Past News Items - JDLand.com / Near Southeast DC

The Capitol Riverfront BID launches another summer series to go with its Tuesday DOT farmers market and Wednesday noontime concerts; now it's "Riverfront Reel" on Wednesday nights, starting June 4. The shindigs start at 6:30 pm on the plaza behind DOT at New Jersey and Tingey with "inflatable baseball themed interactive games, snacks, beverages, music", followed at 7:30 pm by big-screen Wii baseball competitions, and then heading toward home with movies at 8:50 pm on the 32-foot screen. You can see the lineup of baseball-themed films on the promotional flyer, and I've added them to my Upcoming Events calendar.

They open up this week with Field of Dreams, followed on July 11 by what is truly the greatest baseball movie ever, Bull Durham. As for the July 2 showing of Bad News Bears, it darn well better be the untouchable original one with Tatum O'Neal and Walter Matthau, though I fear it'll be the totally weak remake. (Boo.) Five of these movie nights coincide with games at Nationals Park, so you can either stop by for food and the inflatable games (?!) before heading to the ballpark, or plop down for the movie after you leave the game. Or both.

There was a big pile of news this past week from Near Southeast, so I'll boil it down to bullet points and links in case you couldn't keep up:

* Construction is really about to begin on the first townhouses at Capitol Quarter, now that financing has been closed for the public housing units;

* The first phase of the waterfront park at The Yards got the thumbs up from the Zoning Commission, and is expected to be completed by summer 2009;

* Onyx on First will be opening its first five floors of apartments in late July or early August, and initial rents have been announced;

* 100 M will be substantially completed in November, and tenants should start moving into the office building early in 2009. SunTrust Bank is the first retail tenant, and the developer is looking for restaurants for the other spaces;

* The planned office building at 250 M got Zoning Commission approval for a modification to its design; and

* Street vendors will start popping up for ballgames north of M Street on Tuesday (June 3). You can see the map of where they'll be.