Commentary: Latest Reports from The Washington Posts ‘Digger’

Here are the latest reports from The Washington Posts ‘Digger’.

Amtrak unveils $50 million solution to cramped conditions at Union Station

Amtrak plans to begin building a new $50 million Union Station concourse this summer that it said would double the space for passengers and improve circulation throughout the station by 2019. Union Station passengers have long complained that the waiting area for trains there, the second busiest in the country for the rail service, is dark, cramped and difficult to […]

Mayor Bowser offers properties across D.C. for economic development

District officials unveiled 17 building projects to local investors and businesses Friday. Located across the city, the projects could deliver the city affordable housing, re-opened school buildings, new libraries and upgraded recreation facilities. Soon after entering office last year, Bowser held a “March Madness” event to pitch local developers and investors on six economic development projects, and this […]

These Redskins stadium renderings look an awful lot like they’re in Oxon Hill, Md.

It isn’t often a company commissions architectural models of a billion-dollar real estate project without knowing where the project will be built, the way the Washington Redskins owners did in hiring Bjarke Ingels Group to lay out a vision for a new stadium. Or did they? A closer look at some of the background topography, roads, buildings and […]

Fundrise CFO says he was ousted after alerting crowdfunding company of ‘serious fraudulent behavior’

The former chief financial officer and treasurer of Fundrise, the real estate crowdfunding start-up, says he was terminated by the company after alerting its chief executive to what he called “serious fraudulent behavior” and said the company’s assertion that he had tried to extort it for more than $1 million was baseless. Michael S. McCord’s allegations came in response to […]

Architect unveils glitzy design for Redskins stadium complex

Washington Redskins owner Daniel Synder doesn’t know where the future home of his football team will be but he’s already got an idea of what he wants it to look like. Danish architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group, hired recently by Snyder to design a new stadium for the team, unveiled a model of the proposed project […]

Bill Marriott on headquarters relocation: “We have no idea where we’re going yet.”

Marriott International, likely to soon become the world’s largest hotel company, is looking to move its headquarters from a sprawling suburban complex in Bethesda in coming years. John Willard “Bill” Marriott Jr., the company’s executive chairman, said Thursday that the company was in the process of considering a number of locations but had not made […]

Metro considers a potential bonanza — selling its headquarters

Paul J. Wiedefeld, the new general manager of Metro, penned a Washington Post op-ed on Sunday pledging as part of his efforts to turn around the agency he would “analyze revenue potential from the sale of Metro’s headquarters building that could be used for customer service initiatives.”  It wasn’t the first time someone proposed selling Metro’s headquarters building, a […]

Why people are suddenly worried the new FBI HQ could become a traffic disaster

Five years ago local officials and commuters bemoaned the Pentagon’s decision to relocate 6,400 employees to the Mark Center, an Alexandria office complex far from Metro that was chosen using what turned out to be flawed traffic data. Now there are early concerns that government officials are turning their backs on Metro again, this time, in terms of the criteria […]

Why companies are paying millions to move a mile in Tysons

Three years ago the Meridian Group, a Bethesda developer, bought the former corporate campus of government contractor SAIC. At 18 acres, the property immediately established Meridian as one of the largest landowners in Tysons Corner a year before the Silver Line began running and stopping at the Greensboro Metro station right out front. Meridian and its managing director, […]

D.C. Council, Tony Williams would like a word with you

Tony Williams enjoys what comes with no longer being D.C. mayor. He teaches, travels, jaywalks occasionally, avoids people who recognize him on the street and recently took up tennis. “I’ve got the legs for it,” he said this winter at a buffet-style cafe near his downtown office. “I don’t feel 65.” Williams’s preference for staying out […]

D.C. Council member proposes spending cap for Wizards facility

D.C. is close to agreeing to put up $50 million in taxpayer funds for a 5,000-seat arena and Washington Wizards practice facility, but one District official wants to make sure it doesn’t spend a penny more than that. Council member Elissa Silverman (I-At large) proposed Tuesday to bar District leaders from spending more than $50 million to build the facility. […]

The federal government tried to trade away some of its ugliest buildings in Washington. It didn’t work.

