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The District's smoking
ban, modeled closely on New York City's, would apply
immediately to all restaurant dining rooms and would
be extended to bars, nightclubs, taverns and the bar
areas of restaurants in January 2007.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/04/AR2006010401310.html
Top Williams Lobbyist to
Resign
Official Has Been
Link Between Mayor, Council
on Stadium
By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 3, 2006; Page B02
District Mayor Anthony
A. Williams's chief lobbyist announced his resignation
yesterday, leaving the mayor to push an ambitious
agenda during his final days in office without his
most experienced liaison to the DC Council and the
U.S. Congress.
Gregory M. McCarthy, the
mayor's deputy chief of staff for policy and
legislative affairs, said he is leaving his
high-pressure post to spend more time with his parents
and to plot the next step in his professional life.
His last day will be Feb. 24.
"From the bottom of my
heart, I'm leaving because I just have to focus on
some new challenges," McCarthy said. "There's no other
story there."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/02/AR2006010201508.html
Stadium Talks Continue
on Eve of Deadline
Lead DC Negotiator
Says City Could Have New Package of Options Ready by
Midweek
By David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 1, 2006; Page C04
District officials and
Major League Baseball representatives continued
discussions yesterday on ways to cover rising costs of
a new ballpark project as a major deadline passed with
no agreement on the critical stadium lease deal.
Baseball President
Robert A. DuPuy has threatened to take the city to
arbitration unless the lease was completed by midnight
last night. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) withdrew the
lease from DC Council consideration two weeks ago
after it became clear he did not have enough support.
His aides have said they will resubmit the document by
mid-January at the earliest.
Top baseball executives
were on vacation and could not be reached for comment
on the arbitration issue, a Major League Baseball
spokesman said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/31/AR2005123101010.html
Baseball to Seek
Arbitration Over DC Stadium
By David Nakamura and Thomas Heath
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, January 4, 2006; Page B03
Major League Baseball
plans to file a claim with the American Arbitration
Association today, asking the organization to settle a
standoff with the District government over the
construction of a stadium along the Anacostia
waterfront, baseball President Robert A. DuPuy said.
The move is baseball's
response to the ongoing dispute over a stadium lease
agreement for the publicly funded ballpark project and
could raise the stakes by shifting the decision making
away from the city to a three-member arbitration
panel.
Baseball officials said
they had hoped to avoid arbitration but had little
choice after the District failed to endorse the lease
deal by Sunday, the deadline set last year in the
stadium agreement.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/03/AR2006010301473.html
Southeast Washington
Hospital Deal Announced
By Susan Levine
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 5, 2006; 12:12 PM
A $400 million hospital
proposed for Southeast Washington, pushed by
supporters as a medical mecca that will transform
health care in long-underserved neighborhoods, was
signed into official development today by Mayor
Anthony A. Williams (D) and the president of Howard
University.
With understated
flourish, Williams and H. Patrick Swygert put their
names on an exclusive-rights agreement to guide the
joint venture in coming months. The National Capital
Medical Center would include a 250-bed facility and
top-level trauma care, as well as a
physicians office building
and ambitious research focus. It would be completed by
2009 on the grounds of the former DC General
Hospital, which Williams closed nearly five years ago
despite staunch community opposition.
The mayor urged the
Council to approve the project without delay -- and DC
without requiring it to go through the independent
regulatory review that such major capital construction
typically would face.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/05/AR2006010500850.html
1101
Connecticut Ave. Trades for $40M
By
Barbra Murray
Last
updated: January 5, 2006 08:13am
WASHINGTON,
DC-Penzance Properties LLC has acquired the 179,000-sf
office building at 1101 Connecticut Ave. NW in a
$40-million transaction. IBG Partners LLC sold the
class A facility only two
years after having purchased it from Lowe Enterprises
for $30.7 million. Lowe purchased the building in 2000
for $26 million.
http://www.globest.com/news/447_447/washington/141690-1.html
Landmine Organization
Leases 10,600 SF
By
Barbra Murray
Last
updated: January 3, 2006 11:54am
WASHINGTON,
DC-The occupancy level at 2100 M St. NW reaches
maximum capacity with the signing of a 10,600-sf lease
by the Landmine Survivors Network. The international
organization made a five and one-half-year commitment
to the class A space at the
300,000-sf office property.
http://www.globest.com/news/445_445/washington/141626-1.html
Marriott Sells Land
for $246M
By
Barbra Murray
Last
updated: January 3, 2006 07:48am
WASHINGTON, DC-Marriott
International Inc. has pocketed $246 million in cash
as the result of the disposition of a portfolio of
land beneath 75 Courtyard by Marriott hotels. The
locally based lodging company sold the parcels to CBM
Land Joint Venture LP, an entity featuring Sarofim
Realty Advisors as the majority owner and
representative of an unnamed institutional investor.
