Stadium Garages Proposal Rejected
DC Now Lacks Plan for Parking

By David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 19, 2006; Page A01

The DC Council narrowly rejected a proposal yesterday to build aboveground garages near a new baseball stadium under construction on the Anacostia waterfront, leaving city officials without a plan to provide parking for the Washington Nationals when the ballpark opens in 2008.

The council's action also represented a blow to Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4), the mayoral nominee who had offered the proposal as a way to break a months-long deadlock between the city and the Nationals over the 1,225 parking spaces the city is required to deliver.

Under Fenty's emergency proposal, the city would build two aboveground parking garages just north of the ballpark site in Southeast. A smaller underground garage would be built to the south. Fenty said the plan, which would cost $56 million, would not violate the council's $611 million stadium cost cap.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/18/AR2006101801350.html

Fenty's $3 Million Tops City's Costliest Mayoral Primary

By Yolanda Woodlee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 19, 2006; Page DZ01

In the District's most expensive mayoral primary, Democratic nominee Adrian M. Fenty raised an unprecedented $3 million, nearly $350,000 more than his closest opponent, DC Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp.

Fenty, who represents Ward 4 on the DC Council, won the Democratic primary with 60,732 votes, or about 57 percent. He raised $400,000 the week before the Sept. 12 primary through Oct. 10, according to the city's Office of Campaign Finance. During the final days of the campaign, Fenty spent $801,791, much of it on television advertising.

As he heads toward the Nov. 7 general election, Fenty still has $460,426 in his campaign to spend against Republican David W. Kranich, who has not filed this month's report, and Statehood Green candidate Chris Otten, who raised $1,675 and has $1,582 remaining.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/18/AR2006101800639.html

Revised Crime Bill Approved In District
Mayor Not Allowed To Alter Curfew

By Elissa Silverman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 19, 2006; Page B01

The DC Council approved a revised emergency crime package yesterday that includes $4.2 million for police overtime but does not give the mayor authority to restore early curfew hours for youths, which is part of a bill that expires today.

The measure makes it easier to detain certain adults and juveniles charged with robbery or handgun violations pending a trial or hearing and gives police expedited access to juvenile records. It also allocates $1.7 million for more surveillance cameras and $5 million to implement programs for youths.

A similar 90-day emergency bill adopted in July expires today, including a 10 pm youth curfew and certain accountability measures for police. The youth curfew returns to 11 pm Sunday through Thursday and midnight Friday and Saturday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/18/AR2006101801789.html

Bobb Touts Skills, 'Sense Of Urgency'
Ex-DC Administrator Running for School Board

By Theola Labbé
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 17, 2006; Page B01

At the Potomac Avenue Metro one morning last week, Robert C. Bobb, a candidate for DC Board of Education president, looked for voters willing to talk about education. Dozens of people whizzed by, but Sheila Savage marched up to the 61-year-old Louisiana native and fired off questions.

"What are you going to do for the school system? I'm sure you know it's in bad shape," Savage said.

"Well, some schools are performing well." Bobb started to reply, hoping to get to his platform on reading and early education.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/17/AR2006101700008.html

Liveliest DC Neighborhoods Also Jumping With Robberies

By Allison Klein and Dan Keating
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, October 13, 2006; Page A01

Some of Washington's most vibrant neighborhoods, destinations for suburbanites, barhoppers and urban professionals, share a lesser-known distinction: They have the highest concentrations of holdups in the city.

Criminals are striking in areas that boast of dynamic nightlife, newly minted condominiums and restaurant grand openings.

The Washington Post analyzed years of police statistics, focusing sharply on crimes this year, and found the biggest share of robberies happening at night and on sidewalks in neighborhoods north of downtown, including Adams Morgan, Mount Pleasant, Columbia Heights and the U Street corridor.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101201813.html

Developers Are Key Target of New Initiative

WASHINGTON, DC-The National Capital Revitalization Corp. has launched a joint initiative with the DC Chamber of Commerce to expand and deepen the level of support provided to real estate entrepreneurs here--specifically DC's Local, Small and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises, or LSDBEs. Leveraging NCRC's Real Estate Development Entrepreneurship Program, the two organizations will focus on providing these firms with new sources of capital, technical assistance and real estate assets.

