SEU Campus Demolition Underway; Community Meeting Tomorrow

Demolition began last week at the former Southeastern University campus building, located at 501 I Street. It will take approximately five weeks to demolish the structure, which has been vacant for several years. The Shakespeare Theater Company purchased the building last year from the Graduate School USA and has partnered with developer Erkiletian to build a mixed-use project with space for theater operations and apartments above. There will be a presentation tomorrow evening at Westminster Church (400 I Street) starting at 7pm where the development plan will be shared with the community. 

Demolition in the background & Amidon-Bowen roof replacement in foreground.

Photos courtesy of reader JP

Raze Permit for SEU Campus Building

A raze permit was recently filed by the Graduate School USA for 501 I Street, which is the former Southeastern University campus building. The campus is under contract to the Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC), who plans to build actor and apprentice housing, along with rehearsal and performance space, costume and set equipment storage, education classrooms, and the administrative headquarters for the Company. The raze permit was filed to see whether any historic preservation groups would try to landmark the building; however, at the June ANC meeting, the commissioners voted to oppose the permit because STC has not presented their plans for the property to the community. An attorney for STC stated at the meeting that the Company will close on the sale of the campus building in October and are still in the early planning stages, but will soon present their plans to the community. However, a note on the Waterfront Gateway Neighborhood Association website gives an idea of the initial plan for the residential component of the site – a nine-story building with 155 residential units and 70 garage spaces. It was mentioned at the ANC meeting that the building will be designed by Shalom Baranes, the same architect who designed the office buildings at Waterfront Station. STC will need to request a zoning change in order to build what they want on the site.

A Few Quick Items While I Was Away: Wharf, Buzzard Point, L'Enfant Plaza Hotel

Capital Business reports that the Graduate School USA will not be coming to The Wharf. It was announced back in March 2011 that the school would be the anchor tenant. The article states that the Graduate School informed Hoffman Madison Waterfront over 18 months ago that they wouldn't be coming to the development due to instability in the market. Despite the setback (which apparently the developers have known for a while), the project is moving forward.  From the article:

“Overall we feel very good about it,” [Monty] Hoffman said. “Our tenancy and our letters of intent for restaurants are going very well and we are in for building permits.”

Hoffman said he was “working with a prospective capital group” to invest in the project. The D.C. government has agreed to put up approximately $198 million for the project, and last year Hoffman traveled to China with D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray last summer to try to raise capital.

 Rendering courtesy of Hoffman Madison Waterfront

It was reported in the Washington Business Journal that the GSA is close to finalizing a deal to allow the Navy to use the space vacated by the Coast Guard in Buzzard Point. From the article:

A handful of workers from the Naval Sea Systems Command were shifted to Transpoint in the aftermath of last month's Navy Yard shooting, but the Navy and GSA are working on a more formal agreement that would let the Navy officially take over the building once the Coast Guard clears out, the GSA said.

The L'Enfant Plaza Hotel is set for closure in December for extensive renovations according to an article in the Washington Business Journal. From the article:

Stanford [Hotels Corp.] plans to complete its $48.7 million acquisition of the hotel on Dec. 3 and will close down the property when that happens, said sources, including two employees set to be impacted by the closure. Stanford is buying the hotel from an affiliate of The JBG Cos. as part of a D.C. Superior Court order issued July 31. The hotel is not accepting reservations, either over the phone or through its website, beyond Dec. 2.

ANC to Vote on Stage 2 Wharf PUD

ANC 6D will vote tonight at their monthly meeting on the Stage 2 PUD application for phase one of The Wharf, the redevelopment of the Southwest Waterfront.  Phase One includes the area roughly from 7th Street to the Capital Yacht Club, as well as St. Augustine's Church and the cruise ship parking lot.  Highlights include three mixed income rental apartment buildings, one condo building, The 3,000-seat Wharf Center multipurpose cultural space, a co-generation plant, an office building for The Graduate School USA, an InterContinental Hotel, ground floor retail in all buildings and public spaces such as the Wharf promenade, District Pier, Transit Pier, 7th Street Park, Waterfront Park, and a series of Mews and Alleys.  Tonight's meeting will be held at 1100 4th Street, Second Floor, starting at 7pm. After the ANC vote, the Zoning Commission will hold four meetings to discuss various portions of the development:

• June 28 - General comments, Parcel 2A, and 2B, Co-Gen Plant, Parcel 1 temporary uses, Transit Pier
• July 2 - Parcels 3A, 3B, District Pier, Pier and Avenue Mews
• July 12 - Parcels 4A, 4B, Capital Yacht Club, CYC Plaza, Piazza Mews, Jazz Alley, 7th Street Park
• July 23 - Parcels 11A, 11B, Waterfront Park

If the PUD receives approval, construction on infrastructure will commence in the first half of 2013 with delivery in 2016.

