RSS FeedChinatown 1997, Ballpark 2007?
It was inevitable that the comparisons would be made. Add one cup dumpy neighborhood, one cup city government and one cup public-private development of a sports venue (and its surrounds) in a progressing economy and what do you get? The Ballpark District. Rewind to the mid-1990s and Chinatown could be described the same way; but, our story is not finished. New residential and commercial construction on empty lots is still underway in our area and lots of unoccupied retail spaces adorn our streets. The WaTimes rightly points out that it’s not as easy as it looks to get to critical mass and the cost of capital has risen since the Fed and regulators started clamping down on easy money. PQ Resident wishes future residents of the Ballpark District success in developing their own piece of ‘hood.
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The “Ballpark District” probably won’t truly realize it’s potential until the SW waterfront thing is done.
Most of the empty retail in our neighborhood is Jemal. The other developers do a fine job filling their space. Watch as Akridge finds retail tenants for Carroll Square while the Atlantic Building and Ventana’s retail spaces continue to sit empty….
ALL Jamal sites north of Mass Ave. NW are not moving forward. 9th and N- dead. 600 block of L St- dead.
Once the ballpark opens we’ll see how it goes.
Tax breaks and government subsidy (both city and federal)are the main reasons for the mixed-use development in the Gallery Place / Chinatown / Penn Quarter neighborhood. The neighborhood was on the office park trajectory until the stadium opened. Mayor Williams was a big part of the downtown residential push by spearheading time-dependent tax break legislation for developers to get started on their projects sooner rather than later. I can think of a number of projects directly affected by the legislation – Avalon at Gallery Place (a city government tax break recepient), Gallery Place (a city government TIF and tax break recipient), The Lafayette at Penn Quarter (developer bought land at discounted price from the now defunct Penn Avenue Redevelopment Corporation). And the list goes on and on.
Similarly, the Navy Yard area in Near Southeast was on an office park trajectory until the city offered land to build the new baseball stadium. Developers were going to develop the land, yes. As mostly office. But, at the drop of a dime, and at the same time the site was selected for the stadium, those same developers began switching their office projects to more mixed-use with residential and retail. The city, in a matter of weeks, cleared 21 acres of abandoned land, derelict properties, and boarded up eyesores. It was simply amazing how swift DC was able to accomplish that task once the lease agreement was signed. The city government is effectively throwing the Near Southeast neighborhood off of its office park trajectory into more of a liveable and exciting neighborhood. The city is to take the credit for this via Mayor Williams. They are doing this as part of the Mayor’s goal to inspire more people to live in the city. Don’t ever forget this.
It will be a long road to critical mass for the Near Southeast neighborhood, but, with private-public partnership on all levels, they will reach their goal.
And about the SW Waterfont – the AWC needs to gain official control of the land from the NCRC. Until that happens, no development can occur at that site. The DC Attorney General has a big part in the legal documents that have yet to be resolved. It has been 2 years now. How much longer will it take? Now that the DC Attorney General is stepping down, we better hope that the next one will be more timely and more efficient at the clearing up the legalities of economic development projects in our fair city than the current one does.
I seriously question Jemal’s strategy of “for lease/build to suit.” It seems that a boarded up/broken window shell would be much harder to market. Especially when there are concentrations of run down properties that make entire blocks look terrible. In the meantime we all have to live with his vast contribution to neighborhood blight and the vagrancy/prostitution it attracts. I hope the new historic preservation rules go into effect soon so he will be forced to fix buildings, at least in historic districts & stop this rampant demolition by neglect.
Developers (like Jemal) simply will not push residential construction when they can profit exponentially from office space construction. There’s just that much more money to make. And with the condo market cooling, there’s even less incentive for them to build mixed-use developments. But without that, NoMa/Navy Yard/SW Waterfront run the risk of looking like K Street @ 8pm circa 1985 (i.e., a ghosttown).
Well, hopefully Akridge will not be building the living quarters down there. They’re horrible! I can say that, b/c I live in an Akridge building at Gallery Place right now I want to get out of!
They threw it up and have had so many major issues that they just push down to the residents. They had a problem with leaking from the roof down into 7 stories of units, leaking in the commercial section, leaking through their crappy windows, a back-up generator that fails, the list could go on and on.
These are the last people who should be getting important projects like the ballpark area. I hope they get it better than we did!
Akridge and every other developer will have relatively minor problems with newly constructed buildings. That’s why they have warranties and punch-lists.
If the severity of the issues mentioned would be sufficient to disqualify a developer from future business in DC, then we’d probably have to disqualify all of them.
I met a bulding inspector who told me that new construction used to have lots of tests done before they would be released to new residents; but, since financing is done through banks, the developers now will move people into the buildings and see what faults emerge. Since these tests are no longer conducted, tere may be unknown problems in new constructions. Once again, consumers get screwed and developers walk away with extra money and less responsibility. And, let’s not forget the premiums in time and money charged for union-only (PLA) projects like Gallery Place. I am sure the unions can’t wait to keep out independent contractors in the SW.
Um, gpliving, do you know what you are talking about?
I wouldn’t call a major roofing leak that causes 10% of the residential units and over $200,000 worth of collective damage to those units, not to mention the money spent to replace to roof, minor.
Unless you have more money than I do.
And, when Akridge was called and e-mailed repeatedly about unit damage, they don’t respond.
And your managers aren’t doing anything about it, either.
Really. I think you might need to consider looking into things before suggesting that this type of problem minor.
Hey GPLiving – looks like someone is calling you out on the topic of development (staying on topic so you can’t not post this per your guidelines)? Do you have any contact with Akridge?
Anons: We don’t have any VIP access to condo boards, owner issues, or developers – we only know what you tell us!
All leaky windows aside, anything short of bankruptcy, lawsuits, or politics isn’t likely going to keep a developer out of the DC market.
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Not only has cost of capital gone up, but as I understand it the cost of steel has skyrocketed.
I think neigborhoods need more than a sports arena/stadium. In Gallery Place we have things that no other residential neighborhood can build – incredible location and an historic museum. The restaurants and retail can be built anywhere. In SE, they have a location close to downtown and the waterfront. I expect the development there to take a while but it will be very nice.