The view from Capitol Riverfront’s 55 M Street, which just signed its first tenant.

The Capitol Riverfront hastened its slow trickle of tenants and businesses during the last few weeks. On Friday, Mayor Adrian Fenty announced that the city would be taking over a building, located at 225 Virginia Ave. SE on the northern border of the neighborhood. In two years, Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA), Office of Chief Technology Officer (OCTO), and District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH) will move into the newly renovated, 350,000-square-foot LEED Silver certified office building.

Yeah, city agencies! Just what a neighborhood needs to generate buzz  and inch onto people’s radars! Thankfully, there have been other new signs of life: As I previously noted, Harris Teeter signed a letter of intent to open a new location in the Capitol Riverfront. More recently—as in last week—the Washington Business Journal reported that a new Italian pizza/salad/sandwich joint will move into the recently completed Velocity Capitol Riverfront condo building.

Justin Ross, formerly of Austin Grill, is the owner, and he says he hopes to open in two months.

In addition, 55 M Street, SE—which hosted Artomatic this summer, introducing thousands of visitors to the neighborhood’s gaping holes and empty spaces—signed its first tenant in late October. “Sayres, a government services contractor providing engineering, technical, acquisition and program management, business financial and IT, and security analysis support to DoD, DoT, Homeland Security and other federal agencies, will locate its 20,000 SF headquarters in the new building,” according to a press release from Monument Realty.

“The store near the ballpark will be 50,000 square feet in the ground floor of a building planned for 401 M St. SE as part of Forest City’s major mixed-use waterfront development, The Yards,” the article states. Harris Teeter reps aren’t commenting about the rumored deal.

And it’s been roughly the same amount of time since D.C. United started eyeing locations outside Poplar Point for its new stadium. 

People needed some time cool off, understandably.

And there hasn’t been much in the news about Poplar Point since then. But perhaps the project’s starting to pick up steam again.

Today, the Washington Business Journal reports that another Anacostia developer, Forest City, has been selected to advise the city on Poplar Point’s “master planning, entitlements, financial feasibility, phasing strategies, infrastructure financing and disposition of the project,” according to a press release put out by Forest City Enterprises, Inc.

Forest City’s The Yards sits on the western bank of the Anacostia, in the Capitol Riverfront neighborhood, where work is slooooowwwwwly progressing. In late May, the city held a formal groundbreaking for the 5.4 acre Park at the Yards. 

Forest City was once interested in developing Poplar Point itself, according to the Business Journal. Now, it’s losing its shot:

But signing on as a consultant to the project means the company won’t be in the mix to the develop the property down the road. “Forest City will have no ownership interest in the Poplar Point project,” according to the release…

 Ratner said the company was looking to capitalize on current conditions to “to assist public and private stakeholders — including governments, land owners, lenders and other sponsors — with high-potential projects that have stalled or face other challenges related to economic and market difficulties. In response to this growing opportunity, we have created a multidisciplinary asset management and third-party services team that will focus on meeting the specialized needs of these stakeholders and projects.”

The great thing about Artomatic is that it often introduces people to construction-heavy neighborhoods where there’s not much going on otherwise.

Last year, the event was held in NoMa. This year, it’s in the Capitol Riverfront, home to Nationals Park and…that Five Guys that President Barack Obama visited recently.

Personally, I can’t wait for this neighborhood to become more than it currently is. Sometimes, one forgets that there are miles and miles of waterfront in Washington D.C. This neighborhood seems to be our best hope for District residents actually spending time near the water—and not just to wait in traffic to cross a bridge.

But alas, the Capitol Riverfront is far from complete. Here’s a short tour.

Ta da! The riverfront. This year, crews broke ground on two parks by the water: Diamond Teague Park at First and Potomac Streets and, very recently, The Park at the Yards to the east around 3rd and Water Streets.

Out this window, we see the Nationals’ Bullpen. Judging from this Capitol Riverfront map, it appears this site will be developed into a office/residential/retail building by Akridge.

Alas, I didn’t take a good shot of the depths of that big tan thing toward the bottom of the shot.

That’s a humongous hole. This lot belongs to Monument Realty’s Half Street project slated to become office, retail, a hotel, and housing. Monument has relied on Lehman Brothers heavily in the past, and with this project as well.

As Housing Complex reported earlier, today was the groundbreaking for The Park at the Yards, a 5.4 acre, $42 million park on the Anacostia in Capitol Riverfront.

According to the city’s announcement, the space will include “a riverfront promenade, vast open lawns for community gatherings and outdoor events, gardens with benches and colorful plants, a riverfront courtyard enclosed on three sides by retail pavilions, a canal basin and waterfall, a pedestrian bridge, and the restoration of the historic Lumber Shed building.”