Rendering courtesy of Hoffman-Madison Waterfront

Stage 2 PUD Submitted for The Wharf

The Hoffman-Madison Waterfront team has submitted their Stage 2 PUD application for Phase 1 of The Wharf to the Zoning Commission today according to a press release.  In it, there are details about what is planned in Phase 1 of development, which includes parcels 2, 3, 4, 11, the Promenade and Waterfront Park.  I'll do a few more blog posts about the PUD, including the public spaces, affordable component, etc. once I have a chance to look through it completely. The PUD application can be found in the Southwest Waterfront Redevelopment page and a basic description of each parcel is below:

Parcel 2

View of Parcel 2 residential and Wharf Center from the Transit Pier.

View of Parcel 2 residential and Wharf Center from Maine Avenue.

Parcel 2 is located approximately where Phillips Flagship now stands, to the west of 9th Street.  In its place will be The Wharf Center, a 135,000 SF multipurpose entertainment and cultural venue.  Presumably this is where the Washington Kastles will play their matches. Wrapped around it will be 494 apartment units in two towers (292 units in the east tower and 202 units in the west tower), and 39,000 SF of ground floor retail.  In addition, there will be a Combined Heating and Power Facility (CHP) that will provide all the necessary heating, cooling, and electrical power sources for The Wharf northwest of 7th Street.  The Wharf Center will be a five-level facility while the residential buildings will rise 12 stories to a height of 130 feet. An unoccupied tower at one corner of the building facing the District Pier will reach 200 feet.  The residential buildings will be made with brick, stone cladding, precast concrete, composite metals, glass, and a painted aluminum curtain wall system.  Hoffman-Madison Waterfront will develop this parcel and the architect is Perkins Eastman.

Parcel 3a

View of Parcel 3a office building from Maine Avenue.

Parcel 3a is located approximately where the Kastles Stadium at The Wharf is currently located, to the east of 9th Street. The Graduate School USA will occupy the 11-story, 218,000 SF office building (at a height of 130 feet) facing Maine Avenue and there will be 15,000 SF of ground floor retail. A 170-foot unoccupied tower element will be in one corner of the building. Building materials include brick, limestone, composite metal, glass, and a painted aluminum curtain wall system. Hoffman-Madison Waterfront will develop this parcel and the architect is Perkins Eastman.

Parcel 3b

View of Parcel 3b InterContinental Hotel from Wharf Street promenade.

Parcel 3b is located to the south of parcel 3a and faces the Washington Channel.  a 278-key InterContinental Hotel (the other InterContinental Hotel in the city is The Willard) is planned at this location along with 7,000 SF of retail. The hotel will rise 12 stories reaching 130 feet with a clock tower at one corner approximately 159 feet in height. Construction materials include red & gray brick, terracotta, tinted glass, granite, metal, and concrete. Carr Hospitality will develop this parcel and the architect is BBG-BBGM.

Parcel 4

View of Parcel 4 residential from Wharf Street promenade.

View of Parcel 4 residential from Maine Avenue.

Parcel 4 is also located somewhat in the Kastles stadium footprint and will contain 168 apartments and 130 condos in two buildings. There will be 77,000 SF of retail in two levels, including a health club.  The apartments and condos will rise 13 stories and reach a height of 130 feet.  These buildings will have more of an industrial feel and sort of remind me of The Odyssey condos in Arlington (at least the perspective from Wharf Street). Hoffman-Madison Waterfront will develop this parcel and the architect is Handel Architects.

Parcel 11a

View of Parcel 11a St. Augustine's Church from M Street.

View of Parcel 11a St. Augustine's Church from Maine Avenue.

Parcel 11a is the site of St. Augustine's Episcopal Church at 6th Street and Maine Avenue.  The old church will be demolished and in its place will be a new, 15,000 SF facility as rendered above.  It will be two stories and will include building elements such as blue & gray glass, cast stone, mill finish aluminum screen, and white aluminum storefront.  St. Augustine's will develop this parcel and MTFA Architecture is the designer.

Parcel 11b

View of Parcel 11b condos from the Waterfront Park.

Adjacent to St. Augustine's will be a 109-unit condo building at parcel 11b.  The 5-story condo will be U-shaped and will line 6th Street.  Building materials include brick, metal panels, stone, wood, and glass. Hoffman-Madison Waterfront will develop this parcel and the architect is SK&I Architectural Design Group.

There will be a public presentation on February 27 at 6pm at Arena Stage and Hoffman-Madison Waterfront will most likely meet with the Zoning Commission in July. Groundbreaking is now scheduled for the first quarter of 2013 with phase one opening in 2015.  What are your initial thoughts on the Stage 2 application?

