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A Look at the Development of the NoMa Corridor in NE DC

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revitalizer

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Discussion starter · #1 · (Edited)
Although development in the Capitol Riverfront area is materialising at a much faster rate, the NoMa corridor is shaping up to contribute significantly to DC's economy and expansion over the next 5 to 7 years.

Take a look at this very excellent map of the NoMa BID with a handy-dandy colour-coded project delivery timetable:
http://www.nomabid.com/map.pdf

NoMa is already home to XM Satellite Radio, CNN, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG), and CareFirst insurance.

Take a look at this PDF file from the DC Office of Planning's Vision Plan and Development Strategy for NoMa:
http://planning.dc.gov/planning/lib/planning/Section_1-_Executive_Summary.pdf

Here's a look at what's going up in NoMa over the next 5 to 7 years:

* 20 million square feet of office, hotel and retail space
* 6,000 residential units
* 36,000 new workers
* At least two new hotels

Take a look at this NoMa video that I found on the NoMa BID's official website:
http://www.nomabid.com/video.html


Image

NoMa potential build-out (Rendering credit: DC Office of Planning)


The above rendering includes projects that are already being built and ones that are actively on the drawing boards. The rendering also shows the "Burnham at Union Station" development by Akridge that is slated to be built on a platform over the train tracks immediately to the north of Union Station.
 
Discussion starter · #2 ·
NoMA Launches Business Improvement District

By Erika Morphy of GlobeSt.com

Friday, March 23, 2007 - WASHINGTON, DC-The NoMA area of Washington, DC has been approved as a new Business Improvement District by the District of Columbia Council. NoMA is bounded by Massachusetts Avenue on the south, North Capitol Street on the west, and Q and R streets on the north. It extends eastward just beyond the CSX/Metrorail tracks.
The NoMA BID has a seven-member board chaired by Bruce Baschuk of J Street Development. BID status will provide tangible benefits to developers interested in the area, according to board treasurer Douglas Firstenberg, who is also principal of Bethesda, MD-based StonebridgeCarras.

“We will be providing services and marketing to tenants and visitors, such as cleaning and safety programs,” Firstenberg tells GlobeSt.com. “We will be involved in working with the District and other agencies to help develop infrastructure and other policies affecting this part of the city.”

Charles Wilkes, chairman of local development firm the Wilkes Co. and vice chairman of the NoMA BID, tells GlobeSt.com that the first project BID will tackle will be a “clean and safe” program, which entails employing street sweepers, uniformed guards and eventually installing streetscape and plantings. That project will take up a big chunk of the BID’s $1.2 million 2008 fiscal year budget, he says.

For the 2007 budget, the developers kicked in voluntary contributions to get the process off the ground. It was money well spent, Wilkes says, as it is largely seen as an investment that will pay dividend in future development.

According to Firstenberg, there is about $1 billion of either planned development or projects underway in this area. “That is not counting what the government is doing,” he says.

StonebridgeCarras, for example, is in the design phase of its Constitution Square project, a $350-million, two-building, seven-acre project. The building at the south side of the site is a 620,000-sf, residential/retail building that will consist of 55,000 sf of retail, 50,000 sf of which will be a grocery store, Firstenberg says. The other building is a 350,000-sf office with retail on the ground floor.

The Wilkes Co. as well has a project in the planning stages: a 650,000-sf mixed-use residential, office and ground floor retail complex in between M, Third and Fourth streets, according to Wilkes.

“We expect to see tremendous new development in the coming years--1.5 million sf of office space, 1,500 apartments and two hotels will break ground this year alone,” Baschuk says in a statement.
 
Discussion starter · #4 ·
ajoutz said:
Sweet. Is this the area with all the cranes you can see when you take the red line out of Union station? I've been watching them build like crazy for a view months.
Click to expand...
Yes, it is. And, wait until next year when you'll see even more construction cranes over in this area.
 
#5 ·
Wow, last time I checked, I believe I counted around 12-13 cranes. I had been wondering what they were for a while. I'm gonna check my cell phone because I think I either took some pictures or a video while the train was moving.
 
Discussion starter · #6 · (Edited)
We're to the point now where DC is building mini-cities within the city. Maybe we can push the crane count up to 20 or so in NoMa by early next year.

Here's a list of projects in NoMa that are set to go later this year and next year:

Constitution Square Phase I - 100 M Street NE - 700 apartments

Washington Gateway - New York and Florida Avenue NE - 255 apartments, 180 hotel rooms, and 550,000 square feet of office

60 L Street NE by Camden - 690 apartments

First and M Street NE by Archstone-Smith - 500 apartments

Surprisingly, most of the activity that will get started later this year and next year will be mostly apartments. The Class A apartment vacancy rate in DC remains low so this market is very healthy. So, it will indeed be a new, mixed-use downtown neighbourhood and not just an office park.
 
Discussion starter · #7 ·
Hispanic-owned Marriott to break ground
Washington Business Journal - 12:58 PM EDT Tuesday, July 3, 2007
by Jeff Clabaugh

Staff Reporter
Marriott International Inc., which regularly shows up on lists of best places to work for women and minorities, has pledged to have 500 minority- and women-owned hotels by 2010.

Its first Hispanic-owned hotel in D.C. will break ground next week.

Since Marriott made the pledge 2 years ago, more than 400 minority and women-owned hotels have opened or are under development, including about 30 in the Washington and Baltimore markets.

Its newest Courtyard by Marriott hotel will be the first in the city majority-owned by an Hispanic business, Miami-based The Finvarb Group. Wilmot & Brown & Bagwell, LLP and Welburn Hospitality, both local firms, will be minority owners.