"In order to become a major player in real estate development, a small business needs the necessary tools to increase financial viability," says NCRC president and CEO Anthony C. Freeman in a statement. "We created this initiative with that in mind, and are looking forward to assisting LSDBEs in increasing capital through expanded real estate services."

http://www.globest.com/news/762_762/washington/149878-1.html

UK Fund To Raise Equity With Aid of DC Hire

WASHINGTON, DC-UK-based Rockspring Property Investment Managers has tapped a new sales manager for its Washington, DC office in order to raise new equity from US and Canadian investors. Before taking this position, Rob Kohn was marketing director for Commonwealth Realty Advisors in Chicago. Prior to that, he was an analyst with JP Morgan?s Investment Banking team in Singapore.

A pan-European property investment manager, Rockspring has some $6.7 billion in capital invested throughout 14 European countries. The company is better known as the Prudential-owned PRICOA, which was purchased by its employees in 2004 and then christened Rockspring.

The company has had a US presence for some 20 years, Kathryn Dixon, the firm's London-based director of marketing sales and client services, tells GlobeSt.com.

http://www.globest.com/news/760_760/washington/149826-1.html

REGIONAL NEWS

Everyone's a Critic
Web Sites Gather Home Ratings From All Comers

By Kirstin Downey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 14, 2006; Page F01

The real estate ad calls the condo a "charming 1-bedroom in the heart of Dupont." The online review, however, says it "Smells Like Cats." A DC rowhouse is being advertised as "newly renovated" and "spacious," but a critic labels it "possibly the most overpriced unit I have seen in Washington."

On the Internet, where people can vote on whether others are "hot or not," they can now offer their opinions on houses for sale, too. And just as with Web sites that score people on the basis of physical appeal, the new feature shows that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Not surprisingly, all that feedback is creating an uproar in some Washington area real estate offices.

This innovation comes from two real estate search engines, ZipRealty and Reply.com, which began offering house-rating features in August. ZipRealty, a real estate brokerage firm, calls it a "client rating," while Reply.com, an online marketplace, calls it a "consumer review." Both publish home-sale information available through multiple listing services, and then provide additional links for more information.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101300627.html

History Gets Hipper
Shops, java huts and haute condos keep Georgetown bustling

By Cory Ohlendorf
Express
Wednesday, October 18, 2006; 10:06 AM

Real estate brochures love to tout "location, location, location." But if they're meant to sell a condominium or town house in Georgetown, the hyperbole might be true. The historic streets and brick sidewalks of DC's oldest neighborhood may well represent the ultimate capital address.

It's here, after all, where Hollywood comes to film, chain stores come to open and people from college students to socialites come to be seen.

Georgetown actually predates the formation of the District itself. The Town of George began as its own municipality in 1751 and served as a thriving port for goods such as tobacco before it was formally annexed in 1871.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/18/AR2006101800470.html

House Sales In Region Increasingly Called Off
More New-Home Buyers Are Canceling Contracts

By Tomoeh Murakami Tse
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 18, 2006; Page A01

NVR Inc., the region's largest home builder, said yesterday that four out of 10 of its new-home sales in the Washington area were canceled last quarter, making it the latest builder to report that more buyers are backing out of deals.

Around the Washington market, cancellation rates have tripled in the past year, to 17 percent, according to researchers at Hanley Wood Market Intelligence. In August alone, that meant about 250 cancellations. In its most recent earnings report, builder Toll Brothers Inc. said cancellations in the quarter that ended in July had more than doubled, to 18 percent nationally, while numerous builders said in interviews that their cancellations locally had increased.

Developers and builders say buyers are abandoning five-figure deposits on their future homes because they cannot sell their existing homes or did not sell them for nearly as much as they had counted on.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/17/AR2006101701613.html

In Mount Airy, Panoramas at the Right Price
Md. Town Offers Land for Less, Quaint Downtown

By Marianne Kyriakos
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, October 14, 2006; Page G01

Something about scraping the manure off their shoes at a rainy county fair a few years back convinced Rick and Mary Anne Smith that "hobby farming" would suit them.

They sold their Silver Spring house and found a real estate agent, Mary Anne Smith said. "She kept a database of people like us -- Washingtonians who were looking for the perfect country property, those two-to-four-acre parcels."

