A Chorus of Praise for the Yards

D.C. Officials, Developers Hail Kickoff of Waterfront Project

Victor B. MacFarlane, the managing principal of MacFarlane Partners, is part of the development team or the Yards. (By David Nakamura -- The Washington Post)

For decades, the 42-acre stretch of Anacostia River waterfront was a walled-off preserve controlled by the federal government, a place where the Navy once made torpedo tubes and boilers for its ships.

Now, a developer plans to transform that stretch into 5.2 million square feet of condominiums, offices, restaurants, high-end retail and a five-acre park, all of it a stone's throw from where the Washington Nationals' stadium is being built.

"This isn't just a development project," Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) said of the Yards yesterday, before grabbing a hard hat and a ceremonial shovel for the groundbreaking. "We are standing on what will be a new Anacostia waterfront neighborhood."

A plan that originated under Mayor Anthony A. Williams, the project is touted by District officials and the developer, Forest City Washington, as the "largest public-private effort in the District in decades."

When completed in 2022, the development will have 2,800 condominium and rental apartments, 1.8 million square feet of office space and as much as 400,000 square feet of retail and dining, in a Southeast area roughly bounded by M Street on the north, First Street on the west, Isaac Hull Avenue on the east and the river on the south.

By 2010, Forest City expects to have turned a former warehouse into 170 rental apartments, and the building where the Navy once made boilers into a retail center, offering a blend of nationally known and locally owned stores and restaurants.

The first phase of construction will include a 190-unit condominium, an office building and a waterside park that will be accessible to the public. Twenty percent of the rental units will be set aside for families earning about $45,000 annually.

The development team includes Victor B. MacFarlane, the managing principal of MacFarlane Partners, which is a part owner of the D.C. United soccer franchise.

District officials have been working for years to develop the site, which the Navy relinquished in the 1960s. The federal government had plans to build an office complex, but agencies were reluctant to move to the neighborhood. In 2000, Congress enacted legislation allowing the General Services Administration to seek out builders to redevelop the site.

The Forest City development is among a slew of projects that are transforming the once-industrial section of the city. On the north side of M Street SE, a developer is building residential, office and retail space along the broad swath that was once home to the Capper/Carrollsburg public housing project.

On M Street, bordering the Forest City project, the U.S. Department of Transportation recently opened a new headquarters. And the Nationals are expected to move into their 41,000-seat stadium in the spring.

The rebirth of an area that was once all but forgotten inspired no shortage of giddiness among District officials and community leaders.

"To stand east of South Capitol Street and see what's happening is amazing," said Andy Litsky, a community leader in an adjoining neighborhood who attended the groundbreaking. "It's being radically transformed, and radically transformed for the better. It's going to be a city unto itself."

Robert Siegel, an advisory neighborhood commissioner in Ward 6, was among those applauding at the groundbreaking. The District had forced Siegel to sell 11 properties to make way for the stadium, including several that leased space to nightclubs and a movie theater catering to gays.

Siegel hasn't found a new home for those businesses. But he said he is enthusiastic about the unfolding changes. "This was a ghost town," he said, "and we're going to have 6,000 people living here."