Southwest Waterfront redevelopment, Water St. to be closed

[PotomacCyclist]

The Wharf is a $2 billion multi-building redevelopment of the Southwest Waterfront. (Not a security officer aboard the USS Enterprise.) Groundbreaking is scheduled for March 19. Construction could continue for the next 4 years. The new development will include apartments, offices, condos, hotels, a movie theater, a jazz club, a piano bar, a country-western bar and a 6,000-seat concert hall. The developer also wants to add LED lighting to the nearby Case Bridge (I-395).

Of particular note for cyclists is the removal of much or all of Water Street. The new buildings will be constructed up to Maine Ave. (A cycle track is planned for Maine Ave. See the next post below.)

One of the JDLand pictures shows the Kastles team tennis stadium torn down. That was only built in 2011. I think the new development includes another Kastles stadium, but I haven’t looked at the plans recently. It shouldn’t take that long to build a new stadium. The old one wasn’t that large (maybe 1,000 capacity?) and it was made of scaffolding and bench seating for the most part. I hope they improve the drainage system. When it rained during a match last summer, the entire pedestrian area got flooded, even though it was only a typical summer rain shower.

I’m not sure of the exact construction schedule, but expect Water Street to be closed at some point in the near future.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/southwest-waterfront-redevelopment-set-to-break-ground-but-not-without-concerns/2014/03/07/7572dd28-a53c-11e3-8466-d34c451760b9_story.html?hpid=z2

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-business/wp/2014/03/07/a-walking-tour-in-pictures-the-southwest-waterfront-on-the-eve-of-demolition/

According to the project website, there will be 1,750 bicycle parking spaces throughout the development:

http://www.thewharfdc.com/office/office_numbers.htm

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According to the following blog, there will be a 10-ft. wide “bike lane” and a 15-ft. wide sidewalk along Maine Ave., separated by a row of street trees. Sounds more like a cycle track to me. If so, good.

http://southwestquadrant.blogspot.com/p/southwest-waterfront-redevelopment.html

A wide Wharf Street will replace Water Street. A 20-ft. wide section will be reserved for seating. The middle 20 ft. will have limited vehicular travel and possibly a street car. The other 20 ft., closest to the shoreline, will be reserved for pedestrians.

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June/July 2015

MAINE AVENUE FISH MARKET PLAN

Hoffman-Madison Waterfront, the developer of The Wharf, also holds a 99-year lease on the Maine Avenue Fish Market. They have essentially combined the market with The Wharf in their planning.

They have just revealed plans for an extensive renewal of the fish market. I’m not sure if I heard about this before. I thought they might skip over the fish market, but it makes sense to do some work there too. The parking lots and access lanes are in poor shape and the plot looks run-down and just plain ugly. It’s the first thing that visitors see when traveling from the Tidal Basin to the future Wharf.

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/breaking_ground/2015/07/here-s-the-plan-to-restore-d-c-s-historic-maine.html

In this video, the CEO of PN Hoffman (one of the partners in Hoffman-Madison Waterfront) says that they will add a rum distillery, a pavilion, outdoor seating and a large market hall with a beer/wine shop, a restaurant, and an Italian butcher. (I don’t know why they specify an Italian butcher, but that’s what the article says.) The fish market will be retained but spruced up a bit. The CEO says that they are working with the people who live aboard the boats in the nearby marina to address concerns that they may have.

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts is looking at the proposal. They seem cautiously optimistic about the plans.

The article includes a slideshow of concept renderings, plus a site plan. The text of the plan document is too small to read clearly. You can open the image in a new tab to get a slightly larger display:

http://media.bizj.us/view/img/6382722/fish-market-site-plan.jpg

There is no specific mention of cycling accommodations. But given that the main Wharf development will include 1,750 bicycle parking spaces, I think they may include additional bike parking near the fish market where possible. Even if they don’t add many bike racks at the new fish market development, there should be plenty of bike racks at the nearby Wharf buildings, maybe within 50 feet.

