From
today's Washington Business Journal print edition (subscribers only): "The Department of Agriculture, in search of 330,000 square feet, has been poking around the ballpark district. Michael Stevens, executive director of the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District, says the government has heard proposals from Opus East LLC, planning 411,000 square feet of offices at
1015 Half St. SE, and the mixed-use project planned for First and M streets SE by Potomac-based Willco Cos., which will have
350,000 square feet of offices. The agency is looking to relocate 1,255 employees from seven other locations, at a max rate of $47 per square foot." The Willco space is the current location of Nats parking lot F, on the southwest corner of First and M; and of course Opus isn't *planning* office space at 1015 Half, they're already digging the hole. The blurb also says that the FBI is looking for 180,000 square feet of new space, and that Akridge pitched their as-yet-untapped
three-block space on Second Street SW in Buzzard Point.
Also in the WBJ, a
story on two small investors who spent 18 years amassing a batch of 23 small properties in Southwest, who are finding that the new
ballpark still hasn't brought anyone calling to meet their $12 million asking price for the lots, which are encircled by the Syphax Gardens and James Creek public housing developments. They apparently are hoping that the city would decide to redo the two projects (a la
Capper), but the DC Housing Authority says that they don't currently have the funding, and that the residents would have to be really supportive of any redevelopment plans as well.