The agenda for the City Council's June 6 session has been updated, and the votes are now officially scheduled for the two resolutions having to do with the Pilot Funding for infrastructure at the Southeast Federal Center (PR16-0795 and PR16-0796). And I see now that the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation voted on a resolution about this funding at its May board meeting--my eyes glazed over when I tried to digest the draft resolution, but I did pick out that as part of this resolution there is supposed to be delivery by Forest City Washington of a design for the planned 5.5-acre Waterfront Park by Jan. 1, 2007, with completion of the park required by January 1, 2010. (The park is a big part of this Pilot funding initiative.) If you're interested in this, I suggest you read all these documents more closely than I have, I'm just skimming.

This week's Washington Business Journal has an article on a proposal for a $230 million bond package to help prod along development at the Southeast Federal Center. The mayor and the two developers of the 55-acre site--Forest City Washington and JBG (which is building the new US Department of Transportation HQ on 11 acres of the SEFC)--are proposing two "payment in lieu of taxes" (aka Pilot) financing plans "for the roads, parks, and sewers." Because the Southeast Federal Center is currently federal property, the developers are not paying property taxes to the city--so the city would sell the $230 million in bonds and then "use a portion of the future payments in lieu of property taxes to cover the debt service for up to 15 years." The Pilot programs would then generate about $88 million, which would be used to cover the costs of roads and sidewalks and the 5.5-acre waterfront park that Forest City envisions. Forest City is saying that this infrastructure deal must be in place by June 15 to honor their agreement with GSA, and that city subsidies are "absolutely necessary" to ensure that the SFC is developed as a mixed-use project, according to the Office of Planning. The Pilot packages also include about $75 million for the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation's infrastructure projects--the AWC says specific projects "are not really well defined at this point" (but gee, aren't folks looking for a couple million to pay for those underground stadium parking garages? Just a thought.) WBJ says that the DC Council is expected to vote on the legislation (PR 16-796) on June 6 (although this is not yet on the Council calendar). (UPDATED to add link to article, now online.)

Short notice, but on May 25, the DC Historic Preservation Review Board will be doing a "Section 106 Review/Master Plan Review" of the Southeast Federal Center/Washington Navy Yard Annex, as part of the HPRB's May meeting. The meeting notice lists this as "General Services Administration and Forest City Washington, Programmatic Agreement, Master Plan, and Historic Preservation Design Guidelines." I can't tell you much more--after perusing the "Citizen's Guide to Section 106 Review"; I imagine this review is to make some determination about the five old buildings remaining on the SFC site, and how they will be handled during the redevelopment of the Federal Center (which should be getting underway later this year, according to various published accounts).

UPDATE: Whole Foods is *not* coming to the Blue Castle--I've confirmed this with Preferred Real Estate Investments, Inc., the owner of the Blue Castle.

More posts: Blue Castle, 8th Street, Navy Yard, Retail, The Yards