By Jacqueline Dupree
Thursday, November 1, 2007

Ballpark and Beyond is from Jacqueline Dupree's blog on development in Near Southeast Washington, an area between Capitol Hill and the Anacostia River that is being transformed by the construction of the Nationals baseball stadium.

On Friday, I had one ear tuned in to D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson's hearing on space needs for the police department (a follow-up to the Sept. 20 barnburner between Mendelson and Office of Property Management Director Lars Etzkorn). This time, it was Neil O. Albert, deputy mayor for planning and economic development, in the hot seat, and he stated that plans for using the former Washington Post plant at 225 Virginia Ave. SE will be "finalized by the end of the year."

Albert called the original plan to use the location for the 1st District police station, the evidence warehouse and other Metropolitan Police Department functions a decision by "a well-intentioned prior administration" that he can't advise the mayor to adopt. Mendelson (D-At Large) strongly disagreed, and also said a number of times that if the uses for 225 Virginia Ave. don't include any of the public safety agencies, then his committee has no jurisdiction. But as a council member, he said, he would be very critical of any plans for the building that don't include the urgent space needs of the police department. The city, which signed an agreement this year to lease the building, is paying approximately $500,000 a month in rent for the empty space.

Albert also talked about the plans for relocating the 1st District station. It appears the Office of the Deputy Mayor of Planning and Economic Development has a location in mind, but Albert didn't want to discuss it in public. He did say that it is in Southwest, and that it is permanent space, not swing space. He also said that community leaders would be contacted for input before the plan is finalized. Despite skeptical questioning by Mendelson, Albert said that the timeline for a 2011 completion of the new Consolidated Forensics and Public Health Laboratory at the 1D location is on schedule, and that with the 1D relocation sites being looked at, he's confident that 1D can be moved without jeopardizing the planned start of construction on the lab in early 2009.

The new Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District held a kickoff celebration Oct. 22 on the 10th floor of 20 M St. SE, the latest stop on the 2007 Traveling Road Show of Near Southeast groundbreakings. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) and others saluted the changes happening in Near Southeast -- and fans of the stalled Canal Park project will be happy to know that Wells took time to stress the importance of getting the park built, not just from a green-space standpoint but also because of its storm-water management operations.

There were also diplomas presented to the first graduates of the Clean Team program, the blue-jumpsuit-wearing workers starting to show up around the neighborhood as they work to keep the streets and sidewalks clean, no mean feat when the area is basically one big construction zone. For more about the business improvement district and its functions, go to http://www.capitolriverfront.org.

The Market Deli at First and L streets SE, the cab company at New Jersey Avenue and L, and the small empty lot between them have gone on the market as a joint sale, with an asking price of $11 million for the 9,000-plus square feet of land. It's one of the last spots in Near Southeast west of Eighth Street that is owned by individuals and not developers. Anyone watching the neighborhood shouldn't be surprised that this is finally happening. The behemoth development company Akridge owns most of that block's land along First Street, so perhaps they are watching this with interest.

The deal is being spearheaded by the Resnick family, which over the past few years has sold family land on both sides of the 1100 block of New Jersey Avenue SE, and also on the opposite side of L Street from the land now for sale, where Onyx on First, a residential project, is going up. (And the Resnicks' father once operated a five-and-dime store one block to the east, where the Courtyard by Marriott now stands.) In the meantime, the landowners are talking with restaurant owners about possibly renting some of the space to sell "quick food" for ballpark goers.

Demolition is scheduled to start very soon on the vacant building on the northwest corner of South Capitol and O streets SW, where Camden Development is preparing to build a 276-unit apartment building. Construction will probably start late this year or in early 2008. This project has changed its address to 1345 South Capitol, because the city wouldn't give them 1325, the address it was known by during the zoning commission hearings.

I've been told that a camper set up shop in mid-October outside the Capitol Quarter sales center at Fourth and L streets SE, even though no date has been announced for the next sale of market-rate homes at the development. Too bad the weeks of dry weather gave out a few days later.

Campers were of course a fixture at the site over the summer, when five house sites were sold each month at this mixed-income townhouse development on the site of the old Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg public housing project. It will be interesting to see how long this intrepid soul (and presumably the cadre of friends helping save the camper's place ) will have to wait to get a crack at buying a home here.

Jacqueline Dupree, a Post staff member and Ward 6 resident, has been tracking changes in the area since 2003. For updates and links to documents and sites mentioned here, go tohttp://www.jdland.com.