They included cyclists in slides 4-6. They wouldn’t have done this if they were planning to keep bikes out of the new fish market area.

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I also noticed that they will bury the overhead utility lines.

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This is what the fish market looks like today:

https://goo.gl/maps/rOibF

Topic

[Mikey]

@PotomacCyclist 113329 wrote:

The south side of Case Bridge will get blue accent lighting at the end of 2016. Phase I of The Wharf is expected to deliver in late summer 2017. (That probably means the end of 2017 or early 2018.)

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/breaking_ground/2015/04/its-time-to-light-the-lights-case-bridge-to-be.html?page=all

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Colors that can change based on the season/holiday would be cooler

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Sounds like the boardwalk at Ocean City NJ. Marked lanes for walkers, surreys, bicycles and joggers. That’s a lot of separated modes.

[lordofthemark]

I have finally taken the lane on Maine Avenue headed northwest. The combination of tourist mobs on the sidewalk and slow moving traffic on Maine made it an easy choice.

[PotomacCyclist]

The popular International Spy Museum is now planning to move to 900 L’Enfant Plaza, although financing is not yet complete. The deal also needs to be approved by the Commission of Fine Arts. The Museum will make a presentation on April 16 to the CFA.

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/breaking_ground/2015/04/international-spy-museum-selects-its-new-location.html

The location is the empty plaza next to the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel (currently undergoing renovations). The hotel was supposed to re-open in 2014, but the date was pushed back to 2015. Now they are saying 2016.

http://goo.gl/maps/21FEh

The museum CEO understands that area residents see L’Enfant Plaza as a dead zone, except during regular work hours. Very few people stroll along L’Enfant Plaza, which was supposed to be a monumental gateway to the National Mall. Only problem is that there’s nothing at the other end of the road except a dead traffic circle and a little used park. She says that the Penn Quarter was also a dead area and less developed when the Spy Museum first moved there in 2002. (The Verizon Center was already in place at Gallery Place.)

The CEO hopes that with the Spy Museum potentially moving to L’Enfant Plaza, that the District will move ahead quickly with the 10th Street SW portion of the SW Ecodistrict Plan, which would remake the road into a more inviting and lively place, while also improving the environment, partly by adding dense multi-use development close to the existing Metro station.

http://www.ncpc.gov/plans/swecodistrict/summary.pdf

This could be significant for cyclists. The initiative would create a network of complete streets that are more walkable, with bike lanes and better transit connections. This could create a better route from the Mall to L’Enfant Plaza and the Spy Museum and The Wharf/SW Waterfront development. The Spy Museum would be located just a couple blocks from both the National Mall and The Wharf. With the addition of housing and a better road/boulevard (with some actual trees), L’Enfant Plaza might actually be someplace that people would want to walk or bike around, unlike today where people mostly walk or bike along that road because they are lost or they are taking a detour around the SW Waterfront construction. Today, that road looks like a movie set for a post-apocalyptic movie. It wouldn’t cost that much money just to add some grass or trees along the sides of the road. The District will be receiving a lot of extra tax revenue from the future developments at The Wharf.

The museum’s current lease at Gallery Place runs through early 2017. I think they want to be set up in the new building by that date. They could also extend their current lease temporarily, if necessary.

If both the museum and the 1st phase of The Wharf are ready by mid 2017, I would think that DC would want to have a redesigned L’Enfant Plaza avenue ready by then too. They should take advantage of the new cultural, social and economic activity set to take place in those areas. However, there don’t seem to be any recent updates for the SW Ecodistrict initiative.

FYI – The museum CEO notes that an Arlington location lobbied hard to move the museum over there. I would guess that it was either the Rosslyn or the Crystal City BID. Those two neighborhoods are Metro-accessible and relatively close to downtown DC.

[rcannon100]

Oh, and dont forget about the FCC leaving the neighborhood in 2017. That will greatly improve the ‘hood!

