Microsoft setting up a game-changing "innovation center" on the east campus of St. Elizabeths in Ward 8? Mayor Vince Gray talked about it at THEARC last month, and it seems like his Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development is confident enough in the prospect that they're telling the community at large. From a presentation [...]

On the very southern tip of the District, there's a 905-acre federal reserve called the Joint Bolling-Anacostia Base (JBAB), consolidated in 2005 out of two separate installations. They've operated for decades without a Master Plan, despite a request from the National Capital Planning Commission that the Navy procure one. Finally, a plan has arrived—but the [...]

My column this week is about local hiring at the construction of the Department of Homeland Security headquarters at St. Elizabeths in Ward 8–why they've gotten better numbers than District projects, percentage-wise, and what that could mean for workforce development down the line. But the other piece of St. Elizabeths' impact is on opportunities for [...]

The solar coops are mustering.
Last month, the 12 existing groups dedicated to helping each other install solar panels convened for a summit. They don't have a name yet, but they have a leader: Mt. Pleasant activist Anya Schoolman. And they have the other component of sophisticated organizing: Committees.
There's not much time to waste. The solar [...]

Jonathan O'Connell's story today on the new Yes! Organic Market coming to Anacostia Fairlawn contained one mind-blowing nugget: Developer Tim Chapman offered retail space in the new 118-unit residential complex to Chipotle rent free. That's practically begging. Still, the burrito chain turned him down. And, verily, Chipotle has no locations outside of Northwest Washington, though [...]

I missed this News8 story from last week:

But how much was I missing really? A Washington Business Journal article from late August claims that Wal-Mart is "moving aggressively to work out a deal."
But Wal-Mart doled out a lukewarm response to News8's correspondent:

It's been six months since Clark Realty pulled out of the Poplar Point project—the massive development that was supposed make  Ward 8 "a destination point for people in the metropolitan area," as fervent local activist Philip Pannell put it. 
And it's been roughly the same amount of time since D.C. United started eyeing locations outside Poplar [...]

Ward 8 leader Philip Pannell
Last february, I interviewed a couple Ward 8 residents and civic leaders about the Poplar Point project. Many of them saw Poplar Point as Ward 8's only chance to be fundamentally and irreversibly revitalized. Others weren't too pumped about the proposal and losing green space. 
The plan included residences, offices, restaurants, a park and, [...]

Yesterday, the National Capital Planning Commission approved the Department of Homeland Security's plans to develop the campus of St. Elizabeths Hospital. As I've written about in the past, historic preservationists are highly protective of the site, a former insane asylum, Civil War hospital, and home to “the man who tried to shoot PresidentAndrew Jackson, the man who did [...]