The Smiths now have the life they wanted 35 miles north of Washington, in greater Mount Airy. They paid $160,000 for an eight-acre lot in the Maryland countryside and hired Keystone Modular Homes to put up a $250,000, four-bedroom Cape Cod.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101300637.html#

When a Condo Developer Goes Bankrupt, It Can Mean Trouble for Early Buyers

By Benny L. Kass
Saturday, October 14, 2006; Page F04

Q: What happens to your investment if you buy one of the first units in a condominium and the project goes bankrupt before a significant number have been sold?

Could you possibly lose all you invested? This is a concern for people who are retired and can't afford to lose such a significant sum.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101300626.html

GOP wants Hoyer to step down for Steele comment
Democrats say Republicans are just trying to deflect attention from Steele's closeness to Bush

Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2006

The Maryland Republican Party has called on Rep. Steny H. Hoyer to give up his Democratic Party leadership post in the wake of his comment that Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele follows GOP doctrine "slavishly."

Steele is in the middle of a pitched election fight for U.S. Senate with Benjamin L. Cardin, a Democratic congressman.

"Ben Cardin should be ashamed to stand alongside, and at the least tacitly accept, the racist and disgusting comments from his buddy Steny Hoyer," said John Gibson, the state GOP's executive director, in a statement.

http://www.gazette.net/stories/101806/montsta155453_31940.shtml

Ehrlich, O'Malley will debate on Saturday
Whether it's once or twice hasn't been decided

Friday, Oct. 13, 2006

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) and Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley (D) will debate on Saturday, but there?s a question of how many times.

At 1 pm Saturday, the candidates will meet at Baltimore's WJZ-TV. Their meeting will air at 7 pm Monday.

Ehrlich and O'Malley are tentatively scheduled to meet at 7 pm Saturday for a debate hosted by Maryland Public Television and the League of Women Voters. The debate would also air on WBAL-TV.

http://www.gazette.net/stories/101306/polia%20s135717_31956.shtml

Who's next
One election is coming up, but another one is right around the corner. Who will be the players in 2010?

Friday, Oct. 13, 2006

ANNAPOLIS - Maryland hasn't experienced its first voting machine meltdown of the general election yet, and political junkies are already looking toward the 2010 campaign season.

So much of what may - or may not - happen four years from now depends on this year's statewide elections. Republicans could find themselves back in the wilderness if Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. loses re-election and Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele is defeated for the U.S. Senate.

"Assuming that Ehrlich and Steele lose - but it's close - you could see an Ehrlich-O'Malley rematch in 2010," said Donald E. Murphy, a former GOP delegate from Baltimore County and a lobbyist in Annapolis. "If it's a rout, we could be talking about Drew Ehrlich and Ross Brinkley running in the 2038 election."

http://www.gazette.net/stories/101306/polia%20s194607_31959.shtml

With Revitalization, Port Towns' Ship Has Come In

By Hamil R. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 19, 2006; Page T15

As a youngster growing up in Northeast Washington, Diane Griffin often visited Bladensburg. Sometimes her parents brought her to the town's skating rink. Other times, she would frolic and fish along the banks of the Anacostia River.

Despite the fun, Griffin, 52, who is African American, sometimes feared walking along Bladensburg's waterfront years ago because it meant passing through a predominantly white community where residents kept big angry dogs that barked as she passed by.

But times have changed. These days, Griffin works as Bladensburg's secretary, and she no longer worries about the barking dogs.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/18/AR2006101800919.html

Explosives Center Fuels Hope for a Tech Hub
Indian Head Site, to Open in 2009, Seen as a Lure for Good Jobs

By Philip Rucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 15, 2006; Page SM01

A center in Indian Head dedicated to the research, engineering and development of explosives used in bombs and warheads and to their adaptation for other uses may be just the magnet Southern Maryland needs to attract high-paid technology jobs.

The Energetics Technology Center, which will be built near the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Indian Head in northwestern Charles County, is scheduled to open in about three years and will house scientists developing technologies for explosives, propellants and pyrotechnics.

Federal, state and local officials gathered Thursday in the county seat, La Plata, to outline plans for the center and open a temporary office on Centennial Street to serve as the project's administrative hub until construction is completed. They said they believe the center will establish Charles as a niche market in explosives research and production.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/14/AR2006101400129.html

Metro Extension To Dulles Delayed
State Says Schedule Pushed Back a Year

By Lisa Rein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 19, 2006; Page B01

The months-long debate over whether to build a Metrorail extension to Dulles International Airport below ground through Tysons Corner has pushed the construction schedule back about a year, state officials said yesterday.

