Home to guerrilla art exhibits as well as the city's most famous art guerrilla, the Bobby Fisher Memorial Building at 1644 North Capitol Street NW is coming to a close, after tenants and landlord failed to renegotiate a lease. The dozen-member collective known as the Borf Brigade that runs the DIY community arts center, as well as their regent, John Tsombikos (aka Borf), have been unable to negotiate a lease renewal with Joe Scheve, the......

Image of the Old Convention Center site redevelopment schematic model courtesy Hines|Archstone The Washington Post is reporting on Mayor Adrian Fenty's announcement today that the city has scrapped any plans to build a new main library at the old convention center site, and instead has reached an agreement with a developer to construct a four-star, 400-room hotel. The agreement dooms forever former Mayor Anthony Williams' proposal to close the current Martin Luther King Jr.......

If you spend any time on Bloomingdale or Eckington blogs or email lists, there could be no question in your mind that residents of the up and coming neighborhood(s) (Bloomingdale was just treated to a profile in the Washington Post) want more retail and services. They want a full service, sit-down restaurant, by all means. But now that plans for an enormous new dining and nightlife complex in the long-fallow Old Engine Co. 12, a......

The Politico has a story this morning on D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton's ties to real estate developers. A long list of powerful developers have recently made contributions to her re-election campaign, many of whom have projects underway that have benefited from Norton's political support. The list of Norton’s donors reads like a “Who’s Who” of well-connected real estate developers: the Ratner family, which controls Forest City; Victor MacFarlane, a San Francisco developer who owns......

The Washington Post has an interesting report about a new way for house buyers to scope out the market. Local real estate agencies are organizing "Foreclosure Tours," using a big, comfy bus to cart around prospective buyers, along with agents and even a house inspector. The idea seems a little grim, but foreclosure rates are soaring (they hit a record high nationwide at the end of 2007) and for buyers with the means, it seems......

The developers of the new DC USA shopping center in Columbia Heights are still looking for more high end retail, according to a Washington Business Journal article. DC USA, located at 14th and Irving NW, still has about 80,000 square feet of space to fill, which developers hope to fill partially with fancier fare than the Target, Marshalls and Best Buy already planned for the space. Regular readers may recall that Columbia Heights residents complained......

Rorschach Theatre company is in exile. The scrappy theater troupe has been hunting for months for a temporary home to finish out its 2008 season, after being bumped from its former spot at the Sanctuary Theater in Columbia Heights, a converted church space. Today, it announced that it's found one - in Georgetown's three-year-old Davis Performing Arts Center. The new digs sound pretty swanky - according to a press release, the company will be able......

Big story this morning on the longstanding controversy over whether the District wants to help build a new soccer stadium for DC United. The on-again, off-again Poplar Point location for a new stadium appears to be on again in the minds of the Fenty administration. The Mayor is set to announce that he has selected Bethesda-based Clark Realty Capital as the developer of Poplar Point, and the Post reports that Fenty suddenly has in mind......

Mayor Adrian Fenty announced the signing of a deal yesterday that will bring Radio One, the largest African American radio broadcaster, back to D.C. ten years after it moved to Lanham, Maryland. The city has agreed to put up $22 million in grants and incentives to build the new Radio One headquarters, to be called Broadcast Center One, above the Shaw-Howard University Metro stop at 7th and S Street NW. The total cost of the......

The Examiner ran a story on Monday about Bloomingdale's recent round of talks with the city regarding opening a new store in downtown D.C. Along with the recently approved development at the Old Convention Center site, sources in the Fenty administration told Michael Neibauer that the talks have included the controversial Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library at 9th and G Streets NW as a "possible option" for the store. The library, as you'll recall,......

Good morning, Washington. Think good thoughts for Tian Tian, the National Zoo's male giant panda and the biological father of Tai Shan/Butterstick. Tian Tian underwent eye surgery yesterday to remove inflamed tissue from one of his third eyelids. He's expected to make a full recovery, but in the meantime he'll have to live with the shame of being the one to expose this whole pandas having third eyelids monstrosity. DCist has always held a......

Happy Thanksgiving, Washington. The streets are quiet this morning in the capital; one cab driver remarked to this writer that it was his favorite day to drive in the city -- no traffic, no tourists, and everyone he picks up tends to be cheery and a big tipper. The forecast in D.C. today is calling for an unseasonably warm high of 72 degrees, with a solid chance of afternoon showers and gastrointestinal distress. What's the......

The overwhelming consensus so far at today's D.C. Council hearing on the recent theft of what looks to be $30 million-plus from the District's tax coffers? The scandal has damaged the reputation of the city government, and the council members are pissed. While most statements have clung to the nasty tidbits of information we already know (the enormity of the crime, that an auditor's warnings may have been ignored) and palliative cliches, council members provided......

Via bloomingdale (for now), it looks like Harris Teeter has committed to open a location in a new development project called Constitution Square at 1st and M Streets NE, right next to the New York Ave. Metro station. The news was first posted on the ANC 6C05 blog maintained by commissioner Alan Kimber. Kimber reported that Harris Teeter had originally been interested in an approx. 40,000 sq. ft. space at 3rd & H Streets NE......

Through a pre-coffee haze this morning, we were a little confused by an AP story up on WTOP about how the Smithsonian is looking for someone to move in and take over its Arts and Industries Building. Why did it seem so ... familiar? Oh right. Because the Washington Post wrote the same story back in May. So why did the AP pick up on it today? Because the The Smithsonian Institution issued yet......

