Greater Capital Area Association of REALTORS® - Washington DC, Northern Virginia and Regional Newsclips

DC's Mayor Draws Fire on Stadium Plan
Some on Council Oppose Tax Surplus Use

By David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 2, 2006; Page B02

A strategy offered by DC Mayor Anthony A. Williams to ensure that Major League Baseball will not have to pay for potential cost overruns on a new stadium drew critical and angry reactions from several DC Council members yesterday.

The Williams administration told baseball officials this week that $20 million in surplus tax revenue being raised to finance debt on construction bonds can be used to cover overruns if necessary. Williams (D) is trying to persuade baseball to endorse a $611 million stadium spending cap on city funds the council approved last month.

But council members said they did not intend for the tax money to be used as a safeguard against overruns because such a scenario would potentially raise the city's investment in the project above the cap.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/01/AR2006030102132.html

Donors Hedge DC Mayoral Bets
Many Contribute to More Than One Candidate in Crowded Primary Field

By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 26, 2006; Page C07

Developer Jim Abdo had no doubts in 1998. He gave his support to one guy in the DC mayor's race, the ultimate winner, Anthony A. Williams. But picking a candidate is proving a lot tougher in 2006. So, like many leaders on the local business scene, Abdo is spreading the love around.

Abdo has contributed $500 to each of three Democratic candidates: DC Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp, council member Adrian M. Fenty (Ward 4) and former telecommunications executive Marie C. Johns. He plans to give the same to council member Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5).

"As someone who's got hundreds of millions of dollars invested in the District, I take this election very seriously," said Abdo, who is credited with helping revitalize Logan Circle. "No one wants to alienate themselves from a potential winner. You want to cover your bases."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/25/AR2006022501382.html

Developer Peddles a New Vision for an Old Market
Plan Would Create Mini-City in NE

By Paul Schwartzman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 2, 2006; Page DZ01

The Capital City Market has been a singular destination in Northeast Washington for 75 years, a place where shoppers and restaurateurs buy their fruits and vegetables wholesale, where butchers in white aprons slice meat and poultry, where T-shirt vendors get their stock to peddle to tourists downtown.

Now, with a new Metro station open nearby and property values soaring in the neighborhood, a developer wants to rebuild the market as a mini-city of condominiums, townhouses, offices, retail, a YMCA and new quarters for the wholesalers and vendors who have built businesses there.

The team driving the proposal for New Town at the Capital City Market is led by Sang Oh Choi, 60, a Korean-born wholesaler who has built a successful produce business at the market and who owns more than two dozen properties within the 23-acre parcel, between Second and Sixth streets NE and bounded by Florida and New York avenues.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/01/AR2006030100921.html

Gov. Williams, If You Please
DC Mayor Says Next City Leader's Title Should Match Duties

By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 2, 2006; Page B05

Forget that old "mayor of Washington" schtick. In the future, the chief executive of the District of Columbia should be known as "governor," according to DC Mayor -- er, Gov. -- Anthony A. Williams.

Williams (D) announced his preference yesterday at his weekly news conference. Since the District performs the functions of a state as well as a city, he said, its leader should be appropriately recognized.

"I do believe that for the next mayor we should consider, and I would support, changing the title," Williams said. "A number of major capitals have governors. I think Tokyo, Bangkok, Buenos Aires, and maybe Berlin is a governing mayor. And we should change the title to reflect the full responsibility of the office."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/01/AR2006030102320.html

RealShare EXCLUSIVE: Can the Good Times Continue in DC?

By Jason Young
Last updated: March 2, 2006 11:33am

WASHINGTON, DC-Stellar fundamentals and real estate's superior performance in the nation's capital were tempered by questions about oversupply and rent disconnects, during discussion at the fourth-annual RealShare Washington, DC. The event was held yesterday at the JW Marriott Hotel. More than 600 executives attended the real estate networking event, produced by Real Estate Media, publisher of Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com.

