Re: (rshsdepot) Union Station - Washington, DC

["Gene Paoli" <stationman_@_prodigy.net>]

Like I said, Air Rights....
Gene Paoli
- ----- Original Message -----
From: Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>
To: RSHS Depot <rshsdepot_@_lists.railfan.net>
Sent: Monday, February 11, 2002 9:35 PM
Subject: (rshsdepot) Union Station - Washington, DC


> D.C. vies for rights to prime Union Station site
>
> Thomas C. Hall - Staff Reporter - Washington Business Journal
>
> District officials are negotiating with the General Services
Administration
> to acquire development rights to the 15-acre site just north of Union
> Station.
>
> The federal agency faces a seven-month deadline to sell the development
> site, where District planners envision a large-scale project that would be
> built above the railroad tracks. Possibilities being discussed include
> retail and commercial development, housing and transportation projects.
>
> "The city is very definitely interested," says Ellen McCarthy, deputy
> director in the D.C. Office of Planning (http://www.planning.dc.gov).
"We're
> investigating a variety of issues involved in acquiring it."
>
> The site includes two large blocks on either side of H Street NE, and it
is
> the last infill development opportunity abutting Union Station. The site
is
> flanked by two new federal agency headquarters under construction -- the
> Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to the north and the Securities
and
> Exchange Commission to the southeast.
>
> In the mid-1990s, the site had been touted as an alternative location for
> the new Washington Convention Center, now under construction eight blocks
to
> the west. The site recently has been evaluated by city officials for
future
> sports facilities.
>
> It's too small for baseball, but it's something to look at for the
> Olympics," says Bobby Goldwater, president of the D.C. Sports and
> Entertainment Commission. "This requires a little thinking outside the
box,
> but it would be great for a field house, theaters or parking."
>
> Goldwater says the site meets the 15-acre requirement for a new baseball
> stadium, but it is bisected by the H Street bridge over the rail corridor.
> The largest block on the north side is about 9 acres, the southern portion
> is 6 acres.
>
> City officials also are discussing possible projects that would make Union
> Station even more of a transportation hub than it is now.
>
> The station sits atop a rail corridor used by passenger and freight trains
> operated by Amtrak, Metro, Maryland Rail Commuter (MARC), Virginia Railway
> Express (VRE) and CSX. The air rights site behind it is two blocks east of
a
> proposed link between Interstate 395 and Union Station.
>
> GSA spokeswoman Viki Reath says Congress in 1997 ordered the agency to
sell
> the rights over the 15-acre tract at "fair market value," with the
proceeds
> going to the Treasury. At the time, the site was owned by Amtrak, which
> relinquished development rights to the site as part of a massive federal
> bailout.
>
> Congress set a deadline of Sept. 30 for the sale, a deadline that has both
> federal and D.C. officials scrambling to determine its value.
>
> "We're having an appraisal done in the next two weeks, and that will
> determine our basis for negotiation with GSA," says ElChino Martin, chief
of
> staff for Deputy Mayor Eric Price.
>
> GSA studies of the site indicate that 1.1 million square feet of office
> space could be built on five levels at the site.
>
> But experts estimate it would cost more than $100 million just to prepare
> the site for development.
>
> "The economics probably dictate that the only real buyer is the D.C.
> government," says a developer who has reviewed plans for the site.
>
> "The cost of creating the platform over the tracks would be huge," he
says,
> as much as $300 per square foot. "There's a built-in `land cost' of over
$60
> per square foot before you pay GSA anything."
>
> The supply of large, buildable sites downtown is drying up, forcing
> developers to think creatively. Another air-rights deal that closed
recently
> is a project to build several floors of office space above the Hecht's
> department store at 12th and G streets NW.
>
> District officials say the proposed air rights development would provide
an
> important link between residential areas east of Union Station with the
> North Capitol Street commercial corridor to the west.
>
> It also would augment the city's current thrust to spur new, mixed-use
> development in NoMa, the area north of Massachusetts Avenue.
>

------------------------------