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Near Southeast DC Past News Items: 225 Virginia/Old Post Plant/200 I
See JDLand's 225 Virginia/Old Post Plant/200 I Project Page
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225 Virginia/200 I ('12)
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75 Blog Posts Since 2003
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City's Estimated Cost for 225 Virginia: $400 Million
From the Examiner, a tally of the costs to the city of first renting and now purchasing the old Post Plant at 225 Virginia Ave., which it says will total $400 million from the original leasing of the building in 2006 through the end of the new 20-year lease with StonebridgeCarras: "The D.C. Council recently approved a 20-year, $174.4 million lease with developer StonebridgeCarras LLC, which will overhaul the property to house three government agencies. From the first rent payment in July 2007 to the end of the StonebridgeCarras deal, the District will have spent more than $274 million to lease, buy, renovate and lease the building again. Operating costs for 345,120 rentable square feet will be in the $6 million-a-year range, adding $120 million to the price tag."
There's no word yet on when renovations to the building will begin. If you want more background on the long and winding road of DC's dance with this building, you can read my archived posts.
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More posts: 225 Virginia/Old Post Plant/200 I
 

Mayor Officially Announces Plans for 225 Virginia
This morning the mayor announced the city's plans for the old Washington Star/Post plant at 225 Virginia (I would have gone, but didn't hear about it until after it happened). He confirmed that three city agencies will be moving in--Child and Family Services, Office of the Chief Technology Officer, and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. And, according to the press release, the building will include a ground floor public art gallery showcasing DCAH's "vast art collection."
The city is entering into a deal with Stonebridge Carras to redevelop the building, with an expected (and required?) LEED Silver certification. It's expected it will take two years to renovate the building. Back in September it was reported that it would take $85 million to fund the renovations, on top of the $85 million purchase price; today's press release says that the deal with Stonebridge will save the city "more than $60 million over the life of the new 20-year arrangement."
This would seem to bring to a close almost three years of wrangling over exactly how to use the building, after the Williams administration leased the building with little fanfare in late 2006, only to have the original plans to house MPD functions there fall apart, and attempts to sublease the building for development go nowhere, all while the city continued to pay millions of dollars each year in rent. My 225 Virginia page has the background, if you want to relive it all.
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City Gets Approval to Buy Post Plant for $85 Million
From the Examiner: "The Fenty administration will spend more than $85 million to purchase a vacant warehouse in Southeast that the government has paid more than $15 million to rent while it has stood unused since mid-2007. Authorization to buy 225 Virginia Ave. was included in the fiscal 2010 Budget Support Act, which won the D.C. Council's unanimous approval Tuesday." And, who will be occupying it? "After the buyout, the building is to be turned over to Bethesda-based developer Stonebridge Carras, which will turn it into the headquarters for the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency, the Office of the Chief Technology Officer and the Commission on the Arts and Humanities." This ends the falderal that's existed around the building since the Williams administration sublet the building in December 2006 with the intention to turn it into the headquarters for the police department. You can browse all my posts about the building if you want to stroll down memory lane.
Also yesterday, the council gave approval to the land transfer from the Feds at Anacostia Park that clears the way for work to begin on the 11th Street Bridges reconstruction project.
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More posts: 11th Street Bridges, 225 Virginia/Old Post Plant/200 I
 

Closing the Budget Gap: Ballpark Taxes, 225 Virginia
As the mayor and the city council try to figure out how to close a huge FY09 budget gap and work to revise the FY10 budget to deal with expected shortfalls, a few items:
* The Examiner says: "Mayor Adrian Fenty's revised 2010 budget plan shifts $50 million from the Ballpark Revenue Fund to the general fund over the next four years. There it would be used to help bridge shortfalls totaling more than $1 billion through 2013. The move has incensed medium- and large-business owners, who are charged an annual gross receipts tax to augment the ballpark fund -- a pot specifically created to pay off $535 million in stadium bonds." The Chamber of Commerce is pledging to fight the idea.
* And today, the city council met "privately" (with media in attendance) to discuss what it sees as the best approaches to find the money. Mark Segraves of WTOP and Mike DeBonis of City Paper were in the room Tweeting like mad. Here's what they said about the council's discussions of the mayor's idea to spend $160 million to buy and renovate 225 Virginia, to get out from under the $6 million a year lease payments:
@SegravesWTOP: Talk has turned to 225 Virginia Ave, the old Washington Star building near the SE Freeway.
@mikedebonis: Council mulls purchase of 225 Va. Ave. to save on ridiculous rent. Vince Gray says let's look at the numbers.
MD: Lotsa handwringing over 225 Virginia Ave. SE and the astronomical lease thereto. 'Outrageous!' say several.
MS: City pays 12 mil per year in rent. Wells says mayor wants to. Buy building for 85 mil plus another 85 mil in upgrades. It would house CFSA
MS: DC has been paying rent on VA Ave since 2007. Other agencies slated to move there, OCTO and Arts and Humanities
MD: OCFO will have 225 Va. Ave purchase numbers by tomorrow. Evans calcs that $9M rent savings would float a $100M note.
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More posts: 225 Virginia/Old Post Plant/200 I, Nationals Park
 

