A reminder that the next South Capitol Street Corridor and Baseball Master Plan public meeting will be held May 24, 2005 from 6:00 - 8:30 pm at the King-Greenleaf Recreational Center, 201 N Street SW. The DC Office of Planning has posted the presentation materials and flipchart notes from the April 23 workshop.

As a heads up, I'm not going to follow here on the site every twist and turn of the Nationals baseball stadium funding saga. The bickering over costs and land acquisition and whatnot leaves me totally cold. You can always keep an eye out for stories by David Nakamura at the Post (like today's piece) and Eric Fisher at the WashTimes, but here at JDLand I'll just be concentrating on news of the design and construction. (UPDATE: bumped up.)

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!)

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).

How to finance the new Nationals baseball stadium is the story of the day:

More posts: Nationals Park