Washington Business Journal by Michael NeibauerSenior Staff Reporter

Shortly after Muriel Bowser took office as D.C. mayor in January, her administration immediately canned two high-profile projects and put several others on hold.

Officials called it a “top-to-bottom review,” and pardon District business leaders for worrying that the city’s new chief executive would unravel much of the work done by her predecessor.

But in the months since, the mayor has calmed those nerves — clearing hurdles that blocked several longstanding projects, breaking ground on numerous others, committing $100 million to affordable housing, securing additional affordable units in planned private developments, lobbying for D.C. businesses on a China trade mission, and entering into the largest municipal solar project in the country.

Professional sports also played a huge role in Bowser’s first year. Two projects in particular will come at a hefty public cost, roughly $200 million between them, but promise big dividends for their respective communities.

Her brief game of chicken with D.C. United over the details of its future stadium paid off with a deal signed between the District and team in mid-June. Was the agreement perfect? Bowser acknowledged it was not. But it ensured the District’s Major League Soccer team will remain in the District, in a new 20,000-seat stadium on Buzzard Point. And the administration insists that project, scheduled to open in 2018, will have far-reaching, positive effects on the largely industrial Southwest neighborhood. D.C. has committed $150 million to secure the stadium footprint and prepare the land for development.

In September, Bowser joined with Ted Leonsis to announce plans for a $55 million sports and entertainment arena on the St. Elizabeths East campus. The 5,000-seat facility will serve as home for the Washington Mystics, as the training home for the Washington Wizards, and as a year-round concert venue. The District and Events D.C. will cover all but $5 million of the cost. The project is expected to jump start the St. Elizabeths East transformation.

In November, the Bowser administration sealed a $22.5 million deal with the U.S. Army to acquire 66-plus acres of the sprawling former Walter Army Medical Center campus. Without that long-awaited agreement, now pending D.C. Council approval, the District could not advance its plans to convert the site into a 3.1 million-square-foot, mixed-use community.

Also in November, the Bowser administration finally rid the city of the former SkylandShopping Center, a sale that allowed a team of private developers to begin heavy construction work on the future Wal-Mart-anchored Skyland Town Center. But to reach that point, the mayor’s team had to clear a last minute obstacle that threatened the entire project.

In 2015, Bowser cleared the way for redevelopments of the Grimke School on the U Street corridor, a lot at Eighth and O streets NW in Shaw and 965 Florida Ave. NW, future home of 393 multifamily units and a Whole Foods. She broke ground on the Hines School redevelopment at Eastern Market, on Property Group Partners’ Capitol Crossing project spanning Interstate 395, and the first project at Walter Reed (a new fire station). She restarted solicitations for the Franklin School and Parcel 42 in Shaw, and sites in Truxton Circle and Anacostia and Waterfront Station.

Bowser had her share of hiccups and controversies in 2015, from her role in FreshPAC — a political action committee raising funds from connected D.C. business leaders to advance the mayor's agenda and support Bowser-friendly candidates — to the uptick in violent crime and her handling of police body camera footage. But on the economic development front, the administration has advanced key projects that promise to pay off big for the District in the long run.