#1 Story of 2016: Developers Plan to Build Colossal 17 Acre Project in Reston

Four developers are teaming up to turn a 17.5-acre tangle of office buildings and parking lots at Wiehle Avenue and Sunset Hills Road into more than 1 million square feet of multifamily residential, as well as significant office and retail space.

Representatives from JBG/1831 Wiehle LLC, Bethesda’s EYA Development and The Chevy Chase Land Company gave a look at the development plan to the Reston Planning and Zoning Committee on Monday night.

The plan involves taking six parcels of land from 1831 Wiehle Avenue — the office building across Wiehle from the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station — several blocks east to Michael Faraday Drive.

In addition to 1831 Wiehle, the plan will include redevelopment of 1861 Wiehle, 1860 Michael Faraday and 1840 Michael Faraday.

“We can see a large piece of property and a big opportunity at the Wiehle Metro,” said land use lawyer Brian Winterhalter, who is working with the applicants. “It is smack dab in between the W&OD Trail and the Silver Line. We see it as “the gateway to Reston.”

Bailey Edelson, JBG Vice President of Development, said the principals of the plan include high quality design; pedestrian and bike connectivity; urban parks and recreation; strategic office and mix of uses; and public art.

The development will be about 78 percent residential, with the remaining retail and commercial.

Some of the planned features closest to the Metro include:

•  A multifamily building for independent senior living along Sunset Hills Road.
•  Two five-story multifamily buildings
•  An 11-story office building at Wiehle Avenue and the Dulles Toll Road

On the East side of the development, the plan calls for:

•  A 200-unit multifamily building
•  Condo Flats and three-story condo townhouses above retail stores
•  A neighborhood of 60 more traditional townhomes
•  Underground parking
•  The retail street will be an extension of Reston Station Boulevard
•  Five park areas, including a central park (2.3 acres total open space)

Overall, the development will have 1.2 million square feet of residential (for about 1,300-1,500 estimated residents); 230,000 square feet of office; and 250,000 square feet of retail (with a plan to amend some of the retail into housing if the market forces are not there later).

The developers gave a look at the planned urban street grid, as well as pedestrian and car connectivity with the Metro station. It has not yet looked at traffic impact at that intersection, which is already one of the busiest in Reston.

JBG has talked to Marymount University and Northern Virginia Community College, both of which have locations in the affected office buildings, said Edelson. Both colleges have indicated they would like to stay in Reston.
 

#2 Story of 2016: Maryland Live Casino's $200M Hotel to Break Ground in Fall

The Cordish Cos. plans to break ground in the fall on a $200 million hotel at Maryland Live Casino, an expansion that will begin just months before the MGM National Harbor opens in Prince George's County.

Baltimore-based Cordish Cos. has had plans to open a hotel alongside the casino since it opened in 2012. Now, a blueprint and timeline is in place for construction of the Live Hotel to be completed by the end of 2017.

The Cordish Cos. will begin construction on the Live Hotel this fall as part of the Maryland Live casino’s $200 million expansion.

The new 350,000-square-foot hotel building, which will stand 17 stories with 310 guest rooms and 52 suites, will sit adjacent to the state's largest casino.

"The addition of our flagship Live Hotel is just the latest investment we are making to ensure Maryland Live continues to be the preferred choice for visitors seeking a world-class gaming and entertainment experience," said Robert Norton, president of the Cordish Global Gaming Group.

Outside of guest rooms, Live Hotel will have several event and meeting spaces, including a 1,500-seat concert venue, and a banquet hall with seating up to 800 people.

The Shop Live retail store, a day spa and salon and an additional 1,000 parking spaces are also part of the plan.

On the dining side, a 24-hour cafe with open kitchen viewing and community seating will be part of the hotel along with a gelato bar and a lobby bar with more than 50 seats.

Tutor Perini Building Co. will serve as the general contractor when the project breaks ground this fall. Project completion is scheduled for fourth quarter 2017.

The Anne Arundel County Council approved the expansion project last September, including a $22.5 million tax incremental financing bond. Repayment of the bond will be made from new revenue generated by the hotel.

As part of the agreement, the event center will be available for use by the county, public schools, Anne Arundel Community College and nonprofits free of charge.

The project is expected to create nearly 400 new jobs and 550 construction jobs for the area.

MGM National Harbor, along the banks of the Potomac River near Washington, D.C., is scheduled to open by year's end and will bring new competition for Maryland Live.

The $1.2 billion casino and hotel project will have 308 guest rooms as part of the 1 million-square-foot resort.

#3 Story of 2016: $400M Mission Hospital Tower Largest in Asheville’s History

A massive $400 million medical tower that will soon be built at 509 Biltmore Avenue will be the largest construction project in Asheville’s history.

The new tower will allow to Mission Health to shutter its aging St. Joseph’s campus and consolidate all operations on the newer Mission campus side of the operation.

Last year, the City Council voted its approval to Mission Health to build a new 12-story, 681,000 square foot tower, which will include new operating rooms and an emergency services department.

The project’s architect is HDR and the general contractor is Turner Construction.

The project’s large size meant it required a Level III review under the city’s Unified Development Ordinance and a council vote.

The tower would have frontage on Hospital Drive and Victoria Road, replacing the St. Joseph’s hospital campus, which is on the opposite side of Biltmore from most of Mission Health’s facilities.

That has meant at times patients are transported by ambulance across the busy road.

The hospital began seriously looking at changes four years ago. The facilities at the St. Joseph’s facility were aging out, and there was a need for a new emergency department.

The St. Joseph’s facility is outdated, cannot accommodate new technology, and would be too costly to renovate.

The tower project on the Memorial Campus achieve cost savings by eliminating the duplication of services required to maintain facilities on both sides of the street, as well as to improve patients’ experience and safety by eliminating the need to transport them back and forth.

