Union Station Master Plan Released

Train shed looking southwest, Image courtesy of Amtrak

Amtrak released details this week of a much-talked-about $7 billion plan for Union Station's tracks, platforms, concourses, and parking that will dramatically overhaul the space.

Under the Union Station Redeveloment Corporation, Union Station is already undergoing a renovation of its Grand Hall.

In a move officials acknowledged was belated, they said the plan would help the nation's capital catch up with other parts of the world with high-speed rail service.  The plan, they said, would eventually triple the station's passenger capacity and double the train service over the next 20 years.  The plan goes hand in hand with plans for a 1.5 billion dollar project by Akridge development, Amtrak's private partner in the project, to develop the air rights over the train tracks into a $1.5 billion mixed-use project called Burnham Place.

Amtrak and Akridge, Amtrak's private partner on the project, released the master plan this week in a press conference attended by city glitterati, including embattled mayor Vincent Gray.

Greenway looking north along 1st Street, Image: Akridge

Burhnam Place, named after Union Station's original architect Daniel Burnham, is part of Amtrak's master plan, and will be developed by Akridge and architectural firm Shalom Baranes.  Developers plan, over the next 15 years, to build a 3-million square-foot mixed use development over the train tracks.  

In 2006, Akridge purchased the air rights to a total of 15 acres over the Union Station rail yard. The $10 million dollar sale marked the first sale of air rights by the federal government. As reported by DCMud, the conceptual construction plan began to move solidly forward and Shalom Baranes was selected as the architect in 2008.

Interior view of the train shed, Image courtesy of Amtrak

The plan envisions 500 hotel rooms, 100,000 square feet of retail, and 1,300 residential units built on a concrete platform over the tracks and supported columns placed throughout the rail yard.  Akridge went through years of technical negotiations with Amtrak before deciding on a construction plan, and the Smart Growth Alliance and Urban Land Institute (ULI) have both voiced support for the project.

Developers emphasize that the project will feature elements that enhance public space and amenities. One such feature includes a 1.5 mile elevated greenway with a bike lane along the west side of the station that will link the NoMa neighborhoods with Union Station and the Metro and connect to the Metropolitan Branch Trail.

Historic control tower into restaurant, Courtesy: Akridge

Plans also call for a "grand plaza" fronting both sides of H Street that will lead into a brand new Train Hall in what developers say will be "a grand northern entrance to Union Station."  

The plan also calls for pedestrian connections with adjoining neighborhoods, a new entrance near First and K Streets, NE, and a plan to turn the K Tower - a control tower - into a restaurant.

Will office workers and urban sky dwellers feel the rumbling of high-speed trains below them?  That remains to be seen.  What is certain is that the plan makes an ambitious promises to bring more natural light into Union Station, even while building above it.  

Plan overview. Image Courtesy of Akridge.  

Blue represents office space, 

Beige is residential, 

Green / yellow is naturally lit space,  and 

Brown is hotel space.

Red circles are vertical connections,

Red arrows are station entrances.

West End Hotel Ready to Start Construction

The future Hilton Garden Inn in DC's West End

In a deal that marks a step forward for a hotel project at 22nd and M - on hold for four years - developers are set to close Wednesday on construction financing for the project, OTO Development CEO Corry Oakes told DCMud.

If the deal closes today and construction moves forward in a few weeks as developers expect, deep-rooted weeds on the prominent corner in DC's West End neighborhood may soon be gone, salving neighbors' ire.

"We're very excited about moving this long-awaited project forward and becoming part of the community," Oakes said.  He said contractors would break ground on the Hilton Garden Inn, planned for 2201 M Street, within weeks.

Turner Construction will be the general contractor on the project, Oakes said.  OTO, based in Spartanburg, SC, is one of the three developers partnering to build the West End Hilton Garden Inn, a partnership which also includes Starwood Capital Group and Perseus Realty, LLC.  Also Wednesday, the three partners were due to close on a deal consummating their joint venture agreement.

Shalom Baranes of Georgetown is architectural firm designing the terracotta and brick, 10-story, 237-room hotel, which will feature a second-floor, landscaped courtyard, meeting rooms, a rooftop garden and pool and a green roof, according to a project architect.

