March 17, 2006 News Clips
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Sursum Residents Fear Loss of
Homes By
Lori
Montgomery City officials have asked the DC Council to authorize the use of eminent domain in the neighborhood that includes the Sursum Corda housing cooperative, a move that provoked some Sursum residents to accuse the city yesterday of plotting to take their homes. "Eminent domain. I know what that means. That means, 'Get out. Your kind is no longer welcome here,' " Lorraine Rooker, a resident of the low-income housing complex since 1969, told council members at a public hearing on the proposal. "You folks were elected to protect our rights, not take our property." Deputy Mayor Stanley Jackson said the city hopes to "negotiate friendly agreements with private property owners," including the residents of Sursum Corda, as it seeks to rebuild and preserve affordable housing in the rapidly gentrifying area just north of the US Capitol known as Northwest One. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/15/AR2006031502478.html
Board Votes to Close More Schools by
Fall By
V. Dion
Haynes The DC Board of Education agreed last night to accelerate the school closing process, quadrupling, to 1 million square feet, the amount of excess space to be eliminated by the start of the next school year. Last month the board, noting a decline of 10,000 students over the past five years, voted to eliminate 3 million square feet of space by the summer of 2008. Under its original schedule, the system was to shed 250,000 square feet, or close three schools, by September. But with a budget drama unfolding, board members are seeking fresh ideas on how to provide quick money to the many schools that are threatening to cut staffs and programs to cover soaring costs in fiscal 2007. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/15/AR2006031502813.html
Lots of Glass, Capital
Views By
David
Nakamura District officials unveiled a design yesterday for a modern, 41,000-seat baseball stadium featuring massive glass panels, steel and concrete that they hope will echo the style of the city's monuments and spark economic development in a long-neglected industrial strip near the Anacostia River. The ballpark, scheduled to open in March 2008, will offer views of the river on one side and of the US Capitol dome on the other. It will include luxury boxes and several thousand club seats, revenue-generating amenities coveted by the Washington Nationals. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) and other officials did the unveiling before a festive crowd of cheering baseball supporters at the Washington Convention Center, which is also distinguished by giant panels of glass and was built largely during Williams's tenure. Many of the same managers who oversaw that project are in charge of the ballpark near the Navy Yard and South Capitol Street in Southeast. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/14/AR2006031400589.html
Cropp Surges Ahead In Campaign Fundraising By
Yolanda Woodlee
and Elissa
Silverman DC Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp raised nearly $500,000 in 38 days, more than double her closest opponent, council member Adrian M. Fenty, in the five-person race for the city's Democratic mayoral primary in September, according to campaign finance reports filed yesterday. Cropp, the last candidate to enter the race, has raised a total of $1.3 million since she kicked off her campaign the week of Labor Day -- $497,000 of that since this reporting period began Feb. 1. Her report to the DC Office of Campaign Finance shows she has $804,000 to spend as the campaign inches into spring, when the candidates will have to start collecting signatures on petitions to secure their places on the primary ballot. "I'm so pleased that this finance report reflects what's happening with our campaign in this city," Cropp said yesterday. "My campaign to lead this city to the next level of change is generating excitement all over this city." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/10/AR2006031002120.html
Federal Offices May Go To St.
E's By
Eric M.
Weiss Federal officials are looking to move some of the Department of Homeland Security offices to the St. Elizabeths Hospital campus in Southeast Washington, a plan that would create a massive federal facility and possibly relocate thousands of regional employees. Federal agencies could eventually occupy as much as 4.5 million square feet on the west campus of St. Elizabeths, a historic site with breathtaking views of downtown, according to the General Services Administration and city officials involved in the effort. In comparison, the Pentagon has a floor area of 6.5 million square feet. The plan would create the largest new federal facility in the District since the 3 million-square-foot Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, on Pennsylvania Avenue, opened in 1998. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/10/AR2006031002106.html
Law Firm Stakes Claim to
138,000 SF at Columbia Center WASHINGTON, DC-Columbia Center has snagged a major commitment now that law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP has agreed to prelease 138,000 sf. The 390,000-sf office building is currently in the midst of construction in Washington, DC's central business district. The firm is also the first to prelease at the building. Orrick Herrington, relying on the representation of Newmark Knight Frank's Pat Nalls and Aaron Katz, signed a 15-year commitment with property owner MR Post LLC, which was represented by project developer Monument Realty. Financial details of the deal and the going rate for space in the building are not being disclosed. According to Cushman & Wakefield's Year-End 2005 MarketBeat Series report, the average rental rate for class A office space in the city's central business district is $46.71 per sf. With the address of 1152 15th St., Columbia Center will sit next to the Washington Post building and just a few blocks from the White House. The 12-story, freestanding tower was designed by Hickok Cole Architects and features 4,500 sf of ground-level retail space and a fitness facility; the property will also offer a three-level underground parking structure. http://www.globest.com/news/496_496/washington/143886-1.html
Cassidy & Pinkard Becomes Colliers
Partner WASHINGTON, DC-Cassidy & Pinkard has joined the Colliers International partnership. The firm has a quarter-century of experience in penetrating the market here. Cassidy & Pinkard has a national clientele and offices here, in Tysons Corner, VA and Gaithersburg, MD. "Joining the Colliers network will greatly enhance our ability to provide global solutions across all business lines and in multiple markets," says Cassidy & Pinkard CEO and managing director Bob Pinkard. "No other organization has offered us the advantages of global reach while allowing our firm to retain its strong, independent local roots." In 2005, the company completed $3.2 billion in commercial sales and managed 4.7 million sf in office and retail space. "They have the service capability and creative solutions our clients will need when conducting business in this important market," Colliers president and CEO Margaret Wigglesworth says. http://www.globest.com/news/493_493/washington/143822-1.html
