Reporters Building to be Redeveloped as Residential

Back in 2013, the National Capital Revitalization Corporation developed the SW Ecodistrict Initiative for a 110-acre area south of the National Mall and north of the Southwest freeway. One of the goals of the initiative was to create a sustainable mixed-use community by introducing residential and/or hospitality uses in the area, which has been dominated for decades by government agencies and other office users. Since then, Republic Properties has proposed residential uses for one of the planned buildings at The Portals and Douglas Development purchased the Cotton Annex on 12th Street, with plans to redevelop the historic building and adjacent parking lot. 

Next up for redevelopment is the Reporters Building at 300 7th Street, located across the street from the D Street entrance to the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station at Constitution Center. Urban-Atlantic has plans to redevelop the aging office building as a multifamily project by re-skinning the exterior and adding up to five levels to the existing eight-story building. This is the same developer that converted the former EPA towers at Waterfront Station to Skyhouse East and West (now known as The Leo and The Lex). The 300 7th Street project will include about 370 units, which will be mostly rental apartments with condos on the top floor of the building and retail will remain on the ground floor. Current retailers include a barber shop and Pizza Autentica, the latter which opened back in 2009.

The proposed development is by-right and does not need zoning approval. However, it does need to get approval from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the project will be on the agenda for this month’s meeting. At last night’s ANC meeting, the commissioners voted 5-0-1 to support the project. The lone abstention came from Commissioner Rhonda Hamilton, who was disappointed that the project will contain 100% market-rate units – no affordable units are required since the development is by-right. 

As more details of the project are made available, including renderings, I’ll provide updates.

Will Fannie Mae Reconsider Southwest for its HQ?

It was reported in the Washington Business Journal and the Wall Street Journal that mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae is selling its headquarters building in Upper Northwest and wants to consolidate its operations in leased space closer to downtown DC. Fannie Mae is looking to move to their new headquarters over the next two to three years, so they have the option of leasing in existing space or new construction. Almost a decade ago, Fannie Mae was planning to be the anchor tenant at Waterfront Station, but financial troubles put the kibosh on those plans and they remained at their current headquarters. Subsequently, the District government decided to lease both buildings in phase one of Waterfront Station and the project was able to move forward. Now that Fannie Mae is on the hunt for new space, perhaps it will give Southwest another look? Let’s take a look at their options in Southwest (since the size requirement for Fannie Mae wasn’t disclosed in the articles, the following options may or may not work based on size needs):  

(1) Waterfront Station: There are still two vacant parcels along M Street on either side of 4th Street that are slated for office. The SE parcel is right on top of the Waterfront metro station and both buildings have plans for ground floor retail. Waterfront Associates won’t start construction on either of those parcels until it secures an anchor tenant. Since Fannie Mae was already planning to move to Waterfront Station at one point, this location probably has a leg up on the competition. 

(2) The Wharf: Alternatively, Fannie Mae could opt for office space at The Wharf, which started construction in March and won’t be complete until 2017. There is an office building planned in Phase One of construction (Parcel 3A) facing Maine Avenue and a second building could be built closer to the Maine Avenue Fish Market (Parcel 1) if Hoffman-Madison Waterfront found a tenant. The Graduate School USA was originally going to occupy the Parcel 3A building, but backed out of the deal a couple years ago. The Wharf was a contender for The Washington Post, but ultimately the media company decided to move only a few blocks east from its current headquarters building downtown. 

Rendering courtesy of Hoffman Madison Waterfront

(3) The Portals: Republic Properties has an empty parcel at The Portals that is next to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on the 1200 block of Maryland Avenue. In addition to the hotel, there are three office buildings that have already been completed at the complex. A Portals address would give Fannie Mae execs sweeping views of the Tidal Basin and high visibility from the traffic that comes into the city daily on the 14th Street Bridge. 

(4) L’Enfant Plaza: The JBG Companies has plans to build a 220,000 SF, LEED-Gold office building at 500 L’Enfant Plaza that will offer direct access to the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station and connect to the retail area that was recently upgraded. The building would be south of the under-renovation L’Enfant Plaza Hotel, adjacent to the 9th Street tunnel.

Rendering courtesy of The JBG Companies

(5) 400 6th Street: Trammell Crow is currently building a 12-story, 342,000 SF office building at 400 6th Street, located across the street from Constitution Center and one of the entrances to the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station. If Fannie Mae moved here, it would be near other financial-related tenants including the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency; however, the site is not as prominent as some of the other options in Southwest. 

