Business Improvement District

The funding for that initiative is coming from BID's own coffers. According to an earlier interview with Charles Wilkes, chairman of local development firm the Wilkes Co. and vice chairman of the NoMA BID, that project will take up a big chunk of the BID's $1.2-million 2008 fiscal year budget.

Price, though, must negotiate with the city for the street improvements, which in total are expected to be $12 million. But her background has prepared her for the task.

Before taking NoMA BID's helm, Price was a founding member and vice president at the Anacostia Waterfront Corp. Prior to joining the AWC, she served as a project manager in the office of Washington's Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development; a development manager for the National Capital Revitalization Corp.; and a special assistant to the deputy assistant secretary for Public Housing Investments at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Last year the District's Office of Planning's Small Area Plan for this submarket identified several infrastructure improvement projects that should be included in the city budget. In Price's view First Street is the most important area to be rehabilitated. "Right now it doesn't look or feel like the center of a new neighborhood," she tells GlobeSt.com. "The streets need to be resurfaced, sideways rebuilt, there needs to be a public space built for art exhibits and such." The small area plan called for an estimated $4 million in improvements for First Street, Price says.

The interchange of Florida and New York avenues also must be streamlined to improve traffic flows, according to the plan, which estimates these costs at around $2 million.

Beyond these two projects, which Price deemed most important, others include resurfacing the streets and sidewalks in the submarket, many of which have been unattended for years. "K, L and M streets all need to be upgraded, for instance," she says.

Price's responsibilities expand far beyond these infrastructure upgrades, although she is targeting them first to make sure that when the first new buildings in NoMa deliver--as early as this September--the area will be ready to receive the influx of new employees, residents and shoppers.

The ATF facility is the most well known NoMA building poised to deliver this fall. Price also notes there are two condo projects, which are scheduled to deliver by year end and are already starting to sell units. Landmark Lots, developed by Abdo Development, is an 800,000-sf luxury rehab of the Historic Children's Museum, she notes. Also Broadway Development is building a 500,000-sf high-rise condo nearby.

Other projects are set to break ground shortly as well, Price adds. There is J Street Development's 111 K St., a 80,000-sf office condo project; Tishman Speyer 350,000-sf office project at 1100 First St., and Trammel Crow/CSG Partners mixed-use project at 201 Florida Ave., which will consist of a 160,000-sf hotel and 30,000 sf of retail.

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Erika Morphy

Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.