Sure, you might notice the size of W.C. Smith's newly-for-real apartment building on New Jersey Avenue in the Capitol Riverfront, at a whopping 433 units. You might also notice the even more massive amount of parking it's planning to offer—three full levels underground—and that W.C. Smith's man on the project, Konrad Schlater, also sits on the Zoning Commission.

But the more aesthetically minded will observe the architecture, by local heavyweight Phil Esocoff: A wavy, tan-brick facade and dramatic roofline, very much like 400 Massachusetts, the Dumont, 2401 Pennsylvania Avenue, and Post Mass Avenue. Esocoff has another building in the Riverfront neighborhood—the Onyx—but the "Park Chelsea" will be the first to employ his most signature style (his other signature style, a kind of blocky take on Washington's rowhouse neighborhoods, is dotted around Capitol Hill).

If we can read anything into this facade, it's the upscaling of an area that's so far seen mostly utilitarian, institutional architecture. Unfortunately, it also continues the pattern of paying little attention to the street level, with only 1,500 square feet of ground floor retail—not much for such a massive building (after the death of plans for a Whole Foods there, W.C. Smith might have given up on it altogether).

Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells once complained about the quality of the pedestrian experience in the blocks around the Navy Yard Metro station—and said that if they'd been designed today, livable-walkable mores would have translated into better design. "There is no question that there would have been more attention to the architectural design flair at the pedestrian level rather than at the top of the buildings," he told me. "If you look at the top of the buildings, they have different designs to them, but at the base of the buildings, they’re all the same."

It's not clear that the Park Chelsea's any improvement in that regard.

250 M Street SE is waiting for tenants before getting started. (W.C. Smith)

Matt Yglesias responds to David Alpert's analysis of the Gray transition's weirdly non-transit-oriented economic development report by saying that we can't start thinking about how to move people in and out of the city until there's more space for them to work:

Downtown DC is full. There’s basically no land left to build on, and you’re not allowed to build higher. If you make it a more attractive place to locate jobs, no additional jobs will be created because there’s noplace to put the jobs. The improved quality will show up as higher rent for landlords, and our rents are already the highest in the nation. If you relaxed the height limit, the high rents would spur new construction (=jobs) which would lead to lower rent per square foot which would make downtown, DC a more attractive employment destination.

True enough. I'm certainly on record in enough places opposing height restrictions, not least because I think developers should be able to build tall in places where it's economically advantageous to do so, and the office rent pressure is strongest downtown.

But to say that "there's noplace left to put jobs" is simplistic. Although many office projects stalled during the recession, they're starting up again in a big way around the city, from Mount Vernon Square to Anacostia. On the longer term horizon, massive office capacity is planned for McMillan, L'Enfant Plaza, and the Capitol Riverfront. Recent changes in who gets what at Walter Reed–the District may now get all of the Georgia Avenue frontage–has Office of Planning director Harriet Tregoning thinking about "more ambitious uses" like a "major employment center." The list goes on. So yes, rents are high, but jobs are still coming, and there's plenty of space to put them–in places that could really use the lift.

Expect more of this. (Darrow Montgomery)

2010 was a big year for development in the District.

Capital markets unfroze, allowing a slew of stalled projects to break ground. Large empty spaces in the architecturally uninspired NoMa and Capitol Riverfront business improvement districts finally started to fill out. A Web-savvy smart growth constituency became a force in planning and politics, and car-centric suburbs awoke to the need for walkability, density, and transit. Meanwhile, a once-popular mayor went down in part because of a sense that he was building too fast and consulting too little with the people affected.

D.C. might have lost its chance at a future World Cup in 2010, but it won the undisputed title of the nation’s fastest growing, most dynamic urban center. We’re No. 1 in job creation and real estate values. All of that has sent cranes rising around the city, and sets D.C. up for a crackerjack 2011—even if a slowdown in city-subsidized building projects takes the edge off a bit.

So what’s on deck for the District this year? Let’s break it down.

For flying dirt, look to Ward 7:

Mayor Vince Gray’s home base will get going in a big way in 2011. Skyland Town Center, a massive mall and condo development at the corner of Good Hope Road SE and Alabama Avenue, made it through the zoning process last summer. If ongoing legal challenges get resolved, demolition could begin by the end of the year. Meanwhile, senior housing and townhouses will kick off the 15.5-acre Parkside development. And Donatelli Development and Blue Skye construction are expected to start work on a 473-unit residential and retail complex at Minnesota Avenue SE and Benning Road SE this spring.