Rendering courtesy of Trammell Crow

Demolition Begins at 400 6th Street

 

Construction fencing has been installed around the Donohoe Building at 400 6th Street, the former home of the District's Child and Family Services Agency. Their lease ended last year and now demolition is underway at the office building, which was purchased by Trammell Crow and the AFL-CIO Building Investment for $41.9 million in 2012. Once demolition is complete, construction will begin on a speculative 12-story office building designed by Gensler with 342,000 rentable square feet. There is space on the ground level for retail if demand supports it. The new office building is located less than one block from the D Street entrance to the L'Enfant Plaza Metro station. From the look of the above rendering, they are looking for a GSA tenant. Next door to the site is Constitution Center, which has its share of GSA tenants. Perhaps the office market in general (and GSA's appetite for leasing new space) will be improved by the end of 2015 when this building is scheduled to deliver.

Construction fencing went up this week.

Rendering courtesy of Trammell Crow

A Few Quick Items: New South Capitol Street Bridge, Constitution Center Sale, Randall Rec. Center, Federal Triangle South

- DDOT is prepping for the replacement of the Frederick Douglass Bridge with a Request for Qualifications from contractors for design-build construction of the first two segments of the South Capitol Street corridor project.  Segment one involves the replacement of the bridge with an arched bascule bridge, along with approaches to the bridge, including a new traffic oval at South Capitol Street & Potomac Avenue and a traffic circle at South Capitol Street and Suitland Parkway. Segment two will reconstruct the Suitland Parkway and Interstate 295 interchange.  Future segments will include the reconstruction of the South Capitol Street corridor from M Street to Independence Avenue, part of which is making the South Capitol Street and M Street intersection at-grade. Funding for the first two segments is still pending so the start date of construction hasn't been determined.

Rendering courtesy of DDOT

- It was reported last week in the Washington Business Journal that Constitution Center sold for $734 million by MetLife, making it one of the most expensive commercial buildings ever in the District.  It was easier to sell the building once the building was fully leased.

- A concept plan was released for the exterior of the Randall Recreation Center based on feedback from a community meeting held last month. The plan includes a playground for children ages 2-12 and swings.  The dreary plaza area that fronts I Street would be replaced with freshened up landscaping, picnic tables, a spray plaza, game tables, sculptures, and a skate spot.  The revamped park space is supposed to be completed in 2013 and has already been funded by the city.

- The GSA has released a Request for Information (or RFI) for several parcels it owns in an area they have dubbed "Federal Triangle South." The RFI follows up on their Notice of Intent to release a RFI within the next 90 days back in September. The redevelopment of these parcels would result in the need for new office space for 5,300 Department of Energy employees, roughly 5,400 Federal Aviation Administration employees, and nearly 2,500 Department of Homeland Security employees.

According to the RFI, the vision of Federal Triangle South is the following:

Redeveloping FTS has the potential to transform an uninviting federal office precinct into an area that: 

• Provides right-sized, efficiently designed Federal facilities; 
• Includes sustainable land and smart buildings; 
• Successfully merges commercial, residential, civic, institutional, and green space; 
• Maintains a significant Federal presence along Independence Avenue; 
• Reintroduces portions of the L’Enfant Plan street grid.

Catching Up on a Few Quick Items: Micro-Units, Constitution Center, DC United, Green Bike Lanes, Retail, Early Voting

- Micro-units are planned for a portion of one of the rental apartment buildings in phase one of The Wharf, according to DCmud.  The micro-units are planned for parcel 2, which also includes the Wharf Center performance space and the co-gen plant. These units will range from 330 - 380 square feet and will have space-saving features such as built-in furniture and cabinets, Murphy beds, and small appliances. Large windows will offer views of the Washington Channel and some units will have small French balconies. The theory behind having smaller units is that the lifestyle of people in cities has changed - many renters spend less time in their living space and more time at restaurants, bars and other entertainment venues, which will all be present at The Wharf.  Smaller units are also more affordable for renters (and more profitable for developers).