The corner of 2nd and M has been an empty lot for years

The 15,600 square-foot lot at the corner of 22nd and M hasn't seen action since 2008 when the site's original development team demolished the Nigerian Embassy to make way for a boutique hotel. Developers later abandoned plans for a Starwood "eco-luxury hotel", billed as a "1 Hotel", when they couldn't secure financing for the structure.  They settled on the Hilton Garden Inn brand instead, but by the time developers applied to revise their permits, many neighbors and West End leaders had already gotten excited about the "1 Hotel" concept.    

"During the zoning hearings, I was not shy about my disappointment that the concept switched from the 1 Hotel to the Hilton Garden Inn, as I felt the West End really didn't need more hotels and at least the 1 Hotel was interesting, both as a destination concept and architecturally," West End ANC2A commissioner Rebecca Coder wrote in an email to DCMud Monday. "However, at this juncture the neighborhood simply wants the corner activated."

Developers abandoned plans for this "eco-luxury" hotel

In the project's beginning, developers included Starwood and Perseus with Oppenheim as the architect.  Original plans for the site called for a 150-room, 23-suite hotel, under the Starwood Capital "global eco-luxury" hotel brand "1 Hotel", featuring an organic day spa among other features built to LEED standards.

Years passed.  The lot sat empty, but D.C. wasn't the only place so-called "eco-luxury" hotels, envisioned to cater to a niche market of über-wealthy lovers of greenness and light, weren't sprouting.  According to HotelChatter.com, Starwood's plans for a 1 Hotel in Seattle were withering too, along with the economy. Starwood started excavations for a 1 Hotel in Seattle, but later re-filled the hole and the lot reverted to a parking lot when it couldn't secure financing for the project, according to the Seattle Times.

Then, sometime between the nadir of the financial crisis and the birth of Occupy Wall Street, developers decided to change course on plans for 22nd and M after Perseus contacted more than 40 lenders, all of whom declined to finance the West End 1 Hotel project.

In 2011, developers sought permission to modify the site plans and instead of a boutique eco-luxury creation, they announced plans for a Hilton Garden Inn (a brand categorized as upscale mid-priced) with 237 rooms.  The new incarnation now included Shalom Baranes as the architect, and OTO Development, a hotel development company based in Spartanburg, South Carolina, as a third development partner.  Changes included a redesign of the exterior façades, an increase in the number of rooms and a three-foot reduction in height to 107 feet, and 53 parking spaces in a valet-operated garage.  There were neighbors who balked.

Plans for the Hilton Garden Inn at 22nd and M, West End, DC

"Some neighbors have already said they fear the new hotel will attract "the fanny-pack crowd" to the West End neighborhood," the neighborhood group West End Friends wrote on their web site last year after an ANC2A meeting when developers presented their new plans.

But if hotel site plan changes sparked West End fears of fanny packs, site developers and project architects maintain there is no need to fret about that.  "This is very much upscale for the Hilton Garden Inn brand," lead project architect Patrick Burkhart said.

Burkhart said the hotel would feature a second-floor, landscaped terrace with outdoor seating areas, and a lobby with a fireplace, monumental staircase, and a water feature with plants cascading from the second-level terrace.  The hotel will also feature a ground-floor restaurant and bar with indoor-outdoor seating opening onto the street on the corner of 22nd and M. Burkhart said the hotel marks a move by the Hilton Garden Inn brand into more urban areas, including D.C. where he said it would be the District's third.

West End Hilton Garden Inn, Washington, DC

With a new hotel, the corner will see more activity in years to come.  Demand is up for hotel rooms in the District.  According to Jan Freitag,  Senior Vice President with STR Global, a hotel industry benchmarking and consulting company based in Hendersonville, TN, data shows 10.5 million rooms were sold in the first five months of this year in the Washington, D.C. market, 1.5 percent more than last year.  "More people are coming to DC."

At least some of those people may soon be destined for 22nd and M.  Lucky for the West End, even fanny packs can be luxurious too.