The federal government is abandoning a plan to trade away some of its most obsolete buildings along Independence Avenue south of the National Mall after officials said they were unable to come to an agreement with interested developers. More than three years ago the General Services Administration, which manages real estate for the federal government, began […]

A cap on liquor licenses brought peace to Georgetown. And now that’s a problem.

Sure, there are still good restaurants in Georgetown. Chef Frank Ruta’s Grill Room, at the Capella Hotel, wins high marks among reviewers. Café Milano and 1789 remain stalwarts. Fiola Mare on K Street was recently ranked the best in the region by Washingtonian Magazine. But for the most part the restaurant boom that has populated […]

Mayor releases details of arena plan, hops in excavator amid protests

Before finalizing the details on $55 million agreement to build a basketball and entertainment arena, D.C Mayor Muriel E. Bowser was behind the controls of an excavator Thursday destroying two vacant buildings to make way for the project. The next day Bowser submitted an agreement between the District, its quasi-independent sports agency and the owners of the […]

Ted Leonsis close to securing Arena Football League team to play at Verizon Center

Ted Leonsis is close to expanding his Washington sports empire by adding an Arena Football League team that would play at Verizon Center beginning in the spring of 2017, according to a top official at his ownership group. “We’re in serious negotiations and we’re excited about the opportunity,” said Randall Boe, executive vice president and […]

As surrounding area bustles, convention center looks to add retail again. Will it work?

When the District’s convention center opened in 2003, the storefronts along its perimeter were designed to connect the hulking building to the neighborhood around it, bringing new energy and business to Shaw and Mount Vernon Square. Instead it’s been the other way around. Managers of the convention center tried filling the storefronts initially, but their efforts didn’t pan out. A few mom-and-pop stores […]

Up next for Tysons? Another year of staggering growth

For those who doubted that building four Metro stations in Tysons would lead to a massive construction boom, a ride on the Silver Line — passing through a gauntlet of construction cranes — quickly settles the matter. As the Silver Line opened, people wondered: ‘Who would want to live in a high-rise in Tysons?’ Even with the Metro running […]

In Silver Spring, the long, difficult business of saving a mall

You don’t have to look far to find a developer that’s decided it’s time to give up on the mall business. Owners of  a string of local malls decided it’s time to go in another direction in recent years as big box stores and online shopping ate away at their base of shoppers. Landover Mall and White Flint Mall, […]

Hoyer: I’m not a fan of Hoover Building swap for FBI headquarters

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Thursday that he was encouraged by the Obama administration’s efforts to build a new FBI headquarters, but that he is exploring ways to pay for it other than by trading the J. Edgar Hoover Building to a developer. FBI officials led by Director James B. Comey Jr. are pressing for a new headquarters that […]

Howard Theatre owes big tax bill, comes under review by attorney general

Owners of the Howard Theatre owe the D.C. government more than $260,000 in unpaid taxes and have drawn the scrutiny of the D.C. attorney general over the redevelopment project that allowed the Shaw theater to reopen three years ago, officials said. A historic landmark at 620 T St. NW, the Howard is on District government […]

New plan for West Heating Plant in Georgetown: tear the building down and start anew

The investors who purchased the Georgetown’s West Heating Plant spent two years tangling with historic preservation advocates and officials over how much of the landmark’s original structure needed to be saved as part of their plan to turn it into Four Seasons condominiums. Then they went back to the drawing board and came back with a novel […]

Washington’s top real estate developer is painting murals in your neighborhood. Is it art or marketing? Or both?