Rendering courtesy of Hoffman-Madison Waterfront

- Constitution Center, the massive office building on top of the L'Enfant Plaza Metro station at 400 7th Street, will be occupied by the Federal Trade Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, according to an article in the Washington Business Journal. These tenants will fill the 1.4 million square-foot complex since the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Housing Finance Agency already committed to the bulk of the space after the SEC backed out of their lease in 2010.

- Ward 2 Council member Jack Evans mentioned in an interview with The Washington Post earlier this month that he hopes a framework of a deal for DC United to build a stadium at Buzzard Point will be in place by the end of the year.  From the article:

United would cover the costs of constructing the stadium but also seek to keep a share of the tax revenue. The D.C. Council would have to approve such a request. The city would also pay for infrastructure improvements at Buzzard Point, an undeveloped area next to Fort McNair near the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. 

- More green bikes lanes have started to pop-up – the latest has appeared at the intersection of 4th and I Streets. Earlier this month, lanes were painted green at the intersection of South Capitol and I Streets. At the 4th & I intersection, the green bike lane was painted on 4th Street southbound leading to the intersection. In addition, a green bike box was painted at the intersection, a buffer area where cars are not supposed to cross when stopped at the intersection.

- A Caseys Coffee is coming to 355 E Street, the Phase 3 building of Patriots Plaza, according to DCmud. Construction of the 2,245 SF space is supposed to begin in November. The downtown location on L Street, NW is open Monday - Friday from 6:30am - 4:30 pm, so the new SW location will probably have similar hours. They serve coffee, soups, sandwiches, and salads.

- Early voting began this week at One Judiciary Square, but starting tomorrow, each ward will have a polling place open for early voting. The Ward 6 polling station is King Greenleaf Recreation Center at 201 N Street. The polls will be open each day (except Sunday) from October 27 - November 4 from 8:30am - 7pm.

Another Office Building Planned Near L'Enfant Plaza

The Washington Business Journal reports that the Donohoe Building (400 6th Street) has been purchased by Trammell Crow and the AFL-CIO Building Investment for $41.9 million.  Back in March, a loan the previous owners had on the building was in danger of going into default. The 5-story building will be razed by the new owners after the District's Child and Family Services Agency vacates the building at the end of their lease in October. In its place will be a 12-story "state of the art" office building. There's no indication whether there will be ground-floor retail in this building. Construction is supposed to begin next June with completion scheduled for mid-2015.  It wasn't clear from the article whether the project will be built without a lead tenant, but that usually isn't the case with office buildings these days, so that construction start date may slip if a tenant isn't found soon.  There are a couple other office buildings planned in the vicinity - one located a block south of this site at the current site of Engine 13 and the other at 4th & E Street.  Both of these sites are planned by E Street Development, which won the rights to these sites by DMPED a few years ago. Construction was supposed to begin on the 4th Street building last year, but has been delayed. In addition, Constitution Center is across the street from this site and is still trying to fill the rest of the space that was let go by the SEC when they decided not to move into the building.

A Few Quick Items: DC United Stadium Buzz, Bible Museum Coming to SW, Constitution Center Sale Pending, Equity Stake at L’Enfant Plaza for Sale, Veterans Memorial Financed

 - There was an article last week in Sporting News that gave an update on the prospects for DC United’s push for a new stadium.  The new ownership group is starting to have conversations with the city to get them on board with funding infrastructure improvements and assembling land for a soccer stadium. Buzzard Point remains the likely site in the District for the new stadium, although DC United is also in talks with Baltimore officials to possibly relocate to that city. The Buzzard Point site is only a few blocks southwest of Nationals Park and the two facilities would be linked together by Potomac Avenue.

- Vornado is selling two office buildings it owns near the Federal Center SW Metro and one of them – The Washington Design Center at 300 D Street – will most likely be the new home of a bible museum, according to the Washington Business Journal (subscribers only).  From the article:

An affiliate of The Museum of the Bible, a nonprofit organization, has a contract to buy the design center to display its multimillion-dollar collection of sacred texts, artifacts and other items known as the Green Collection, according to sources familiar with the deal…It could take four or five years to open the museum because a large portion of the items to be displayed are now part of a traveling exhibition and will not be available for display immediately.

- Constitution Center, the massive 1.4 million SF office building on top of the L’Enfant Plaza Metro that went up for sale last year is close to finding a buyer. According to citybizlist, MetLife is nearing a deal to purchase the building for somewhere in the vicinity of $750 million.

