Progress at District Condos

The demolition at the soon-to-be District Condos site is nearing completion, which means that the actual construction phase should be commencing shortly.

In other words, enjoy the views of Swann and S streets while you can...

Meeting on 11th Street Reconstruction Project

Those of you who live along or have occasion to traverse 11th Street know that the ongoing reconstruction of it has left things all kinds of ^$%@ed up.

If you are interested in learning about the current status of the project, including its anticipated completion date, DDOT is holding a public meeting on Tuesday, July 21 from 6p - 8p at Asbury United Methodist Church, located at 926 11th Street NW.

In a rather foreboding note, the flyer that was distributed encourages residents to attend to "learn what construction activities are planned for the coming weeks and months." The word "months" is suspicious because, as you may recall, the project was supposed to have been completed in July. As in, now.

We hate to bring this up, but we totally called this one.

11th Street Reconstruction Set to Start

Any day now, the construction vehicles are going to set up shop and the long-awaited reconstruction of 11th Street between L and O streets is set to begin. A website, www.11streconstruct.com, has been set up to alert the public to construction milestones and progress on the project, which will feature a complete reconstruction of the street, landscaping improvements, and the installation of a traffic signal at 11th and O streets.

You can read all of the details about the project at the website, but we thought it would also be helpful to highlight the project phases, so that those of you who either live along and/or frequent 11th St. know what's in store. The project will be broken up into four phases, as follows:

Phase 1 of the construction is between L St. and N St. on the northbound side of the street. Phase 2 is construction between N. St. and O St. on the same side. Phase 3 is construction between L St. and N. St. on the southbound side of the street, and phase 4 is construction between N. St. and O St. on the southbound side.

At the public meeting, there were some pertinent questions asked which are not answered on the website, so we're sharing a couple of them here.

Question: Why only between L and O streets? Why not reconstruct 11th street up to Rhode Island or beyond?
According to DDOT officials, it's an issue of funding. The DDOT budget, like most other city and governmental agencies, has seen their budget cut significantly, leading to the scaling back of some projects, and the indefinite delay of others. It seemed as if the DDOT officials would have liked to gone ahead and reconsruct 11th Street farther north, but the budget simply wouldn't allow it.

Question: What assurances are in place that the project isn't going to run months over schedule?

Many of you probably remember the Q Street reconstruction project and the significant delays that were incurred there--taking the project over 6 months over its projected end date. The biggest impediment to completing the Q Street project in a timely manner was the accidental severing of PEPCO service lines that were buried under the street. Whoops. DDOT officials assured us that there were ongoing communications between the DDOT contractor and the utility companies, and that there would be no repeat of the problems that delayed Q St. Additionally, the DDOT contractor is penalized $1,100 per day for every day the project runs over its projected end date. that may sound like a lot of money, but a $30,000 penalty for running a month over on a multi-million contract doesn't strike us as particularly foreboding. We shall see.

So, get ready for some significant road upheavals over the next nine months. Hopefully the finished project will be worth the wait.

Sign of the Apocalypse #132: "Metropole" Set To Deliver

Those of you like us who spend a fair amount of time trompsing up and down P St. are likely used to at least one familiar site amongst the constantly changing streetscape: the colossal construction project known as "the Metropole" that has fouled up traffic (both auto and pedestrian) for years. Heading along the north side of P St., it's simply become a way of life to play dodge 'em with the taxi cabs and bridge-and-tunnel drivers as one skirts along the construction fence of the nearly mythical condo tower.
Well, no more.

This Thursday, believe it or not, will herald the official opening of the "drop. dead. sexy." Metropole project at 15th and P St. According to the Washington Business Journal, the opening night preview event will feature a "Golden Age of Hollywood" theme. Not sure of the tie-in there, but it might be worth stopping by if only to be allowed unfettered access to the sidewalk for the first time in what seems like decades.

For those unfamiliar with the project, there is a troubled history behind it. Construction was stalled for nearly a year after the discovery of an unmarked underground reservoir of some sorts. After that was resolved, the original construction contractor--Glen Construction--filed for bankruptcy (perhaps the Condominium Development Gods were trying to send project developer Scott Pannick a message?). Along with nearly 80 90 residential units, the project will also feature ground level retail in the form of an athletic apparel store and a new Vida Fitness location.

As you're no doubt thinking this by now, we'll go ahead and state the painfully obvious: having a new high-end condo development (prices range from $400k for a studio to over $2 mill for the penthouse) come online in this market can't be good news for the developer, what with 2006 being a couple of years ago and all. And yet, while we find the design of the building rather uninspiring, it's nice to finally have the north side of P St. built-out to capacity. Also, it's nice to finally get our sidewalk back.