During the leadoff state-of-the-market Town Hall meeting, Scott Brody, vice president and general manager of real estate for Opus East, said that despite high construction costs, fundamentals are strong enough that the firm has began speculative development in the suburbs and is planning on doing so in the District as well, beginning with an initial 225,000 sf of office space at Rock Spring Park in North Bethesda, MD.

Brody added: "DC is still the strongest-demand location in the country for new product to the point where we're able to sell partially empty or empty buildings for close to the same margins that we would have on a stabilized basis. That's a phenomenon that's probably only occurring here and in Southern California."

http://www.globest.com/news/486_486/washington/143469-1.html

Home Values Nationwide Up 13% in 4th Quarter
Fewer Sales Eventually Will Take Prices Down

By Tomoeh Murakami Tse
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 2, 2006; Page D03

In an indication that the recent slowdown of home sales has yet to affect prices, the average US house continued to gain value through the end of 2005, posting a fourth-quarter increase of nearly 13 percent from the fourth quarter of 2004, according to a government report released yesterday.

In the home price survey by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, all but one of 275 metropolitan housing markets showed improved value, many at record rates of increase. In the market that was an exception, Burlington, NC, prices fell 1 percent over the year.

The average home price increased 24 percent in 2005 in the market that includes the District, Northern Virginia, Prince George's, Charles and Calvert counties in Maryland and Jefferson County in West Virginia. It was up 20 percent in the Montgomery County-Frederick County market.

New-Home Sales Fell 5% in Jan.
Incentives Fail to Attract More Buyers; Inventory at 9-Year High

By Sandra Fleishman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 28, 2006; Page D03

Home builders across the country have been advertising thousands of dollars in incentives to would-be buyers this winter, but it looks like shoppers have not been swayed.

Sales of new homes nationally fell 5 percent last month to the lowest level in a year, as the number of unsold units reached a nine-year high, according to government data released yesterday.

January sales dropped to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.23 million, the Commerce Department reported, down from an upwardly revised rate of 1.29 million in December. Economists had expected January sales to remain level with the previous month.

Washington area housing prices dipped in the fourth quarter, according to new data from the National Association of REALTORS^®, though it's too soon to tell for sure whether prices are truly on the way down in a softening housing market.

The average existing single-family home sold for $432,900 in the region in the final three months of 2005. That's up from $359,000 in the comparable period of 2004, but it's down from an all-time high of $441,400 in the third quarter of 2005. The drop between the third and fourth quarters could signal that a rising supply of homes is pushing down prices. But there are other possibilities.

The data are not seasonally adjusted, so the drop could represent a normal sales slump with the onset of winter. Moreover, the existing-home-sales data can vary depending on what type of houses sell in a given period. If a lot of small houses change hands, the median sale price can fall even if the underlying housing market didn't change.

Md. AFL-CIO Endorses O'Malley for Governor
Labor Group Backs Cardin for Senate

By John Wagner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 1, 2006; Page B05

Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley's campaign for governor secured an unusually early and lopsided endorsement yesterday from Maryland's largest labor organization.

A committee of the Maryland State and D.C. AFL-CIO, which claims nearly 300,000 members, voted 52 to 11 to back O'Malley (D) over Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D), who had lobbied hard for the endorsement.

The union's committee also gave its nod yesterday to Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin (D) in the race to replace retiring US Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D). The committee voted 48 to 16 to back the Baltimore-area lawmaker over former congressman and NAACP leader Kweisi Mfume (D). None of the other candidates in the crowded Democratic field received votes.

ANNAPOLIS -- Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan needs to look for a new job if Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is re-elected, the Senate president warned Thursday.

Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. said that voting in 2003 to confirm Flanagan's nomination was "probably the worst vote I've ever cast in my Senate career" and threatened to require that Ehrlich (R) re-nominate him to serve a second term.

"He could never get confirmed by the Senate again .. not one Democratic senator would vote for him," said Miller (D-Dist. 27) of Chesapeake Beach.

ANNAPOLIS -- Environmental groups released polls this week showing support for a budget maneuver that would restore cuts to a fund that helps communities preserve undeveloped property and for the Maryland Healthy Air Act, which would compel the state's power plants to reduce harmful emissions of nitrogen, sulfur, mercury and carbon dioxide.