Renderings courtesy of Hoffman-Madison Waterfront

SW Duck Pond News

It's been a big December so far for the Neighbors of the Southwest Duck Pond. First, the group won Ward 6 Council member Tommy Wells' Livable, Walkable Community Organization Award, also known as a "Brickie" for their effort to help rehabilitate the Southwest Duck Pond, located at 6th and I Streets. Then, the group learned that they will receive a contribution from the Graduate School USA of up to $1,000. The Graduate School USA owns the former SEU campus across the street from the park and has offered their landscaping team to help with park clean-ups in the past. The Neighbors group is in the process of filing for 501c3 status to become a non-profit organization so it can raise funds to refurbish the park.

Four-Star Hotel Coming to The Wharf

It was reported in this week's Capital Business that Hoffman-Madison Waterfront is in negotiations with Carr Hospitality and Intercontinental Hotels Group to build and operate a 268-key, four-star hotel at The Wharf. The new hotel will be next to the office building that will be occupied by The Graduate School USA at 9th Street & Maine Avenue (the site of the temporary Kastles Stadium at The Wharf). The hotel operators are the same ones that operate the Willard Intercontinental Hotel downtown (Carr Hospitality also has plans to build a hostel/hotel at the 100 block of Q Street). Room rates at the waterfront hotel are anticipated to run between $300 and $400 a night, similar to rates at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel (the average cost for a room next Saturday). From the article:

Hammad Shah, president and chief operating officer of Carr Hospitality, said the company had been looking to open a second Washington hotel.

“The thought process here is really to create a unique luxury hotel, one of its kind, and I believe the Intercontinental brand fits the mold very well because of its success in Washington with the Willard, and because it’s an international brand,” Shah said.

Shah said the hotel would take advantage of the site’s location overlooking the Washington Channel. He said he expects the hotel to have a 5,000-square-foot rooftop lounge and two ballrooms looking out onto the water, as well as two restaurants.

The hotel also would be near one of the waterfront’s planned piers. Shah said Carr is in negotiations to purchase boat slips from the development team, which would allow guests to arrive by boat. “Everybody gets on and off at the doorsteps of the hotel,” Shah said.

Back in April, Hoffman-Madison Waterfront selected Humboldt Hospitality to advise them on the sale of the hotel site.  Construction on the first phase of development at The Wharf is planned for the end of 2012.

Rendering courtesy of Hoffman-Madison Waterfront

A Few Quick Items: Wharf Hotel, Earth Day Clean-Up, Another Pizza Autentica Opens, Centennial Cherry Blossom Festival

- PR Newswire brings news that the Hoffman-Madison Waterfront team has selected Humboldt Hospitality to advise them on the sale or joint venture of their hotel site for phase one of The Wharf. The hotel is planned as a luxury, full service, four-star/diamond facility and will face the Washington Channel, adjacent to the future home of The Graduate School USA at 9th Street and Maine Avenue.

- According to the SW Library Playground Project blog, the group will be holding a spring clean-up of the proposed site for a new playground on Earth Day, April 23rd from 11am-1pm.  Everyone is welcome to come and help with the clean-up.  Items that are needed include work gloves and rakes, however, bags will be provided. The playground site is located at 3rd & I Street, next to the Southwest Library, which itself will be renovated over the next few years.

- Last Thursday, the second Pizza Autentica in Southwest opened on the ground floor of Capitol View, an office building at 425 3rd Street.  The new restaurant is open seven days a week (Monday - Friday from 7am-10pm and weekends from 11am-10pm). In addition to pizza, stromboli, salads and paninis, the restaurant serves breakfast on weekdays and also has gelato.

- Get ready for an extended cherry blossom festival...the National Cherry Blossom Festival organizers have announced that the centennial celebration of the gifting of cherry trees to DC by Japan will take place next year and the normal two-week festival will last five weeks. Next year's festival will run from March 20 - April 27, 2012.

Above rendering courtesy of Hoffman-Madison Waterfront.

Graduate School to Anchor The Wharf

It's been a big week for The Wharf, the redevelopment of the Southwest Waterfront by Hoffman-Madison Waterfront. Besides launching a slightly redesigned website with a new color scheme similar to the Baltimore Orioles, there was a press conference on Monday announcing the Washington Kastles would relocate to the development in a new stadium at the former Hogates site. Now, ahead of Mayor Gray's planned press conference tomorrow at the Southwest Waterfront, the Washington Business Journal broke the news that the Mayor will announce that the Graduate School will be moving to The Wharf. From the article:

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray is expected to announce Thursday that the Graduate School, currently headquartered at 600 Maryland Ave. SW, will build upward of 200,000 square feet at the Wharf, what Hoffman-Madison Waterfront is now calling its waterfront project. A press conference is scheduled for noon at 700 Water St. SW. "The Graduate School will be a significant anchor for The Wharf development on the Southwest DC waterfront," Linda Wharton Boyd, Gray's spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. "In keeping with the Gray administration agenda for education reform, fiscal stability and job creation, this development hits all three priorities. We are excited that they decided to expand their mission right here in this landmark waterfront development."

