301 M Street Starting Construction in Short Order

The Bernstein Companies is gearing up for construction to begin in the coming weeks at 301 M Street, one of three new residential buildings planned on a stretch of M Street from 6th Street to Delaware Avenue which are expected to start this year. Plans call for about 190 apartment units in an 11-story building with some ground floor retail. This new building at Town Center East will be constructed on what is currently the parking lot for Waterfront Tower condos. In fact, the parking lot has already been emptied and a construction fence will soon be placed around it. Before construction can begin, a fence will be built on the west side of the property to give residents of Waterfront Tower a temporary access point to the property, since the current entrance on the south side will be blocked off due to construction activity. 

Construction of the first new building at Town Center East will be followed with a second building. Two years after 301 M Street receives its certificate of occupancy, construction can begin on the mirror image building planned for the K Street parking lot used by 1001 @ Waterfront apartments as well as renovations to 1001 @ Waterfront. In addition to 301 M Street, construction should also start soon at the St. Matthew’s redevelopment, located at M Street and Delaware Avenue, as well as The View at 6th and M streets, which is expected to begin in June.

The View

St. Matthew's

Renderings courtesy of Maurice Walters Architect, PC, Shalom Baranes Associates, and SK&I Architecture

2013 in Review

Since 2013 has come to a close, let’s take a brief look back at the major events that shaped the year in Southwest and what is in store for 2014. 

The Wharf 

Arguably the largest development project in Southwest took a major step forward in 2013 when the Zoning Commission approved the Stage 2 Planned Unit Development (PUD) application for phase one of the Wharf. While ground breaking was supposed to occur by the end of 2013, the timeline has slipped to 2014 since a financing agreement has not been made public yet. Meanwhile, the houseboats at the Gangplank Marina were moved this fall to make way for construction and businesses along the waterfront were given notice to vacate within five months. 

Rendering courtesy of Hoffman-Madison Waterfront

Apartment Wave Hits Southwest 

Leasing began in April at Camden South Capitol, the first new rental apartment building to open in Southwest in decades. So far, more than half of the units at the 276-unit building have been leased; however, the ground floor retail space at South Capitol and O streets is still vacant. Camden hopes to attract a restaurant to the space, located across the street from Nationals Park. 

In addition, leasing was supposed to begin on December 2 at the East tower of Sky House, the adaptive reuse of the former EPA towers at Waterfront Station, but it was delayed by a month to January 2. There are a total of 266 units at the East tower, located at 1150 4th Street, with 20% set aside as affordable housing for residents earning up to 50% of Area Median Income. A second 264-unit tower will open in spring 2014 at 1151 4th Street. 

Waterfront Station 

Aside from Sky House, other activity is underway at Waterfront Station. The last retailer to open along 4th Street was Z-Burger back in 2012. Since then, it was learned in May that the two vacant storefronts on the northern end of 1101 4th Street have been leased by restaurateur Atul Bhola to open Masala Art, an Indian restaurant. This would be the second Masala Art restaurant – the other restaurant is located in Tenleytown. Building permits are stuck on the windows and visible work on the tenant build-out began in November. It is rumored that the restaurant will open in June 2014. This leaves two vacant retail spaces at Waterfront Station – one each at 1100 and 1101 4th Street. 

Meanwhile, planning is underway for a residential building by Forest City and Vornado on the vacant northwest parcel next to the future Masala Art. A PUD was filed in late 2012 and the project went through the zoning approval process in 2013, with PUD approval received in September. The 360-unit building will have all market-rate units and approximately 5,300 square feet of ground floor retail space. There will be 12 two-level townhouse units with private entrances on Makemie Place and along a private drive to be built to the north of the project. Construction may begin sometime in 2014. 

Rendering courtesy of Waterfront 1001 4th Street, LLC

Town Center East 

In June, HPRB designated both multifamily buildings at Town Center East and the grounds as historic. The buildings, located on 3rd Street between K Street and M Street, were designed by I.M. Pei and built in 1960-61. The owners at Waterfront Tower, along with the Southwest Neighborhood Assembly, applied for historic designation in response to a PUD submitted by The Bernstein Companies to build two large multifamily buildings on the parking lots of the existing Pei buildings and a smaller building on the courtyard separating the two existing buildings. After the HPRB designation, the Bernstein Companies altered their plans and among several things, removed a small building that was to be built along 3rd Street. After reviewing the changes, the ANC reversed their prior disapproval with the PUD and offered conditional support in September.

