DC's West End Redevelopment Breaks Ground

Ground broke this week on the West End redevelopment in Washington, DC, a project that will bring a 21,000-square-foot library and 7,300 square feet of retail topped by 164 market-rate units and a new fire station. EastBanc Inc., a real estate redevelopment company headquartered in the historic Georgetown Post Office it purchased this fall, was selected to develop the space in March 2010. West End Residential LLC, a JV led by EastBanc, is developing the project with the District in a a public-private partnership.

"This really has been a long time coming," said Mayor Vincent Gray, during what will likely be the last major groundbreaking of his only term. "It shows that perseverance does indeed pay off."

"The West End, when we started, was a bunch of parking lots that Oliver Carr didn't get to," said EastBanc President Anthony Lanier. "We wrapped it up." This latest project "finishes off" the neighborhood between Georgetown and Dupont Circle, he added.

The $150 million West End project, encompassing a square West End block for Squares 37 and 50, 2301 L Street NW, anticipates a ribbon-cutting in 2017. The West End team, EastBanc-W.D.C. Partners LLC, includes EastBanc, The Warrenton Group, Dantes Partners, L. S. Caldwell & Associates and The JBG Companies (as an equity partner). The two buildings were designed by TEN Arquitectos.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

DC's Southwest Waterfront Project Breaks Ground

The Wharf on Washington, D.C.'s Southwest Waterfront project developed by PN Hoffman and Madison Marquette, broke ground this week in a ceremony attended by Mayor Vincent Gray and three members of the D.C. Council. The groundbreaking was the District's biggest since CityCenterDC in April 2011, and landed three days into early voting for D.C.'s Democratic primary. The $1.5-billion Wharf project now beings Phase 1 of development, which covers 24 acres of land, more than 50 acres of waterfront, and a building area over 1.9 million GSF.

The Wharf, said Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells, will be "one of the most remarkable developments anywhere on the planet." David Brainerd of Madison Marquette called it "one of the most exciting development projects ever constructed in the city of Washington, D.C."

According to Stan Eckstut, Principal of EE&K a Perkins Eastman company, who is leading the project's design team, "We're proud to be helping return the city back to where it began, with mixed uses and high density all activating one of the world's premier maritime destinations. Designing The Wharf is about creating places where people want to live and visit, bringing the human scale to a large-scale development. It's pedestrian-oriented, water-oriented, and transit-oriented development all in one."

Set for completion in 2017, The Wharf will offer hundreds of new apartments and condos, high- end hotels, office space, a movie theater, restaurants, an Irish pub, a jazz club and a piano bar. A visual tour of the new Southwest Waterfront is available via the Washington Business Journal.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.