In another move, Marriott sold CBM Land JV $40 million
worth of land underlying nine more Courtyard
properties. The move allows Marriott to maintain a 23%
equity interest in the joint venture.
http://www.globest.com/news/445_445/washington/141599-1.html
Housing
Development to Slowly Decrease
By
Barbra Murray
Last
updated: December 29, 2005 12:30pm
(To
read more on the
multifamily market,
click here.)
WASHINGTON, DC-The
production of multifamily units, as well as
single-family dwellings, will slowly decline by a
small percentage in 2006, the National Association of
Home Builders has predicted. Economists at the locally
based homebuilding organization predict that the solid
economy will prevent a plummet in development and that
production will gradually decline back to the
still-healthy numbers seen in 2004.
"For housing, it will be a
systematic simmering down process toward more
sustainable levels of sales, production and price
appreciation as opposed to a full-blown cyclical
contraction," says David Seiders, NAHB chief
economist. "Multifamily is doing well, with the condo
share of the market up to about 50% at this point.
Construction starts in the
multifamily market are expected to go from
approximately 354,000 this year to 350,000 next year.
"We think multifamily starts will be pretty stable,
with condos losing some market share in the year ahead
and the rental side regaining some ground," Seiders
notes.
http://www.globest.com/news/443_443/washington/141543-1.html
Research
Organization Extends 130,000-SF Lease
By
Barbra Murray
Last
updated: December 28, 2005 04:04pm
WASHINGTON,
DC-The anchor tenant position at 2100 M St. NW will
remain the same. Nonpartisan political think tank the
Urban Institute has extended its lease of
approximately 130,000 sf in the nearly 300,000-sf
office building.
http://www.globest.com/news/443_443/washington/141523-1.html
REGIONAL
NEWS
Housing Appraisals
In MD Rise 67 Percent
By Miranda S. Spivack
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 5, 2006; Page B01
Housing values in many
Maryland communities soared 67 percent over the past
three years, the largest percentage increase in 25
years. In some suburbs near Washington and Baltimore,
those values rose even more.
Residents began receiving
letters outlining the increases this week, with many in
Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles and other counties seeing
increases well beyond the statewide average. In
Worcester County, home to Ocean City's thriving condo
market, assessments rose 80 percent, the largest
increase in Maryland.
News of the state's rising
assessments is a mixed blessing for homeowners. On one
hand their houses are more valuable than ever, but that
is likely to lead to a higher tax bill.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/04/AR2006010401957.html
No Magical Answers
Even Wizards of Real Estate Hesitate to Predict 2006
By Kirstin Downey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 31, 2005; Page F01
Q: If real estate
prices keep climbing, I'll be priced out of the market.
Should I buy now? Are real estate prices tanking? Should
I sell my investment condo now? What's going to happen
to home prices in MY neighborhood?
Oh, to have an accurate
crystal ball.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/30/AR2005123000648.html
Gov. Ehrlich Proposes
$723M in New Education Aid
By Nick Anderson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 5, 2006; 3:24 PM
DUNDALK, Md., Jan. 5 --
Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. called today for $723 million
in new state education aid for the next school year,
seeking to boost school construction and fulfill a state
pledge to help schools that serve low-income children.
The Republican governor,
appearing at a Baltimore County middle school, proposed
to raise state spending on
school operations by $462 million for the year that
begins July 1. Ehrlich also proposed $281 million for
renovating schools or building new ones. That would
combine $20 million in unspent construction money and
$261 million in new funds.
The construction proposal
is short of the $400 million that counties want but an
increase over the current annual commitment of $251
million. Ehrlich's proposals now go to the
Democratic-controlled state legislature, which convenes
next week.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/05/AR2006010501204.html
Higher Stakes for
Legislative Session
Ehrlich, Assembly Face Election Year, Surplus
By Ann E. Marimow and Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, January 5, 2006; Page GZ14
Maryland legislators will
descend on Annapolis next week for a General Assembly
session sure to be steeped in election-year politics.