- According to an article in Capital Business, an equity stake in L’Enfant Plaza is up for sale by JBG, the owner of most of the complex. The equity stake for sale is only for the existing office buildings, not the improvements underway and planned. Those improvements include a new Homewood Suites extended-stay hotel planned for the southeast corner of 9th & D Street, an expansion of the existing retail center, as well as an office building planned on the southeast side of the complex. Eventually, another office building is planned for the plaza area.

- The proposed American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial has received over $6 million in grant money from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Public Lands Highway Discretionary Program according to the BeyondDC blog. The 2.4-acre memorial is planned for the triangle formed by Washington Avenue, 2nd Street, and C Street. Back in 2010, the National Capital Planning Commission approved the design of the memorial, but infrastructure funding was still needed. With funding now in place, construction will begin next year with dedication planned in early 2014.

Rendering courtesy of the National Capital Planning Commission

A Couple Quick Items: Maine Avenue Improvements Complete, Default Imminent at Donohoe Building

- DDOT announced last week that road and sidewalk improvements along Maine Avenue from 14th Street to the Fish Market have been completed. The $2 million project includes the widening of the sidewalk from four feet to a 14-foot trail to accommodate pedestrians and bikes, the reduction of road lanes from two lanes to one, new storm water drains, lighting, trees, signage, curbs, gutters, and fencing.  On-street parking has been eliminated along this stretch of road as a result.

- It was reported on CityBiz Real Estate that a $38.5 million loan for the Donohoe Building at 400 6th Street is in danger of being in default.  The building is located across the street from Constitution Center about a half block from the L'Enfant Plaza Metro and is currently leased by the District government for the Child and Family Services Agency.  The tenant is scheduled to vacate the building this summer at the conclusion of its lease.  The building was constructed in 1967 and was renovated in 1999. Perhaps this building could be a candidate for a conversion to residential to start the process of introducing residential to the predominately federal business district?

A Few Quick Items: 5x5 Art in SW, Helen Hayes Nominations, Kastles Schedule, FTC Wants to Stay Put, Biomass Plant for Blue Plains

- As a part of this year’s National Cherry Blossom Festival, the DC Commission of Arts and Humanities is putting together a 5x5 Temporary Public Art Project to help activate end enliven public spaces.  Two of the 25 pieces of art will be displayed in Southwest – one in front of Arena Stage and the other near the Titanic Memorial on the waterfront.  Below is a description of the two southwest sculptures from the press release:

The Cherry Blossom Cloud by Charles Juhasz-Alvarado, a large-scale temporary public sound sculpture fashioned in the shape of a xylophone from cherry wood that will be situated outside the Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Drumsticks will be available nearby for passers-by to activate the work by playing a melody or creating their own musical work. 

Deborah Stratman & Steven Badgett’s Polygonal Address (PA) System is a monumental floating platform, anchored at the Gangplank Marina and the waters behind the Titanic Memorial. This solar-powered sound system will feature a wide range of historic sound recordings, such as public addresses given during the 1932 Bonus Army protests on the National Mall. It will also provide a platform for guest sound programming by local, D.C.-based musicians, speakers, and artists.

- Arena Stage has received nine nominations this year for the 28th Annual Helen Hayes Awards. Five of the nominations are for Ruined, while three are for Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and one for Equivocation. This year’s awards program will take place on Monday, April 23 at the Warner Theatre.

- The Washington Kastles have released their 2012 season home schedule: 

• Thursday, July 12 vs. New York Sportimes (featuring Martina Hingis)

• Sunday, July 15 vs. Philadelphia Freedoms (USTA Family Night)

• Monday, July 16 vs. Boston Lobsters

• Wednesday, July 18 vs. Sacramento Capitals

• Friday, July 20 vs. Orange County Breakers (Chris Evert Fan Reception)

• Sunday, July 23 vs. Kansas City Explorers (with Serena Williams)

• Tuesday, July 24 vs. Philadelphia Freedoms (with Venus Williams)

Last season, the Kastles had a perfect season, record-breaking attendance at their new home at The Wharf, and won the World Team Tennis title.

- According to the Washington Business Journal, the Federal Trade Commission is against a proposal to move from its current headquarters building on Pennsylvania Avenue to Constitution Center in order to help fill some of the space that was to be occupied by the SEC.  From the article:

“To require the agency to move out of its historic headquarters building at 600 Pennsylvania NW, which still suits the agency and its mission, would impose well over $100 million in wholly unnecessary costs,” the [FTC] commissioners wrote. “This unprecedented giveaway would be completely contrary to the interests of American taxpayers, especially in this time of fiscal austerity.” 