Constitution Square Parcel
Trades for $122M WASHINGTON, DC-A joint venture involving affiliates of Walton Street Capital LLC and StonebridgeCarras LLC has acquired ownership of a seven-acre slice of land known as Constitution Square for $121.9 million. Akridge was the seller. The firm had tapped Cassidy & Pinkard to orchestrate the disposition. Akridge had acquired the site from First and M Investing Co. in 2003. Located at 100M St. NE, Constitution Square is in Washington, DC's NoMa Corridor, which will soon be home to the new 400,000-sf Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives headquarters. Under Akridge's tenure, the site had originally been slated to become a two-million-sf office and retail complex called Capital Square, with more recent plans for the renamed Constitution Square encompassing an 11-structure commercial compound. http://www.globest.com/news/494_494/washington/143784-1.html
UPDATE: Developers Secure
$160M Construction Loan for CityVista (For more retail coverage, click GlobeSt.com/RETAIL and to read more on the multifamily market, click here.) WASHINGTON, DC-Plans for CityVista have taken a step forward now that a $160-million financing deal for the construction of the 840,000-sf mixed-use project has closed. The entire project carries an estimated price tag of approximately $210 million. The CityVista project is a public-private endeavor and involves a team led by Lowe Enterprises consisting of the National Capital Revitalization Corp., Bundy Development Corp., the Neighborhood Development Co. and CIM Group. CityVista will occupy a 3.2-acre parcel on part of a site that had been home to the city's Wax Museum. The project will feature 129,900 sf of retail, 244 apartments, 441 condominiums--20% of which will be set aside as affordable housing--and parking to accommodate nearly 800 vehicles. http://www.globest.com/news/494_494/washington/143824-1.html [ Back to Top ]
Downtown Rebirth Stops at Mall
Door By
Christian
Davenport Yes, this was the place for his new restaurant, Abdelhak Abdelmoumen thought as he toured Silver Spring last year. The entire downtown seemed new and vibrant. Here was the recently opened Whole Foods, across from the stadium-seat movie theater, next to the Borders bookstore, which was across the street from all sorts of new restaurants. Then, Abdelmoumen turned the corner and walked into the City Place Mall, where his restaurant, Taste of Morocco, would be located. It was as dead as the streets outside the mall's doors were lively. "There was no action," he said. "I got scared." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031201413.html
'Boomtown' May Finally Have Its
Boom By
Dina ElBoghdady Mr. Major's Barber Shop, across Route 175 from Fort Meade, bustles with customers, perhaps a sign of things to come in a run-down retail strip that's been known for decades as "Boomtown." But the name mocks the scene: the barber shop, a fast-food joint, a karate school sit beside boarded-up buildings in an area where GIs once packed into bars, tattoo parlors and pinball arcades during the strip's World War II heyday, when Fort Meade prepared 4 million soldiers for war. Since then, the soldier population dwindled. The Army post, 30 miles outside of the District, transferred 8,000 acres once used for target practice and tank training to a wildlife preserve in the early 1990s and settled into a smaller footprint, becoming a "briefcase base" teeming with mathematicians, engineers and physicists of the National Security Agency and other government tenants. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031200797.html
Familiar Faces, Distant
Owners By
Dana Hedgpeth Oliver T. Carr Jr., Charles E. Smith and John E. "Chip" Akridge III put their names on companies that represented homegrown money and enterprise in Washington commercial real estate. Over decades they built many of the area's signature office buildings. Now such locally owned companies may be going the way of other business landmarks, such as banks and department stores, that sold to out-of-towners. "You used to have Citizens, Riggs and First Virginia, all of these great regional banks," said Raymond A. Ritchey, an executive vice president with Boston Properties Inc. who runs its local office. "And then we had all these regional retailers like Garfinkels, Woodies and Giant. And now we're seeing real estate companies going the same way." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031200801.html [ Back to Top ] 3 Virginia Exurbs Near Top of US in
Growth By
D'Vera
Cohn and Amy Gardner The Washington area's powerful economy has pushed out suburban sprawl so far that two semirural counties south of Fredericksburg have become bustling commuter frontiers that rank for the first time among the fastest-growing communities in the nation. Newly developing Caroline and King George counties have joined Loudoun County, which has been on each annual list since 2000, according to census figures for last year released today. Most people moving to all three come from older areas, where growth has slowed and new immigrants often replace residents who have left. The exurbs produced most of the region's growth last year, when the Washington area's population increased to nearly 6 million. Halfway through the decade, the 8 percent growth rate for the region, which stretches from the Chesapeake Bay to the Blue Ridge, is on track to equal that of the 1990s. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/15/AR2006031502563.html
Planners Back Vienna
Project By
Alec MacGillis The contentious proposal to build 2,250 homes near the Vienna Metro station is headed to its final reckoning before the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors this month, after the county Planning Commission voted last night to recommend its approval. Before their vote, which was unanimous with two abstentions, commissioners said the proposal had been improved over the course of two years of debate. At the same time, they discounted some long-standing criticisms that the project would overwhelm schools and roads. "This proposal is demonstrably better, thanks to citizen efforts," said Kenneth Lawrence, a planning commissioner representing the affected district. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/15/AR2006031502792.html
A Giant Uncertainty In the Pike's
Progress By
Leef
Smith Planners thought everyone was on board. The owners of Giant Food had agreed they'd like to transform their small, aging market on Columbia Pike in Arlington into a sleek, urban food store below several stories of apartments. The grocery store was going to be the retail anchor of the new Adams Square town square, the gem of the Columbia Pike revitalization project. At least that was the plan. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/15/AR2006031500729.html
Kaine Seeks Victory for Both Sides in Tax
Impasse By
Michael D.
