From the
Washington Business Journal: "Mayor Tony Williams has asked the D.C. Council for permission to sell city land at the new baseball stadium site to a developer who would build more than 900 parking spaces -- both above ground and below ground, a possible solution to a controversy that has dogged the project in recent weeks. [...] The mayor wants approval to authorize the city to sell "certain real property" at the stadium site to WDC Baseball Partners, an entity headed by Herb Miller's Western Development. The resolution does not say exactly how much land would be involved in the deal or what Western would pay. But the agreement would require Western to build at least 925 parking spaces and possibly housing and retail, which would have to be delivered by March 1, 2008." The response from LernerLand? "Stan Kasten, the Nationals' president in waiting, says his staff is evaluating the proposal and reiterated that his principle concern is that stadium is 'on time, on budget and first class.' "
A few days ago the Post mentioned how Forest City Washington and Western Development Corporation have supposedly pledged $70 million to the city in return for development rights on the stadium property, so this is clearly an outgrowth of that. I can only imagine the bazillion things that could prevent this from working, but perhaps this does show some movement.
UPDATE: Neither the Saturday WashTimes or WashPost has a story on the plan to sell the land to Western Development - but the WashTimes does have a
piece on the Nats sale that includes some information on the garages: "The D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission [...] is prepared to direct the construction team, led by Clark Construction, to build parking above ground. But the commission received some assurances from Clark this week that at least part of the parking could be built underground and completed by March 2008, the project's deadline. The Anacostia Waterfront Corp. [...] presented a plan to pay for the construction that would involve payments from developers in exchange for the rights to build on certain parcels of ballpark land. But those plans have yet to be finalized, to the frustration of the Lerner family and members of the sports commission. Talks are ongoing, and a plan could be presented to the D.C. Zoning Commission during a hearing on the entire ballpark plan June 26." Then there's this sentence, which I've not seen elsewhere and, if true, shows why they're really working so hard to find a compromise: "Any above ground parking structures would require special approval from the zoning commission."
WBJ Looks at Ballpark District
Jun 16, 2006 8:30 PM
This week's Washington Business Journal has a cover story ("
Seeing the Future") about the coming
Ballpark District, and the challenge of creating from a blank slate something new and vibrant that works but isn't "Disneyfied." There's a lot of comment from architects and planners about which design cues the area should take (
Navy Yard and
Southeast Federal Center, not the stadium itself). A little bit of news:
Monument Realty is planning its first two buildings in the Ballpark District, on the east side of Half Street between M and N, a residential project designed by
Shalom Baranes (one of the firms working on the SEFC) and an office building designed by
Davis Carter Scott. (
UPDATED to add the link now that the story's posted.)
Picture Day
Jun 16, 2006 3:17 PM
A beautiful afternoon for a photo excursion, and you can see a smattering of new shots on my pages for
20 M Street, the
Ballpark District (with shots of the new bright-yellow Monument Realty signs),
Capper/Carrollsburg (where in one month they've managed to demolish just two of the two-story buildings at 3rd and Virginia),
Capper Seniors #2 (which is showing good progress) and of course the
baseball stadium. The
icon is your guide for the latest offerings.