Subway construction probably won't begin until late next year or early 2008, said officials of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation. It was supposed to start early next year, prompting some Fairfax County supervisors to question whether the state's management of the project was also to blame.

Corey Hill, the state's project manager for the planned rail extension from West Falls Church to the airport, cited a five-month review of a tunnel option under Tysons Corner as the main factor setting construction back. Gov. Timothy Kaine (D) decided last month to nix the tunnel after federal officials and area congressmen made clear that the costs of an underground link could jeopardize the entire 23-mile, $4 billion project.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/18/AR2006101801916.html

Poll Shows Support for Tax Increase
N.Va. Favors Fund For Transportation

By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 19, 2006; Page A01

A large majority of Northern Virginia residents want the state to spend more money to fix the region's roads and rails, and more than three-quarters say they wanted the opportunity to raise local taxes to do it, a new Washington Post poll shows.

Overall, the survey finds deep resentment among the region's voters toward their government in Richmond, particularly the General Assembly. Only 9 percent of likely Northern Virginia voters polled said they were "very satisfied" that the government is working for the best interests of their part of the commonwealth. Forty-eight percent of those voters said they were dissatisfied, compared with 37 percent in other parts of the state.

That result suggests that General Assembly members in Richmond are taking the brunt of the blame for the stalemate over transportation funding that consumed lawmakers for much of the year. In the poll, 55 percent of the region's likely voters blamed lawmakers, especially Republicans, for the failed special session last month. Only 11 percent blamed Kaine.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/18/AR2006101801770.html

Allen, Webb Pull In Presidents As They Beef Up Push to Nov. 7

By Tim Craig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 19, 2006; Page B01

President Bush and former president Bill Clinton will wade into Virginia's closely contested U.S. Senate race today at separate fundraisers that underscore the growing importance of the state in the fight for control of Congress.

The presidential visits for Sen. George Allen (R) and Democratic challenger James Webb will raise money and rally supporters for the final push to the Nov. 7 election. But the events come as Allen and Webb are using either the name "Clinton" or "Bush" to sway voters who either love or hate the current or former president.

"Bush mobilizes the Democrats, and Clinton mobilizes the Republicans," said Merle Black, a political science professor at Emory University who is following Virginia's Senate race.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/18/AR2006101801915.html

New Boston Fund To Develop Rockville

CHANTILLY, VA-Boston-based New Boston Fund Inc. has delivered Parkstone Place, a four-story 76,400-sf class A office building located at 5155 Parkstone Dr. in the Westfields Corporate Center here. The office park was a joint venture project with local firm Realty Capital Partners, LLC--the first of many speculative development projects New Boston Fund is expecting to launch with the company, Patrick Connell, vice president of Asset Management for New Boston Fund?s Virginia office, tells GlobeSt.com.

The next project the duo will likely tackle is an office development on a plot of land in Rockville, MD controlled by both firms. "New Boston Fund is capable of developing two buildings on the 5.5 acre site, which is located at the intersection of Route 28 and Gude Drive in Rockville, MD." This, and other projects, is part of the fund's increased focus on the Mid-Atlantic region, Connell says. In an interview with GlobeSt.com earlier this summer, Connell said the firm plans on investing some $150 million for the reminder of the year in the region. The company is also redeploying its workforce to emphasize sales and development here; in January an acquisitions officer will move to Washington, DC from the Boston area. The company will also be adding a development officer to the Mid-Atlantic office.

http://www.globest.com/news/763_763/washington/149904-1.html

Freddie Mac Names Piszel CFO

McLEAN, VA-Six months after former CFO Martin F. Baumann left Freddie Mac, the firm has identified a replacement. Anthony S. Piszel has been named executive vice president and CFO, effective Nov. 13. Piszel will also serve as a member of the company's senior executive leadership team. He will report directly to president and COO Eugene M. McQuade.

Piszel, 51, joins Freddie Mac from Health Net Inc., where he held a similar position. Prior to joining Health Net in 2004, Piszel spent a decade at Prudential Financial Inc., most recently as senior vice president and corporate controller.

http://www.globest.com/news/762_762/washington/149885-1.html