again.
• MPD Not Moving to 225 Virginia Ave
(8/8/07 4:01 PM) A press release from the DC Office of Property Management (h/t to reader C and the City Paper): "Lars Etzkorn, Director of the DC Office of Property Management (OPM), today announced that OPM has canceled the move of major elements of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to the former Washington Star/Post printing facility at 225 Virginia Avenue, SE. 'We have found this deal to be too expensive for the District,' Etzkorn said. 'Fortunately we realized before it was too late that forcing three dissimilar police functions in this building (a local police station and its cell-block, a warehouse for secure evidence storage along with regular office space) is not cost-effective. In addition, we have found the facility to be inconsistent with the adjacent neighborhood. OPM is now studying the future of the building.' When the lease was signed in December 2006, the following MPD elements were planned to move to 225 Virginia Avenue, SE: evidence storage, violent crimes, narcotics and special investigation, special operations, the superintendent of detectives, MPD Headquarters and the First District Station now in Southwest." (emphases mine) Wow. More to come, I'm sure. UPDATE: Here's the Post's piece on the decision (there will probably be a more complete one later today/in tomorrow's paper). UPDATE II: The Washington Business Journal ads a bit of info. (Though it's also a good exercise in journalism literacy for lay folks of how news items get written off of a press release in such a way that it appears the writer interviewed someone when they actually didn't.) Meanwhile, the Voice of the Hill does it right (and adds still more detail). And, for the heck of it, here's my summary of the July community meeting that let OPM and MPD know in no uncertain terms how strongly residents were against the plan. UPDATE III: The Post's expanded piece for Thursday's paper is now up, noting that the city is on the hook for $542,000 a month in rent for 225 Virginia, but that while there's a cost for holding the building and not moving the police into it, "That cost is not going to drive bad decision-making. It is more important to protect long-term interests of the District of Columbia," according to Lars Etzkorn. And apparently council member Phil Mendelson (who chairs the Public Safety Committee) was not consulted on this decision. The priority now is to find a new home for the 1D station, so that the new Consolidated Crime Lab can be built at 4th and School SW as planned.
• August Hill Rag Articles
(7/31/07 10:59 AM) Within the past few weeks I've posted a lot about the MPD move to 225 Virginia Ave. and the falderal over the surface parking lots zoning amendment including Canal Park, but if you can't get enough, the August issue of the Hill Rag has pieces on both items. And a summary of the July ANC 6D meeting, too.
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