4 Blog Posts

From a DC Office of Planning press release: The Anacostia Waterfront Corporation, the DC Office of Planning, and the DC Department of Transportation will be holding a community planning workshop for the South Capitol Street Corridor and the area around the planned baseball stadium on Saturday, April 23, 2005 from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm at Van Ness Elementary School Auditorium, located at 1150 5th Street, SE.  This workshop will build on previous planning efforts to gather additional community input for the South Capitol Street Master Plan with a special emphasis on how the planned new baseball stadium will be integrated into the South Capitol Street Corridor to achieve the best results for the surrounding community and the city as a whole. See the press release for the agenda and more information.

Today's Post Business section leads with "Stadium Land Rush, Developers Deal For Prime Properties Around Ballpark Site," detailing the attempts by big companies to grab land in Near Southeast. Not much in the way of new news (especially for loyal JDLand readers!) except for the tidbit about Monument Realty trying to purchase most of the land on the north side of N Street between Half and North Capitol (across from the stadium site) for an "office, retail, and residential development." It mentions the Florida Rock project as still being a "go", with plans to begin construction near the opening of the stadium in 2008. And of course it mentions DOT, the Southeast Federal Center, and the Donohoe acquisition on New Jersey Avenue. (The story also mentions a purchase by Doug Jemal of land on Buzzard's Point for an Inner Harbor-like development, which I haven't covered because it's in Southwest, and I have to draw the line somewhere!)

Today's Washington Times reports ("Firm Snaps Up Lots in SE") about the purchase of 16 lots along the 1100 block of New Jersey Avenue by the Donohoe Corporation, which confirmed the company has plans to develop the site but isn't prepared to announce any details. This would be the block that includes the New Jersey Avenue exit of the Navy Yard Metro station (across from the gleaming New "Federal Gateway" Building at New Jersey and M). I've heard tell that a hotel will be built there, but I don't know for sure. I don't believe that the properties include the church at New Jersey and L (the addresses are 1115-1131 New Jersey), but we'll have to see. UPDATE: new photos of the block on my New Jersey Avenue page....

As expected, the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission has chosen HOK Sport (along with Devrouax & Purnell Architects/Planners of DC) as the architects for the new Nationals baseball stadium. They promise a design that will "change the paradigm of ballparks" and will be "iconic and truly distinctive to Washington, D.C." There are no designs or drawings as yet. For more details, read articles in the Post ("Architects Promise Visionary Ballpark") and WashTimes ("Ballpark Will be 'Iconic'"). Also, on March 29, the DC CFO released a revised cost analysis for the entire stadium project, pegging it at $581 million (read Post story for more info).