10th and G Project Rises

The 165,000 sq foot, $85million Skanska development at 10th and G Sts NW is progressing, even during the tough winter weather. 

Three years in the making (so far), the site was previously occupied by the First Congregational United Church of Christ. The church cut a deal to redevelop the site with PN Hoffman. Skanska stepped in to lead the project after real estate markets faltered. 

The church will return to the first and second floors inside the new building as part of the deal. The other spaces will include retail (4,000 sq ft) on part of the first floor and office space on the 3rd-10th floors. Skanska is building for a LEED Gold certification.


Other notable features:
5,000 sq rooftop penthouse terrace and green roof (tenants only)
3,000 sq fitness center (unsure if accessible to the public)
4 levels of underground parking, including bike storage
Proposal for onsite Zipcar spaces 

Photos: The Capitol

Paint Shop Gets a Paint Job

Some light painting and cleanup work has started at 3124 Mount Pleasant Street NW. This building was most recently Mount Pleasant Super Market and a time before that, a Palyess Shoes store. 

Looks like it is slated to become a McCormick Paints store in 2011.

Major Adams Morgan Construction Project Underway

And so it begins. The DDOT project to improve the Adams Morgan streetscape will result in relocated utilities, wider sidewalks, improved parking conditions, new street lighting and better traffic flow. This ambitious, $9 million plan will remake the west, then east side of 18th Street NW from Columbia Road to Florida Avenue. The projected completion date is August 12, 2012.

Friday Fun Post: Distill This

My favorite song from Wednesday's DJ set. Distillers/City of Angels. Man, we need a song like this for DC. Have a great weekend.

Volunteer, Help DC EITC

The DC Earned Income Tax Credit Campaign is looking for volunteers. DC EITC Campaign provides free tax preparation in DC to help low-income residents and families.

Tax professionals and non tax professionals welcome. They will train you in January and the volunteer work will continue until mid April. 

Earned income tax credit was added to the tax code in 1975. When applied to taxes of low income workers and families, EITC helps offset the required social security tax deduction. Basically, if the credit is higher than the amount taxed int the name of social security a refund is given to the tax payer.

In addition to helping workers file for the EITC, the Campaign attempts to make clients awarer of other free financial services such as savings programs and credit counseling.

Here's the listing from DC EITC:

       You Can Change Lives, One Return at a Time

This tax season you can be a part of a tremendous effort that brings over $9 million into the homes of DC’s low-income working families each year!  How?  By volunteering as a Tax Preparer or Savings Promoter with the DC Earned Income Tax Credit Campaign (www.dceitc.org).

The Campaign is recruiting volunteer Tax Preparers to help low-income clients file their taxes and claim the credits that they deserve.  Each tax return completed by a volunteer preparer can raise a low-income working family’s income by more than $6,000.  

Other volunteers, known as Savings Promoters, will help clients use their returns to move up the economic ladder by saving a portion of their refunds, and enrolling in money management classes and credit counseling!

Volunteers will receive free training and certification on Saturdays and/or weekday evenings in January: 12 total hours for Tax Preparers, and 4 hours for Savings Promoters.

Volunteers then commit to one 3-4 hour session per week (primarily evenings and/or weekends) from late January through mid-April (10 weeks) at one of 11 tax sites throughout the Greater Washington, DC area.  Two of the sites are in the Columbia Heights/Adams Morgan area.  We especially need Spanish speakers at the site on California street (Language ETC).

For more information, visit the Campaign’s website at www.dceitc.org/volunteer.html

Or contact the DC EITC Campaign’s Volunteer Coordinator, Page Schindler Buchanan, at  volunteer@dceitc.org or 202-419-1442 x106

Guy in the Girls Room, at Asylum

Canada's own, Submission Hold

This is a DJ'd night of music featuring all woman bands or woman fronted bands. Free. DJ = yours truly. Had such a good time last time out, they're having me back. 9PM on tomorrow, Wednesday. Asylum is located at 2471 18th Street NW. Come in from the cold! Well, actually, go out into the cold first, to get there. Then come in from the could and listen to some sweet tunes and have a drink or two on a school nite.