One more bit of good news for neighborhood residents: as part of their agreement with the city, upon completion of the project, the Metropole development company will also arrange for the repavement of the 1400 block of Church St. Sadly, this may also mean the end of the wonderful paint splatter at 14th and Church, along with the footprint evidence of the pedestrians who seemingly couldn't get out of the way.

For more info about the Metropole, you can of course visit their website.

11th Street About to Get All F'ed Up

A safe bet is that your 11th St. commute is going to get pretty nasty come this fall. According to a message from ANC 2F06 commissioner Mike Bernardo:

In response to my continued questioning about the reconstruction of 11th
Street, NW (between L and P Streets), DDOT has informed me that bids will
open tomorrow, on July 2, 2008. In approximately six to eight weeks, a
Notice To Proceed (NTP) for construction will be issued. They don't expect
actual construction to begin before September 2, 2008.

In other words, expect construction to begin sometime in late October to early November, to go on far longer than planned, and to enormously disrupt business operations, traffic, and pedestrian/bicyclist access.

The problem with these "reconstruction" projects, as we've seen on P St. in Dupont and, more recently, Q St. in Logan, is that they *always* run over their projected timeframe and are *always* more disruptive than initially believed. (Q St. finished approximately 6 months over schedule, and the P St. project virtually killed the commercial strip west of the circle in Dupont.) 11th St. should be particularly interesting (read: frustrating) due to the volume of traffic it carries and the 66/68 bus lines that frequently travel it.

This will also be worth watching due to the pending 14th St. "streetscape" project and the streetscaping of the Logan portion of P St.

Other Notes from Wednesday's ANC Meeting

Some other news bits of interest from the ANC meeting:

Logan residents are looking for places to start dog parks in the area. The action is in response to recent rule making that allows for citizens to petition and apply for areas to be designated dog parks. Sites currently being considered are Bundy Field, the Kennedy Recreation Center, the Shaw Recreation Center, and the south half of the Garrison Elementary School field. As a first step the group making the application must first check the land ownership records through DPR. Then, as part of a lengthy proposal process, neighbors will be consulted regarding the plans. I'm sure that most or all of a future ANC meeting will be devoted to this issue.

Ed Six reports that the Crime and Public Safety Committee compiled a list of vacant properties in our ANC and shared their findings with DCRA and the Office of Taxation. The goal is to ensure that owners are being charged higher tax rates for vacant properties in the hopes that they will be motivated to sell or renovate. A little extra tax revenue never hurts either.

The developer of the Metropole has gone bankrupt. A new very preliminary plan under consideration will alter the building design to include and interior courtyard with restaurant. [I'm fairly sure that I heard Commissioner Reed say that it was the Metropole developer that went bankrupt. However, a comment caused me to double check my facts, and it appears that it was the contractor who went bankrupt. That probably explains why the construction company banner on the site is now Foulger Pratt.]

New Construction Glut

Below is a photo essay on the new residential construction around U Street, almost all of which appears to be planned as 100 percent condo. These projects were most likely zoned and financed before the recent real estate downturn, and the market could be stable or rising before construction is complete. I still think that this many new units on the market will affect property values negatively. I count 11 new construction projects and I'm sure that I missed a few in the area.

Renovation at 13th and T Streets

The Moderno, 12th and U

The Lacey at 11th and Florida. It looks benign until you see . . .

Hideous

Union Row, 14th Street just north of U

A Clark Residential project going up on the northeast corner of 14th and Florida

A Bogden Builder's complex going up immediately behind the new Clark Residential project

Solea at the southwest corner of 14th and Florida, just across the street from the Bogden and Clark Residential costruction

14th and W Streets

Soon to be the Privado on Chapin Street — about one block from the three new buildings at Florida and U

The Floridian at 9th and Florida. This is the "coolest building" with a "hip scene". It's also the runner-up for ugliest new building and the winner of the most ridiculous ad campaign.

The House on the Corner at 9th and Florida

CDC Meeting Wrap-Up

As it will most likely be another two months before the ANC 2F Community Development Committee (CDC) minutes are posted, and no one wants to slog through them anyway, here's a summary of the news from last night:

Old Convention Center
Developer: Hines
Website: http://www.oldconventioncenter.com

The plans for the Old Convention Center site are progressing. In short, the bulk of the development will be three groups of two buildings each. One grouping will be offices, one rental housing, and one condo housing. On the first floors of all buildings and the first and second floors of the office buildings, there will be retail. Another nice feature is the preservation of open park land. It is still unknown whether the DC main library will relocate to this site. If the City Council decides to forgo that relocation, the space currently reserved for the library may be leased to a department store or a grocery. A local resident made sure to register her support for Nordstrom during the Q&A.