City Would Need to Spend An Additional $85M to Renovate 225 Virginia
From the Examiner, in a piece called "Vacant Buildings Costing DC Millions," this tidbit from today's council hearing on the mayor's proposed changes to the city's FY09 and FY10 budgets: "In its amended budget proposal now before the D.C. Council, the administration seeks permission to buy [225 Virginia Ave.] for $85 million, subject to the availability of funding -- a long shot given the city's $150 million 2010 shortfall. Renovating it will cost an additional $85 million, City Administrator Neil Albert told the council Monday." (You can see this part of his testimony at about the 1hr9min mark of this video.)
Quoting again: "The capital improvements, Albert said, 'will increase the value and use of a property that the District actually owns.' The mayor's multi-year search for a firm willing to take over the lease failed. Fenty claims to have twice reached tentative deals with private groups that fell through as the economy collapsed. 'I think it makes sense for us to buy it, but we've wasted roughly $15 million to get to this point,' said at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson. 'The decision to buy should have been made two years ago.'" You can read more about this proposed purchase here, and about today's hearing in this Examiner story. The council will vote on the revised budget on July 31.
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Mayor's Revised Budget Includes $85 Million to Purchase 225 Virginia/Post Plant
From the Examiner, at the very end of an article about the mayor's amended 2010 budget (which "slashes previously approved earmarks, hikes fees, and eliminates numerous capital projects to close a projected $150 million shortfall"): "And the mayor is seeking council permission to spend $85 million on the outright purchase of 225 Virginia Ave. SE, an empty, 421,000-square-foot warehouse that the city has leased for $546,000 a month since mid-2007. The Fenty administration, having ditched earlier plans to use the building, has failed to find anyone willing to take over the lease, which has now cost the city more than $13 million."
If you want to wander through the budget yourself, it's online. In the Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Support Amendment Act in the Nature of a Substitute*, there is on page 44 Subtitle X, "Purchase of 225 Virginia Ave. SE," with this wording, should the council choose to approve it: "[T]he Council approves the exercise by the Mayor of the purchase option contained in the District's sublease dated December 15, 2006 between Washington Telecom Associates, LLC, as sublandlord, and the District of Columbia, as tenant, for the real property located at 225 Virginia Avenue, S.E., known for tax and assessment purposes as Lots 21, 36, 37, and 831 in Square 766 (the "Property"), and the Mayor may enter into a contract to purchase the Property in an amount not to exceed $85 million, exclusive of the costs of settlement, subject to the availability of budgeted and appropriated funds."
Also, in Chapter 2 of the Agency Budget Chapters, on page 442, you'll find this: "Within the past year, the District twice reached tentative agreements with private entities to assign the District's rights and obligations with respect to unoccupied leased property at 225 Virginia Avenue, SE. In large part, due to the dramatic slowdown in real estate markets and, particularly, the scarcity of affordable credit for real estate transactions, the tentative agreements failed to result in the transfer of the District's lease for this building. The District now plans to prepare the building for a public purpose."
Right now I don't know anything more than this--don't know what plans the city has for the buildings, and don't know how excited the council is going to be to spend $85 million on it when cutting jobs and services elsewhere in the city's budget. But maybe there's some sort of accounting sleight of hand that my unbudgetary mind isn't familiar with. (Bonds? PILOT/TIF funds from projects elsewhere in the city? Bake sale?) The current assessed value for the four lots that make up the site is just a smidgen under $84 million.
If you want to stroll through the tales of this building back to the first news of the city's lease, you can read my previous 225 Virginia blog entries, and/or check out my project page with photos and links.
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Hearing Tuesday on Yards Park Maintenance Bill; Various Tidbits from Third Street
* Tuesday morning at 10 am the council's Committee on Finance and Revenue is conducting hearings on a bunch of bills, including B18-0299, the "Waterfront Park at the Yards Act of 2009," which would "authorize the Mayor to enter into an agreement to provide for the operation and maintenance of a public park on the Anacostia River Waterfront; to establish a Waterfront Park Maintenance Fund into which certain designated revenues, including certain sales tax revenue, shall be deposited; and to impose a special assessment on properties specially benefited by the park." I'm kind of bleary today, and so haven't yet the proposed act terribly closely, but I can report that one of the potential revenue streams mentioned in the bill is the "naming rights" for the park. (Alas, I don't think I have enough change under the sofa cushions to bid on this.) The hearing is at 10 am in room 412 (and should be on DC Cable 13 and live webcast, though tomorrow's schedule isn't posted yet).
* The latest on Cornercopia--reader DT (who is *gunning* for my free sandwich offer) reports speaking today with the man who will be running with the deli, who said that they are awaiting permits, and hope to open in July. Maybe even July 1.
* Reader MB reports having smelled natural gas a number of times recently in the intersection of Third and Virginia, right before you head north under the SE Freeway underpass. I just drove through there a little while ago and smelled it quite strongly inside my car, even with the windows rolled up. She says she's called Washington Gas a number of times, and it seems to get fixed temporarily, but then returns. She left a message with the mayor's office today. So, if you hear a big BOOM, you'll know what happened, and the Powers That Be can't say they weren't warned.
* Reader CA reported last week having seen a big gathering of people outside the Post plant at 225 Virginia--I saw them myself at around 1 pm today, and it appeared to maybe be a group of young folk involved in the DC summer jobs program, but I don't know for sure. I can say they didn't look like a swarm of developers desperate to sublease the property.
* Lastly, a nearby resident has heard from DDOT and Tommy Wells's office that, within the next couple weeks, the two lanes of parking on Third Street underneath the freeway will be marked as No Parking during rush hours. This should allow for a de-facto creation of left turn and thru lanes for the northbound lanes at the light on the north side of the freeway, perhaps allowing thru traffic to get through the light more quickly and to shorten the backup southward down Third.
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More posts: 225 Virginia/Old Post Plant/200 I, Capper, cornercopia, The Yards, Yards Park
 

