(Washington, DC) – Mayor Adrian M. Fenty on Friday announced the District has made significant progress on more than two dozen key development projects in National Capital Revitalization Corp. and Anacostia Waterfront Corp. portfolios in the 12 months since the District took control of the former corporation’s assets.
“We pushed hard to bring AWC and NCRC back into to the District government because they projects were simply moving too slowly, there was no clear District-wide economic development strategy and no one – at the end of the day – was in charge,” said Mayor Fenty. “Now, a year after the merger, we’ve hit more than two dozen significant development milestones on the District’s most important projects. These projects are back on track and we’re moving them as fast as possible.”
Now, within the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, more than $13 billion worth of economic development projects are in the District’s portfolio including: more than 12,000 units of housing (4,500 affordable units), 1,800 hotel rooms; 8 million square feet of office space and 2 million square feet of retail space.
The office has hired numerous executives from the private sector and eliminated more than 40 redundant and overlapping positions and consolidated office space saving tax payers more than $5.7 million a year.
Highlights of the District’s progress on former AWC and NCRC projects include:
July 17, 2008: District selects Argos Group to develop two vacant Capitol Hill properties, including Old Engine House 10, into eight condos where half will be sold as affordable units.
July 16, 2008: District wraps up design work for $7.7 million first phase of Marvin Gaye Park in Ward 7.
July 15, 2008: The DC Council approves a $198 million TIF/PILOT package to fund park and infrastructure improvements for the $1.5 billion Southwest Waterfront redevelopment.
July 11, 2008: Master land use planning begins at Boathouse Row.
June 24, 2008: The District and the National Park Services hold public scoping meeting for the Poplar Point EIS.
June 15, 2008: District receives key federal approvals of designs for Diamond Teague Park, a new park that will connect Nationals Park to the Anacostia River.
June 4, 2008: District issues Parcel 69 solicitation seeking development partner for potent $130 million office/hotel project in along Southwest Freeway
May 22, 2008: Superior Court recently awards clear title to the District for 3912 Georgia Avenue, a property the District will transfer to the Jair Lynch Cos. to build the $35.6 million Georgia Commons, a 130-unit apartment building that will make 40 percent of its units available for affordable housing and include 24,000 square feet of new, street-level retail.
May 14, 2008: The District issues RFEI for Hill East Waterfront, seeking a master developer to transform more than 50 acres surrounding the former DC General Hospital site into a $1.4 billion new waterfront neighborhood that will be a model for environmental sustainability and the link between Capitol Hill and the Anacostia River.
April 25, 2008: Issued a solicitation for development partners for three Georgia Avenue sites in Petworth, draws interests from both Donatelli Development and the Neighborhood Development Co., who both have major investments along the corridor.
April 1, 2008: Reached an agreement with the Canal Park Development Corp. to build $13.1 million, three-block-long park in the heart of the heart of the ballpark district.
March 27, 2008: District selects Blue Skye Development as its partner for 4427 Hayes Street, NE – the first off-site housing development for the Lincoln Heights/Richardson Dwellings New Community. The 26-unit project will include affordable and market-rate housing.
March 18, 2008: District receives seven bids for Fifth and Eye site
March 4, 2008: Target opens its first District store at DC USA, a 500,000 square foot retail complex in heart of Columbia Heights. The project will eventually create more than 1,200 jobs and about $12 million in annual tax revenue in a retail-starved section of the city.
February 22, 2008: Revived a 28-unit housing redevelopment project at 4010 Third Street, SE in Ward 8. The District provided $1 million to ensure the project could be completed.
February 14, 2008: District selects Clark Realty as master developer for the $2.5 billion Poplar Point project. At more than 110 acres, the site is the largest economic development project in the District and one of the last truly great urban waterfront sites on the East Coast.
February 5, 2008: Districts executes Term Sheet with the Parcel 42 Partners to develop almost 100 units of affordable housing in Shaw.
January 24, 2008: Mayor Fenty signs Land Disposition Agreement with Broadcast Center One Partners, a $144 million deal that will bring African American-owned broadcaster Radio One back to its District roots and stimulate investment in a pocket of the city that has seen decades of disinvestment. The deal also sets in motion the $22 million redevelopment of the Howard Theatre, a long-shuttered landmark that was the hub of “Black Broadway”.
January 15, 2008: The District and Hoffman-Struever LLC reach a deal on the financial terms of a $198 million TIF and PILOT financing package to pay for infrastructure costs in transforming the Southwest Waterfront into a $1.5 billion world-class urban waterfront.
December 13, 2007: District selects development partner for Northwest One, the $700 million project headed by the William C. Smith Cos. and Jair Lynch Cos. will include more than 1,600 units of housing on several formerly controlled NCRC parcels as well as other adjacent District-controlled and private properties.
November 14, 2007: District selects Parcel 42 Partners to develop the $32 million affordable housing development in Shaw.
November 1, 2007: Mayor Fenty joined Forest City Washington and Charles E. Smith/Vornado in demolishing the former Waterside Mall in Southwest to make way for Waterfront Station, a 2.5 million square foot mixed-use development atop the Waterfront-SEU Metrorail station. The project will be built on land formerly controlled by NCRC.
September 30, 2007: Closed AWC offices on M Street, SE, consolidated offices saving $1.5 million annually. Completed staff integration eliminating 42 redundant and overlapping positions creating an annual cost savings of at least $4.2 million.
September 20, 2007: District closes on $111.5 million PILOT financing package that will leverage taxes that would be paid by the developer of the Department of Transportation’s Anacostia Waterfront headquarters to pay for public parks and infrastructure along the waterfront, including a 5.8 acre $42 million park at Forest City Washington’s adjacent project, The Yards.
August 10, 2008: The District issues an RFEI for Poplar Point, a 110-acre site along the Anacostia River.
July 20, 2007: Mayor Fenty signs into law a DC Council-approved bill that dissolves the NCRC and AWC and transfers the corporations’ assets back to the District government.