Rendering courtesy of Maurice Walters Architect, PC

Randall 

 

A contentious proposal to build a charter high school for KIPP DC kept the future of the Randall Recreation Center site at South Capitol and I streets in limbo. Back in the fall of 2012, the District government announced that Randall would be one of 32 playgrounds across the city that it would improve during the 2013 fiscal year. In addition, the plaza area facing I Street would be upgraded with a skate park and fountains. The project was put on hold while the KIPP proposal was being vetted, but ultimately, the city decided against the KIPP proposal. It’s unknown at this point when the playground and plaza area will be improved, but presumably it will happen sometime in 2014. Meanwhile, some limited programming was implemented over the summer at the recreation center, which has been underfunded and underutilized for years. More robust programming is now underway, which started this week. 

Next door to the pool and recreation center, Telesis/Rubell have been advancing their plans for the Randall Junior High School site. According to the revised PUD, a non-profit contemporary art museum from the collection of the Rubell family will be located in the original 1906 center building - the first floor of the museum will be used as a community cultural space that is open to the public, with an art gallery featuring local artists, 100-seat auditorium, library, bookstore, café, and meeting space. The upper two levels will house the museum exhibits. Other arts-related uses will be located in the west wing – perhaps a culinary incubator. A destination restaurant with outdoor seating will be in the east wing (both wings were built in 1927). Behind the center building, a new three-story addition will house additional exhibition space for the art museum. Two 12-story towers with 550 residential units will wrap behind the historic buildings and courtyard. The courtyard will be open to the public and six commercial spaces may be created on the ground level facing the courtyard containing artist studios. Twenty percent of the residential units will be set aside as affordable to households earning up to 80% of AMI. The ANC gave qualified support for the PUD and the Historic Preservation Review Board approved the project in November, while the Zoning Commission generally showed support for the project at the hearing in December. The PUD is likely to receive approval during the first half of 2014 with construction on the first phase (including the historic buildings and at least one of the residential buildings) either in late 2014 or 2015. 

Rendering courtesy of  Bing Thom Architects

ANC 6D Offers Conditional Support to Town Center East PUD

At tonight's ANC 6D meeting, the commissioners voted 4-0-1 to give conditional support to the Town Center East PUD. Several changes have been made to the project by The Bernstein Companies as a result of the ANC's last vote back in May to not support the PUD.  Also since the last vote, the original I.M. Pei buildings and open space on the site have been designated historic by the Historic Preservation Review Board.  As a result, the project now needs approval from the HPRB in addition to the Zoning Commission.

The proposed center building has been removed from the project.

One big change to the project is the removal of the center building, which is a result of the historic designation of the open space between the Pei buildings. That, along with design changes to the new north & south buildings (all four corners of each building have been pushed in), have resulted in the reduction of 45 units from the project.  Other changes include:

• The metal fence on top of the wall along 3rd Street has been removed. 
• One foot of sidewalk along 3rd Street will be removed to add green space.
• Usable balconies have been removed from the new buildings and replaced with juliet balconies. 
• The balconies will have frosted glass panels three feet, six inches tall to provide some privacy.
• The motor courts on the west side of the new buildings have been reduced a bit in size.
• More fenestration will occur on the 3rd Street edge of the new buildings, which uses more glass and more closely matches the window style of the Pei buildings.
• A more simple brick will be used since the increased fenestration results in less brick on the buildings on 3rd Street.
• The courtyard will have more green space.
• Some ideas have been presented for improved accessibility for Waterfront Tower residents with mobility issues.
• Discussions are underway for signage for Waterfront Tower, including pylons and numbers on the building.
• A lighting plan has been developed with a variety of options, including overhead lights, lower bollard lights, uplighting of trees, etc. 

 

Older rendering from M Street.

Revised rendering from M Street.

The Waterfront Tower Home Owners Association is still not satisfied with the changes made and the lack of meetings between the developer and the HOA. Several homeowners were present at the meeting to express their concerns. Representatives from SWNA were also at the meeting and stated that the revised design is not worthy of being next to the historic I.M. Pei buildings. The ANC's conditional approval of the PUD is contingent on the developers addressing a variety of concerns to the satisfaction of the ANC before the October 7 Zoning Commission meeting.

Renderings courtesy of Maurice Walters Architects  

Waterfront Webcam

Two webcams have been set up showing the excavation progress at the Waterfront site over the past eight months. Demolition looks to be just about complete at the old Waterside Mall, a failed town center development built in the sixties. Piledrivers are still on site as excavation is ongoing. The Office of Tax & Revenue and DCRA are already signed up as tenants in 500,000 SF of office space that will be part of phase one of this redevelopment by Forest City Washington and Vornado.