Getting District real estate off the books:

The pace of construction of city facilities like recreation centers, schools, and libraries will probably let up, both because there’s just barely enough money to keep the lights on these days, and because Gray’s priorities are more centered around getting D.C. residents employed than getting concrete in the ground. Nonetheless, there are still a slew of District properties that will likely either be sold to developers or move forward as public-private partnerships.

• In the last weeks of his administration, Adrian Fenty recommended that the landmarked Franklin School on 13th and K streets NW be sold to a private developer. Though a number of advocacy groups want the deteriorating building to be redeveloped for low-income housing, a social services facility, or educational use—on the campaign trail, Gray expressed a preference for the University of the District of Columbia Law School—it’s unclear where 20-odd million dollars would come from to do that. Selling the building to a boutique hotelier might be the only way to finance its renovation (although with the number of hotels already in the works around the city, the business case for another one seems shaky).

• The historic white-brick Stevens School on 21st Street NW between K and L streets, is back in play after community groups got the Fenty administration to yank the building from a private developer that had previously been cleared to renovate it as multifamily housing. Some preferred Don Peebles’s proposal to turn it into yet another luxury hotel, but the latest buzz favors a charter school, a case that will be strengthened by the D.C. Council’s recent vote to give charters the first crack at all school buildings the District decides to unload.

• Speaking of charter schools: The council will also have to decide whether to follow through with a Fenty-backed plan to lease the J.F. Cook School on P Street NW near North Capitol Street to a partnership of the alternative education non-profit YouthBuild and the Latin American Youth Center, which plans to put 47 apartments on the top floor for at-risk youth. Some community members have protested, but with the group’s financing nearly in place and a clear need for transitional youth facilities in the city, the council may plug its ears and let the plan move forward anyway.

• The city will offer a request for proposals for St. Elizabeths East Campus, which is supposed to be transformed into offices and housing for middle-income folks. The proposal will be crafted to help a developer get a chunk of federal funds for sustainable community development, but considering they’re already plowing $3.4 billion into the Department of Homeland Security across the street, there may not be much cash left.

• Plans for the McMillan Sand Filtration Site will hit the Zoning Commission and Historic Preservation Review Board, but the big question remains whether the city will come up with enough money—estimated at $60 million, likely doled out in chunks—to help keep the project moving.

• There will be some re-jiggering of the map at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where the federal General Services Administration has decided it doesn’t need to keep a full 30 acres after all. That could free up more valuable Georgia Avenue frontage for the District to play with, but also make for more meetings and votes to decide what to do with the Walter Reed site.

• The D.C. Housing Authority is set to finish a number of renovations at housing projects in LeDroit Park and Washington Highlands, and is hoping for another HOPE VI award at Highland Additions. That would mean more mixed-income housing there, along the lines of the Capper/Carrollsburg buildings near the ballpark.

• The Fenty administration ran out the clock on Hill East, where neighbors have been waiting for the contract on the 67-acre development to go to a team led by Gray buddy William C. Smith. The developer plans a heavily residential mix on the site. Gray may decide to break the logjam, or he may let it lie until more funds become available.

Shakeup at the Historic Preservation Review Board:

Five of the nine seats on the board that reviews historically significant projects are set to expire this year, giving the new mayor the chance to reward staunch supporters from more traditionalist groups like the Committee of 100, Capitol Hill Restoration Society, and Dupont Circle Conservancy. Meanwhile, the office–now with a Facebook page!–will formulate a new five-year plan that will focus more on outreach, reflecting chairwoman Catherine Buell’s push to get neighborhoods not so far concerned with historic preservation more involved.

In the Wilson Building:

• Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr., newly elevated to the chairmanship of the Committee on Economic Development, won’t fight particularly hard for conscientious neighborhood planning over big box development.

• It’s going to be a lot harder to land public incentives for development projects, after the backlash against a wave of reluctantly-approved tax abatements at the end of the 2010 D.C. Council session—particularly a $46 million deal for a luxury hotel in Adams Morgan. In the new age of fiscal austerity, At-Large Councilmember Michael A. Brown’s proposal to develop a way to comprehensively and systematically vet all those giveaways may gain some traction.

• Closing a $400 million budget hole will be tremendously painful, since there’s not room in many public agencies to cut: Building inspectors? Police officers? Trash pickup? Emergency rental assistance? Basic city services spared this time around could face reductions come fall, if Gray and the council don’t pass some significant tax increases.

• Gray could set up a redevelopment authority like those in Baltimore and Pittsburgh, consolidating real estate functions at several agencies to bring land into productive use.

In your houses:

• Inventory of homes for sale is really low in popular D.C. neighborhoods like Brookland, Shaw, and Columbia Heights, while most condo and townhouse projects in the works won’t deliver until 2012 or later. That means continued high prices—and pressure on the rental market, as people defer buying and stick to apartments.

