As I wrote a month ago
in an entry that was visible for about five minutes thanks to all of the ballpark news, the
first new-construction buildings at
The Yards are now winding their way through the zoning process. It's two buildings that look like one--a 320,000-square-foot 10-story office building at
401 M Street and an 11-story 180ish-unit apartment building to its south at
400 Tingey Street. They would both have ground-floor retail, but it's what's planned for 401 M that will probably have everyone's attention, because
a grocery store is proposed for that space, just inside the historic wall and sentry tower on the southeast corner of Fourth and M. The office building would be LEED certified, and the 20 percent of the residential building would be affordable housing units (up to 50 percent of the area median income).
The Zoning Commission
Southeast Federal Center Overlay Review of the plans and three associated variance requests is now
rescheduled for April 24. ANC 6D will be bringing it up again at its April 14 meeting, after electing not to vote on the project at its March 10 meeting because of the lack of a community benefits package--see the
summary of the meeting in the April Hill Rag (I was out of town, and so don't have any additional details).
As for start dates, documents earlier in the year had the office portion getting started in 2008 for a 2010 delivery, and the residential portion starting "based on market conditions." However, a reader is reporting that a sign now up at Fourth and M says "Coming 2011." I'll see if I can get any further details. (UPDATE: Yup, 2011 is now the current "estimate" for the project. So, don't stop shopping at the Capitol Hill Safeway just yet.)
In the meantime, work on renovating the
Boilermaker Shop at Third and Tingey into a 46,000-sq-ft retail pavilion should be starting Any Minute Now, as should the rehab of the
Pattern Joiner Shop across the street into a 170-unit apartment building. Both are expected to be finished in 2009. (Did you see the light displays being projected onto the Pattern Joiner building during the ballgames?) The
Factory 202 residential rehab of the old Gun Mount Shop at Fifth and M, which is a joint project between Forest City and
PN Hoffman, also now has a "Coming 2011" sign.