Monday, August 15, 2005

Development And Recapitulation

Ah, the sweet music of money.

The WaPo looks at the neighborhood surrounding the ballpark and how, already, things are looking up.

One guy bought his lot for $164K in 1978, and has received two offers for around $8 million. Another bought a small building last year for $250K and has an offer for $1.5 million.

What about this guy's return on investment?
Marty Chernoff, a longtime landowner based in Denver, recently sold about two acres near First and I streets SE -- an area roughly the size of two football fields -- for more than $40 million. He owned some of that property with a partner, Leonard Greenberg, chief executive of Bethesda-based Greenhill Capital Corp.

Chernoff said he paid about $1.55 million for the land, which he began acquiring in 1987 when most investors saw only blight in Southeast, and kept buying after the real estate crash of the late 1980s.

Nice work if you can get it.

But what are the plans once they sell?

One developer "is spending $110 million to put up the two 14-story buildings, a 344-unit luxury cooperative and hotel on a lot that once housed small, abandoned rowhouses and a warehouse that formerly stored tobacco."

The article details many other projects planned for the location; It's an area that's about to see an amazing transformation.

But the question will remain: is the cost of the new stadium worth it? If you're that guy that just made nearly $40 million, the answer is indubitably YES!


The Post has a chat with the author of the article and Jacqueline Dupree, who has a blog that extensively covers the neighborhood.

The chat had some really good information in it, and is worth a quick skim if that's your cup o' tea.

The other nifty toy, is their Flash presentation on the parcels of land surrounding the stadium. They show who owns what, and what types of businesses are there, and what the future may hold for each. It's excellent.

That presentation is an excellent example of how to use Flash. Too frequently, it's done as a gimmick. This one actually imparts useful information in a logical way.

7 Comments:

  • We'll be seeing things like this for 5 years. "Micro" examples of hwo things are getting better in the ballpark region. Despite my strong feelings against the stadium deal, I've come to accept this. It's just too hard to get a grasp on the "macro" of how the subsidizing of the ballpark effects the city, especially in such a short time frame, to expect writings about the "other side". The near-immediate improvement the area will see just makes a much easier to understand story.

    Ahh, I'm just bitching. Ignore me. I need to do this everyonce in a while about local governements and stadium deals.

    By Blogger Harper, at 8/15/2005 4:35 PM  

  • Oh, I certainly agree. I wasn't trying to make a grand statement by posting this, just pointing out some interesting developments.

    The nature of the three jurisdictions here, I think, will make this a unique case, which will probably result in a benefit.

    Of course that really depends on how many billions the city spends in the first place.

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 8/15/2005 8:43 PM  

  • Jacqueline Dupree

    (...and not Jackie, either. She gets miffed if you call her Jackie. She's a former coworker of mine. :D)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/15/2005 11:34 PM  

  • How did I screw that one up? Man!

    My eyes skipped over something too quickly. It's fixed now; thanks.

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 8/16/2005 8:23 AM  

  • But Washington D.C. isn't really a unique case. Who out there today is complaining about the fact that Camden Yards was built with taxpayer money? Nobody that I know, that's for sure.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/16/2005 11:49 AM  

  • Camden Yards is certainly a unique cost, though.

    Do you know how much that cost?

    $93 million dollars.

    They'll spend that much on cup holders in this stadium.

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 8/16/2005 11:50 AM  

  • great link, chris.

    i was sorry that there were no pitcures of the smashed up dc pd patrol cars that used to be parked under south capitol!

    a lot of the shots seem to be taken from inside a car: nice comment on the neighbourhood.

    By Blogger pete, at 8/17/2005 5:40 AM  

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