Construction on the tower, which will have two floors underground, is set to be completed in November 2018.

City planning director Tod Okolinchany said it will be the biggest project Asheville has ever seen. “The Asheville Mall exceeds 900,000 square feet but was completed in phases over several years,” he said.

The tower will have 216 beds, and services such as a heart catheter lab and endoscopy, intensive care unit and medical-surgery recovery floor, along with a cafeteria, an 84-bed emergency room, and support offices.

The project calls for retaining walls as high as 28 feet in some places. To soften their effect, the hospital plans to use plants and design elements.

There are also plans for a small park area at the corner of Hospital Drive and Biltmore.

The former St. Joe’s site will later be redeveloped to provide needed affordable housing, as well as commercial use and retail shops.

#4 Story of 2016: Reagan National Airport to Undergo Massive $1B Renovation

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, across the Potomac River from the nation's capital, will undergo a massive $1 billion renovation, its managers announced this week. 
 

The airport in Arlington, Virginia turned 75 years old this month. Despite its being in better condition than other major airports, such as New York's La Guardia, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority plans to add 1.1 million square feet to the airport.

The added space would shorten security lines and improve customers' experiences while traveling, the authority said.

More than 23 million passengers used National last year, making it the second-busiest airport in the region, after Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport. Last year was its sixth straight year of record-high passenger traffic. And there is little indication it will taper off.

And that’s the problem.

Such phenomenal growth was not part of the original plan for the airport, which sits on 860 acres of infill in the Potomac River.

But in the years since President Franklin D. Roosevelt watched the first American Airlines DC-3 aircraft touch down on the runway, the airport has grown in ways that few could have anticipated. It now serves more passengers than Dulles International — an airport 14 times its size.

The irony is that while airport officials have fought against growth at National, they have been forced to accommodate it.

They have reconfigured space, even re-purposing storage closets and conference rooms to manage the passenger boom. In 2014, they spent $37 million to remake historic Terminal A, adding security lanes and brightening the interior.

This fall, they will break ground on the airport’s biggest building project in nearly two decades. The centerpiece of the ambitious $1 billion program will be a new commuter concourse on the airport’s north side.

The building will replace Gate 35X — a notorious choke point where travelers, in rain, sun or snow, are required to board shuttle buses to get to their planes.

"Over the next four years, there's going to be a transformation of the passenger experience at Reagan National to decrease congestion near the gate and to improve passenger flow through the terminal," said MWAA spokesman Rob Yingling.

The authority released a video that shows security checkpoints being moved and housed under the roadway west of the airport, toward Crystal City.

 
Some of the checkpoints will be underground and have natural light coming in through glass ceiling panels. Terminal C, which currently houses the airport's executive offices, will be transformed to hold short-hop flights.

The authority said much of the construction will be done overnight so as not to interfere with airport traffic. The work will not begin until spring 2017 and is expected to be completed by 2021.

Reagan National Airport to Undergo Massive $1B Renovation

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, across the Potomac River from the nation's capital, will undergo a massive $1 billion renovation, its managers announced this week. 
 

The airport in Arlington, Virginia turned 75 years old this month. Despite its being in better condition than other major airports, such as New York's La Guardia, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority plans to add 1.1 million square feet to the airport.

The added space would shorten security lines and improve customers' experiences while traveling, the authority said.

More than 23 million passengers used National last year, making it the second-busiest airport in the region, after Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport. Last year was its sixth straight year of record-high passenger traffic. And there is little indication it will taper off.

And that’s the problem.

Such phenomenal growth was not part of the original plan for the airport, which sits on 860 acres of infill in the Potomac River.

But in the years since President Franklin D. Roosevelt watched the first American Airlines DC-3 aircraft touch down on the runway, the airport has grown in ways that few could have anticipated. It now serves more passengers than Dulles International — an airport 14 times its size.

The irony is that while airport officials have fought against growth at National, they have been forced to accommodate it.

They have reconfigured space, even re-purposing storage closets and conference rooms to manage the passenger boom. In 2014, they spent $37 million to remake historic Terminal A, adding security lanes and brightening the interior.

This fall, they will break ground on the airport’s biggest building project in nearly two decades. The centerpiece of the ambitious $1 billion program will be a new commuter concourse on the airport’s north side.

The building will replace Gate 35X — a notorious choke point where travelers, in rain, sun or snow, are required to board shuttle buses to get to their planes.

"Over the next four years, there's going to be a transformation of the passenger experience at Reagan National to decrease congestion near the gate and to improve passenger flow through the terminal," said MWAA spokesman Rob Yingling.

The authority released a video that shows security checkpoints being moved and housed under the roadway west of the airport, toward Crystal City.

 
Some of the checkpoints will be underground and have natural light coming in through glass ceiling panels. Terminal C, which currently houses the airport's executive offices, will be transformed to hold short-hop flights.

The authority said much of the construction will be done overnight so as not to interfere with airport traffic. The work will not begin until spring 2017 and is expected to be completed by 2021.

Big Plans for $100M Renovation of Charlotte Convention Center

The 21-year-old Charlotte Convention Center will get a $100 million renovation over the coming years, according to Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority.

Under the plan, the convention center’s footprint would not expand onto new property, at least not in the short term. But the center’s meeting space would grow by about 34,000 square feet, mostly by rebuilding the center’s facade facing Stonewall Street.

Tom Murray, CEO of the visitors authority, told council that a combination of changes in the convention business and the age of the building make the changes necessary.

The convention center, bounded by Brevard, Stonewall and College streets and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., opened in 1995 and cost $150 million to build.

An 18-month study by Jones Lang LaSalle Destination Planning Services and architect TVS Design led to the initial concepts introduced in late September. Murray told the council that the Visitors Authority will next refine the nine recommendations and sharpen the construction budget.

