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

They Got a Pepper Bar!!!

Quiznos looks like it is almost ready to open on the ground floor of the Washington Office Center on top of the Federal Center SW Metro. It replaces another sandwich shop, which apparently was evicted by the landlord. Other retailers on the ground floor of the office building at 3rd & D Street include a florist, credit union, cafe, Potbelly Sandwich Works (yes, another sandwich shop), Starbucks, FedEx Office, and Gold's Gym. The restaurant's hours of operation will be the following:

Monday - Friday: 10am - 7pm
Saturday: 11am - 4pm
Sunday: Closed 

Quiznos is supposed to open next week and will be less than three blocks from another Quiznos on C Street. Sandwich shops don't worry too much about cannibalization. Subway, for instance, has several sandwich shops in close proximity to each other.

- In other restaurant news, Z-Burger has a Now Hiring sign in front of the restaurant. They are looking for all positions (send resumes to Peter at info@zburger.com). At Monday's ANC meeting, it was announced that the restaurant would open in two weeks, but my best guess is it will take a little longer since applications need to be screened, interviews done, workers hired, and then trained on new equipment.  It seems overly ambitious to do in two weeks...

- Station 4 is now offering a coffee happy hour daily from 3-5pm. Coffee and desserts are half off and there is free WiFi available.

A Few Quick Items: SBA Stays Put in SW, Receptionist Position Available, SW Z-Burger Before Columbia Heights

- The WBJ reports that the Small Business Administration will remain at the Washington Office Center at the Federal Center SW Metro for the next 10 years. This is the same office building where I recently tweeted that Quiznos is days away from opening on the ground floor.

- Hoffman Madison Waterfront, LLC seeking Receptionist/Office Assistant

Small, growing industry leader seeks to fill full-time Receptionist/Office Assistant position in SWDC. Need bright, energetic candidate to wear many hats and be the face of our organization, including answering phones; greeting visitors; stocking office supplies and equipment; setting up and maintaining filing systems; organizing; scheduling; dealing directly with customers, partners and vendors; providing admin support for a staff of 5-8 professionals; and growing along with our company. Professional office experience required with Word, Excel, and Outlook proficiency and strong organizational skills. Up to $30K with full benefits. Location has parking available and is Metro accessible. Please email a resume and cover letter to ccrosse@pnhoffman.com.

- The Waterfront Station Z-Burger will open prior to the Columbia Heights location, according to the New Columbia Heights blog. The estimate given for the opening of the Columbia Heights restaurant is mid-February, so that would infer that our Z-Burger would open sometime this month. It looks like it's almost ready and I hope to get in there soon for some more sneak peek photos now that it's further along from when I visited in October.

Capital Bikeshare Expansion Planned

DDOT has announced that the increasingly popular Capital Bikeshare has plans to expand later this year in the District with 25 stations and 250 bikes. There are several locations under consideration, including some in Southwest. The proposed Southwest stations include 4th & E Street, 4th & C Street, and 4th Street & Independence Avenue. All three of these proposed locations are proximate to the Federal Center SW Metro station. To see a map of all the proposed stations, check out this link. There are currently four CaBi stations in the quadrant (Waterfront Station, 7th Street Landing, Smithsonian Metro, and L'Enfant Plaza Metro). DDOT will host a public meeting on May 25 to solicit input from the community about which locations should be chosen.  The meeting will take place from 6pm - 8pm at 441 4th Street, NW, Room 1107.  In addition, the public can send an email to DDOT to comment on the proposed locations or submit their own suggestions (ddot.bikeshare@dc.gov).  

NCPC to Take Up Several SW-Related Items Tomorrow

The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) will have their monthly meeting tomorrow afternoon and several of their agenda items are for projects located in Southwest. One of those projects is the District of Columbia War Memorial, which is located in West Potomac Park and is dedicated to District residents that fought in World War I. The National Park Service (NPS) is seeking approval for renovations. Thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the NPS received $7.3 million for repairs last April, but back then, the renovation was supposed to be completed by September of this year. The Commission is expected to approve final site and building plans for the memorial.

In addition, the NCPC is set to approve the replacement of the roof and window sashes at the Arts and Industries Building on the National Mall. The Arts and Industries Building is currently vacant, but these improvements, along with other restorative work that's currently underway, are necessary to maintain the 100+ year-old structure as a new use is determined for it by the Smithsonian Institution.

The DC Zoning Commission is requesting that zoning rules be changed so that development of District-funded affordable housing or as part of an approved New Community plan can achieve the maximum allowable Floor Area Ratio (FAR) and building height in a Transferable Development Rights (TDR) Receiving Zone through a special exception by the Zoning Commission. Parts of the Federal Center SW area are in the receiving zones, so higher-density development would be permitted in this part of the city under the rule change. The NCPC will most likely approve this change as well.

An agenda item that has city-wide ramifications is the CapitalSpace plan, which seeks to improve the quality of park space around the city, from pocket parks to squares & circles to the fort parks. As a part of this plan, one of the case studies in the draft plan was Lansburg Park. However, it appears that the Lansburg Park plan was omitted from the final draft.

Also on the agenda is to consider plans that were released in December by the Hirshhorn Museum to provide a 145-foot temporary inflatable structure in the museum's courtyard in May and October starting in 2011. It looks like the NCPC likes the overall concept, but has some outstanding issues that need to be addressed, including ADA accessibility and views along the Mall.

One item on the agenda that the NCPC isn't too pleased about is a plan to construct an administrative building and warehouse at the Naval Support Facility Anacostia, which is next to Bolling Air Force Base. Before the plans are approved, the NCPC wants to be sure that views to and from the new U.S. Coast Guard headquarters at St. Elizabeths aren't blocked by the planned buildings.