The Democrats, who dominate both chambers, will try to
pass their proposals while working to prevent the
reelection of the state's first Republican governor in a
generation.
For the first time since
Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. was elected governor in 2002, he
is working with a budget cushion of more than $1
billion. That surplus gives him flexibility to create a
blueprint for fiscal 2007 that probably will include
property tax relief and increased funding for popular
projects such as school construction.
But budget analysts have
warned that the windfall is only short-term and that the
state's persistent gap between spending and revenue will
return in the budget year that begins in July 2008.
Ehrlich's budget secretary, Cecilia Januszkiewicz, has
sought to temper expectations.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/04/AR2006010401077.html
Under watchful eyes
Gubernatorial
candidates will keep tabs on 2006 session to see what
happens -- and what doesn't
Friday, Jan. 6, 2006
It's
an election year, and expectations are always low in an
election year. Plus, it's an election year unlike any in
recent memory -- two powerful Democrats scrapping for the
right to challenge the first Republican governor in a
generation.
So,
as the Maryland General Assembly re-convenes next week
for its 421st annual legislative session, every bill,
every statement, every hearing and every action must be
seen through the prism of partisan politics.
The
90-day face-off could determine the political fortunes
of Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and his two
Democratic challengers, Montgomery County Executive
Douglas M. Duncan and Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley.
All three men will be closely following the events in
the capital, jockeying for advantage in the fall
campaigns.
http://www.gazette.net/stories/010606/polia%20s200024_31901.shtml
Denied the Executive's
Seat Once, Baker Is Primed for an Uphill Battle
By Ovetta Wiggins
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 5, 2006; Page T02
Why is former delegate
Rushern L. Baker
III , who
came in fourth in a five-man race for County Executive
Jack B. Johnson
's seat in 2002, making another run for county executive
this year?
He's not as well known as
Johnson. Johnson has held a countywide office for 12
years. Baker has not served in an elected office in four
years.
He doesn't have as much
money as Johnson. The county executive had more than
$667,000 on hand, according to the most recent campaign
reports filed. Baker, on the other hand, had a debt of
$103,000 but now says his campaign is no longer
operating in the red.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/04/AR2006010401095.html
It's Lawmaking Time
In the Old Dominion
For Kaine's First
Session, Transportation Crowds Out Other Issues
By Chris L. Jenkins
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 5, 2006; Page VA14
RICHMOND -- Timothy M.
Kaine plans to use the first legislative session of his
four-year gubernatorial term to address Virginia's
transportation problems, including traffic congestion in
the Washington suburbs.
Meanwhile, he will
probably not focus as intensely on some of the other
goals he set for his term, such as his proposals for
universal access to preschool education and tax relief
for homeowners.
The Democratic
governor-elect will be inaugurated on Jan. 14, three
days after the General Assembly convenes for its 60-day
session.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/04/AR2006010400083.html
88,800-SF Parkway One
Brings in $18M
By
Barbra Murray
Last
updated: January 5, 2006 09:50am
HERNDON, VA-Access Property
Services Inc. has picked up Parkway One, an 88,000-sf
office property, in an $18-million deal. The Realty
Associates Fund IV sold the class B building six years
after having acquired it for about $11.3 million.
Grubb & Ellis Co.'s Steve
Gichner, Eric Berkman, Brian MacDonald and Juliana
Ko orchestrated the
transaction on behalf of the seller. Developed in 1985,
the property has a current assessed value of $7.7
million, according to
Fairfax County records.
http://www.globest.com/news/447_447/washington/141704-1.html
Medical
Center Sells for $12M
By
Barbra Murray
Last
updated: January 5, 2006 11:58am
FAIRFAX,
VA-Fairfax Medical Center LLC has acquired the Fairfax
Medical Center for $12 million. Fairfax Medical PWH LLC
sold the 56,000-sf medical office building five years
after having acquired it for $6.1 million.