Dreary Thursday Links Roundup
* The news about perhaps paying for the convention center by taking money from various in-the-pipeline projects around the city has generated a lot of comment, not only here but in the form of a letter from Monty Hoffman of PN Hoffman to Chairman Gray in which he said that moving funds away from the planned redevelopment of the Southwest Waterfront "would be a horrific business, legal, and community tragedy for the city." And SWDC Blog is reporting this morning that Kwame Brown says the list in the original WBJ article was of all tax-increment-financing plans approved by the City Council, which might be a wider list than just projects from which funds could be diverted.
* Roll Call has a piece on the "slow-to-develop" Capitol Riverfront neighborhood: "Today, visitors to the stadium emerge from the Metro onto an almost empty street flanked by tall fences. Billions of dollars of real estate is planned for the area, but for now, it only offers a few half-empty buildings and the occasional fast-food restaurant." But there is this as well: "The buildings aren't all empty. BID estimates that about 1,600 people live in the area, leasing about half of the available apartments. Office buildings hold about 35,000 workers; Opus East, for example, has leased 50 percent of the units for its new building at 100 M St. SE." (Full disclosure: I'm quoted a few times.)
* On the flip side, a just-released CBRE report on the impact of the federal stimulus package on the DC and Baltimore region says: "The commercial real estate industry has begun to see an impact from the transportation-related stimulus activities. Government contractors are actively touring office buildings in the Capitol Riverfront submarket of Washington, DC, home to the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Transportation, for new growth related to stimulus-funded contracts. These tours are noteworthy as the submarket has seen limited interest over the first six months of the year as a result of the national and local economic recessions." We're also still waiting to hear which federal agency might be about to lease 100,000-sq-ft of space at 20 M, and whether Booz Allen Hamilton is taking 30,000 sq ft at 55 M or elsewhere in the neighborhood.
* And, if you saw a boat full of partying real estate professionals cruising up the Anacostia on Tuesday, it was the Urban Land Institute Washington's annual boat tour, which took the Odyssey from the Southwest Waterfront up to the Yards and then back toward Rosslyn and Georgetown.
* The news of the day gave the Republicans some trouble in the bullpen at last night's Congressional Baseball Game at Nationals Park. And the GOP's woes in Washington continued, with the Democrats winning the game for the first time in eight years, 15-10.
* I forgot to post this last week: M.L. Clark Real Estate, which negotiated the deal for the city to sublet 225 Virginia Avenue, is going out of business, says WBJ, with its two brokers moving to Cassidy & Pinkard.
* A reminder that this Saturday from 11 am to 3 pm is the Third Annual Ward 6 Family Day.
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More posts: 100 M, 20 M, 225 Virginia/Old Post Plant/200 I, Monument Valley/Half St., Square 743N, square 698, Nationals Park
 

