It’s been nearly five years in the making, but construction of Tenleytown’s new library is finally underway. The mayor kicked off the project with an official groundbreaking this morning.

As I wrote this spring, the city once planned to build a more ambitious mixed-use development with housing at the site. A public/private partnership could have funneled money to nearby Janney Elementary School.

Read More “Finally, City Breaks Ground on Tenleytown Library” »

I can’t keep up with—nor do I want to keep up with—all the twists and turns in the Tenleytown Library saga. By this point, there have been so many acts in this drama, it’s damn near impossible to recall them all.

But if you’re new to this epic, allow me to offer a pithy summary: The Tenleytown library closed ages ago. The city wanted to construct a big, mixed-use development project (plus a library) at the building site, but residents disapproved. So now they want to move forward and simply get a new library. But the city officials are still hooked on the old concept.

(If you want more details, check out these recent updates: Tenleytown Library Project Moving Forward Despite Fenty Expectations 11/21/2008 and Albert Stands Ground On Tenleytown Library Project 1/22/2009.)

Read More “Tenleytown Library Project Rally Tomorrow!” »

A week ago today, I attended an auction downtown for a prime piece of property in Tenleytown, at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Brandywine Street, N.W.

After a tension-filled bidding war with a representative from American University, developer Doug Jemal came away with the win. For five million dollars, he strolled out of the building with rights to the property and a thick roll of architectural plans within his possession (though someone else was carrying them, so Jemal was free to glad-hand).

Read More “What’s Doug Jemal Going to Do With the Maxim?” »

It’s a prime piece of real estate, right there at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Brandywine Street NW. It has potential in all the mixed-use ways that make urban designers drool.

And so Tenleytown’s Maxim building started out with a bidding price of $5 million today in a foreclosure auction at a downtown law firm. The previous mixed-use project for the property fell through.

When the bidding started, the scene resembled a typical recent day at the New York Stock Exchange. No one wanted to buy at the starting price. Silence. An estimated 60 people crowded around a conference table.

So then someone threw out a bid of about 2.5 million bucks, and auctioneer Tranzon was in business. Bidders then went back and forth, driving the price up to $3.7 million. Then they lost interest, perhaps considering that this strip of Wisconsin Avenue has long been a boring and unhip place to do anything in the District of Columbia.

A ceiling appeared to have been hit. $3.7 million–that was $1.3 million lower than where the bidding started. So the auction recessed for a bit, while officials from Columbia Bank discussed whether they’d move forward with the auction. Read More “Tenleytown’s Maxim Goes for $5 Million–to Doug Jemal” »

For years, it seems, I’ve passed by the Maxim in Tenleytown. The building was supposed to be turned into a 42-unit residential project at 4600 Wisconsin Avenue and Brandywine Street NW. But with a name like “Maxim” in that masculine, tryin’-to-be-sleek-and-sexy font, the signs projected more Maxim Magazine than principles and proverbs.

Either way, the project is now fully defunct. Columbia Bank is auctioning off the foreclosure property on February 5. (Hat tip to Buildingdc.com for spotting the upcoming sale first.) More than 50 developers have called with questions about the building since the auction notice began circulating a week and a half ago, according to Jeff Stein, a representative for Tranzon International, which is handling the sale. The city government is not among them.

Read More “On the Auction Block: The Maxim in Tenleytown” »

Tenleytown mixed-use development by the Metro.

DCmud has posted a letter from Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Neil Albert regarding the Tenleytown Library.

The library shut down in 2004. Since then, the community and the city have gone back and forth on how to rebuild the facility, which is located close to the area’s Metro station. The city wanted to build a mixed-use project with housing there. The library’s Board of Trustees listened. Then, in November, they got tired of waiting for a plan they liked, and decided they wanted to move forward, and get their new Tenleytown library already.

Read More “Albert Stands Ground On Tenleytown Library Project” »