JD says: (2/4/15 3:11 PM)
OT: I'm working on a real post on this (you know, doing some *reporting*, which can take a bit of time), but so that @202_cyclist doesn't have an attack I will note that 909 Half Street got its shoring permit today.

JES says: (2/4/15 4:23 PM)
909? Are they still building this? link

JD says: (2/4/15 4:26 PM)
I assume so.

JD says: (2/4/15 4:28 PM)
The shoring permit is "EXCAVATION SHEETING AND SHORING AS PER PLAT AND PLANS FOR A NEW MIXED-USE BUILDING CONSISTING OF 13 STORIES AND 3 BELOW GRADE LEVELS OF PARKING." They remain decidedly tight-lipped, though.

JES says: (2/4/15 4:30 PM)
Grrr. I like pretty renderings.

JD says: (2/4/15 4:32 PM)
I'm pretty sure this is the first time in my 12 years of this that a project has gotten to an approved excavation permit without my seeing a single drawing.

JD says: (2/4/15 4:44 PM)
... And, for those not following the mini-discussion on Twitter, apparently the Ballpark Square site (1st Street just south of M) has been locked up, with parking booths removed. The south end of this lot has its excavation permit--the north end is the 99 M office building site, with no approved permits. But perhaps that footprint is going to be staging for the Ballpark Square (residential/hotel) work.

Also keep an eye for any sudden movement at 50 M.

I am going to drop from exhaustion trying to keep track of all of these once they get going--that's four probably starting Any Minute Now, if you count BP Square, 50 M, 909 Half (all with excavation permits approved), and then the likely 82 I start.

JES says: (2/4/15 4:59 PM)
But have Homewood Suites and BP Square been removed from the Nats parking inventory yet? THAT is the question!

JD says: (2/4/15 5:01 PM)
Neither of them were Nats lots last year. 99 M was, though.

JES says: (2/4/15 5:18 PM)
Ahh. Did not know that.

JD says: (2/4/15 5:23 PM)
They were still cash lots, but weren't Official Nats lots. I think the 50 M site went out of the Nats inventory at least two seasons ago, if not three. I wrote last year about the southern half of Lot F not being part of the inventory, and how they were planning that the lot would be unavailable not long after the start of the season because of the start of construction. (Tee hee.)

But this now makes two official Nats lots out of the official inventory from last year--the stub Lot F and the 1015 Half garage Lot P, along with two cash lots (50 M and BP Square). Forest City will bring 220ish spaces back when the lot gets built on the southwest corner of the Spooky lot, but otherwise, we may be starting to see a bit of lot scarcity. And it's generally only office buildings that offer public parking in their underground lots, so it may be a while before there's new offerings underground.

JD says: (2/4/15 5:25 PM)
(.... though maybe BP Square will have some public parking available in its garage thanks to the hotel and all of that retail.)

JES says: (2/4/15 8:07 PM)
We all knew the surface lots had a limited shelf life anyway. The fewer suburbanites blowing stop signs and almost running into me in crosswalks, the better.

Alan says: (2/5/15 10:26 AM)
The 50 M lot reverted to a Nats lot overnight midway through the season last year--no idea why. I want to say it was marked for Lot H permit holders, but can't remember. Never really filled up though during any games except playoffs.

JD says: (2/5/15 10:29 AM)
It was Lot J, I think. Lot H is the garage at 20 M, so maybe it was overflow.