Nothing in this WashTimes piece will be news for people who wander by here on a regular basis, but "Economy halts developers' ballpark plans" is a good survey that's probably still worth a read in case you've missed something. The crux is that the current economy has put an end to building on spec--"'Until you're getting your office building 70 percent leased up, you're not moving forward,' said Michael Stevens, executive director of the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District." And with things as they are, companies aren't moving to new office space, either. There's also this: "Monument Vice President Russell Hines said the financing difficulty is not because of pre-leasing requirements but rather demands for larger amounts of collateral on loans. Lenders once were willing to finance 75 percent of a project with only the project itself as collateral. Now, however, companies ask developers to put up additional assets to back the loan, even for just 50 percent financing."

Since people are talking about this in the comments on my post about the Connect Barracks Row meeting Wednesday night, it's timely to point to this Infosnack post that breaks news about the parking lot on Eighth Street under the Southeast Freeway. Apparently at last week's ANC 6B meeting DDOT informed the ANC that the Marines are going to be vacating the lot, and that DDOT is proposing "market-based pricing" of the lot, using either stick meters or multi-space meters. Read the post for more details.