By Alejandro Lazo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 2, 2007

A long-delayed, multimillion-dollar plan to turn Waterside Mall in Southwest into a pedestrian friendly, mixed-used project broke ground yesterday, with a ceremonial gold-painted wrecking ball taking its first chunks out of the old shopping center.

The project, on Fourth and M streets SW, is intended to revitalize the waterfront area with 1.2 million square feet of office space, 1.2 million square feet of residential space and at least 110,000 square feet of retail space. The project will also reconnect Fourth Street, which used to run through the middle of what is now Waterside Mall.

"We are excited about reconnecting Fourth Street, about new retail, new business opportunities, new residential units," Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) said minutes before the wrecking ball dropped.

The $800 million project was put on hold in January 2005, when mortgage financier Fannie Mae pulled out of a plan to move office space there. Development plans were rekindled again in December 2006, when two District government offices agreed to lease 500,000 square feet in two new buildings.

The site was once the headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency. Three of the mall's tenants, Safeway, Bank of America and the CVS Pharmacy, will become part of the new shopping center. They will remain open during reconstruction, with Bank of America and CVS in temporary quarters in front. Vornado/Charles E. Smith and Forest City are co-owners and developers with the original owner of the project, Bresler & Reiner.

Charles Bresler said the project would be a "second revitalization" for the neighborhood, referring to the original shopping center's completion in the 1960s.

"Now what goes around comes around," Bresler said yesterday, standing on the open brick plaza that will eventually be paved over to become the reconnected Fourth Street. "This plaza will be replaced by a street with shops and restaurants with tables."