• This could be the year the District’s most long-running listings, like the $29.5 million Evermay Estate on 28th Street NW in Georgetown, finally sell—although if they do, I’m betting on some Middle Eastern oil magnate, rather than the kinds of American businessmen and diplomats who’ve owned it historically.

• Sales of multifamily buildings will likely continue at a quick clip, but since city money isn’t available to help assist tenant purchases, more of them could be the kind of creative financing arrangements where a third-party buyer agrees with tenants to buy the building and promises certain protections or improvements.

• Foreclosures of single-family homes will slow down, since recent legislation mandating mediation gives owners every chance in the world to hang on to their houses. At the same time, foreclosures on multifamily buildings—which already started in 2010—could increase, meaning banks become landlords until they manage to sell off the units. Turnover of vacant and blighted properties will also increase, since a new 10 percent tax rate makes it more expensive to hang on to them for long periods of time.

In your neighborhood:

• A few sparks have already flown in neighborhoods targeted for one of the District’s five allowed medical marijuana dispensaries. Expect flare-ups to continue. No community will likely welcome pot shops with open arms, but after the first is established somewhere—perhaps even a high-income, low-crime area like Georgetown, which also has a pawnshop—fear of the unknown will wear off.

• After MidCity’s successful effort to change elements of its zoning overlay—which restricted the number of bars and restaurants that could operate along 14th and U streets NW—the Office of Planning will likely entertain requests from other neighborhoods, like Barracks Row and Cleveland Park, to revisit outdated regulations that have stifled their growth.

• Walmart’s march will continue apace. The Ward 6 store will probably be the first to break ground, since it won’t have to go through extensive city review and hasn’t encountered significant resistance from the neighbors. The three others may take longer to get their approvals, but barring unforeseen changes of heart by developers or councilmembers, they’ll get there eventually.

The study area.

In some parts of the city, building heights are limited to 90 feet, in others to 130 feet, by Congressional decree. But some areas have been kept even lower with self-imposed zoning overlays, and one of them—8^th Street SE below the freeway—has outgrown its usefulness, says a “visioning report” put out by local organizations.

At the suggestion of the Office of Planning, the Capitol Riverfront BID and Barracks Row Main Streets convened a series of sessions with other local groups and residents to figure out what to do with the several blocks between 7^th and 11^th Streets SE, north of M Street. Aside from a few restaurants and historic structures, it feels cut off from the rest of Barracks Row, lost in the cluster of highways.

It’s not like that entirely by sad historical accident. In 1999, the area was placed under a 45’ height limit as a way to preserve the historic building inventory after the relocation of the Naval Sea Operations from Northern Virginia to the Navy Yard. No historic buildings have been destroyed—but not much has been built, either.

To help attract investment, the visioning people commissioned some sketches of what new buildings at 65 and 85 feet would look like. They decided that heights should stay low along 8^th Street, but could go higher on the surrounding blocs, subject to several conditions:

• Community involvement in the development of and review of the proposed plans.
• The renovation and re-purposing of significant historic structures as a meaningful part of the overall project.
• The quality of the proposed development’s site plan, massing, and architecture.

Not gigantic new buildings. Just enough to attract people under the freeway, with an opportunity for community leverage over design standards in exchange for greater height.

It's the new fashion at the Office of Planning to respond to well-organized proposals from broad coalitions of neighborhood stakeholders, so this report could be the first step in the long process towards a text amendment to the overlay, such as the one obtained in Midcity to relax restrictions on bars and restaurants.

What the area could look like with some taller buildings.

Click on the image to see it enlarged in another screen. (The chart is from the Capitol Riverfront BID's "State of the Capitol Riverfront" report.)

All hail the Peeps.

The Capitol Riverfront—otherwise known as the Nationals Park area—is still struggling for name recognition. But it had a number of successes this year, including hosting the area's tenth Artomatic exhibit, featuring the popular Peeps diorama competition. The neighborhood also signed some new tenants. A new condo building, the Velocity Capitol Riverfront, opened.  And the Nats hit new attendance numbers (you can credit the visiting team for that success though.)

In mid December, the Capitol Riverfront BID presented a "State of the Capitol Riverfront" report, showing that 2,500 people now live in the area. The BID hopes to welcome 500 more next year.

The area itself is still far from completion as the above chart shows. But in the meanwhile, the BID is clearly pushing for as much as publicity as possible—and I know this because one whole presentation slide (22) just features the quote "There is no such thing as bad press.”

The next slide goes on to note that the Capitol Riverfront was featured 120 times in the press in FY09 and has over 400 fans on Facebook.

So glad to be of some assistance, I guess ?

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.