- In addition to the Combined Heating and Power facility planned at The Wharf, a new biomass plant will be built at the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment plant according to the Washington Business Journal. Power from the plant will provide electricity for 30% of the electrical needs at Blue Plains. Construction is supposed to begin in August with completion in late 2014.

A Few Quick Items: Development Map, Arena Stage Scales Back Institute, BoA Checking Out SE, Civilian BRAC Could Involve Deptartment of Energy, Constitution Center in Search of a Tenant

- I've created a new page on the blog with a development map showing projects that are either under construction or planned in Southwest. It's not complete, so other projects will be added in the coming days. Soon, I'll add a map showing projects that have recently been completed.

- Arena Stage is scaling back its American Voices New Play Institute according to The Washington Post.  From the article:

Underlining the challenges it faces in realizing its aspirations to be a national center for research, Arena Stage announced Wednesday that major components of its 2½-year-old American Voices New Play Institute are relocating to Emerson College in Boston.

The transfer will mean a loss of some key personnel who have been deeply involved in the molding of Arena’s widely talked-about play development programs. Most notably, David Dower — Arena’s associate artistic director and one of the chief architects of Arena’s transition to its refurbished complex in Southwest Washington — will be leaving in April for a new job at Emerson. Departing, too, is the institute’s director, Polly Carl, who joined Arena only last July from Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre and will be working with Dower in Boston.

More from the article:

What will leave with Dower and Carl are the institute’s online projects, run for the industry as a whole: the New Play Map, the live-streamed New Play TV and Howlround, a journal of provocative essays on American theater edited by Carl that has become a lively and popular digital forum.

In addition, Dower and Carl will run out of Emerson the industry “convenings” that had been based at Arena, on topics such as diversity, black playwrights and developing new work, though the company will continue to be an occasional site for the symposium.

The actual institute will remain at Arena, as well as Theater 101, which allows spectators to view a production as it evolves during the rehearsal process.

- JDLand reports that Bank of America is in negotiations with Monument Realty to move from their trailer at Waterfront Station to 55 M Street, SE. The current lease at Waterfront Station ends in December 2012, but the bank may leave sooner than that.

- The Washington Business Journal (subscribers only) reported a couple weeks ago that the disposition of federal property called for in a House bill dubbed "Civilian BRAC" would save the Federal government $565M over the next five years according to the Congressional Budget Office.  The bill includes the sale of the Department of Energy headquarters (the Forrestal Building straddles 10th Street near L'Enfant Plaza) as well as the move of the Federal Trade Commission to Constitution Center. The redevelopment of the DOE campus would go a long way towards jump-starting the Southwest Ecodistrict Initiative.

- Also in the WBJ (subscribers only), there's an article about Constitution Center and the search for a tenant to replace the SEC, who backed out of their lease a few months after taking 900K SF in the summer of 2010.  Since then, the SEC has worked with the GSA to find replacement tenants. The Federal Housing Financing Agency will start moving there in January and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency should move into their space by the end of next year. About 358K SF of space is still left to lease. Besides the pending legislation in Congress to move the Federal Trade Commission to Constitution Center (see above), the SEC and GSA are close to a deal with an undisclosed federal agency.

A Few Quick Items: Redistricting, Amidon-Bowen Library, Buzzard Point Stadium, SEC Lease Drama

- JDLand reports that the draft redistricting map has been released and the Southwest Waterfront neighborhood (as well as Near SE) will remain in Ward 6. In addition, the section of Ward 2 on the north side of the Southwest Freeway south of Independence Avenue will become a part of Ward 6.

- Amidon-Bowen Elementary School is one of five DC schools (42 schools nationwide) to receive a $200,000 grant from Target this summer, according to the Examiner.  From the article:

The minimum $200,000-per-school renovation will include light construction, technology updates, new furniture, carpet and shelves, and 2,000 books...Every student at the 42 selected schools and his or her siblings will receive seven new books. Target will also establish Meals for Minds pantry sites at each school to allow all students and their families to choose food to take home.

- More buzz about DC United's search for a new stadium site, this time from The Washington Post's Soccer Insider. The insider takes a tour of Buzzard Point to check out 100 V Street as a potential stadium location.

- The Washington Business Journal reports that the SEC and the GSA are having discussions about the lease the SEC signed at Constitution Center last year and the issues revolving around excess space the agency may or may not use.  In addition, the WBJ reports that the inspector general for the SEC says the agency could owe $94 million in damages for the space it leased but backed out of a few months later.

A Few Quick Items: South Capitol EIS Meeting, Streetcar Expansion, Constitution Center Sale, Humphrey's Former Home

  

- DDOT recently released its final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the South Capitol Street corridor. Among some of the highlights of the EIS, there are plans to boulevardize South Capitol Street with a median north of N Street, remove the tunnel under M Street, build a new Frederick Douglas Bridge, and create signalized intersections at K & L Street. A public meeting is scheduled this evening at Amidon-Bowen Elementary at 6:30pm to discuss the EIS.

- In Mayor Gray's proposed 2012 budget, The Examiner reports about $100 million is set aside for streetcars over the next six years. As a result, DDOT will start planning this summer for streetcar extensions, including along M Street SE/SW. Streetcars are proposed to run along the M Street corridor, Buzzard Point, Maine Avenue, and the soon-to-be created Wharf Street on the Southwest Waterfront.

- Since Constitution Center has been completed, is now nearly fully leased, and tenant build-out is underway, the owners have decided to put the 1.4 million square foot building on the market according to the Washington Business Journal (subscribers only).  As the largest privately-owned office building in the District, it is expected that Constitution Center will sell for a record-breaking amount.  The city has assessed the building at $648 million

- UrbanTurf reports that former Vice President Hubert Humphrey's former home at Harbour Square has been for sale since February and the price was recently cut by 7% to $925,000. The 2,332 square foot three bedroom, three bath co-op was originally priced at $995,000. Other political figures who have lived in the complex include former Supreme Court Justices David Souter and Lewis Powell and Admiral William Radford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under the Eisenhower administration   

A Few Quick Items: Clark Honored, Constitution Center Lease-Up

 - Clark Construction Group, LLC won a national construction award for their work at Arena Stage, according to a press release by the company.  The Associated General Contractors of America presented the Aon Build America Award to Clark on March 23 in the category of Building Renovation at the group's annual convention.

- The Washington Business Journal reports that the SEC will delay its move of 740 employees from offices in Virginia to Constitution Center. Part of the reason for the delay is the federal government has been operating under continuing resolutions, or CRs since the beginning of the fiscal year in October.  From the article:

“Due to uncertainties regarding our long-term funding and the current cash-flow crunch that makes it impossible to fund build out and moves, we are staying at the Ops Center for a short time while the budget situation is clarified,” said John Nester, spokesman for the agency, in a statement to the Washington Business Journal. The SEC signed a lease for 900,000 square feet — the largest federal lease in a decade — in August with David Nassif Associates at 400 Seventh St. SW, but just four months later reported 600,000 square feet of excess space under a federal policy that mandates agencies report their extra real estate.  The landlord has said the agency will end up with one quadrant of the building, or about 340,000 square feet.

- Also from the WBJ (subscribers only) and related to the SEC lease at Constitution Center, the paper interviewed Tim Jaroch from David Nassif Associates about how they have leased up the largest privately-owned office building in the District.  From the article:

Jaroch maintains that the SEC’s lease was carefully thought out and a good strategic move for the agency, which handles its own leasing and does not work with the General Services Administration as most other federal agencies do. He did not anticipate the SEC walking away from the majority of its space.

After the SEC did just that, the landlord had to find new tenants and leased the majority of the building to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Housing Financing Agency. Now Constitution Center will be home to three finance-related agencies and the next step will be to build out the space for these tenants. 

“We have to build out tenant and amenity space equal to about five typical good-sized Washington office buildings in 18 months,” he said. “This is just the start.”

NASA Stays Put

I tweeted about this a couple weeks ago, but here's a link to a story done in the Washington Business Journal about NASA headquarters renewing its lease at Two Independence Square, located at 4th & E Street. From the article:

The General Services Administration said Thursday it has signed a 597,253-square-foot lease for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at Piedmont Office Realty Trust Inc.’s 300 E St. SW, opting for the space agency to stay in place at its current headquarters. The space agency had been on a closely watched prowl for about 600,000 square feet of District space for just shy of a year. It will stay in the same space under a new 15-year lease at an annual rent of $44.54 per square foot, the GSA said. As part of the succeeding lease, Piedmont will renovate the interior of the building over the next year.

At the neighboring One Independence Square, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) leases space, but that agency is moving down the street to Constitution Center.

A Couple Quick Items: Constitution Center Leasing, Eisenhower Square Update

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced yesterday that it will be consolidating its three office locations in NW in order to move to Constitution Center, which is quickly becoming the Federal Government’s version of Wall Street since the SEC, the OCC, and now FHFA will occupy space at the secure campus. By the way, FHFA regulates Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks. According to the press release, FHFA employees are scheduled to start moving in November. There’s no word yet on how much space they will be occupying at Constitution Center or how many employees will be moving. However, I would imagine that the office building is now pretty close to fully leased with this signing.

Update: Here's some additional information about the FHFA lease via the WBJ. The FHFA will lease 335,000 square feet at Constitution Center and over 550 people will be moving to the office complex. Although there is some secrecy behind the lease signings, the WBJ calculates that up to 115,000 SF is left to lease in the 1.4 million SF complex.

DCMud gives an update on plans for Eisenhower Square, the memorial planned for President Eisenhower across from the U.S. Department of Education headquarters. The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) will be reviewing three refined alternatives for the memorial, designed by Frank Gehry at their monthly meeting on Thursday. The alternative favored by the Eisenhower Memorial Commission is the one with limestone columns on either side of a large metal woven tapestry blocking the Department of Education building from view and has a grove of sycamore trees in the center. According to The Washington Post, Gehry stated that the large tapestry may show an image of Abilene, Kansas, Eisenhower's boyhood home.

Above is a rendering of an earlier version of the preferred vision for Eisenhower Square, courtesy of the Eisenhower Memorial Commission.

Constitution Center Signs Another Lease

The Washington Business Journal reports that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) will lease between 600,000 -650,000 SF of space at Constitution Center, the vacant 1.4 million SF office building located on top of the L'Enfant Plaza Metro station at 400 7th Street. By the fall of 2012, about 1,000 employees will be moving to Constitution Center, some from another location in Southwest at 250 E Street. Meanwhile, the WBJ also reported the inspector general of the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) is opening a formal investigation into the lease signed by the SEC last year for 900,000 SF in the same building, but then reported that 600,000 SF was excess space after it realized it didn't need as much space as originally planned. Also under investigation by the inspector general is the planned move of 740 SEC employees to Constitution Center this summer from other offices.

A Few Quick Items

- The Washington Examiner reports that the DC Council is taking up legislation on Tuesday that will reduce the amount of affordable housing required at the redeveloped Southwest Waterfront. Under current law, 30% of all residential units built at the District-owned Southwest Waterfront parcels will be set aside as affordable housing - half of the affordable units will be for those earning up to 30% of AMI and the other half for those earning up to 60% of AMI. So out of the 560 units planned by the Hoffman-Madison Marquette Waterfront team, 168 of those units will be affordable. Under the new Council legislation under consideration, the 30% affordable requirement will only apply to the first 500 units. That means only 150 affordable units will be available on the waterfront if the legislation passes - a reduction of just 16 units. I have a suspicion the development team wants to build less office space and more residential units than the 560 units originally planned, which would allow all those extra units to be strictly market-rate.

- Back in August, the Securities and Exchange Commission signed a lease for 900,000 SF of space at Constitution Center, but according to the Washington Business Journal, the SEC only needs 300,000 SF and will most likely give the excess space back to the landlord to re-lease. This probably means Constitution Center is now back in the running to land the new headquarters for NASA, which according to the WBJ is looking to move from their current location at 300 E Street by July 2012.

- The Wall Street Journal recently did an article about the design of Arena Stage by Bing Thom, but in the article, described much of the housing in Southwest as "dilapidated and dispiriting" and the waterfront with "piers chockablock with nondescript boathouses."