And that’s all part of the bigger shebang, The Yards development directly behind it, where you will find almost everything—condos, retail and office space—though unfortunately probably not a Dogfish Head Alehouse, as was once rumored.

Expect big things, if only because the city’s announcement says the goal of the park is “is to rival other great urban waterfront parks around the world.”

Its designers are M. Paul Friedberg and Partners, who designed Battery Park City, Olympic Plaza (the 1988 Calgary Olympics—duh), and assorted other prominent urban expanses around the world.

Slowly but surely, the Capitol Riverfront is taking steps to become a place where people want to picnic, stroll, throw Frisbees, and do other riverfront activities that are drawn into artistic renderings.

Tomorrow, another big project is underway. At 10:30 a.m., the groundbreaking will be held for The Park at the Yards, a 5.4-acre park overlooking the Anacostia River.

Back in February, the city started constructing Diamond Teague Park, built at First Street and Potomac Avenue SE.

Naturally, the “Park at the Yards” will eventually be part of The Yards itself, which will include “2,800 residential units, for sale and for lease (available mid-2009); 1.8 million square feet of new office space (initial building available mid-2010); 400,000 square feet of retail shops and dining places (initial opening late-2009).”

But first, grass, open air!

Yeah, I’m not sure how to react to that number either. I mean 1,584 residents…Is that just super? Or is that terrible? The Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District says that this is the estimated population within their boundaries, as of their latest newsletter dated May 7, 2009.

On the one hand, the neighborhood’s being built from the ground up. On the other hand, that’s not a lot people to consider a base for drawing more businesses. The BID has had its triumphs (landing Artomatic, opening soon), and its disappointments (having Dogfish Head Alehouse lose interest in the neighborhood.)

It’s not exactly a hobby of mine to contemplate the neighborhood’s demographics. But, as you can see below, The Capitol Riverfront has about 2,000 existing/completed residential units.  The majority of the planned housing is just that: Planned, not currently under construction. Looks like the area’s going to be relatively quiet for a while longer.

Image by Joe Schlabotnik, Flickr Creative Commons

I just spotted the name in this Washington Business Journal article about an EYA 210-townhouse development supposedly located in…well…Capitol Quarter, described as “near two Metro stations and The Yards redevelopment along the Southeast waterfront that will offer parks, restaurants and retail.”

From that description, I believe we’re talking about an area within the Capitol Riverfront (confirmed by the group’s website), which is going through its own redefinition from such designations as “that neighborhood around the stadium,” “ballpark district,” “Near Southeast Waterfront,” “Southeast Federal Center,” “Washington Navy Yard,” and “Navy Yard,” the name of the nearby Metro station, as I wrote back in December.

Well I just got a press release from the BID about their upcoming first annual luncheon, at which the “State of the Capitol Riverfront” report will be disseminated. There were a few random facts—teasers if you will—on the press release. This one caught my eye:

“The perception of the BID as clean or very clean increased from 6% a week before clean & safe service began in 2007 to 58.4% after one year of operation.”

Others follow.

From the press release:

· The $687.5 million Nationals Park hosted more than 2.3 million visitors

· Three residential buildings delivered totaling $333 million and 960 units

· One $100 million office building with 225,000 SF of office and 15,000 SF of retail

· Six projects are currently under construction comprising 767 residential units, 654,000 SF of office, 54,000 SF of retail, and a total of $497 million.

· The perception of the BID as clean or very clean increased from 6% a week before clean & safe service began in 2007 to 58.4% after one year of operation

· Enhancement of public realm with installation of new trash cans, hanging banners, painting of the light poles, and planting tree boxes

· Three successful weekly events: A farmers market May-November; a lunchtime concert series May-July, and an evening outdoor movie series June-August.

Michael Stevens, Executive Director for the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District

Developing a Name for the Southeast Waterfront Is Easier Than Actually Developing It

The sidewalks of Half Street SE are loaded with people who are walking by whizzing cars, chatting on street corners, and strolling past bright storefront signs. In short, they’re out and about enjoying their gloriously developed, mixed-use, walkable, center city, riverfront community-as well they should.

But these are not your average living, breathing gentrifiers: They’re artistic renderings on signs posted along Monument Realty’s Half Street construction site. The real sidewalks are desolate. At the end of the block, Nationals Park sits empty, although there’s a security guard out front.

When asked about the best directions to the riverfront, he points up toward M Street and then gestures west. He’s not talking about the Southeast D.C. shoreline of the Anacostia River, which is only about two blocks south, but points instead to the Southwest Waterfront, in an entirely different quadrant of the city.