The $100 million figure is a rough estimate, Murray said.

The convention center today is focused on large exhibit space. Those are the large, unfinished rooms in the center’s lower floor, with 30 foot ceilings.

Only 18 percent of the Charlotte center is for smaller meeting space. Murray said newer convention centers have as much as half of their space dedicated for meeting space.

“Our market has changed,” Murray said. “It’s less exhibit focused. It’s more meeting focused. In the past meeting planners wanted four white walls and keep everyone out. Now they want an authentic feeling about Charlotte.”

Council members responded with enthusiasm to the plans, which include a pedestrian bridge and so called linear park to be built on both sides of the existing light rail bridge across Stonewall St., a project that would provide better access for convention attendees staying at The Westin.

A park style pedestrian space on each side of the light rail bridge would also provide direct access to the Whole Foods anchored development — Crescent Stonewall Station — opening next year.

The Visitors Authority envisions those projects as a likely first phase that would begin as soon as next summer, the start of fiscal year 2018.

Additional work would be completed in stages as part of a five-year renovation, including the conversion of an outdoor terrace into a flexible, enclosed, atrium style space along MLK Blvd., an event space above the light rail stop and dividing a ballroom into multiple meeting rooms.

Because the Charlotte economy has been booming, uptown hotels have found they can make more money on regular business travelers. That has created a conundrum for the CRVA, whose mission is to put “heads in beds.” How much should the city invest in conventions when the hotel industry is doing well, mostly on its own?

But there are a number of new hotels under construction, and Murray said an increased supply of hotel rooms should increase demand for conventions.

“We have 1,000 hotel rooms under construction,” Murray said. “We think those things are correcting themselves.”

Conventions and conferences have become lighter on exhibits and instead emphasize technology and flexible meeting space as well as an overall experience that connects attendees to the host city. In the latter sense, Charlotte benefits from the convention center being located uptown, within walking distance of museums, restaurants and sports venues.

Developers Plan to Build Colossal 17 Acre Project in Reston

Four developers are teaming up to turn a 17.5-acre tangle of office buildings and parking lots at Wiehle Avenue and Sunset Hills Road into more than 1 million square feet of multifamily residential, as well as significant office and retail space.

Representatives from JBG/1831 Wiehle LLC, Bethesda’s EYA Development and The Chevy Chase Land Company gave a look at the development plan to the Reston Planning and Zoning Committee on Monday night.

The plan involves taking six parcels of land from 1831 Wiehle Avenue — the office building across Wiehle from the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station — several blocks east to Michael Faraday Drive.

In addition to 1831 Wiehle, the plan will include redevelopment of 1861 Wiehle, 1860 Michael Faraday and 1840 Michael Faraday.

“We can see a large piece of property and a big opportunity at the Wiehle Metro,” said land use lawyer Brian Winterhalter, who is working with the applicants. “It is smack dab in between the W&OD Trail and the Silver Line. We see it as “the gateway to Reston.”

Bailey Edelson, JBG Vice President of Development, said the principals of the plan include high quality design; pedestrian and bike connectivity; urban parks and recreation; strategic office and mix of uses; and public art.

The development will be about 78 percent residential, with the remaining retail and commercial.

Some of the planned features closest to the Metro include:

•  A multifamily building for independent senior living along Sunset Hills Road.
•  Two five-story multifamily buildings
•  An 11-story office building at Wiehle Avenue and the Dulles Toll Road

On the East side of the development, the plan calls for:

•  A 200-unit multifamily building
•  Condo Flats and three-story condo townhouses above retail stores
•  A neighborhood of 60 more traditional townhomes
•  Underground parking
•  The retail street will be an extension of Reston Station Boulevard
•  Five park areas, including a central park (2.3 acres total open space)

Overall, the development will have 1.2 million square feet of residential (for about 1,300-1,500 estimated residents); 230,000 square feet of office; and 250,000 square feet of retail (with a plan to amend some of the retail into housing if the market forces are not there later).

The developers gave a look at the planned urban street grid, as well as pedestrian and car connectivity with the Metro station. It has not yet looked at traffic impact at that intersection, which is already one of the busiest in Reston.

JBG has talked to Marymount University and Northern Virginia Community College, both of which have locations in the affected office buildings, said Edelson. Both colleges have indicated they would like to stay in Reston.
 

Medical Device Manufacturer Breaks Ground on Durham Headquarters

MED-EL Corporation, a medical devices company that develops and manufactures ear implants and speech processors, has broken ground on the company’s new U.S. headquarters at the Meridian business park in Durham, North Carolina.

The Durham based manufacturer will be the anchor tenant for the three-story $18 million office building at 2645 Meridian Parkway that’s being developed by Herndon, Virginia based American Real Estate Partners, owner of nine other buildings inside the Durham corporate park.

MED-EL president and CEO Ray Gamble says that by the time the 57,000 square foot building is complete, they may need all of the third floor space as well.

“We’re the second largest cochlear implant company in the world, and we’re not going to settle for that,” Gamble says. The new building is expected to be ready for move in by September 2017.

Gamble says the company had briefly looked at options for moving outside of the Triangle, “but we’ve been in Research Triangle Park for 20 years, and it’s been good to us.” Plus, the company is still in close proximity to two of Med-El’s largest clients, the UNC Health Care system in Chapel Hill and the Duke Health system in Durham.

American Real Estate Partners have started making plans for another potential build to suit office building project on another lot it owns at 2540 Meridian Parkway.

“We are at about 96 percent occupancy right now, and we hope to keep it that way,” says T.J. Sevier, AREP senior vice president of asset management. “At the same time, we have a lot of tenants who are growing within the park. “

MED-EL Corporation, a medical devices company, develops and manufactures hearing solutions. It offers hearing systems, middle ear implants, implantable hearing devices, and speech processors.