Pho DC and Wok and Roll Asian Bistro Now Open

New (and improved?) Wok and Roll in AM

Two recent openings I had been keeping an eye on: Pho DC in Chinatown and Wok N' Roll Asian Bistro in Adams Morgan. 

Wok and Roll Restaurant is in Chinatown. Its new sister establishment, Wok 'N Roll Asian Bistro is in Adams Morgan. I'm just going to call them Wok and Roll I and Wok and Roll II. The Bistro does appear much nicer, decor-wise. And the ambiance says "dinner out on the town" more than "cheap lunch specials."

But the menu is i-dent-i-cal to Wok and Roll I. Literally, they use the same paper menu. The address and phone numbers have been plastered over with new info, but the dishes are, word for word and number for number, the exact same. So, we'll see. Maybe the cooks are better. Or maybe they just dress better. Not that I don't like Wok and Roll I, it's great; but maybe the image upgrade will be paired with a menu upgrade at some point. Wok and Roll II is located at 2400 18th Street NW, halfway point of the Adams Morgan commercial strip. 

Pho DC Vietnamese Noodle and Bar quietly opened late last week. Today is the official hard opening. I have yet to visit and the website was not quite up and running at the time of this posting, but the menu should be in line with other small pho establishments in DC (Pho 14, Nam-Viet). Pho DC is very close to the Gallery Pl-Chinatown Metro station and about 3 blocks from the 42 bus; at 608 H Street NW.

Friday Fun Post: Get Up Kids!

The Get Up Kids are a favorite of mine from the 90s and early 2000s. They're back on tour and playing in DC on March 1, at the Cat. Tickets go on sale today and you know I'm getting one. This song is "Action & Action" from 1999's Something to Write Home About. Can't wait!

Behind the Bar: Bedrock Billiards

Out and About: North of Massachusetts, Part II

Part I, from yesterday. Part II, from today:

Retail is often the most visible measure of vitality (if not the most accurate) of a mixed use neighborhood. Residential can be hidden or low key, office space only shows itself during the daylight hours and nite life spots are often dark on weekdays and even some weeknights. But retail is pretty easy to eyeball. Either it's there or it's not.

The retail collection in NoMa is eclectic, but fitting for an area with more workers than residents. TD Bank, Potbelly, and Tynan Coffee & Tea recently opened. A small strip of retail including Five Guys and Pound Coffee is located across from the Holiday Inn Marriot Courtyard. These are all retail options that can serve residents and tourists, but also feed a growing office worker contingent. 1,900 DOJ workers just moved in and 1,400 GSA employees are moving in as we speak.

Harris Teeter is opening a grocery this week, a CVS is opening in January and NoMa's first white tablecloth sit down restaurant is scheduled to open in April inside the new Hilton Hotel. That is a lightening fast opening schedule for the next six months. I guess I wonder who will patronize the businesses until a critical mass of residents move in. There are obviously residential areas right across North Capitol St, NY Ave and the other side of the rail tracks, but at what point is it worth actually coming into NoMa for those residents. Potbelly probably won't do it, but perhaps having Harris Teeter as an anchor will help bring nearby residents to the area and the other businesses (Tynan, TD Bank, Pound) will start get regular use from non-office workers. And Walmart --still unbelievably-- has very early plans for 801 New Jersey Ave NW. For all the new construction though, there has to be more than Potbelly's, CVS and a few dry cleaners in order for NoMa to be considered a destination.

I hope there are places that normal people can live in this neighborhood. The limited new residential projects price out anyone in my salary range and probably the next tax bracket up, too. Really a shame. I guess that's my real hope for this neighborhood. That it can be unique as a tightly knit, very planned, vibrant community, but also that it can be a place that will create options for more than just the wealthy. More on NoMa as it develops, on paper and on the ground. And more photos!