[dasgeh]

@PotomacCyclist 113617 wrote:

The popular International Spy Museum is now planning to move to 900 L’Enfant Plaza, although financing is not yet complete. The deal also needs to be approved by the Commission of Fine Arts. The Museum will make a presentation on April 16 to the CFA.

Exciting. Is there any chance they would improve the approach to the Case Bridge in all of this? That could definitely help.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

I’m calling it. At 8:40 a.m. this morning, the paving integrity at Maine Avenue inbound before 9th Street is officially better than the paving integrity of Memorial Bridge downriver side.

[PotomacCyclist]

@dasgeh 113701 wrote:

Exciting. Is there any chance they would improve the approach to the Case Bridge in all of this? That could definitely help.

Look at page 2 of the SW Ecodistrict summary doc, linked above and also here: http://www.ncpc.gov/plans/swecodistrict/summary.pdf

At least in the grand plans, they would completely remake Banneker Park, which is the area that surrounds the sub-par road loop of L’Enfant Plaza. Whether they actually do this, or any of the SW Ecodistrict plan, is anyone’s guess. There hasn’t been much progress since last year, based on the lack of any updates or public announcements.

[dasgeh]

@PotomacCyclist 113784 wrote:

Look at page 2 of the SW Ecodistrict summary doc, linked above and also here: http://www.ncpc.gov/plans/swecodistrict/summary.pdf

At least in the grand plans, they would completely remake Banneker Park, which is the area that surrounds the sub-par road loop of L’Enfant Plaza. Whether they actually do this, or any of the SW Ecodistrict plan, is anyone’s guess. There hasn’t been much progress since last year, based on the lack of any updates or public announcements.

I didn’t see specifics, but you’d think there would be enough space to do away with the switchbacks to the bridge as well, and possibly create some pleasant cycling/walking infrastructure…

[PotomacCyclist]

I found this on the NCPC website: http://www.ncpc.gov/swecodistrict/index.php

They had a presentation in December 2013, which was taped and uploaded to YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U96G0racl5U

Fast-forward to the 17:10 mark of the video for specifics about the revised design for Banneker Park. (The section of the video before that point shows the older design for the park.)

[PotomacCyclist]

A presentation about 10th Street, SW and Banneker connections, from May 2013

[PotomacCyclist]

This shorter overview video (dated Oct. 15, 2014) includes some close-up shots of what Banneker Park could look like:

[lordofthemark]

Took the lane from the fish market to 7th street this AM. I did not like it, nor did I like the vehicular left at 7th. Though my time was faster than usual.

[PotomacCyclist]

WAMU interviewed Diane Sullivan, senior urban planner with the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), last week on the Metro Connection show.

http://wamu.org/programs/metro_connection/15/04/17/southwest_ecodistrict

She is one of the managers overseeing the Southwest Ecodistrict project. The audio clip is just under 7 minutes. (I haven’t listened to all of it yet.) In the article, Sullivan says that 10th St. could be one of the first steps in the overall plan. But she says that the new, greener, more pedestrian-friendly 10th St. would be built in phases, over a period of 10 years. NPS owns Banneker Park.

So given the consistent lack of funding at NPS and the long timelines for the Ecodistrict project, I don’t think we would see major changes at Banneker Park and the traffic circle/Case Bridge ramp in the immediate future. Not unless the developers at The Wharf offer to pay for some/all of the renovation costs of Banneker Park. The park is just across the street from Phase 1 of The Wharf. A livelier and more walkable and accessible 10th St. and Banneker Park makes sense for the developers. It makes The Wharf more appealing to residential and office tenants, and to visitors for the new restaurants and music halls. I hope NCPC is staying in regular contact with NPS and The Wharf developers. Spur them into moving everything ahead more quickly, and get the new Southwest Waterfront moving.

[PotomacCyclist]

Proposed design for the Spy Museum at L’Enfant Plaza:

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No updates on Banneker Park/Case Bridge in the article though.

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/breaking_ground/2015/04/international-spy-museum-design-for-lenfant-plaza.html

[Author]

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