Both the office building at 20 M Street and the wraparound construction at Capper Seniors #2 are starting to become much more visible, so I've added new pictures to each of their pages.

Without a shovel in the ground, EYA has raised the prices on the upcoming Capitol Quarter townhome development at Capper/Carrollsburg--their page now says "Townhomes from $500s" (up from $400s). Cha-ching! They still appear to be targeting Fall 2006 for the start of sales.

In what shouldn't be a shock at this point, the superintendent of the DC public schools has recommended that Van Ness Elementary be one of six schools to be closed by August, according to the Post ("D.C. Will Close Six Public Schools"). The 90 students that are currently at Van Ness (in Head Start and special-ed courses) would be moved to Prospect Elementary. The school board will hold public hearings on the plan and take a final vote June 28--you can see the Superintendent's Recommendation Report for more information. But keep in mind, as I mentioned in a previous entry: "However, as school board member Tommy Wells explained, the city won't be selling school properties, and the feeling is very strong that an elementary school must remain in Near Southeast. Given that Van Ness's M Street location could be enticing to developers, it's possible that the city would agree to a swap, to have a new Van Ness built somewhere else in the neighborhood in exchange for a developer getting rights to the 5th and M lot."

Speaking of demolition, work at Capper/Carrollsburg has moved to the block bounded by 3rd, 4th, Virginia, and I. (They've been doing what appears to be a lot of interior demolition for some time now in the next block [south of I Street], where there are four-story buildings to contend with, but haven't started bringing those buildings down yet.) If you're keeping track at home, there are still five Capper blocks not yet completely cleared (the two I just mentioned, the two blocks between 2nd and 3rd and L and I, and the batch of Capper buildings just behind 300 M Street)....

The new office building planned for 250 M Street ("Federal Gateway II") is, from a zoning standpoint, actually part of the Capper / Carrollsburg planned unit development (PUD), and last week an application was filed with the Zoning Commission for approval of the 250 M second-stage PUD. The application describes the project as a 110-ft-high, 9-story building with ground-floor retail and 194 spaces of underground parking. A hearing date has not yet been added to the DCOZ calendar. William C. Smith, the project's developer, is touting delivery of the building in late 2008.

It's a good day for tips from readers! Another correspondent passes along this piece from Shopping Center Business magazine, "Washington DC Focuses on the Waterfront," a roundtable with lots of big names in DC development and government discussing the state of retail in downtown DC. One of the participants was Forest City Washington, which is developing Capper/Carrollsburg and the Southeast Federal Center, plus is one of the four companies working on the Ballpark District. There's no real *news* on the projects, but they indicate that they are getting a tremendous amount of interest from retailers who want to be part of the combined 300,000 sq ft of retail planned for Capper and the SFC. They also say that "bulldozers will be moving by the end of the year at Southeast Federal Center." Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page to see the box highlighting Forest City, with the following sentence that will warm the hearts of Near Southeast residents and neighbors: "Forest City Washington believes a grocery store would be a good addition, and several are interested." Yes! And please hurry!

Getting to be a busy time of photo-taking, so I've added a smattering of photos here and there to my Capper/Carrollsburg, JPI Residentials, Capitol Hill Tower, DOT HQ, New Jersey Avenue, M Street, and new baseball stadium pages. Let the icon be your guide. With demolition continuing at Capper and JPI's 70 I Street, I expect to be updating those pages steadily over the next few weeks. (They appear to be moving more quickly with the Capper demolition at 3rd, 4th, K, and L, and I expect the block to the north, between 3rd, 4th, K, and I, to be next to come down.) And starting soon I'll be updating 20 M Street much more frequently, with the tower's construction finally coming up out of the hole and above ground level. And then there'll be that stadium demolition and construction....

The April issue of The Southwester has an article (on page 5 of the PDF) about Capper Seniors #1, reporting that it is expected to be completed in October 2006, with the beginning of the application process starting no later than July. A quote about who can apply for housing there:

Also at the ANC meeting tonight, there was a discussion about the DC Public Schools' upcoming plan to close/repurpose as much as 3 million square feet of school space over the next two years. Van Ness Elementary at 5th and M is unofficially considered to be very high on the list--although it had 400 students a few years ago, with the closing of Capper/Carrollsburg it now services just 30 Headstart Pre-K students and 48 Special Ed students from around the city. However, as school board member Tommy Wells explained, the city won't be selling school properties, and the feeling is very strong that an elementary school must remain in Near Southeast. Given that Van Ness's M Street location could be enticing to developers, it's possible that the city would agree to a swap, to have a new Van Ness built somewhere else in the neighborhood in exchange for a developer getting rights to the 5th and M lot. A plan to identify 1 million square feet of DCPS space that could be closed/repurposed is due to the school board on May 17, after which there will be a 30-day period of public input meetings (there are also public forums on April 18 and 22). For more information, see the DC Board of Education web site, in particular the rightsizing criteria and calendar.

With some demolition now underway (veeeeery slooooowly), I've freshened up my Capper/Carrollsburg page with some new photos. I've also updated the construction photos for the two Capper Seniors projects, and for good measure tossed in a couple of new shots on the Capitol Hill Tower page, to celebrate the opening of the Courtyard by Marriott, the first Near Southeast project I've tracked from its beginning to end....