Shear RICHMOND, March 14 -- Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) has little chance of breaking the General Assembly's stalemate over transportation by persuading enough House Republicans to defy their leadership and raise taxes, lawmakers in both parties and longtime lobbyists say. Instead, Kaine will try to get the chamber's Republican leaders to help break the deadlock by finding a way for them to win, too. It's a task that is sure to be a challenge for the new governor, following the acrimonious end Saturday to the regular legislative session. A deadlock similar to the one confronting Virginia's budget negotiators as they return to the capital Wednesday was resolved in 2004 when 17 House Republicans agreed with then-Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) to raise some taxes and lower others. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/14/AR2006031401576.html
211,000-SF Office Facility
Sells for $48M FAIRFAX, VA-In a $48.4-million transaction, the Philadelphia-based Binswanger acquired the 211,000-sf High Ridge Corporate Park under the name of NYAP-High Ridge LLC. Gateway Piedmont Inc., which had purchased the office in 1997 for $23.9 million, was the seller. CB Richard Ellis orchestrated the disposition of the 24-year-old property on behalf of the seller. Located at 3877 Fairfax Ridge Rd., High Ridge sits right off Interstate 66 just blocks from the 1.6-million-sf Fair Oaks Mall. The four-story structure is anchored by web services infrastructure company webMethods Inc., which signed a 10-year lease for 106,000 sf in 2004. High Ridge's tenant roster features several other businesses, including the American Diabetes Association, which operates its Matching Gifts Processing Center in a 19,500-sf space, JBI software and management services provider YRCI. The building was upgraded in 1997 and its most recent renovation reached completion early last year. http://www.globest.com/news/495_495/washington/143840-1.html [ Back to Top ]
The Candidates Weigh In On Predatory Lending Law By
Nancy Trejos Everyone seems to be weighing in on Montgomery County's new predatory lending law, which drastically increases fines against unscrupulous lenders. The law, which seeks to prevent discrimination in mortgage lending, has caused some lenders to suspend work in the county. A Circuit Court judge issued a temporary injunction halting its enforcement for four months. Even the Bush administration had something to say about it: John E. Bowman, chief counsel for the Treasury Department's Office of Thrift Supervision, declared that the law usurps federal authority. Now the candidates for Montgomery County executive are having their say. As County Council members Michael Knapp (D-Upcounty) and Howard A. Denis (R-Potomac-Bethesda) introduced a bill on Tuesday that would repeal the law, Isiah Leggett, a former council member vying for the Democratic nomination, released a statement supporting the predatory lending law. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/15/AR2006031501192.html
Big Surplus Comes at a Good Time for
Duncan By
Tim
Craig Montgomery County's coffers are overflowing with a surplus of at least $300 million. And in a year in which he is running for governor, County Executive Douglas M. Duncan is spending it on schools, police and fire protection and an array of other services. Duncan won't formally unveil his $3.9 billion budget proposal for the coming fiscal year until today. But he has devoted much of the past month to rolling out more than $100 million in new programs, with reducing traffic and promoting public transportation high on his list. Duncan's supporters say spending on important public services has always been a priority. But this year, he has taken extra care to highlight that spending in scripted events designed for maximum media exposure. The events are meant to distinguish Duncan from his rivals in the race for governor -- Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley (D) and Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) -- and have often taken on a political tone. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/14/AR2006031401725.html
Stepping Up to the Plate Friday, March 17, 2006 Twenty years ago, most Montgomery County political candidates were two things: male and white. As far as African Americans were concerned, "We've come a long way, baby" was just a slogan on the side of a cigarette package, not the statement of racial progressiveness it had come to symbolize following the civil rights movement. When Isiah "Ike' Leggett (D) became the first African American elected to the County Council in 1986, others were expected to follow. But that never happened. http://www.gazette.net/stories/031706/polia%20s194212_31948.shtml [ Back to Top
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