Fox5 on 225 Virginia; Owen and Reese; Live Chat
A few items:
* On Monday night, Fox5 news ran "Waste of Space?", detailing the nearly $550,000 a month the city pays in rent for 225 Virginia Avenue (aka the old Post plant), now totalling nearly $15 million in payments since the city leased the building in late 2006. (The piece also discussed the other buildings that the city leases.) There wasn't really anything new--Phil Mendelson railed against the deal, and Fox5 did note that Mayor Fenty and Phil Mendelson voted to approve the lease when they were council members. The piece ended with the reporter saying that Fenty had said the city is "on the verge of making a change" and that we'd all hear about it soon. Whether this entails the moving of the Child and Family Services Agency into the building (as WBJ reported recently), or whether the city has found a developer to take over the sublease, we'll just have to wait and see.
If you're just tuning in and want the entire sordid tale, spend a few hours reading my 225 Virginia news archive.
* A couple outlets (including the Post and MASN) reported last week that a romantic comedy by James L. Brooks (director of Terms of Endearment and executive producer of The Simpsons) starring Owen Wilson (as a Nats relief pitcher), Reese Witherspoon, and Paul Rudd will start filming in June, and will include scenes at Nationals Park. Now, about the part of the obsessive-compulsive neighborhood blogger....
* On Friday (May 15) at 12:30 pm, I'll be doing a live chat over at Urban Trekker. So come on over and torment me with some questions, though with the school buses now gone from Canal Park, I'm not sure anyone has anything to ask me anymore. :-)
* There's probably only about three people who'd really find this of interest, but if you'd like a low-bandwidth version of the JDLand home page to use on your phone/PDA (compared to the behemoth that is the "real" home page), you can now bookmark m.jdland.com. The interior pages won't be mobile-ized, but at least this way you can get to the blog entries (and comments) without all the other stuff.
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More posts: 225 Virginia/Old Post Plant/200 I, Nationals Park
 

City May Occupy 225 Virginia; Ferry Testing; More
Catching up from a few days of slacking:
* Today's Washington Business Journal (subscribers only) reports that the city is "considering" using 225 Virginia Ave. (the old Post Plant) as the new home for Child and Family Services, now that they've decided not to move the agency to a new development at Benning Station. The city continues to pay $6 million a year in rent on the 420,000-sq-ft building, though tried a request for proposals last year to see about a sublease or sale of the property (but apparently didn't get much interest). I wonder how much the city would have to spend the rejigger the very warehouse-y building into the 180,000 sq ft of office space needed by CFSA.
* From the Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star, a story that Prince William County is spending $225,000 to look at passenger ferry service up the Potomac: "It will conduct test boat runs on May 4, 5 and 6 from stops at Prince William marinas at Quantico, Dumfries and Occoquan to Fort Belvoir, Alexandria and the Washington Navy Yard. The test boat will be a catamaran that seats 149." (I assume they'd want to use the dock under construction at Diamond Teague Park, but there's no specifics.)
* On Wednesday evening, the Post reported (though the article is no longer on the web site) that the city had informed Metro--in the middle of a game!--that it would no longer pay the $27,000-an-hour cost of keeping the subway open if games at Nationals Park ran late because of extra innings or rain delays. By the next morning, the city had changed its mind.
* The Douglass Bridge will be closed Sunday (4/26) from 5am to approximately 10am for the monthly swing span test.
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More posts: 225 Virginia/Old Post Plant/200 I, Metro/WMATA, Douglass Bridge, Nationals Park, Teague Park, Traffic Issues, Water Taxis/Riverboats
 
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