Three Big Developments to Get Underway in Alexandria

Everyone knows that suburban D.C. is undergoing dramatic changes, in part, because of a plethora of long-awaited development.  For several years, developers have been planning to construct massive projects in the Alexandria area to escape the higher building costs in D.C., and soon, these three new developments will get underway to welcome even more new residents to the neighborhood...

North Potomac Yard

The JBG Cos recently announced that it will construct a 1.2 million square foot mixed-use complex in the first phase of its enormous redevelopment of North Potomac Yard.

JBG is shooting to have a portion of it open in 2020, when the nearby Metro station comes online.

The plan for first phase includes 732 residential units, nearly 300,000 square feet of retail, more than 115,000 square feet of office space, and a 120-room hotel.

Streetsense is architecture firm designing these spaces, which will replace the existing multiplex and surrounding parking lots.

Ultimately, JBG aims for 7.5 million square feet of total development upon completion of the final phase.

Oakville Triangle

On a 16-acre tract of industrial park opposite Potomac Yard on Route 1, Stonebridge-Carras is planning an ambitious 1.5 million square foot mixed-use development.

The first phase is slated to be complete in summer 2019.

For Phase 1, the developer looks to deliver a 130,000 square feet office building, 132,000 square feet of retail space, a 190-room hotel, 400 apartments and 130 condominium units.

Cooper Carry Architects is designing the project.

The development site is part of a planned 20-acre industrial park known as Oakville Triangle - which sits across the street from another huge mixed-use project, Potomac Yard.

Oakville will be roughly a quarter of a mile away from the future Potomac Yard Metro station, which is expected to bring an influx of new residents and development.

As part of the plan recently approved by the Alexandria City Council, Stonebridge has also committed to $2,000,000 in improvements for Mount Jefferson Park, $7.8 million in on-site affordable housing, and $1.6 million to upgrade the intersection of Route 1 and Glebe Road.

The Gateway at King and Beauregard

The Gateway at King and Beauregard, will soon be constructed at the intersection of the similarly-named streets.

Abramson Properties plans to construct a 72,000 square foot Harris Teeter Supermarket,  two residential buildings totaling 348 units (70 of them affordable), a combined 94,000 square feet of office space in two buildings, over 40,000 square feet of additional retail space, and 822 parking spaces.

Additionally, the Gateway project will include a 25,000 square feet office building over the retail space, 278 residential units over the Harris Teeter Supermarket, and an interior pedestrian plaza.

The Gateway will be marketed as transit-accessible because it is on the alignment of the future West End Transitway: the $140 million bus rapid transit system that will link the Van Dorn Street Metro station with the Mark Center, Shirlington, the Pentagon, and everywhere in between.

Maryland Live Casino's $200M Hotel to Break Ground in Fall

The Cordish Cos. plans to break ground in the fall on a $200 million hotel at Maryland Live Casino, an expansion that will begin just months before the MGM National Harbor opens in Prince George's County.

Baltimore-based Cordish Cos. has had plans to open a hotel alongside the casino since it opened in 2012. Now, a blueprint and timeline is in place for construction of the Live Hotel to be completed by the end of 2017.

The Cordish Cos. will begin construction on the Live Hotel this fall as part of the Maryland Live casino’s $200 million expansion.

The new 350,000-square-foot hotel building, which will stand 17 stories with 310 guest rooms and 52 suites, will sit adjacent to the state's largest casino.

"The addition of our flagship Live Hotel is just the latest investment we are making to ensure Maryland Live continues to be the preferred choice for visitors seeking a world-class gaming and entertainment experience," said Robert Norton, president of the Cordish Global Gaming Group.

Outside of guest rooms, Live Hotel will have several event and meeting spaces, including a 1,500-seat concert venue, and a banquet hall with seating up to 800 people.

The Shop Live retail store, a day spa and salon and an additional 1,000 parking spaces are also part of the plan.

On the dining side, a 24-hour cafe with open kitchen viewing and community seating will be part of the hotel along with a gelato bar and a lobby bar with more than 50 seats.

Tutor Perini Building Co. will serve as the general contractor when the project breaks ground this fall. Project completion is scheduled for fourth quarter 2017.

The Anne Arundel County Council approved the expansion project last September, including a $22.5 million tax incremental financing bond. Repayment of the bond will be made from new revenue generated by the hotel.

As part of the agreement, the event center will be available for use by the county, public schools, Anne Arundel Community College and nonprofits free of charge.

The project is expected to create nearly 400 new jobs and 550 construction jobs for the area.

MGM National Harbor, along the banks of the Potomac River near Washington, D.C., is scheduled to open by year's end and will bring new competition for Maryland Live.

The $1.2 billion casino and hotel project will have 308 guest rooms as part of the 1 million-square-foot resort.

Spotlight: New Projects in Development | Washington D.C.

Washington D.C. is experiencing new development on a large scale, turning the city into one of the fastest growing construction markets in the United States. From commercial offices and hotels to residential towers...

D.C. has a numerous large-scale projects that are currently under construction, or will be constructed in the near future. Here are just a few of the projects that ElectricWeb-Atlantic has been following:

Skyland Town Center / Hillcrest

Development of the 18.5-acre site where Naylor and Good Hope Roads intersect with Alabama Avenue SE stalled a bit after Wal-Mart pulled out of their agreement to construct a location there earlier this year.

The project will construct approximately 340,000 square feet of retail and 476 residential units surrounding a public square.

The plan also includes 823 parking spaces; the Skyland Development Team includes the Rappaport Companies, W.C. Smith, Torti Gallas and Partners and Michael Marshall Architecture.

Good Hope Rd SE and Alabama Ave SE
Washington, DC 20020

Poplar Point Development / Anacostia

Forest City and Perkins+Will are leading the development of 130-acre Poplar Point, sandwiched between Howard Road SE and the Anacostia River on the opposite bank from the Capitol Riverfront developments.

A three-pronged 70-acre park will be interspersed with 4,100 residential units, 1.2 million square feet of office space, 465,000 square feet of retail, and two 300-room hotels.

This will allow every residential unit to overlook public space. A pier, capped by a cultural and environmental facility, will extend to the river.

1900 Anacostia Rd SE
Washington, DC 20020

McMillan Redevelopment / Pleasant Plains

The redevelopment of the McMillan Sand Filtration Site includes 146 town homes, 677 apartments, a grocery store, other retail and medical office buildings.

The Parcel 2 building includes 236 residential units, of which 25 percent will be designated affordable, and 19,000 square feet of retail.

The building is designed by MV+A Architects.

Developers on the project are Jair Lynch Partners, EYA and Trammell Crow and architects Shalom Baranes and Perkins Easton.

1st St NW & Michigan Ave NW
Washington, DC 20310

Barry Farm Redevelopment / Barry Farm

The plan is to demolish the 432 apartments on the site and the twelve units at Wade Apartments and replace them with up to 1,800 mixed-income residential units, 50,000 square feet of retail and commercial space, and 80,000 square feet of green space.

The residences will be a mixture of apartments, condominiums and town homes. The DC Housing Authority, A&R Development, and the nonprofit Preservation of Affordable Housing Inc. are presently working to secure funding and approval from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to begin construction on the project.

Firth Sterling Ave SE and Sumner Rd SE
Washington, DC 20020

Dulles World Center / Herndon, VA

Dulles World Center will be a massive new mixed-use community featuring more than 4.1 million square feet of office space, commercial space, retail stores, a hotel and civic use space.

The project will also construct 1,265 multifamily apartments in a series of vertically integrated buildings.

Infrastructure work is presently underway, with building construction expect to begin later this year.

Old Ox Rd. & Shaw Rd.
Herndon, VA 20166

$400M Mission Hospital Tower Largest in Asheville’s History

A massive $400 million medical tower that will soon be built at 509 Biltmore Avenue will be the largest construction project in Asheville’s history.

The new tower will allow to Mission Health to shutter its aging St. Joseph’s campus and consolidate all operations on the newer Mission campus side of the operation.

Last year, the City Council voted its approval to Mission Health to build a new 12-story, 681,000 square foot tower, which will include new operating rooms and an emergency services department.

The project’s architect is HDR and the general contractor is Turner Construction.

The project’s large size meant it required a Level III review under the city’s Unified Development Ordinance and a council vote.

The tower would have frontage on Hospital Drive and Victoria Road, replacing the St. Joseph’s hospital campus, which is on the opposite side of Biltmore from most of Mission Health’s facilities.

That has meant at times patients are transported by ambulance across the busy road.

The hospital began seriously looking at changes four years ago. The facilities at the St. Joseph’s facility were aging out, and there was a need for a new emergency department.

The St. Joseph’s facility is outdated, cannot accommodate new technology, and would be too costly to renovate.

The tower project on the Memorial Campus achieve cost savings by eliminating the duplication of services required to maintain facilities on both sides of the street, as well as to improve patients’ experience and safety by eliminating the need to transport them back and forth.

Construction on the tower, which will have two floors underground, is set to be completed in November 2018.

City planning director Tod Okolinchany said it will be the biggest project Asheville has ever seen. “The Asheville Mall exceeds 900,000 square feet but was completed in phases over several years,” he said.

The tower will have 216 beds, and services such as a heart catheter lab and endoscopy, intensive care unit and medical-surgery recovery floor, along with a cafeteria, an 84-bed emergency room, and support offices.

The project calls for retaining walls as high as 28 feet in some places. To soften their effect, the hospital plans to use plants and design elements.

There are also plans for a small park area at the corner of Hospital Drive and Biltmore.

The former St. Joe’s site will later be redeveloped to provide needed affordable housing, as well as commercial use and retail shops.

Giant Waterfront Station II Redevelopment in Southwest D.C.

PN Hoffman, a developer of urban communities across the Washington Metropolitan Area, has been selected to develop Waterfront Station II, a 59,000-square-foot lot at 1000 Fourth Street, SW. The District-owned property is the last residential parcel to be developed at Waterfront Station.

The redevelopment plans for the parcel include a 400,000-square-foot, mixed-use community of 443 units, in addition to 22,500 square feet of neighborhood-serving retail space and a 10,000-square-foot black box theater.

The mixed-income housing will be comprised of 310 market-rate apartments and 133 affordable units - 30 percent of the total.


The development team is comprised of PN Hoffman, Paramount Development, ER Bacon Development, CityPartners and AHC Inc.

The entire project is designed to achieve LEED Gold certification.

Site Features:

•   One block from Waterfront Metro Station (Green Line)
•   Adjacent to CVS and one block from 55,000-sq-ft Safeway grocery store
•   Across from Southwest Branch Library and Amidon-Bowen Elementary School
•   Four blocks from I-395 on-ramp
•   Daily traffic volume on I-395: 163,800
•   Three blocks from newly expanded 1,400-seat Arena Stage
•   Less than half-mile to Southwest Waterfront
•   Less than one mile from Nationals Park

“The Southwest Waterfront is experiencing a renaissance unlike anything else in the District,” said PN Hoffman CEO, Monty Hoffman. "We are confident that our plan to revitalize a key portion of 4th Street SW will enhance the livability and allure of the neighborhood.”

“We are excited for the opportunity to continue our work in Southwest, and we look forward to providing significant new mixed-income housing, cultural space and retail to help complete the transformation of 4th Street SW,” said Shawn Seaman, senior vice president of development at PN Hoffman.

The overall Waterfront Station project includes twin office buildings at 1100 and 1101 Fourth St. SW, the Lex and Leo apartments (formerly Sky House East and West) at 1150 and 1151 Fourth St., a new mixed-use building from Forest City Washington at 1001 Fourth St., and future office buildings at 375 and 425 M St. SW.

The Capitol Vista site at Second and H streets NW will be redeveloped as affordable housing and 3,000 square feet of retail by Voltron Community Partners (Dantes Partners and Spectrum Management).

At Truxton Circle, 1520-1522 North Capitol St. NW., Urban Green and Flywheel Development will build a net-zero, mixed-use, all-affordable project with a ground-floor restaurant.

PN Hoffman is investing heavily in Southwest DC. They are developing The Wharf, a 3.2 million square foot neighborhood on one mile of Washington, DC’s southwest waterfront, as well as 525 Water, a luxury condominium building adjacent to The Wharf, and Riverside Baptist Church.
 

Massive 1,555 Unit Residential Project For Rhode Island Ave

As one of the largest redevelopment projects in Washington, D.C., developer MRP Realty is planning on razing a retail center near the Rhode Island Avenue Metro station to construct 1.56 million-square-feet of residential, 245,000-square-feet of retail, and 1,992 parking spaces. The retail center, known as Rhode Island Center, will be razed to construct seven buildings with ground-floor retail, covering roughly six blocks of space.

The development plan calls for 1,555 residential units with eight percent set aside for affordable housing. The units will range from studios to three-bedrooms.

The first of the six-phase project will redevelop two buildings along Rhode Island Avenue NE into 345 residential units. Construction is expected to begin in late 2016.

MRP, with B&R Associates LP and Sandrock LP, proposes to transform 13 acres encompassing the Rhode Island Center — anchored by Save-A-Lot, Big Lots and Foreman Mills — a self-storage warehouse and 13 single-story retailers into a mixed-use, transit-oriented community that promises to “ultimately establish this locale as a destination in and of itself.”

The project will replace a shopping center that was the “product of the times in which it was built: it is auto-centric, set back from the street and does not interact with the greater community; it does not facilitate connections within the community but rather isolates itself, creating a barrier between the Metropolitan Branch Trail and the pedestrian path to the Rhode Island Avenue-Brentwood Metrorail Station.”

The development proposal calls for six new blocks along an extended street grid, all consisting of residential over ground-floor retail and 1,992 parking spaces.

The development site is bounded by Fourth Street NE to the west, Rhode Island Avenue to the south, the Metrorail tracks and the Metropolitan Branch Trail to the east and the Edgewood Terrace apartments to the north.

The number of units: 1,555, in a mix of studio to three-bedroom. Eight percent of the gross floor area, or 124,612 square feet, will be set aside as affordable.

There will be seven buildings. The first phase will feature two buildings on the two blocks closest to the Metro, to Rhode Island Row and the Brentwood Shopping Center.

The design of the first two buildings, totaling 345 units, “will pay homage to the industrial area that helped shape this neighborhood while generating an architectural vocabulary unique to this project.



Northeast D.C., -- from Rhode Island Ave to Union Market, to NoMa Brookland to H Street, to New York Avenue -- is the epicenter of D.C.'s booming redevelopment pipeline.

Only last month, the JBG Cos. and the Boundary Companies proposed building 691 residential units over retail for the New York Avenue-Florida Avenue intersection.


Edens will break ground soon on multiple projects at Union Market, while LCOR recently picked up $30 million loan to build the 187-unit Edison at 340 Florida Ave. NE, and Level 2 Development has earned Zoning Commission approval for the 315-unit Highline at Union Market, 320 Florida Ave. NE.
 

Shakespeare Theatre Plans Mixed-Use Project in D.C.

Erkiletian Development and the Shakespeare Theatre Co. have filed plans to construct a 136-unit mixed-use project in Southwest Washington, D.C.. The seven-story project, known as The Bard, is planned to house everything from residential space to artist studios to non-profit office space to educational space. The development will also house the Shakespeare Theatre's costume fabrication studio.

The development site is located at 501 I Street SW, the former home to Southeastern University, which was razed last year.

The entire project will span 149,298 square feet with 131,273 square feet tailored for residential space.

Building heights will vary from 42 feet high to over 73 feet high.

The space for the Shakespeare Theatre Company would essentially consolidate the company’s operations in DC, and will include the costume studio, four rehearsal spaces, two classrooms and additional storage below grade, in addition to office space.

All of the residential units to be rental apartments, with 93 market-rate and nine inclusionary zoning. For the Shakespeare Theatre, 29 of the units will be set aside for actors and five will be for fellows.

The project will also include an underground parking garage with 36 spaces will be for residents, 16 spaces for non-profit office use, nine spaces for art use, and nine spaces for education use.

Despite the limited number of spaces for residents, the site, 501 I Street SW, is only a couple blocks from the Waterfront Metro station. There will also be 75 long-term and 10 short-term bicycle parking spaces on-site.

In the effort to appease residents' concerns, the developers reduced the height and the number of units planned.

Proposed benefits of the project include: free use of the assembly spaces/conference rooms for community meetings; annual donations to the multi-day festival, SW ArtsFest; and scholarships to sponsor up to 10 low-income children to attend the Shakespeare Theatre summer camp.

With this project, the developer hopes to further satisfy three goals in the D.C. Office of Planning's Southwest Neighborhood Plan.

These goals are to strengthen I Street as a cultural corridor, grow the presence of the arts throughout the Southwest neighborhood, and build on and market existing cultural assets and institutions to reinforce the concept of an arts and cultural destination.

The site of the development is the former home of Southeastern University. The area is currently vacant and consists of approximately 36,476 square feet of land area. Shalom Baranes Associates is the architect of the project.

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Agency Picks VA Site for $109M FBI Central Records Center

After nearly a decade, Congress has approved construction of a FBI records management complex in Frederick County, Virginia. Funding includes $108,853,000 for the General Services Administration that’s specifically identified to be spent on the FBI’s Central Records Complex.

The U.S. General Services Administration announced that it intends to buy a 60-acre parcel on U.S. 50 in Frederick County for the construction off the new records facility.

The agency named the property at 2117 Millwood Pike, known as Arcadia, as the preferred location for the facility over two other sites near Winchester that were under consideration.

Frederick County was selected in a comprehensive site search based on its merits largely because of its location.

It is far enough from Washington to be reasonably safe if the capital were attacked, but close enough to enable government officials to visit quickly whenever necessary.

The GSA had been considering three different parcels near Winchester on which to construct the new FBI records facility.

Frederick County fit its criteria for site selection, including its proximity to Washington, D.C., reliable transportation and communication networks, an educated work force and an absence of potential terrorist targets.

The GSA plans to buy the land this summer. The GSA will proceed with the facility’s design and begin construction in the early 2017.

When completed, the $109 million state-of-the-art facility will serve as the central repository for all FBI records and facilitate quick access to vital records and information.

It is projected that the new complex will employ approximately 1,200 people — including new positions and transfers from other FBI facilities.

These initiatives will significantly improve search and record-retrieval capabilities by increasing search accuracy; by decreasing search time; and by reducing lost files, missing serials, and the manual movement of files.

When complete, the overall impact will be to reduce even further the FBI’s pending Freedom of Information/Privacy Act numbers and processing times.

“This is good for national security, it’s good for the FBI, it’s good for the country and I think it’s good for Frederick County, too,” Rep. Frank Wolf, R-10th, said. “The FBI employs some of the finest people in the world, and you have a lot of people who work for the FBI already living out there.”

The bureau’s records center has been on the area’s list of the Ten Most Wanted economic development projects for years.

Presently, the bureau operates a records management center in leased space at 170 Marcel Drive — off Tasker Road just northwest of the Walmart Supercenter on Front Royal Pike. More than 500 people work at that site. The FBI’s 10-year lease expires in August 2016.

That GSA is recommending a 256,500 square foot facility — more than double the 106,296-square-feet it’s leasing— and 430-space parking lot. The complex would support the FBI’s current and future critical record management space needs.

Heery International has been awarded the contract to manage construction for the FBI's Central Records Complex, and assist the GSA in selection of the design/build contractor.

Plans to Build Two of Region's Tallest Residential Towers

JM Zell Partners and Hines Ltd. are planning to construct the first building within the 6-acre Carlyle Plaza Two, a long-planned four-tower office and residential complex south of Eisenhower Avenue in Alexandria, Virginia.

A 382-unit apartment building, designed by Bernardo Fort-Brescia of Miami-based Arquitectonica International, will rise to 34 stories and 375 feet, offering virtually unobstructed views of Mount Vernon, MGM National Harbor and the Washington Monument.

The second residential tower in Carlyle Plaza Two, the closest building to the Capital Beltway to the south, may rise to 354 feet.

Both towers will be among the region’s five tallest residential buildings, rivaling those planned for Rosslyn.

The developers expect to break ground on the four-tower office and residential complex by the end of 2016.
 
The design features three rectangular blocks of nearly equal height, with the middle block slipped roughly 25 feet to the south to create a cantilever effect.

The result of the cantilever is two large outdoor terraces, one on the 16th floor and another on the 26th. There will be a fifth-floor amenity terrace, with pool, as well.

The unit breakdown: 22 studios, 238 one-bedroom apartments and 122 two-bedroom units.

“They want an iconic building,” Jeffrey Zell, JM Zell president, said of Alexandria. “They now have an iconic building.”

The development site is immediately east of The Alexan apartment building and north of the Alexandria Renew Nutrient Management Facility.

Alexandria approved the development plan for Carlyle Plaza Two in 2012 — for 755,114 square feet of office in two towers and 632,056 square feet of residential in two more towers.

The plan was later amended to offer the option of converting 325,000 square feet of office space to hotel and residential use.

Giant Under Armour Complex Planned for South Baltimore

A 50-acre campus with 3.9 million square feet of office, manufacturing and athletic space, and a manmade urban lake and are the signature features of planned new global headquarters for Under Armour along the Port Covington waterfront. A total of 10,000 employees are expected to work at the South Baltimore campus once it is built out.   

The new corporate campus is being designed by the Pittsburgh office of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson.

The firm has designed studio space at Pixar and Disney Studios as well as the iconic Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Frank Grauman, a principal with the design firm, said the Under Armour project will include environmental, spacial and urban characteristics that detail “Baltimore’s sense of itself” — both past and present.

The plans call for public access to the waterfront in certain areas of the secure corporate campus, a field house with indoor practice fields and a basketball court, a 100,000-square foot manufacturing hub and 2.9 million square feet of office space, some of it in a landmark tower to be built in the first phase by 2018.

The tower will showcase Under Armour’s interlocking UA logo to travelers on Interstate 95 located on the northern rim of the Port Covington site. Three towers as tall as 460 feet could be built, depending on the company's growth, architects told the design panel.

The campus will also include a 7,000-seat stadium on the waterfront where executives from Under Armour say possible local rivalries like the Loyola vs. Calvert Hall Turkey Bowl game and the City College-Baltimore Polytechnic football game could be played each year.

“We see this as transformative for the city and transformative for Under Armour,” said Neil Jurgens, vice president for corporate real estate at Under Armour.

The 170,000-square-foot project sits in a completely overhauled former Sam’s Club. The space is now being called Building 37, named after company founder and CEO Kevin Plank’s jersey number on the University of Maryland football team.

The site of a recently shuttered Wal-Mart store at Port Covington will also be used for the future campus.

Earlier this month, executives from Sagamore Development Co. unveiled plans for a massive redevelopment of 266 acres of Port Covington into a mixed-use project over the next decade. The Under Armour campus is part of that development.

Under Armour currently hoists its corporate flag in a former Procter & Gamble soap factory in Locust Point. There, 1,800 employees work in offices that are landlocked and cannot expand because of existing residential and industrial developments and the nearby national park, Fort McHenry, where the Battle of Baltimore took place in 1814.

The cost of the entire project is expected to be in the billions, Under Armour and Sagamore Development officials have said.

Sagamore Development officials are seeking tax breaks from the city of Baltimore for the entire development and have opened discussions with the Baltimore Development Corp., the city’s quasi-public development arm, over establishing a tax increment financing district at Port Covington.

A TIF designation from the city that will allow Sagamore Development and Under Armour to build infrastructure at the site with proceeds from a private bond sale that is repaid with diverted property tax revenues for decades.

The new corporate headquarters will be “an iconic high-performance global headquarters” that will have sustainable features that include a man-made lake to help cool the buildings that will use less electricity and water than a campus of its size in the past.

Port Covington has for decades been an industrial site, and it still has existing industrial companies open for business there.

Environmental remediation will commence immediately on certain parts of the waterfront and the property.

Overall, Sagamore’s plans for Port Covington include 13 million square feet of office, retail and residential space and 40 acres of public park land.

Plank's Sagamore Spirit whiskey distillery is currently under construction at the site.

Jurgens said the corporate executives and representatives of Sagamore Development plan to aggressively pursue public transportation options with the city to help employees and visitors gain access to the site.

They include an extension of the light rail line in nearby Westport, a circulator bus and water taxi service.

New Luxury Residential Community Underway in Reston

A builder has plans to construct a brand new community in Reston, Virginia with over one million square feet of mixed-use development. Located on eight acres of land on Sunrise Valley Drive, this community, dubbed Reston Heights, will soon make way for a brand new mixed-use building. 

Recently, The JBG Companies hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for a five-story building called VY / Reston Heights that will house 385 apartments and 89,000 square feet of retail.

The project will include a public plaza with outdoor dining, a play area and an amphitheater for events.

Additional plans include building adjacent parking structure with over 700 above-ground and below-ground parking spots.

Residences will include junior one-bedroom to three-bedroom apartments. 46 of the units will be designated for affordable housing. The project is expected to be complete by 2017, with retailers arriving in early 2018.

The developer may add an additional 375,000 square feet of mixed-use space to the project in a future phase. 

 
The five-story apartment building, designed by Cunningham Quill Architects, was inspired by the original 1960s development at Lake Anne Village Center in Reston, a modern European-modeled community.

The mixed-use buildings and adjacent parking garage will have tall natural wood beams that echo the vertical designs of Reston’s first buildings at Lake Anne.

The Reston Heights district has several existing properties along Sunrise Valley Drive on the south side of the Dulles Toll Road, including two hotels, a condo and two office buildings.

The site is roughly half a mile from the planned Reston Town Center Metro station, which is expected to open only a few years after the completion of VY in 2020.

The community is within a few minutes’ drive to the Wiehle Avenue Metro station, which is already open, and to Dulles International Airport.

Massive Redevelopment Planned Near Rhode Island Ave Metro

As one of the largest redevelopment projects in Washington, D.C., developer MRP Realty is planning on razing a retail center near the Rhode Island Avenue Metro station to construct 1.56 million-square-feet of residential, 245,000-square-feet of retail, and 1,992 parking spaces. The retail center, known as Rhode Island Center, will be razed to construct seven buildings with ground-floor retail, covering roughly six blocks of space.

The development plan calls for 1,555 residential units with eight percent set aside for affordable housing. The units will range from studios to three-bedrooms.

The first of the six-phase project will redevelop two buildings along Rhode Island Avenue NE into 345 residential units. Construction is expected to begin in late 2016.

MRP, with B&R Associates LP and Sandrock LP, proposes to transform 13 acres encompassing the Rhode Island Center — anchored by Save-A-Lot, Big Lots and Foreman Mills — a self-storage warehouse and 13 single-story retailers into a mixed-use, transit-oriented community that promises to “ultimately establish this locale as a destination in and of itself.”

The project will replace a shopping center that was the “product of the times in which it was built: it is auto-centric, set back from the street and does not interact with the greater community; it does not facilitate connections within the community but rather isolates itself, creating a barrier between the Metropolitan Branch Trail and the pedestrian path to the Rhode Island Avenue-Brentwood Metrorail Station.”

The development proposal calls for six new blocks along an extended street grid, all consisting of residential over ground-floor retail and 1,992 parking spaces.

The development site is bounded by Fourth Street NE to the west, Rhode Island Avenue to the south, the Metrorail tracks and the Metropolitan Branch Trail to the east and the Edgewood Terrace apartments to the north.

The number of units: 1,555, in a mix of studio to three-bedroom. Eight percent of the gross floor area, or 124,612 square feet, will be set aside as affordable.

There will be seven buildings. The first phase will feature two buildings on the two blocks closest to the Metro, to Rhode Island Row and the Brentwood Shopping Center.

The design of the first two buildings, totaling 345 units, “will pay homage to the industrial area that helped shape this neighborhood while generating an architectural vocabulary unique to this project.



Northeast D.C., -- from Rhode Island Ave to Union Market, to NoMa Brookland to H Street, to New York Avenue -- is the epicenter of D.C.'s booming redevelopment pipeline.

Only last month, the JBG Cos. and the Boundary Companies proposed building 691 residential units over retail for the New York Avenue-Florida Avenue intersection.


Edens will break ground soon on multiple projects at Union Market, while LCOR recently picked up $30 million loan to build the 187-unit Edison at 340 Florida Ave. NE, and Level 2 Development has earned Zoning Commission approval for the 315-unit Highline at Union Market, 320 Florida Ave. NE.