So keep checking on this post to see what tidbits will come, but I already know of one, which is the news that the new Circulator route that will run down M Street from Southeast to Southwest will start June 24. Here's what I wrote about it last year.

(Note that I'm giving Tishman a few more weeks before I craft my own rendering. And thanks to the 71 Potomac folks for the pretty wood fences with holes in them that are perfect for snooping bloggers to look through!)

Next, let's talk about the "hybrid" hole in the ground at 1250 Half Street, aka the old Monument Valley site just across N Street from Nats Park. This is where two cranes mark the slow beginnings of vertical construction at the bottom of the hole, while six-plus floors of construction are already complete at the north end of the project, since that part of the hole was dug and the foundation was completed back in 2007 when Monument thought it would be building out the entire block instead of just the 55 M office building. This is where a two-phase project with up to 440 units of residential and more than 60,000 square feet of retail will be built:

(I need this project to hurry up and get to ground level because it's impossible to get a shot of the bottom of the hole without going up to a nearby roof.)

Now we'll move to the corner of South Capitol and M, where the National Association of Broadcasters HQ is graduating from hole-in-the-ground to skeleton, while its sibling, the condo building Avidian, is still not quite yet visible above the fence line. I forgot to walk down to get a photo through the fence of the Avidian footprint, so instead I'll just include this very bad shot I took a few weeks ago of the first hints of construction on the new Douglass Bridge, because it needs to be documented.

Three more projects are on their way upwards, including the Garrett at 2nd and I and the co-projects Parcel L residential/Thompson Hotel hole at 3rd and Tingey in the Yards shown here. (I forgot to get a shot of the Parc Riverside II hole. Probably looks like a hole with concrete and rebar, like the others):

So, in case you're not counting, that's nine projects either still below ground or just at ground level (or 10 if you include the permanently below-ground Virginia Avenue Tunnel, or 11 if you include the currently below-water Douglass Bridge work).

Then you can add those to the eight other projects that are above-ground, topped out, or nearing completion, and you can understand why it's okay to feel like the neighborhood is still a perpetual construction site, and will be for a while yet. Here's shots of seven of them, in order of progress: the 99 M office building, the DC Water headquarters, the Bower condos and sibling Parcel O rental building, and additional residential projects 2 I Street, Square 769N, and West Half (alas, I haven't made it over recently to check out the status of the Emblem condo project at 8th and Virginia, so I'm one short):

No wonder I'm so tired.

* MOVIE THEATER MOVING FORWARD: WBJ reports that "D.C. Water, developer Forest City Washington and the District government have settled all outstanding business tied not only to the parcel needed for the long-planned 16-screen, 1,500-seat movie theater, but other sites surrounding it that are similarly planned as part of The Yards."

Forest City should receive the movie theater land in late spring, apparently, with the other residential-planned parcels to come probably over the next five years.

* LERNER BUYS 49 L: The General Services Administration announced this morning that the sale closed on Feb.22 for the one-story brick warehouse on the southeast corner of Half and L, SE.

Property records show that "Half Street Partners, LLC" paid $31 million for the site. And that LLC happens to have a mailing address of 2000 Tower Oaks Blvd., Eighth Floor, which happens to be the address of Lerner Enterprises.

No word yet on the plans for the site, which is (sort of) across the street from Lerner's 20 M office building, and also creates a sort-of Lerner-owned triangle with...

* 1000 SOUTH CAPITOL MOVING FORWARD: Lerner officially announced this week its plans to build the 250-unit 13-story residential building at South Capitol and K that has been working its way through the design and zoning process for the past few years. Designed by Shalom Baranes Associates, it will also have 10,000 square feet of retail along with the lineup of amenities befitting a new "luxury" building--fitness center with Pelotons, private dining room with demonstration kitchen, rooftop pool and entertainment center, and pet spa and bicycle repair offerings for residents. It is expected to get underway late in 2018.

UPDATE: And now we have one more piece of neighborhood news from WBJ today, which is that it has finally been officially announced that the new hotel at 3rd and Tingey in the Yards will be a Thompson boutique hotel.

(Though it must be noted that the WBJ story doesn't seem to quite realize that the hotel is already under construction, in a joint digging-and-building project with Forest City's next residential building, on Parcel L.)

The hotel will have 225 rooms, and the residential building will have about 270 units, and combined the two will have about 24,000 square feet of retail.

It will be 10 stories tall, with 227 rooms and about 7,500 square feet of ground-floor retail, plus additional space for a rooftop bar. No operator for the hotel has been publicly announced, but apparently those talks are far along.

The hotel is expected to be completed more or less at the same time as its sibling to the south, the 280ish-unit residential building that first hit the boards a year ago. That building will have about 17,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. The residential building is being developed by Forest City, but the hotel is actually being developed by JW Capital Partners and Geolo Capital.

As part of the construction of these two buildings, a new pedestrian "mews" along what would be the footprint of 2nd Street SE will be constructed, making for an easier and less traffic-y flow between the Yards Park and points north and west.

There will also be a new Tingey Square built at the intersection of N, Tingey, and New Jersey, which should change the traffic flow at that spot considerably.

There's been no official announced timeline on these projects, but the closure on June 1 of the public parking lot on Parcel L might lead one to believe that there is some expectation of work at least on the southern end of the block looming before too long, but I know nothing for sure. UPDATE: I see now that an excavation-only permit was approved for this site recently (looks like they need to run water, sewer, gas, and telecommunications infrastructure to the block), and there is a shorting/sheeting permit application filed for the residential building, which jibes with the estimated 2018 start date that was given last year.

See my Parcel L page (such as it is) for additional details (such as they are).

Here's a roundup, mostly from the running linkage I've been posting in the comments. And the photo at right has nothing to do with any of the tidbits--it's just from 11 years ago today. A little different.

* STYMIED: The developers of the proposed large residential project at 1333 M are asking for a two-year extension on their zoning PUD, citing beiing "stymied" in finding financing. (Capitol Hill Corner)

* UNVEILED: Forest City has shown ANC 6D the first renderings of its planned hotel at 3rd and Tingey, SE, on the north end of "Parcel L," where they are already planning a large residential building as well. (Urban Turf)

* TUNNELED: In Virginia Avenue Tunnel news, next week or thereabouts, watch for daily closings of 4th St. SE between I and Virginia, as well as the return of two (shifted) lanes on the 6th Street exit ramp. Also, the portion of 5th (or is the 6th) Street immediately south of Virginia is now closed for seven weeks or so. And the next "Coffee with Chuck" update is at 8 am on Feb. 22 at 861 New Jersey Ave., SE.

* FLICKED: Vote on the lineup for this summer's Thursday Outdoor Movie Series.

* PROMOTED: The 2017 Nats gameday promotions and giveaways lineup is now available.

* SALTED: Ryan Zimmerman is an investor/part-owner of The Salt Line, opening this year across the street from his place of employment. (City Paper)

* STUFFED: Five Guys is back.

Given this weekend's forecast, I may try to get out to take some photos, if the stars align.

Last week the Zoning Commission received the filings for the project, so now there are some additional details about not only Parcel L's residential building, but a few other items percolating nearby.

First, the basics on Parcel L, some of which may or may not be new (what, you think I'm actually going to go back and read what I wrote?):

The plans are for a 110-foot-high building with somewhere between 270 and 285 units, 54ish of which will be set aside for households making up to 50 percent of the Area Median Income.

There will be a little more than 17,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, on the building's southern and eastern sides, facing 3rd Street and the Yards Park.

Two levels of below-grade parking will provide 270 vehicle parking spaces for both the residential building and a planned future hotel on the north end of the block. There will also be 109 long-term bicycling parking spaces in the garage.

Originally the plan was to open to vehicles 2nd Street south of Tingey down to an extension of Water Street, but that has been replaced with the idea of a 2nd Street "mews," helping to create a much more pedestrian friendly approach to the Yards Park from points north and west.

In the rendering below, you can see the apartment building's position on the block with the planned hotel site to its north. What you also see, in the foreground, is Tingey Square, the planned reconfiguration of the intersection of New Jersey, N, and Tingey. The site plan at right shows the Parcel L layout, the 2nd Street position, and Tingey Square. You can also see how then the residential entrance is keyed to the road on the southern side of Tingey Square while the hotel sits on the square's eastern edge.

In honor of all of this additional info, I have now created a Parcel L page, my 10th Yards-related project page. I also added to the main Yards page a spiffy updated Yards development map that was included in the Parcel L zoning filing, with all the parcel markings and whatnot.

Forest City representatives told me in June that the company is looking to get started on the Parcel L apartment building in 2018.

On Monday night, there was an initial presentation to ANC 6D about the project, and some renderings were shown to the assembled masses, shots of which have arrived in JDLand's inbox.

I think there is still some tweaking going on--6D was not asked to approve these specifically and there is as yet no zoning filing--but the general idea of a terraced building that would be a large focal point from the Yards Park just to the south probably won't change.

The top image, obviously, is that Yards Park view. These others are the view looking west on Water Street and then looking southeastward from Tingey Street.

Note that this building would not front Tingey Street--there are eventual plans for a hotel to be built along Tingey to the north of the residential project.

Forest City told me last week that a 2019 completion date is the target for this Parcel L project.

As for what used to stand on this site, the old Southeast Federal Center Building 159 was in residence until about 2000, long enough for me to remember it but not long enough to have photographed it with the JDLand camera. (Waaaaaaah!) However, a few years back I did uncover this photo, taken in about 1992, as part of the Library of Congress's Carol M. Highsmith archive. Building 159 is the white building directly between the DC Water Main Pumping Station and what's now the Foundry Lofts building. (You can also see two low red brick buildings fronting M Street next to Spooky Building 213 that I also didn't get to photograph, along with a little red brick annex on the north side of the still-empty Building 170 at 3rd and Tingey.) If you want to see more photos of the neighborhood taken from above in the early 1990s, check them out.

It would have 270 rental units and two levels of underground parking, and currently has a targeted completion date of 2019 (which just isn't as far away as it used to be).

No renderings are available for public (or blogger) consumption, but my understanding is that it has a "terraced" design, and will be a U-shaped building with a courtyard that opens southward toward the Yards Park and the river. There will be retail along 3rd Street, but I don't know the exact amount.

Also, it should be noted that for the very north end of this parcel, along Tingey, there are also plans to have a "boutique" hotel, but there's no time frame for that.

Forest City is on the agenda for next Monday's ANC 6D meeting to give an initial presentation on the residential plans, in advance of heading off to Zoning Land later in the year.

This is not the only Yards residential project in the near-term pipeline, as the condo and apartment projects two blocks east on "Parcel O" at 4th Street are expected to begin construction in coming months. These projects would join the lineup of already completed Yards residential buildings Foundry Lofts, Twelve12, and Arris. It's also expected that there will be additional residential buildings along 1st Street SE near the planned movie theater.