District of Columbia: District gains back control of Southwest property

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty joined leaders of the Waterfront Associates development team to begin demolition of Waterside Mall, to make way for a 2.5 million square foot mixed-use development that will house two major District government agencies and serve as an anchor for redevelopment of the Southwest neighborhood surrounding the Waterfront-SEU Metrorail station."This neighborhood really deserves a first-class, neighborhood-serving project like Waterside", Mayor Fenty said. "It makes me very proud to say the District government played a truly catalytic role in making it a reality."

The District's Office of the Chief Financial Officer and the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs will lease roughly 500,000-square feet of office space in the new project. Waterside will consist of about 1.2 million square feet of office space and 1.2 million square feet of residential space - bringing hundreds of new residents and thousands of new office workers to Southwest. The project will include a new grocery store as a part of 110,000 square feet of neighborhood-serving retail; the current grocery store will stay open throughout construction. The project will also reconnect Fourth Street, which used to run through the middle of what is now Waterside Mall.

Waterside Mall sits on land controlled by the District, but it was encumbered by long-term leases that depressed the value of the land. The former National Capital Revitalization Corp. and the development team agreed to terminate the leases in exchange for NCRC - and now the District - to gain control of a portion of the site that will be used to build additional housing. The District's Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development plans to solicit competitive offers for the District site within several months. The first phase of the project is expected to be complete in early 2010.

On the Net: www.waterfrontdc.com.