I don't quite know what to make of this, but here goes, from NBC4: "The fast-redeveloping Southeast Waterfront next to the Navy Yard and near the new baseball stadium is being turned into new offices, condos and shops. But, the area will now be called 'The Yards,' in honor of its nautical history." Putting aside for the moment why they didn't instead choose a catchy name like "JDLand", I'm trying to divine from this piece actually what area they're talking about. My initial thought is that this is just for the 44-acre Southeast Federal Center land, which is indeed next to the Navy Yard and near the stadium, and is in the hands of a single private developer (Forest City Washington) and also the Feds, which dovetails with the spot being described as a "federal entity" at one point in the article. If I'm guessing correctly, I actually don't mind rechristening the SFC as "The Yards." But if they're trying to rename all of Near Southeast, including the Ballpark District and everything, we might have a problem. Anyone out there (with CB Richard Ellis or with the city) have any light to shed? And, if I pegged it correctly as being the Southeast Federal Center, does this mean that they're about to get moving on their first phase? UPDATE: A little birdie passed along this link to (not quite launched) dcyards.com, confirming that "The Yards" is indeed the Southeast Federal Center. And construction apparently will begin in 2007. Man, I'll tell ya, NBC4 had to work pretty hard to make sure that almost no useful information was in that article, seeing as the who/where/when (Developer? Location? Timeline?) were all AWOL.

From the Post: "The District government's chief financial officer warned yesterday of serious penalties if the city fails to provide parking garages for the new Washington Nationals baseball stadium, encouraging the D.C. Council to reconsider a proposal it voted down last week. In an eight-page letter to council members, Natwar M. Gandhi says the city faces significant financial liabilities if members of the council continue to oppose a plan to build aboveground garages at the ballpark near the Anacostia River in Southeast Washington. The city might have to pay tens of millions of dollars to the Nationals for failing to meet contractual obligations, and the District could suffer shortfalls in potential stadium revenue." Same words as always--spending cap, underground, aboveground, zoning, revenue streams, yadda yadda--just arranged differently. Here's CFO Gandhi's letter, containing much detail, spelling out the options, etc. UPDATE: Here's the Examiner's story.