The poll, conducted for the Maryland League of Conservation Voters and the Healthy Air Coalition, showed 90 percent of likely voters favored the measure. And 78 percent see pollution from coal-fired power plants as a threat to air quality, according to a league statement.

"Such overwhelming support sends a clear message to legislators: Marylanders want you to take strong action to clean up our air, reducing all four main pollutants, this General Assembly session," said Dawn Stoltzfus, a league spokeswoman.

ANNAPOLIS - Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, who is fighting a pitched battle for the Democratic nomination for governor, has thrown his support behind Baltimore city students who are going on a three-day strike to protest conditions in city schools.

"Baltimore's children are Maryland's children, and leaders need to stand up for them," Duncan wrote in an e-mail to supporters Thursday afternoon.

Duncan is running against Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley for the gubernatorial nomination. Duncan has made education a centerpiece of his campaign.

Two years ago, the General Assembly set out a tax trap for the unwary that could cost some Maryland families more than $100,000. The intended targets for this trap were the so-called wealthy whose estates were small enough that the federal estate tax did not apply, but large enough to attract the attention of our legislators.

Some background is in order. At the federal level, the estate tax was originally imposed on the estate of a deceased individual in order to redistribute wealth by imposing a tax as high as 90 percent on the estate of a deceased. Over the past 20 years or so, the inequities of the federal estate tax came into focus. Families with small businesses or farms were often forced to sell those assets to pay the estate tax, sometimes at a loss because the estate tax had to be paid within nine months of the date of death.

In 1981, a tax credit was adopted that could provide some relief by allowing up to $600,000 to be protected from the estate tax, a tax that was as high as 55 percent of the taxable estate at that time. Maryland, as in many states, followed along by designing an estate tax that would come into effect only if the federal estate tax was applied.

With DOT, County Acts to Fill Void
Va. Can't Meet All Pr. William's Road Needs, Officials Concede

By Nikita Stewart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 2, 2006; Page B04

Two top Virginia transportation officials said yesterday that Prince William County's proposal to create a separate transportation agency was a recognition that the state could no longer keep up with its responsibility to build and maintain roads in fast-growing areas of Northern Virginia.

"The growth of Prince William has outstripped the ability of the commonwealth to provide transportation infrastructure," said Virginia Transportation Secretary Pierce R. Homer, a former deputy county executive in Prince William.

Prince William's dilemma, and its desire to take road improvements into its own hands, is a regional issue, said Dennis Morrison, Northern Virginia administrator for the Virginia Department of Transportation. "There just haven't been enough transportation dollars to deal with transportation in this region," he said.

Phase I of $90M Mixed-Use Project Begins

By Barbra Murray
Last updated: March 1, 2006 08:32am

FAIRFAX, VA-Construction has started on Phase I of the $90-million Old Town Village Fairfax mixed-use project. Trammell Crow has joined forces with Walnut Street Development and J. Donegan Co. to develop the project on behalf of CH Realty III/Old Town Village LLC. The dual-phase endeavor will ultimately include office, retail and residential elements, as well as a parking facility.

Old Town Village sits in the historic Old Town district of Downtown Fairfax at the intersection of Chain Bridge Road and Main Street, near Interstate 66. Designed by CMSS Architects in a manner that is consistent with the existing architecture of the area, the property will serve as a new live-work-play destination. Phase I, which carries a price tag of $50 million, will consist of 144,000 sf of class A space in four structures, with 91,000 sf allotted for office space and the remaining 53,000 sf dedicated to ground-level retail. A parking facility to accommodate over 550 vehicles is also under way.

Two-Structure Flex/Office Park Sells for $31M

By Barbra Murray
Last updated: February 28, 2006 10:42am

STERLING, VA-A deal totaling approximately $30.9 million has left First Potomac Realty Trust in possession of Sterling Park Business Center, a two-building flex/office property accounting for 127,800 sf. Relying on a $50-million loan from Key Bank NA, First Potomac purchased the buildings--known as Sterling Park One and Sterling Park Two--from Lerner Enterprises. Also included in the deal was a 42.5-acre developable parcel of land.