The Post's David Nakamura says some Maryland officials would like to lure D.C. United across the border. Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot, noting the derailed talks between D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and D.C. United owner Victor MacFarlane, wrote a letter to the Maryland Stadium Authority asking them to look at snagging United for themselves."In the wake of these developments, I would strongly urge the Maryland Stadium Authority to meet with representatives from the United to learn......

D.C. Council members Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) and Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7) announced the creation of the Poplar Point Coalition over the weekend, just days before the RFEI's are due from developers for interest in the 130 acre site known as Poplar Point. The announcement comes as tension has been building between the DC United owner, Victor MacFarlane, Ward 8 Council member Marion Barry, and Mayor Fenty. Several months ago a disagreement over total figures......

Once again Penn Quarter Living is on the ball with a newsworthy neighborhood post. They link to a Downtown Neighborhood Association announcement that Douglas Development has been negotiating with Whole Foods Market to lease them store space on 7th Street between E and D Streets NW. This is the same space that Balducci's was briefly considering before deciding against the move last year. Balducci's retreat from the location was met with a lot of desperate......

Thanks to a tipster for forwarding us an invite to a seemingly bizarre press conference to be held this Friday by Jeffrey S. Abramson, part of the Abramson clan who runs The Tower Companies, a relatively major local developer that was responsible for such projects as Washington Square at Farragut North and the Millennium Building at 19th and K. Abramson, it seems, would like to build a new monument. A monument to "Invincibility." From the......

We've known for the last year that famous Georgetown eatery Nathan's wasn't long for its current location. Owner Carol Joynt has been pretty open about her plans to relocate by April 2009, when her lease runs out. Since then, speculation as to what kind of business will nab the prime spot on what's seen as the toney neighborhood's most important intersection has been a popular topic. This morning, an alert tipster pointed us to this......

Amid growing, vocal frustration over dilapidated, abandoned buildings on the part of residents in neighborhoods like Shaw and Petworth, a D.C. Council committee approved a measure to double the tax rate on abandoned properties. As the Examiner notes, the move could generate millions in additional revenue while at the same time serve as an incentive for land owners to either renovate and develop their properties or sell to someone who will. The measure, introduced as......

Written by DCist contributor Jesse Kaye T-21 days. The countdown is on for what may determine the fate of a large part of Southeast D.C. October 19 is the date set by the Deputy Mayor for Planning & Economic Development when all RFEI's, or requests for expressions of interest, are due -- and the date by which we ought to finally have an idea of what will happen to Poplar Point. A year ago, the......

Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. It was good that the lunch keynote didn’t last any longer; I was ready to hand Jim Abdo a check. Those of us on the academic side of the development industry aren’t used to such raw displays of enthusiasm. After following Abdo through his slide presentation on the history of his business and the mammoth project he’s begun on New York Avenue......

Welcome back to work, Washington. We don't know about you, but we spent an awfully long time in the sun this weekend consuming too much food at various street festivals, so forgive us if we're still groggily pondering Saturday's news in WaPo that the fare change about to be proposed by Metro General Manager John Catoe is an "average increase" of 45 cents. That kind of increase would theoretically raise the base fare of a......

Tom Knott: Once again, Tom Knott has managed to take what seems to be an isolated incident and turn it into evidence that liberalism of any sort is just evil. This week, Knott recounts the badly-handled trial of a Liberian immigrant accused of raping a seven-year-old girl in Montgomery County. Due to some bad decision by the trial judge, the charges were eventually dropped, though the county has stated that it will appeal. Regardless, it's......

>> Someone wrapped Karl Rove's car in plastic outside the White House. [NBC4FOX] >> Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.) finally released a statement today about his Aug. 19 arrest at Dulles following a physical altercation he allegedly had with a United Airlines employee, saying that he regrets the episode and hopes to move beyond it. [The Sleuth] >> Icelandic girl band Amiina have canceled their US tour and will not be playing their Sept. 4th......

Months after a fire gutted the interior of Eastern Market's South Hall and almost destroyed the District landmark, vendors will be back in business tomorrow in a temporary structure built across the street. The structure, which looks like a big white tent, cost $1.5 million and will be used while $25 million in repairs are completed on the South Hall, a process that could take up to two years. We're happy to see things slowly......

This playful, irreverent melodrama, a splendid performance of the 2007 Capital Fringe Festival, is a presentation of Solas Nua, the nonprofit dedicated to presenting the contemporary works of Irish artists to better acquaint the District with modern culture of the Emerald Isle. Tom Murphy, the play’s celebrated playwright, has created this modern adaptation to reflect Irish politics of the Land League and tenants rights. As you might imagine, The Drunkard is fraught with Irish stereotypes,......

But this photo, taken in Old Town on Friday night by zenisfrisbee just before the final Harry Potter book was released, is too funny not to post. I honestly honestly honestly have no idea if this is true, I'm still reading The Half-Blood Prince, and I'm choosing to believe this guy is just trying to rile people up. For now, PLEASE DO NOT POST SPOILERS in the comments. I will remove them. That said,......

>> D.C. is the fifth most overpriced real estate market in the country. [Examiner] >> Four teenage girls were arrested today after Frederick police said they found 33 pounds of marijuana in their car. [NBC4] >> A police chase led a fleeing driver in a white Cadillac to drive on the wrong side of I-295. [WTOP] >> The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the union representing 10,000 Amtrak workers, has reached a tentative agreement on......