Blocks from the president, washington developers plan big

Since the late 1990s, the once-desolate section of downtown Washington east of the White House has undergone a striking transformation. About $10.6 billion has been invested in more than 150 real estate projects. Some 56,000 people now live downtown, up from 38,000 in 2000.

And after years of planning, the most ambitious of the downtown projects is finally under way. Construction began in March on CityCenterDC, a $700 million complex envisioned as a modern-day Rockefeller Center, with 2.5 million square feet of office, residential and retail space as well as a public plaza and park. Completion of the bulk of the project is expected in late 2013, according to the two real estate companies, Hines Interests of Houston and Archstone of Englewood, Colo., that won development rights in 2003. 

One of the largest downtown projects in the nation, CityCenterDC will fill 10 acres, all city-owned except for the land beneath two condo buildings. Bounded by New York Avenue and 9th, H and 11th Streets NW, the site was once occupied by a convention center that was demolished in 2004 (a year after the larger Walter E. Washington Convention Center was built nearby), leaving a giant parking lot in one of the city’s most desirable locations, only two blocks from two of the busiest Metrorail stations.

“This really is the hole in the doughnut,” said William M. Collins, a senior managing director of Cassidy Turley, a national brokerage, which is not involved in CityCenterDC. 

Source: NYTimes.com