Finvarb also owns the Residence Inn by Marriott in Chantilly.

The Courtyard by Marriott is being built at New York and Florida avenues NE., next to the new ATF headquarters building. Marriott says the 218-room hotel will feature a green roof and 10,000 square feet of retail space.

Mayor Adrian Fenty is scheduled to attend the groundbreaking July 11. The hotel is expected to open in 2009.
 
Discussion starter · #8 ·
Image

Capitol Square

Capitol Square is a joint development by JBG Cos. and Morgan Stanley and is planned to have a phased completion between 2010 and 2013.

It is planned to be a 1.6-million square foot complex with:

* 575,000 GSF of office space
* 575,000 GSF of residential space
* 250,000 GSF of hotel space
* 200,000 GSF of retail space
 
#9 ·
that's a fantastic building. I think NoMa around NY Ave. would be a good place to lift the height limit a bit. But I'm excited about the developments in that area. It's always got a lot of construction going on, and the projects themselves are high quality which is great.
 
Discussion starter · #10 · (Edited)
I agree, Nova! I used to associate JBG Cos. with bland, boring architecture and projects, but now that has all changed. It seems like just overnight that they've made a complete turn-around by partnering with some of the world's best architects and master planners. Hooray!

I'm really excited about the residential building on the right of the rendering that I posted above. And, if you look at the NoMa video from my first post, you can see their development on the right side of the ATF building. It looks like it will be high-quality.

And, I'm most excited about the one below by JBG now. It's not in NoMa, but I just had to post it again! Sorry!

Image

1201 K Street. Developed by JBG. Designed by Richard Rogers + Partners
 
#11 ·
Image
Click to expand...
That part of K street will be looking pretty good in a few years. Across from the Richard Rogers building will be 1050 K St:

Image


And right next will be 1099 New York ave, which is really cruising along now:

Image


Across New York Ave from that one is the Old Convention Center redevelopment, still a few years off but with plans that look really nice:

Image


Sorry I know we're supposed to be talking about NoMa here, but just had to respond to that last post :)
 
Discussion starter · #12 ·
oh, it's alright DistrictDirt. I temporarily deviated off course myself.

But, I found something which may also be of interest to you. I think it was you that commented on MRP Realty's Washington Gateway project in NoMa over on the dcmud blogspot in reference to the lack of creative architecture. I was anonymous at the time over on the dcmud blogspot, and I made a comment to that effect also.

Well, if you look at the NoMa video, you will see that MRP Realty's Washington Gateway project looks different here. Which one is the most current? I happen to like the architecture in the video much better than on the renderings below. What does everyone think?

http://www.nomabid.com/video.html


Image

Washington Gateway - Looking southwest along New York Avenue


Image

Washington Gateway - higher angle view; notice the NY Avenue-Florida Avenue metro stop and Metropolitan Branch Trail to the right of the project
 
Discussion starter · #14 ·
I wouldn't classify development in NoMa as gentrification. Current residents are not being displaced because there were none before this development started taking place on this track of land. The development is occurring on parking lots, abandoned warehouses, and former brownfield sites. That is not the classic sign of gentrification.

I basically don't even use the term "gentrification" in my vocabulary, but it is said that "gentrification" occurs when one set of residents are displaced by another set of residents, usually wealthier ones.
 
#15 ·
The video looks great, I just hope they can really make the area pedestrian friendly, and more intimate. I want to see some nice public spaces and lots of people walking. But the video looks great, I think a lot of people would love to move there.
 
#16 ·
Oh man, they're going to turn the small triangle with the trees on the bottom right corner of the 1st picture into a park. Thats where Wendy's currently sits, right down the street from me.....where am I going to go to get a late nite snack at 3 am!....:eek:hno:

Other than, I'm partly serious about taking out Wendy's at least make it a restaurant close by ( I love spicy chicken sandwiches), thats my NIMBYism.

The whole project looks good. I like the Metropolitan Branch trail running parallel with Red Line. You can see a dirt trail when you're riding the train into New York Ave station.
 
#17 ·
Urban,

I was trying to figure out where the wendy's was also.

Revitalizer is right. That whole area where the Greyhound bus station is (first street) and K street, along with the east side of North Capitol street is parking lot city. I wonder what is going to happen to the McDonald's on NY ave.
 
Discussion starter · #18 ·
Yes, I also do hope that lots of pedestrian activity will become a part of this new neighborhood.

But, poor Wendy's. It looks like its future is already written as the site of a future park.
 
#19 ·
Revitalizer,

I reluctantly might be able to let Wendy's go, but what about the bus station, thats a very important asset, because of its proximity to Union Station helps to make it a important transit nexus. People that can't afford trains or just want to take the bus are served tremendously by having the bus station in that location.
 
Discussion starter · #20 ·
urbanaturalist said:
Revitalizer,

I reluctantly might be able to let Wendy's go, but what about the bus station, thats a very important asset, because of its proximity to Union Station helps to make it a important transit nexus. People that can't afford trains or just want to take the bus are served tremendously by having the bus station in that location.
Click to expand...
About the Greyhound bus station. Akridge is planning to incorporate a multi-modal transportation center into their new Burnham Place at Union Station 3 million square foot complex on a platform to be built over top of the train tracks immediately to the north of Union Station. I believe a new bus transportation system will be integrated into that. This is not confirmed yet as the plans are in the early stages of development. Plus, Akridge may be looking to sell their air-rights at Union Station to another developer will to tackle this massive project.

At any rate, a major multi-modal transportation center is planned for Burnham Place at Union Station.
 
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