- The Architect's Newspaper shows an initial massing from another Thom project - the redevelopment of Randall School. The design of the project is still in its initial stages, so the massing just shows the density of the site, not what the buildings will actually look like once completed. The Randall School project will include a museum, boutique hotel, restaurant, some retail, and residential. (rendering courtesy of Bing Thom Architects)

Southwest Construction Projects Win Awards

Mid-Atlantic Construction magazine honored 29 construction projects throughout the Mid-Atlantic region in its "Best of 2010" awards program - three of those projects are located in Southwest. The winner of Project of the Year - Overall and Cultural is Arena Stage, designed by Bing Thom Architects. In describing the project, the magazine talks about some of the challenges that had to be overcome, including cost overruns:

The obstacles began in the design phase. Funds for the project came primarily through donations, and the original budget exceeded Arena Stage’s estimates. After contracting with Clark in December 2006, the team had to value engineer the original $120-million budget to $100 million without sacrificing aesthetics.

Revisions included eliminating project phasing, which saved $3 million; modifying the roof and eliminating planned rooftop apartments, at a combined savings of $8.5 million; reducing onsite parking; and changing the mechanical and electrical systems to save $2.5 million.

The winner of Project of the Year - Office Buildings is Waterfront Station, designed by Shalom Baranes Associates. Noteworthy attributes about the buildings include the terracotta façade and LEED-Certification:

Both buildings’ north and east elevations feature a terracotta rain screen cladding system that is the largest such system installed to date in the Washington, D.C., area.

From the second floor up, Waterfront Station features over 11,000 11-in. terracotta panels in three separate colors and a ribbed panel profile of a fourth color. In addition, more than 1,500 11-in. glazed terracotta panels are installed below the second floor.

Tight logistics onsite required that workers set the curtain-wall system’s 1,650, 12.5-ft by 5-ft glass units from inside the building.

Waterfront Station was designed and constructed to achieve two LEED Gold certifications, one for each building.

It was mentioned a couple weeks ago at a development forum by Forest City Washington that the next phase of Waterfront Station, which includes the reskinning of the former EPA towers and adaptive reuse as residential units, will get underway within the next two years.

Finally, the winner of Project of the Year - Renovation/Restoration is Constitution Center, designed by SmithGroup. Constitution Center is the 1.4 million SF reincarnation of the former Department of Transportation headquarters and is seeking LEED-Gold certification. Earlier this year, 900,000 SF of the building was leased to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Constitution Center Under Consideration for Massive DHS Lease

In Monday's Capital Business section of The Washington Post, there's an article about the need for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to move into more than 1 million square feet of space, even though the agency is moving its headquarters to St. Elizabeths over in Congress Heights. This follows a story that DCMud did a couple months ago about the topic. From the WaPo article:

P. Brian Connolly, senior vice president at Akridge, said his firm had hoped to pitch a proposed 2.7 million-square-foot development it plans at 100 V St. SW, but the GSA ruled the property ineligible because it is slightly more than the required half-mile from a Metro entrance.

Connolly said that when he read the solicitation, he thought the specifications seemed to match those for Constitution Center, the renovated former headquarters for the Transportation Department in Southwest D.C.

"If it didn't say it, it hinted around all four corners of that," he said.

That building, owned by David Nassif Associates, has 1.4 million square feet to rent, is highly secure, energy efficient and only three Metro stops from the future DHS headquarters, at the site of the former St. Elizabeths Hospital.

Constitution Center, located at 400 7th Street and directly above the L'Enfant Plaza Metro, delivered in late 2009. There have been rumors that the owners of Constitution Center wanted the FBI to move their headquarters from Pennsylvania Avenue, NW to the secure complex, but no tenants have been announced. In the past month or so, additional finishing touches have been done around the buildng, including several park benches. Here is a look at a hard hat tour I took of the building last summer.

What Bloggers Are Saying About Southwest

- JDLand tweets about an article in the Navy Times, which describes efforts to bring the Navy Museum to the Southwest Waterfront, although the Navy itself isn't on board yet. Back in January, Ward 6 Council member Tommy Wells voiced his support for the move in a letter to Navy Admiral Gary Roughead.

- Over on DCMud, there's a post about the continued space needs of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), even though their headquarters is being moved to St. Elizabeths in SE. The U.S. Coast Guard, which currently resides in Buzzard Point, will be one of the first agencies to make the move to St. Elizabeths, as their new headquarters is currently under construction. According to the DCMud post, the GSA will issue a request for proposals (RFP) for 1.1 million square feet of space to suit the needs of DHS. Constitution Center has 1.2 million square feet of empty space in a highly secure environment, so that complex is an obvious candidate for the RFP, but the space needs don't necessarily have to be filled in one building.