Holiday Round-Up: Myths, Condos, and Sandwiches at a Gas Station?

As we head into the Christmas break, 14thandyou will be taking a little hiatus as well, mainly to catch up on sleep and sanity. In the meantime, here's a little reading material to get you through the cold (and snow filled?) days ahead:

U Street Girl writes about Fast Gourmet, a new sandwich shop (!) located at the gas station at 14th and W. All of y'all who've been clamoring for a decent sandwich shop in the area, head over there and let us know what you think. U Street Girl seems sold on the Chivito.

WeLoveDC has some fun busting some common DC-related myths. Did people in Georgetown really rise up to keep the underclass out of their neighborhood by scuttling plans for a Metro station there? Did Pierre L'Enfant and other early DC planners have it in for John Jay? Do we have more speakers of foreign tongues than comparable cities? Head over to WeLoveDC and find out.

Remember the Nehemiah Center--the strip mall along 14th Street between Belmont and Chapin that was bulldozed in 2008 to make way for a new mixed-use development? And has been nothing more than a vacant, rock-strewn lot ever since? Well, DCMud is reporting that they're pushing dirt around over there now. While stressing that this does not mean that construction is imminent, it is undoubtedly a positive sign for a long-stalled project.

DCMud also has another hot tip: construction equipment has finally arrived at the 7th and S site of Progression Place (formerly Broadcast Center One).

Further on the development front, DC Metrocentric takes a look at a potential new design for Cardozo High School.

The always-contentious issue of DC's height limit (a great topic for some mythbusting if ever there was one) gets some attention from the City Paper's Lydia DePillis. 30 story office towers in Chevy Chase? Frank Winstead would have a coronary.

Contradicting the notion that it's all doom-and-gloom for the 14th Street arts community, Borderstan profiles Loft Gallery, the latest addition to the neighborhood arts community. (Oh, and don't forget the lighting of the community holiday tree.)

On that note, here's hoping for a white Christmas for everyone (even though I'm hearing that's increasingly less likely).

A Blow to Shaw: Radio One Backs Out of Office Deal

Shaw residents pinning their hopes on neighborhood revitalization getting kicked up a notch with the Broadcast Center One may be waiting a while longer. It seems that Radio One--the tenant that was supposed to anchor the 100,000+ sf office project--is backing out of the deal to move from Lanham, MD into new digs at the corner of 7th and S streets NW.



Radio One hasn't yet provided a reason as to why they are backing out of the deal, but with a plummeting price in recent years it's reasonable to believe the decision had to do with profitability--or lack thereof. They might want to start thinking of an answer however, seeing as how the District ponied up nearly $30 million in incentives to bring them here.

The development team--Four Points LLC, Ellis Development Group and the Jarvis Co.--are insisting that the development will still move forward, but it's difficult to envision a project that has already been delayed moving forward without its most significant tenant. (Talks have been held to bring in the United Negro College Fund, but those are still preliminary.)

Broadcast Center One is a mixed-use development that, in addition to the aforementioned office space, will host over 25,000 sf of retail, 180 apartments and a massive underground parking garage. It is one of several projects in the Shaw/Mt. Vernon Square area to face significant delays. Roadside Development's Citymarket at O project remains on hold while financing concerns are resolved, while Marriott, JBG Cos. and the District government fight it out over the rights to develop the long-sought after Convention Center Hotel. Meanwhile, projects like the Warrenton Condominiums and Hartland Commons continue to exist more as pie-in-the-sky dreams than projects that have an actual chance at completion.

When/whether these projects ever get started is anyone's guess, but everyone can agree that these kinds of delays are frustrating.