A press release just in over the transom is announcing that Forest City has hired CB Richard Ellis to handle the leasing of what's being called 401 M Street, the office building to be built on the southeast corner of 4th and M just east of the US Department of Transporation HQ. This is "Parcel D" on my Yards First Phase page, and is the building that will have a grocery store on the first floor in addition to the 300,000 sq ft of office space. Construction is scheduled to start next year, with delivery in spring 2010. (There's also an ad announcing this in today's print edition of the Washington Business Journal.)

With many thanks to Forest City Washington, I've posted a bunch of renderings of the four projects that are on the boards at The Yards in its first phase of development. These came from the submission on the first phase that FC made in advance of its July 12 presentation in front of the National Capital Planning Commission, and while they have some nice drawings of the plans that I've written about in the past for renovating three of the historic buildings at the old Southeast Federal Center, the big news is the first hints of what's planned for "Parcel D", currently a parking lot on the east side of 4th Street south of M: it's to be a residential building the south end of the site and an office building on the north end that would have a grocery store on the ground floor at 4th and M. The drawings also show the additional floors to be added to the brown-and-white Building 160 and imposing red-brick Building 202, both of which have interior atrium/courtyards I never knew about. And there's a few cool renderings of the plans for transforming the very industrial Building 167 that sits right behind the new DOT HQ into retail space. (Plans for the five-acre waterfront park and other areas in the Yards were not part of this submission.)

More posts: Boilermaker Shops/Yards, Foundry Lofts/Yards, Retail, The Yards, Twelve12/Teeter/Yards, Yards Park