Clearly, he does not know he is smack within the “Capitol Riverfront.”

Not familiar with this District locale? The Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District (BID) is hoping that will change. Beginning in late 2006, property owners, developers, and the BID board members began batting around new names to identify the 500-acre area known by a variety of names: “that neighborhood around the stadium,” “ballpark district,” “Near Southeast Waterfront,” “Southeast Federal Center,” “Washington Navy Yard,” and “Navy Yard,” the name of the nearby Metro station. (City Paper attempted to make “Nats Flats” stick, but it never quite caught on.)

In the next 20 years, the Capitol Riverfront BID expects the area to hold 15 million square feet of office space, more than 9,100 residential units, 1 million square feet of retail, restaurants, grocery stores, movie theaters and other entertainment spaces, 1,200 hotel rooms, and four parks.

With all that development on the horizon, neighborhood stakeholders decided it was time to redefine the neighborhood according to its latest vision. According to Michael Stevens, the BID’s executive director, this will be a place where “you can park your car and walk to two grocery stores, walk to where you work, walk to the Metro, and catch it to downtown, walk to the riverfront and get on the Riverwalk Trail for a jog or a bike ride, go play Frisbee by the river, listen to a concert, go to a baseball game, go up to Barracks Row on Capitol Hill and eat dinner or eat dinner in one of the restaurants [down by the Anacostia].”

The BID hired local marketing firm the Ad Agency, which researched the area and interviewed property owners before generating several possible neighborhood names.

“We knew we wanted a name that was somewhat of a geographic locator for this area-hence the name ‘Capitol Riverfront.’ We’re halfway between the river and the Capitol,” says Stevens.
Soon, the Ad Agency developed a neighborhood logo: two squiggly lines meant to represent waves.

These days, the name shows up on signs that hang from lampposts on M Street SE. Local developers seem willing to get on board. “Velocity Capitol Riverfront” is the name of a 200-unit condominium building at the corner of 1st and L Streets SE that’s set to be completed in 2009. Another nearby apartment building, the Onyx on First, also mentions the new neighborhood moniker on the front page of its Web site: “At Onyx on First, you’re just two blocks from the new ball park and right in the heart of the excitement of the Capitol Riverfront.”

Yet there’s not much to see at the riverfront now. Right behind the stadium is a beige cement mixing plant with trucks crawling around like beetles between piles of gravel. Over on South Capitol Street, cars buzz by a Public Storage and shabby storefronts on their way to the Frederick Douglass Bridge. Anyone who stops long enough to look for a restaurant is pretty much limited to the Five Guys on New Jersey Avenue.

Next year is supposed to see the opening of Diamond Teague Park, a “public plaza” with water taxi stands. In mid 2010, the Park at the Yards, a five-and-a-half-acre space, will open in front of a mixed-use project called the Yards Park Pavilion. For the time being, though, locals might want to head up to the Capitol for green space.

Given its current state, it’s no wonder “Capitol Riverfront” hasn’t quite caught on with local real estate agents. Don Denton is the branch vice president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage of Capitol Hill. He says he heard the new name a year and a half ago, but still considers the area Capitol Hill.
“When you’re talking about the identity of a neighborhood from a marketing standpoint, [you] want to be identified with the neighborhood that’s perceived to be successful and, quite frankly, reasonably expensive,” he says. The name “Capitol Riverfront,” he says, still doesn’t have the cachet.

Jim Simpson, also an agent with Coldwell Banker Capitol Hill, has lived in the southeast Capitol Hill area for 20 years. He’s worked with a few clients who’ve bought co-op units in the Capitol Hill Tower on New Jersey Avenue. He still thinks of the area as “down by the ballpark.” Occasionally, he walks his dog around there just for a change of scenery. “But there’s not really much to see yet,” he says-something that Stevens recognizes too.

“You have to take a longer view of this situation,” he says. “This is a 20-year build-out, which will be pretty remarkable in the life cycle of the city.” Stevens points out that “NoMa”-North of Massachusetts Avenue, which also has its own BID group-didn’t catch on for some time. “Capitol Riverfront” has been in circulation for les than two years. Stevens has no regrets about the choice, even if the glorious shoreline vision won’t be fully realized right away.

“Am I disappointed we don’t have more retail and restaurants? Yes,” he says. “The immediate gratification part of me wishes I had that yesterday. But, I realize I’m in this for the long haul.”

Photo by Darrow Montgomery. 

This article will appear in the December 11 issue of the Washington City Paper.