Tenant Delays Move to Capitol View

According to an article in this week's Washington Business Journal (subscribers only), Roll Call Group signed a letter of intent in February to move to Capitol View, the new office building at the corner of 3rd & E Street, near the Federal Center SW Metro. However, since Roll Call Group announced its purchase of Congressional Quarterly Inc., the company has decided to reevaluate its space needs as it decides how many employees it will have once the takeover is complete. Signed tenants at Capitol View include the Association of American Railroads and lobbyists for Disney, but about 85% of the building remains vacant, as reported back in March.

Coming Soon to a Metro Station Near You...

Mark October 16th on your calendars…starting on that date, 20 of the busiest underground Metro stations will be getting expanded cell phone service and three of them are located in Southwest. According to the WMATA press release, Smithsonian, L’Enfant Plaza, and Federal Center SW will be part of the first wave of Metro stations to receive service from Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, AT&T, and T-Mobile. From the press release:

This is the first phase of Metro’s effort to bring expanded cell phone carrier service to the entire Metrorail system by 2012,” said Suzanne Peck, Metro’s Chief Information Officer. “After we complete the first 20 stations this fall, the carriers will install service at the remaining 27 underground stations by the fall of 2010. Customers will be able to use these carrier-provided wireless services in tunnels between stations by October 2012.”

For a complete list of stations that will receive expanded cell phone coverage in October, check out the press release. As an AT&T customer, I’ll be very happy to soon have the ability to send text messages while waiting on the metro platform, since I’m a texting addict!

SBA May Move from Federal Center SW

A news story published yesterday on the Washington Business Journal's website states that the GSA is looking for a little over a quarter million square feet of space for the Small Business Administration (SBA), since their lease at Federal Center SW expires in November 2010. The GSA is also looking for about 137,000 SF for the Department of Agriculture, which is headquartered in SW.

Alternative Transit Options on Inauguration Day

By foot: The Inauguration Day 2009 website created by the District government states the following pedestrian routes are available to get to the swearing-in ceremony:

The following access points have been identified as pedestrian-only routes to the National Mall:

• E Street, NE from Massachusetts Avenue, NE to 3rd Street, NW
• 7th Street, SW from D Street, SW to Independence Avenue, SW
• 19th Street, NW from K Street, NW to DuPont Circle, NW
• 3rd Street Tunnel (I-395) from New York Avenue, NW to SE/SW Freeway
• Arlington Memorial Bridge from Virginia, around Lincoln Circle to Independence Avenue, SW
• East Capitol Street, NE to North Carolina, SE to New Jersey Avenue, SE to I Street, SE [continue until 7th Street, SW to Independence Avenue, SW

By sea (ok, river): For those of you coming into DC from Northern Virginia, I heard on NBC4 this morning that there will be water taxi service from Old Town Alexandria to the Southwest Waterfront. From the NBC4 website:

The U.S. Coast Guard says it has approved water taxi service from Virginia to D.C. on Inauguration Day. The Inaugural Water Taxi will be provided by the Potomac Riverboat Co., for $90 roundtrip or $50 one way. The taxi will depart from the Alexandria City Marina at Union and Cameron streets in Old Town Alexandria and arrive at the Southwest Waterfront's Pier 4, at 600 Water St. in D.C.

600 Water Street is where Cantina Marina is located and the Odyssey is docked. Tickets go on sale today and can be purchased on the Potomac Riverboat Company's website. (The above photo is of Cantina Marina and the Odyssey dock, taken in July 2007)

By bicycle: A press release today from DDOT states that there will be two free bike valet parking stations available - one will be on the south side of the Jefferson Memorial and the other will be on 16th Street, NW between I & K Streets. From the press release:

Both sites are within walking distance of the Inaugural festivities and will be open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. A limited number of commemorative valet claim checks and spoke cards will be offered to cyclists who use the valets. WABA says the service will operate like a car valet. “You simply ride up to the valet, a volunteer will attach one half of a claim ticket to your bike and hand you the other half,” said Henry Mesias, the project manager at WABA. “The volunteer will then park the bike in a safe enclosure while you head off to enjoy the Inauguration. When you want to leave, you show us your half of the claim check and we get you your bike and you ride off. It’s quite simple.” The sidewalks on all bridges over the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers will be open to bicyclists and pedestrians, and the Memorial Bridge will be dedicated to bicyclists and pedestrians. Cyclists coming from Arlington, Alexandria, Southeast and Southwest DC can use the valet station at the Jefferson Memorial, while riders from the north can use the station at 16th and K Streets, NW.

Here's a link to WABA's website describing the bike valet service.

By Metro: According to the WMATA website, Metrorail will be running rush hour service on Inauguration Day from 4am to 9pm and commemorative passes & SmarTrip cards are available for purchase. The Smithsonian Metro station will be closed, so the closest Southwest stations to the National Mall will be L'Enfant Plaza and Federal Center SW. Those stations serve all rail lines, except for the Red Line. (The above map shows the Metro stations and bus routes near the National Mall, from the WMATA website)

Walking Town Comes to SW

On Saturday, September 20th and Sunday, September 21st, Cultural Tourism DC will bring back Walking Town DC, Fall Edition to the streets of DC. There will be six tours on Saturday featuring sites in SW, including DC By Foot: Monument Tour, The Southwest Waterfront, The National Mall: What the Memorials Don’t Tell You, Capital Sites by Bike, The Secrets of Federal Center, SW, and Washington Waterfront. On Sunday, there will be three tours, including two DC by Foot: Monument Tours and Bike Tour of the South West Gateway Art Installation. For more information, see the schedule.