This huge project will be in the planning/permitting/contracting stage for the next 14 months, and construction is slated to run from fall of 2008 until 2011. With all of that planning left to go, there's no word yet on what the first deliverable will be and when we can expect to see it. I should also mention that the RFP for this project was issued in 2002. Way to go, bureaucracy.

Giant/O Street Market
Developer: Roadside Development
Website: http://www.roadsidedevelopment.com/O_Street.htm

Roadside Development owns the 4-acre site where the crummy Giant and crumbling O Street Market structure presently exist. The ambitious redevelopment project's centerpiece is a new 56,000 square foot Giant that will incorporate the existing market facade into its design. There will also be 600 new housing units including 100 senior living units (watch out, Shiloh). A hotel, one-story retail shops, and 700 parking spaces (above and below ground) will finish the project off nicely. It seems that the developer is also concerned with aesthetics, aiming to hide loading docks underground and to make the whole development attractive when viewed from the street.

11th Street Reconstruction Project
DDOT
Eleventh Street between L and O is the next Streetscape project. Though it's not being called by that moniker, the components of the reconstruction are remarkably similar to what's happening on P Street and what will happen to 14th Street. In any event, starting next spring and for nine months thereafter, 11th Street will be torn up in order to improve parking, replace the water main, add more trees, and increase green space. A huge change to the street will be the removal of one traffic lane to provide for a five-foot wide bike lane in each direction.

DDOT's representative acted as if sharing this information with the CDC was merely a courtesy. In the aftermath of his presentation, residents rightfully griped about a few things. DDOT claimed that having three lanes of traffic, down from the current four, would be a "traffic calming" measure, eliminating cars weaving between lanes to avoid buses and turning vehicles. Residents seemed less concerned about the calming effect and more bothered that they would be stuck behind a bus in the only available vehicle lane. Rerouting buses to reduce congestion or eliminating parking to provide room for four traffic lanes were suggested by residents as alternatives to the present plan. DDOT also failed to present a detour for southbound traffic during construction, which had 9th Street residents very concerned.

In light of the intense conversation between residents and DDOT, Commissioner Dyer requested that DDOT return for the ANC meeting in two weeks to present a plan for dealing with the bus, parking, and detour issues. Unfortunately for DDOT, they had declared planning to be 90% complete and hoped to begin the contractor selection within seven to ten days. Shucks.

Humorous moments of last night's meeting:
A committee member whom I won't name emphatically and repeatedly insisted during the O Street Market/Giant redevelopment Q&A that Roadside Development work to improve the poor service at Giant. Umm . . . they are developers.

The Roadside Development representative stated that the project would include some "very high end condos that we hope to sell for lots of money."

A resident suggested that a light be added to the intersection of 11th and O or that we "ban all Maryland drivers" from the thoroughfare.

Resurfacing Work to Begin on S St.

A heads-up to those of you who use S St. as a rush hour commuter route: DDOT has sent out a press release announcing that a resurfacing of S St. between 15th St. and New Hampshire Ave. will commence "on or about" August 23rd, and end approximately one month later. Work crews will also be replacing gutters and storm drains, and repaving alleyway entrances along the street. S St. will remain open during the project, but will be restricted to one lane. Since S St. is two ways, I doubt they will restrict it to a one-way street during this time, so it's likely that drivers will get the pleasure of having their lives placed in jeopardy by careless construction crew workers waving cars around the project and--perhaps--into oncoming traffic. So be careful out there.

With that being said, this work is long overdue and is much anticipated by Mr. and Mrs. 14th and You, both of whom frequently traverse the minefield of cracks and potholes that populate the 1600 and 1700 blocks of S. My car's suspension unleashed a cry of joy at the news of the resurfacing project. I've included the text of the release below, for anyone interested.

FOR RELEASE: AUGUST 16, 2007
MEDIA CONTACT: ERIK LINDEN @ DDOT, 202-671-2004

*RESURFACING AND OTHER ROADWORK SET FOR "S" STREET, NW*(Washington, DC)

The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) advises residents, pedestrians and motorists that roadway restoration is scheduled to begin next week on "S" Street NW between 15th Street and New Hampshire Avenue in the Logan Circle/Dupont Circle areas.

The work is slated to begin on or about August 23, 2007, weather permitting. It's scheduled to be completed by September 22, 2007. The streetscape work will include the milling and overlaying of the roadway surfaces as well as curb and gutter replacements. Alley entrance ways in the area will also be repaired or replaced.

Work will take place between the hours of 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. One lane of traffic will remain open for use at all times during construction.

Access to adjacent houses will also be maintained however parking will be limited. DDOT advises residents, motorists, and pedestrians to be safe and stay alert when traveling through the work zone.