Sterling Park sits near Washington Dulles International Airport and the 1.4-million-sf Dulles Town Center regional mall. It is adjacent to a two-structure, 197,000-sf flex/industrial portfolio First Potomac acquired from Velsor Properties LLC last October for $16 million. Both single-story structures, Sterling Park One is located at 22560 Glenn Dr. and consists of 73,000 sf of gross space, while Sterling Park Two carries the address of 22455 Davis Dr. and features 57,000 sf of space. The buildings were both developed in 1988 and together, are 61% leased.

New Community Center Opens in Silver Spring
Facility Offers Classes, Computer Labs

By Jennifer Lenhart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 2, 2006; Page T03

In Silver Spring's Long Branch neighborhood, where about half the residents are Latino and 60 percent are foreign-born, a sense of community has been growing for years.

Last week, residents finally got their own gathering space, a brick-and-mortar symbol of neighborhood spirit at the Casa Community Center at Pine Ridge. After a ribbon-cutting ceremony Feb. 22, the center opened at 8615 Pine Branch Rd., in the heart of the Good Acre and Pine Ridge apartment complexes, home to about 500 families.

The center puts within walking distance meeting rooms, two computer labs and classrooms for studying math and English.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/01/AR2006030101182.html

For Candidate Mahoney, A Refuge in House Race

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 2, 2006; Page GZ02

John Mahoney has abandoned his run for the state Senate in District 19 and instead plans to run for the House of Delegates.

Mahoney is shying away from what is expected to be a highly competitive race to replace Sen. Leonard H. Teitelbaum (D), who is retiring at the end of the year.

Since last fall, Mahoney, former president of the Maryland Young Democrats, had planned a campaign to challenge Teitelbaum in the district, which includes parts of Laytonsville, Colesville and Aspen Hill.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/01/AR2006030101170.html

Tourists Bringing More Money, Greater Stature to County

By Michael S. Rosenwald
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 2, 2006; Page GZ04

When people think of tourism in this region, they think of Washington. Naturally. They think of monuments, museums and the majesty of history. But maybe they should also be thinking Strathmore Hall, Silver Spring, National Institutes of Health.

Visitors to the county left behind $1.38 billion in 2004, according to a new study released by Global Insight Inc., a market research firm, and D.K. Shifflet & Associates Ltd. That's up dramatically from 1992, when the total was about $592 million.

In 2004, travel expenditures jumped 9 percent from the previous year. Some $350.4 million of the $1.38 billion was on food purchases, $279.4 million for lodging, another $240.7 million for entertaining and $224.5 million for shopping.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/01/AR2006030101171.html

Public's Say in Planning Widens
Montgomery Vote Tightens Approval Process at Agency

By Tim Craig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 1, 2006; Page B05

The Montgomery County Council voted yesterday to give the public greater access to the planning process and strip mid-level planners of their power to make changes to construction projects that had been previously approved by the Planning Board.

The vote reflected an effort to restore the reputation of the planning agency -- formally called the Department of Park and Planning -- which the council controls, after the discovery of serious building violations at the 1,300-home Clarksburg Town Center in northern Montgomery.

But the council delayed action on a major proposed reform that would have shifted some of the planning agency's building inspection authority to the Department of Permitting Services, which County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) controls.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/28/AR2006022801609.html

Accused Developer To Pay $276,750
Montgomery Agrees To Absolve Builder

By Miranda S. Spivack
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 25, 2006; Page A01

Faced with a steep fine for violating Montgomery County regulations, one of the region's largest home builders found a way to keep its record clean: Pay more.

Ryan Homes agreed to pay $276,750 to avoid admitting wrongdoing for building townhouses higher than the county allows in Silver Spring. The company had originally faced a $92,250 penalty and citation.

The chairman of the county Planning Board, Derick P. Berlage, hailed the outcome as one of the largest fines in its history. But critics such as Jim Humphrey of the Montgomery County Civic Federation said the deal is symptomatic of how development problems often are handled: Those with money can buy their way out of trouble.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/24/AR2006022401757.html

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