Constitution Square

ATF HQ and NY Ave Metro

Public seating; a nice touch

Looking north on 1st St NE

Office with retail, future Hilton on the right

Archstone's 469 unit apartment building underway

Future NPR site

Constitution Square

Out and About: North of Massachusetts

 NoMa --or North of Massachusetts Avenue-- is what can best be described as a fledgling, but ambitious, engineered, mixed-use neighborhood. The typical Washington anchor is there (government offices filled with employees). The transportation is there (Metro, bike share, Amtrak, bus station). Even the retail is coming along (grocery store, coffee shop, bank). Add to that mix a hotel, new residential and built-in nite life spots, and you're on the way to a real live neighborhood, right?

I visited last week. To me the neighborhood is dressed for prom --well dressed-- but still waiting for its date who has yet to show. The set up is quite nice. The boundaries are generally Mass Ave, North Capitol St NE, New York Ave NE and 3rd St NE. The official BID lines expand a little further. (NoMa BID is one of the driving forces working to shape and market the neighborhood). Essentially, the neighborhood is adjacent to Capitol Hill. You can see and walk to the Capitol Building and Senate office buildings without breaking a sweat. And the rail yard and tracks are all that separate NoMa from the greater Capitol Hill neighborhood and H Street NE/Atlas District.

There are two Metro stations; New York Ave and Union Station, both on the Red Line. Union Station is the southern anchor. The beaux arts temple to transit looks stately, especially next to the equally beautiful National Postal Museum and Bureau of Labor and Statistics. There is an established, if slightly less beautiful, office complex built just north of Union Station and it is fairly developed. CNN, CareFirst, Community College of the District of Columbia are a few of the larger tenants.

But just north of K Street, construction cranes dominates the landscape. New buildings are rising in between older structures and more recent ones. Former industrial and warehouse buildings are being re-adapted or torn down to make way for newcomers (NPR's new HQ for example). Seeing this part of the neighborhood makes me inclined to keep tabs and actually want to see how it all turns out...

I took a few photos, and here is the first batch. More thoughts and photos tomorrow.

Opening this week

Bikeshare, bike parking, Metro trains in the background

Hotel next to NY Ave Metro station

Coffee and French fries; Vice City

Older office park near Union Station

1st St NE twists and turns next to rail yard

Holiday Market Opens Today

The Downtown Holiday Market returns to Penn Quarter today at noon. This year --the 6th-- over 180 vendors will rotate in and out of booths on F Street over four weeks. The last day is December 23.

The Market location is the regular spot, F Street NW between 7th and 9th Sts. This is right on the front door of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and across the street from the International Spy Museum.  

Each day from 12:00pm-8:00pm mostly local vendors will sell everything from soaps and scarves to pottery, pies and portraits.  Here's the full list. 

Musical performers will entertain visitors on a small stage throughout each day and if last year is an indicator, there should be a few overhead heat lamps scattered around in order to keep us warm while browsing.  Cool new feature this year: gift certificates for the Market itself. That's cool.

Looking forward to it! Another chance to skip that trip to the mall... or at least put it off until you really, really  have to.

Coming Soon to Adams Morgan... More Karaoke

Muzette is located at the corner of 18th Street and Kalorama NW. When it opens it will be the latest karaoke bar in AM, following in the footsteps of the in/famous Peyote Cafe. I used to do karaoke at Millie and Al's, but that was years ago!

In all fairness, it will be a restaurant, too. There are a few well known Korean restaurants in DC, Mount Pleasant's own Adam Express among them, and it'll be nice to have someone presenting a fresh approach via Muzette in Adams Morgan. Wondering what the restaurant-bar-karaoke split will be. 

Not so unbelievable: Muzette, somehow already has a glowing review on that terrible sham of a website yelp--even though it has yet to open or operate. Amazing. Anyway, can't hold that against them. I look forward to much bad singing and good partying at this place, which was most recently a pool hall (r.i.p. Kokopoolis!). Muzette's address is 2305 18th Street NW, basement level.