BillP says: (11/11/11 9:26 AM)
FYI - Deborah Ratner, head of Forest City Washington, spoke at a real estate event yesterday and said they expect to start excavation at 401 M by the end of the year and that construction will begin on the lumber shed project in the first quarter of 2012.

JD says: (11/11/11 9:32 AM)
Um, yeah, it was from that event that I was mentioning the tweet in paragraph #2. :) Jonathan O'Connell must have heard her wrong.

BillP says: (11/11/11 9:42 AM)
It's also nice to see the HT will be 55k square feet. That is larger than both the Jenkins Row HT (which is 45k) and the location at Constitution Square/NoMa (which is 50k).

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By way of comparison, the SW Safeway is 54,100 sf and the City Vista Safeway is 55,000 sf.

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I'm psyched we're getting a "full size" HT and not a scaled-down version! In fact, ours will usurp the NoMa store as the largest HT in DC and, since it will be slightly larger than the two new Safeways in our area, it may be one of the largest grocery stores in the District.

lester says: (11/14/11 6:56 AM)
The Harris Teeter will definitely be welcomed. I'm shocked that the SW Safeway is 54,100 sf. It seems *very* small inside (realize I'm used to suburban grocery stores), and never seems to have what I want (whereas I typically can find what I want at the Jenkins Row Harris Teeter)...

Not to be negative, but am I the only one who finds the cantilevered aspect of the design (along the side of the two residential buildings) familiar with the dated buildings in SW? It seems out of place, and makes the bottom level of the two residential buildings look like it's going to be for parking (which I realize it isn't...) Sheesh.

R. says: (11/14/11 9:17 AM)
@lester

The building design is ugly now, and will be absolutely hideous in about 15 years. Didn't we learn our lesson with just about every building in SW? Apparently not.

B in DC says: (11/14/11 11:25 AM)
I completely agree. This is one ugly building.

JD-I'm a little confused about when the building with the gym is to be built. Will groundbreaking start on it tomorrow/next week/end of year (whatever time frame that actually ends up happening) along with the apartment building/grocery store? Or is it planned for later? Thanks.

JD says: (11/14/11 11:29 AM)
@B, my understanding is that the entire block will be considered "under construction" whenever it starts. I do think that the Teeter will open first, before everything else is ready to go, but it all will be under construction at the same time. I'll get this confirmed with Forest City, though. (They'll be able to give a more solid timeline on everything once that last building permit comes through.)

JD says: (11/14/11 3:38 PM)
BTW, here's an updated rendering of the building, showing the Teeter signage for the first time: link

jenniferp says: (11/15/11 1:38 PM)
My husband (BillP) was relaying what I had told him. I was at the event that Deborah Ratner presented at and she definitely said start "excavation" of the site, which is not start construction. Whoever gave you the original info got a little ahead of themselves. She also said Lumber Yard would start this quarter and they are not neccessarily tied the traditional markets for debt funding, but have numerous public options, which explains how the Foundry Lofts got started. It's 50% pre-leased, with current leasing for units not available until February. That's great news, and hopefully they'll be able to move forward with the Harris Teeter project this quarter as well. The design is very typical with current trends, a big glass box. I'm a little tired of them myself.

She had a 3-D presentation that showed the Yards at complete build-out. I noticed there were boat slips in front of the current Park, is that the plan? That's the first I've heard of that.

jenniferp says: (11/15/11 1:40 PM)
Sorry - I didn't mean this quarter, but 1Q 2012.

JD says: (11/15/11 1:46 PM)
It was Jonathan O'Connell of the Post that Tweeted "next week," which was why I gave it some credence. If you put that blip aside, nothing Deborah said is anything new in terms of the timeline. Foundry Lofts was at 43% leased when I toured it a few weeks ago, so, presuming they're not just rounding up :-), they're still moving well.

The boat slips/marina have always been part of the Yards Park third phase, you can see them in every Yards Park rendering, and I've mentioned them a fair amount, especially when speaking of how the Yards Park will eventually have its own water taxi pier.