It has long been an act of rebels, activists and, indeed, criminals to plaster the walls of a city with a can of spray paint. And it remains the pursuit of outsiders who do their work out of sight or in the dead of night. Even for those who made a name for themselves in street […]

Home of Rose’s Luxury sells for $4.1 million in all-time historic flip

Many real estate investors, amateur and professional alike, have tried their hand at buying up old D.C. row houses or storefronts in order to fix them up and make a tidy profit in the process. Few have done it as well as it was done at 717 8th St. SE, a two-story brick commercial building on […]

D.C. to pay cost overruns for Wizards facility

District officials defended Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s plan to spend $50 million on a sports and entertainment venue for the Washington Wizards before the D.C. Council Tuesday, saying they had agreed to pay any construction cost overruns that could arise and were still negotiating key agreements despite early missed deadlines. In September, Bowser announced the framework for a […]

Dept. of Homeland Security headquarters may actually get built

A federal spending deal reached Tuesday night by congressional leaders includes $556.7 million for the consolidation of the Department of Homeland Security in Southeast D.C., indicating that President Obama and Congress may finally have a shared vision for the headquarters campus. The campus is less than half built and years behind the original schedule. In recent years […]

What $30 million gets you in Georgetown: An abandoned heating plant and the permitting headache of a lifetime

Just south of the boutiques lining M Street in Georgetown sits one of the last untouched vestiges of the neighborhood’s industrial past, the West Heating Plant. When the plant opened in 1948, clad in yellow-brown brick, it burned enough coal to pump a million pounds of steam an hour to federal buildings downtown. But left vacant for […]

At McAuliffe’s urging, Inova and George Mason to team on personalized medicine

Northern Virginia’s largest hospital system and one of its signature universities announced a strategic partnership Tuesday involving personalized medicine, considered one of the commonwealth’s most promising areas of medical research and economic growth. The agreement — buoyed by $16 million in state funds — promises to pair researchers and doctors from Inova and George Mason University at shared facilities in […]

In Maryland, a how-to guide for saving an office park

With vacant office space beginning to drain local tax coffers, officials in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs have trained their sights on their distressed office parks with an eye on reinventing them. Among the more radical ideas are turning obsolete buildings into schools or warehouses. But with the help of a panel of private sector […]

D.C. mayor to Trumps: Leave José Andrés alone

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said it’s been a pleasure working with Ivanka Trump as she and her father, Republican presidential contender Donald Trump, redevelop the Old Post Office Pavilion into a $200 million luxury hotel, due to open later this year. But Bowser said Tuesday that she did not take kindly to the […]

Source: Redskins advance plans to relocate, hire Google’s architect for new stadium

The Washington Redskins have hired Danish architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group to design a new stadium for the team, according to an official familiar with the decision, a first formal step signifying the team’s intention to depart FedEx Field in Landover and build a new stadium elsewhere in the region. Bjarke Ingels Group is one of the […]

Dan Snyder and D.C.’s mayor: He won’t return phone calls. She won’t say Redskins.

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser has made fast friends of Washington’s sports elite in her first year in office. She was an early backer of the region’s Olympic bid. She committed $150 million plus tax breaks for a new stadium for the D.C. United soccer team, and she offered $50 million and a plot of a […]

Final search begins for new FBI headquarters

The FBI took a major step toward getting a new headquarters Friday when the government launched a formal search for a company to build its new campus at one of three sites in Greenbelt, Landover or Springfield in exchange for the J. Edgar Hoover Building and as much as $1.8 billion in cash. To advance […]

Without Walmart, the long wait for more groceries continues in east D.C.

When Walmart announced Jan 15. that it would break two leases for planned stores in D.C., it torpedoed two long-promised development projects in communities east of the Anacostia River and meant the wait for fresh food on East Capitol Street would likely continue into its third decade. Days after the retailer’s announcement, officials said Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D)– […]

In search of new attractions, Tysons lands Cirque du Soleil

Those who continue to view Tysons Corner as little more than a collection of vapid office parks and suburban shopping malls will have to swallow their pride if they want to see Cirque du Soleil this summer. Cirque was a top attraction at National Harbor in Prince George’s County until construction of the new MGM casino and hotel began on the […]

Under deal with state and county, tech firm 2U plans to add 950 jobs in Prince George’s

The educational technology firm 2U — one of the fastest-growing public firms in the Washington area — plans to open a new headquarters in Prince George’s County, where the firm plans to double its workforce over the next three years. Founded as 2tor Inc., 2U partners with universities and colleges such as Georgetown, Yale and New […]