According to real estate
records of the City of
Fairfax, the structure and
the 3.5-acre parcel it occupies have an aggregate
current assessed value of just under $8 million. Fairfax
Medical sits in the heart of Fairfax, not far from I-66
and a few blocks from the border separating the
independent City of Fairfax and Fairfax County.
http://www.globest.com/news/447_447/washington/141719-1.html
Fair Oaks
Commerce Center Sells for $41M
By
Barbra Murray
Last
updated: January 4, 2006 12:33pm
FAIRFAX,
VA-In a transaction valued at $40.5 million, Colony
Realty Partners acquired ownership of the fully leased
Fair Oaks Commerce Center. The site last traded in 2000
in a $25-million deal.
Relying on the assistance of
Cassidy & Pinkard's Bill Collins, Paul Collins and Drew
Flood, GE Capital Realty Group Inc. sold the 139,000-sf
office building. According to
Fairfax County records, the
property has a current assessed value of $20.8 million.
http://www.globest.com/news/446_446/washington/141674-1.html
Connector Highway
Clears EPA Review
Montgomery-Pr. George's Road Project on Track for
2006 Construction Start
By Steven Ginsberg
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 5, 2006; Page B05
The intercounty
connector, a suburban Maryland highway 50 years in
the making, moved a significant step closer to a
2006 construction start yesterday when the federal
government declared the project environmentally
sound.
The decision comes
about eight years after the Environmental Projection
Agency rejected the highway in 1997 over concerns
that the project would destroy parkland and
wetlands, disrupt migratory birds and threaten a
spawning area for brown trout.
The next and last
approval for the project could come in the spring,
when the federal government makes its final
determination on the highway after a public comment
period. If the project gets the go-ahead, which
state officials said they expect,
the state will begin buying land and houses along
the route and putting out bids for construction.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/04/AR2006010400972.html
Big-Ticket Transit,
School Issues Top 2006 Agenda
By Tim Craig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 5, 2006; Page GZ14
Montgomery County
legislators will renew their push for more money for
school construction and transportation projects and
will tackle thorny issues such as whether to allow
deer hunting in the county on Sundays when the
General Assembly convenes next week.
In response to the
controversy over construction of Clarksburg Town
Center, the delegation will also consider a proposal
to increase fines for building violations in the
county.
The 90-day session
opens as County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) is
running for the Democratic nomination for governor
and most of the county's 32-member delegation to
Annapolis is gearing up to run for reelection.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/04/AR2006010401065.html
Told to Go, She Made a
Stand
Md. Woman Mounted a Campaign to Stave Off Eviction
Over Late Rent
By Cameron W. Barr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 31, 2005; Page B01
When Michelle Armstead
learned in early November that she and some of her
neighbors were being thrown out of their
Burtonsville apartment complex because they had paid
their rents late, she got angry.
"I'm not good enough
to live here anymore -- and I've lived here for 10
years?" she wondered. She resolved to make herself
heard so that her countdown this evening wouldn't be
to eviction.
Armstead's
ruckus-raising is a lesson in individual initiative
and why local politics matters.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/30/AR2005123001417.html
With Teitelbaum out, District 19 race open
Senator to
retire; delegates discuss moving up
Friday, Jan. 6, 2006
The Democratic primary for the District 19 Senate
seat in Montgomery County went from contentious to
wide open Wednesday after incumbent Leonard H.
Teitelbaum announced he had changed his decision and
would not seek a fourth term.
Citing family obligations, Teitelbaum, 74, who lives
at Leisure World in Aspen Hill, plans to close out
20 years in office at the end of the upcoming
legislative session.
''My wife has been after me ever since my last
open-heart surgery to finish out my last term and do
some other things," he said.
The senator underwent heart valve replacement
surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in
September 2004. The valve had been repaired nine
years earlier.
http://www.gazette.net/stories/010606/polia%20s200033_31903.shtml
Rare open seat heats up District 20 race
Friday, Jan. 6, 2006
Peter V.R. Franchot's decision to run for state
comptroller will leave an open House of Delegates
seat in District 20 for the first time in 20 years.
Several Montgomery County Democrats have their eyes
on that vacancy. Two veterans of the Takoma Park
City Council have already filed, and other hopefuls
say they intend to run.
Franchot is challenging incumbent William Donald
Schaefer (D) in the Sept. 12 primary.
District 20 has long been a political hotbed. In
2002, eight Democrats ran for three seats in the
primary. Incumbents Sheila E. Hixson of Silver
Spring and Franchot won, and then went on to victory
in the general election.
http://www.gazette.net/stories/010606/polia%20s200034_31906.shtml
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