Murky waters for D.C.'s 'boat people' on Southwest waterfront

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Houseboat community reacts to SW waterfront redevelopment

Gangplank Marina is home to a tight-knit community of people who live aboard their boats. During the waterfront redevelopment construction the boats in Gangplank will have to be moved. What remains to be seen is where the community will go and when will they be able to return.

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The three-tiered boat, which has no working motor but has all the other familiar modern trappings of home, including high-speed Internet and a fully stocked refrigerator, gave Bratman a "sense of community" that her old Adams Morgan apartment lacked.

"It's really like you're on vacation when you're out here," said Bratman, who grows fruits and vegetables in a container garden inside her boat and uses a collection of worms for composting. "I couldn't imagine going back to dry land."

On the waterfront

Southwest has always been both blessed and cursed by the water.

Unlike any other section of the city, it is bounded by three waterfronts: the accessible portion along Water Street SW, an inaccessible government marina at Fort McNair and the Buzzard Point industrial waterfront.

As part of a Congress-led "urban renewal" project in Southwest, new clusters of concrete-laden federal office buildings cropped up in the 1950s and '60s.

Poor residents were relocated to Anacostia in the 1970s, and developers were given favorable loans to accommodate them. Little thought was given to using the waterfront as a recreational area. More than 40 percent of the waterfront area is paved, according to city planners, a testament to the old emphasis on parking and quick access to Interstate 395.

Construction will require the displacement or demolition of several waterfront businesses that held 99-year leases, including Gangplank's neighbor, the Capital Yacht Club; the 100-room Channel Inn; the Zanzibar nightclub; and Phillips Seafood Restaurant.

A deal for Zanzibar, a 26,000-square-foot club known for its hip-hop, Caribbean, African and salsa music, could be finished in the coming weeks, Hoffman said. It will eventually be torn down, and its owners might be offered a smaller space for a more low-key jazz club.

But Michel Daley, one of Zanzibar's co-owners, said nothing is final.

"This has been a very arduous negotiation and Hoffman has been offering a take-it-or-leave-it scenario, so we're not sure," he said Friday.

The Channel Inn and Phillips will be razed and its owners will likely build two hotels with additional retail space, Hoffman said. Phillips might come back in a smaller reincarnation, but its future is up in the air.

The club H2O has closed and will be demolished to make room for temporary performing arts space ahead of next spring's cherry blossom festival.

"We know this project will deliver the promise of becoming one of the marquee waterfront destinations for Washington, the region and the nation," said Valerie Joy Santos, deputy mayor for planning and economic development.

kravitzd@washpost.com Developer PN Hoffman's and Madison Marquette's public waterfront presentation is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater.