The Wharf's "Resort In the City" Anchor Hotel Appeases Critics, Inches Forward

The four-star Intercontinental luxury hotel in the Wharf - the Southwest waterfront megadevelopment - is inching towards reality, though not without some changes along the way.

"Right now we're in the process of gathering equity," says Austin Flajser, President of Carr Hospitality.  "We anticipate construction starting in the third quarter of 2014, with delivery in the first quarter of 2016."

The 245,000 s.f., 278-room hotel from developer Carr Hospitality and designed by BBG-BBGM, will overlook the Washington Channel, now being developed by the Hoffman-Madison team, and feature a lavish 5,000 s.f. rooftoop lounge.  Plans also call for not one but two restaurants, two large water-facing ballrooms, and up to 7,000 s.f. of ground floor retail space.  The design calls for a red and gray brick facade, intermingled with terracotta, granite, and tinted glass.

Developers were forced to alter their plans, though, after ANC 6D passed a resolution recently in opposition to many of the specifics in the Phase 2 Planned Unit Development (PUD).

"We took down the clock tower, which was really just an architectural embellishment," says Flajser.  "We also altered the corners of the building a little bit, and there's no longer any sign."  (The above rendering depicts the original design; the rendering below depicts the revised design.)

In addition to those changes, the height of the structure - a planned 12-stories/130 feet - was also lowered.  After these changes were announced at a special meeting late last month, the ANC voted 4-3 to reinstate their support.  Carr also has a boutique luxury hotel in the works for Alexandria's contentious waterfront plan and has received objections from neighbors there as well.

Parcel 3b, where the hotel will be built, is near 9th and Water Streets (see map, above), and also abuts one of the development's planned piers; if Carr is able to purchase boat slips from the development group, guests could potentially arrive at the hotel by boat. Rates for the rooms will reportedly be between $300 and $400 per night.

Carr Hospitality notably restored the Willard hotel, a project widely lauded for its successful execution.  The Wharf Intercontinental will be its second hotel in the District.  Monty Hoffman of PN Hoffman has been quoted as saying the hotel will be an "anchor" of the megadevelopment.  The first construction at the Wharf should be begin early next year.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Morning Real Estate Review

Fannie Mae says its too early to declare victory on housing (Forbes) The mortgage giant showed strong gains in yesterday's report on the 2nd quarter, but it says headwinds remain, 2nd half may be not as strong as first half.

Wells Fargo pays $6.5m to SEC to settle mortgage sale charges (HousingWire) The mortgage giant was accused of selling risky mortgage packages to investors.

Residents plan to acquire Onyx apartment building near ballpark (Biz Journal) Tenants in the 266 unit building near the waterfront move to acquire the building under the District's first-right-of-refusal laws, after Canyon Johnson contracted to sell the building to Equity Residential.

Rising home prices in DC area push affordability to lower levels (National Assn of Home Builders) A national study finds that prices are rising nationwide, stretching affordability, despite historically low interest rates that make purchasing easier.

Fannie and Freddie:  making money, but not enough to pay dividends owed to taxpayers for bailouts (Wall Street Journal) Through a complex financial arrangement with the federal government, the secondary mortgage buyers have no mechanism to pay back loans, and will keep drawing from the government in order to pay dividends, but those draw-down funds are getting depleted.

Gallaudet Kicks off Building Campaign with New Dorm

Opening this week will be a special building at Gallaudet University, a $16 million dormitory, designed by deaf students, for deaf students.  The new dorm is the first of a series of buildings to debut at the school for the deaf, and may even lead to national guidelines for deaf-friendly design and construction.

Creating a building to be used exclusively by deaf people has unique challenges, said Jeffrey Luker, chief architect with Quinn Evans, architect of record on the project.  Design needs include wider hallways, more open space, and doors that open automatically so that conversations aren't interrupted having to turn knobs or push handles.  Designers also had to concentrate on visual stimulation and light intrusion to maximize signing, giving a new dimension to interior design.

Gallaudet is now preparing its 10-year campus plan to submit to the DC Zoning Commission; its ambitious design is for at least a half dozen new buildings incorporating the same design guidelines that make spaces more livable and conducive to conversation, according to Hansel Bauman, Director of Campus Design & Planning for Gallaudet.  Bauman said that while design catering to the deaf is not a new concept, it is constantly reinvented.  Bauman instead intends to develop a set of guidelines based on this experience to benefit national design initiatives.

Bauman, an architect by training, highlights the use of color and light as extremely important.  "This is a visually centered environment, you are communicating visually - largely a signing environment - and that's important to understand from an architectural perspective because the building becomes a communications vehicle."  He notes that deaf people are constantly surveying the environment and people around them and need proper light without confusing visuals that would go unnoticed by most audiences.  Bauman points to mini-blinds, ubiquitous throughout the campus, that create a "vibration" as a background when you visually study someone signing in front of them.  "You have an extraordinary amount of visual activity."

"The visual noise of the architecture needs to be modulated well.  Traditional lighting is in a room with a high contrast of dark and light...what we try to do is create an environment with a much more muted, diffused light," says Bauman.  As for colors: "try to pick hues that contrast human skin tones with saturated colors" to set of uses of rooms.  "Walking aisles need to be easy to navigate, then you tend to focus less on navigation than on conversation."

Architect Jeffrey Luker adds further that "visual cues are very important when you're deaf. You need to be able to pick up those cues quickly when you're walking."  Space is key, he said. "There's a preference in deaf communities that there not be walls. You need clear sight lines. One of the advantages is that with deaf people you can communicate at long distances. There's no disruption, its just visual...To the extent possible we've tried to put in place these guidelines into this building."

The building is the first new dorm in the university's plan to renew its housing stock.  The 85,000 square foot building will have two floors of offices and workspace on the first floor, and four floors of open dormitories with 175 beds where some of the university's 1870 students can sign across halls and floors.

"You can sign almost one hundred yards away with someone, or have a conversation with someone in a second floor dorm while you're the courtyard, without bothering anyone else," says Luker. "We've gotten our expertise in deaf space design from Gallaudet itself.  Deaf students are part of the design, every step of the design we've tested with the deaf community."

Because of the school's specialized focus, it foresees only modest growth in the student population, but Bauman sees a need to replace its aging building stock with replacements designed to assist and appeal to the deaf population.  The school also owns 4 acres next door at the Union Market site, currently used as a parking lot, but has no current plans to incorporate that into the Campus Plan or sell to Union Market's developer.

The new dorm comes as the area begins to enjoy a renaissance, with H Street booming - first in nightlife and now in residential construction - and the ever-imminent trolley line getting closer, MRP is beginning their transformative project next door, and now Union Market is opening as a restaurant destination.   Sigal Construction built the dormitory.

Washington D.C. real estate development news.  Photos credit Gallaudet University.

Morning Real Estate Review

Costar report shows more DC retail needed even after Wal-Mart (Washington Post)  According to a new report by Costar, Washington D.C. proper is underserved by retailers - especially grocery stores - with 1 out of every 3 dollars spent on groceries by DC residents going outside the District, meaning that Wal-Mart won't harm DC retail.

Ivy City fights Gray's plan to create bus depot (Washington Post) One of the poorest neighborhoods in the city doesn't want DC's junk anymore and has filed a lawsuit.

Office vacancy rates in Arlington on the rise (Sun Gazette)  The rest of the U.S is also seeing higher commercial vacancy rates, leading to higher taxes for homeowners.

District Issues New Development Rights Near Stadium, Buzzard Point

The DC government today issued a request for proposals for up to 300,000 s.f. of development rights near the ballpark and Buzzard Point, inviting developers to bid on land within the "Capitol Gateway" overlay areas of southwest and southeast DC.

The District of Columbia, through the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED), is putting development rights up for bid in the form of Combined Lot Development rights - additional square footage for landholders within the overlay.  The areas are designated for mixed use development, under the current regime developers are able to combine two lots and transfer density between them.  The initiative unveiled today adds an additional 300,000 s.f. of development rights within the zone, increasing the density within the high-growth corridor that lines the Anacostia waterfront.

The Request for Expressions of Interest was issued in an 8-page publication - a more streamlined version than past requests, reducing the technical compliance burden on developers. Responses to the request are due August 31st.

Washington D.C. real estate development news

Morning Real Estate Review

Bidding wars return, home buyers get creative (Washington Post)  Forget just having good credit - as the stock of homes for sale thins, bidding gets competitive, sometimes in weird and creative ways.

The politics of the reemergence of U Street, a short history of redevelopment (The Atlantic)  A thoughtful response to the Post's story on changing demographics on U and 14th Streets:  not as black and white as you think.

Happy birthday Pierre - lauding the prickly genius of DC's designer (Huffington Post)  The genius behind the grids of DC was never fully appreciated during his life, thanks in part to his difficult personality, but still inspires cultish fascination in addition to his post mortem redemption.

Archstone files for initial IPO (Wall Street Journal)  The apartment behemoth, which owns residential buildings nationwide - including a concentration in the Washington D.C area, files for up to $100 million in common stock to pay down debt.

Georgia Avenue Walmart construction to begin next month (Washington Post)  The mega-retail store would be the second to start construction in the District, following 77 H Street, NW.

Donatelli to build new apartments at Minnesota-Benning (Washington Post) The developer of Columbia Heights makes plans for a northeast DC neighborhood that has failed to realize the promise of development.

Today in Pictures - NoMa West

One of Washington D.C.'s largest residential developments is nearing completion. Mill Creek Residential Trust, LLC is putting the finishing touches on NoMa West, three five-story buildings on a 4.3 acre site that will add 603 wood-framed, mostly market rate apartments to the NoMa neighborhood (that some insist is really Eckington, but that fall inside the NoMa BID map boundaries). The Preston Partnership, LLC is responsible for the design, and R.D. Jones & Associates designed the interior.

Whatever neighborhood it falls in (note that the project was once called Eckington Place), the project is nearing completion and is across the street from MRP's Gateway project, the combination of which will bring an actual neighborhood to what could have been recently described - charitably - as desolate.  (Pictures were taken last month)