The Graduate School currently owns Southeastern University's campus building at 6th & I Street (pictured here), which shuttered in 2009 after losing its accreditation with the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. At one point, it was thought that the Graduate School would renovate or tear down the SEU building to relocate its school there, but now is in the process of trying to sell the campus building. One of the organizations looking to bid on the building is AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School, which came before ANC 6D in December to express their interest in expanding their presence in Southwest. At that meeting, the ANC voted 5-0-1 to support AppleTree's bid.

Phase one of development at The Wharf (from 7th to 9th Street) will get underway next year and should be ready by 2015.

Update: The Washington Post also has a story on the Graduate School, including a rendering of the building, which will be located at the corner of Maine Avenue & 9th Street. The Post also describes how the school will function. From the article:

[Graduate School President and Chief Executive Jerry] Ice said Graduate School USA will begin tailoring new programs to meet the needs of city government. "We have not been that kind of provider . . . and we think we are in a good position in a number of key issue areas to provide that locally," he said. The school also plans to open the doors of its new educational center to other colleges, universities and nonprofit groups offering programs that would help D.C. residents acquire skills needed to compete for local jobs.

Update #2: Here is a link to the press release from the Graduate School USA.

Update #3: The WBJ has another article about the Graduate School USA, stating that the school will take up all of the office component of phase one of development. Back in September, the Hoffman-Madison Waterfront team mentioned at their community presentation at Arena Stage that they were in talks with an office tenant for phase one, so I'm assuming that potential tenant was the Graduate School USA. The article also quotes a representative from the Graduate School USA speaking about the fate of the SEU campus building it owns: "All options are on the table for the property, including a sale."

AppleTree Exploring Bid to Buy Southeastern U. Building

A couple agenda items at last night's ANC 6D meeting dealt with Southeastern University, which closed its doors in August 2009. The first item was a resolution by Commissioner Sobelsohn to remove -SEU from the name of the Waterfront-SEU Metro station. The SEU campus and name was purchased by the GS Graduate School earlier this year. GS Graduate School has been mum on their plans for the building at 6th & I Street, but it appears that the school building may now be on the market. As a result, the ANC voted 3-0-1 to remove SEU from the Metro station name.

The second SEU-related item was that Jack McCarthy from AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School mentioned that the school is exploring the option of expanding its presence in Southwest by bidding on the SEU building. Currently, AppleTree does activities at Amidon-Bowen Elementary and Riverside Baptist Church locally, but does not have sufficient space to do all its programming. AppleTree also has a campus in Columbia Heights and Hill East. Cost estimates for renovating the SEU building for use by AppleTree is approximately $150/SF with about a third of the cost needed to upgrade building systems. Under the proposal offered by McCarthy, no floors would be added to the building, but some of the parking lot would be covered with playground equipment. AppleTree hopes to formally place their bid by mid-December and depending on the selection process, if the school is selected by GS Graduate School, McCarthy hopes to have some classrooms available by August 2011 when the new school year begins. After some discussion by the Commissioners and positive audience comments about the SEU building remaining a school under this proposal, the ANC voted 5-0-1 to support AppleTree's bid.

SEU Campus News

I'm passing along word I just received from ANC 6D Commissioner David Sobelsohn:

I have it on good authority that the Graduate School has purchased the former home of Southeastern University at 501 I St., SW. Formerly associated with the US Department of Agriculture, the Graduate School is now an independent educational institution. It currently holds classes in the Capital Gallery, 600 Maryland Ave., SW. But for much of the year classrooms are full every day. They need more space.

When the Graduate School opens on I Street, the school hopes to continue Southeastern’s close relationship with the community. But my sources report that the Southeastern building would need enormous work to rehabilitate, and that the Graduate School considers it currently close to uninhabitable. The Graduate School has commissioned an engineering study of Southeastern & is considering its options, from renovation to demolition.

The Graduate School has been meeting with elected officials in DC & SW. It expects to make an official announcement by April.

David C. Sobelsohn
Commissioner, ANC 6D02

Secretary, ANC 6D
(202) 484-8303

There was speculation about a year ago that Southeastern would merge with the GS Graduate School when it was having difficulty maintaining its accreditation with the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. GS Graduate School: Tear the building down and start from scratch I say!

Update: Here's an article from The Washington Post about the merger.