DDOT Plans New Capitol Riverfront Headquarters On WC Smith Site
WC Smith appears to have finally landed a tenant for its long-planned Capitol Riverfront office building at 250 M St. SE.
The District Department of Transportation is presenting the community with plans to move its headquarters from 55 M St. SE to WC Smith's site, ANC 6D Commissioner Meredith Fascett said in a Facebook post.
The developer received approval for the project, sitting two blocks east of the Navy Yard-Ballpark Metro station, in 2008 and has received a series of extensions from the Zoning Commission. The plans call for a 216K SF office building with 12K SF of retail.
DDOT moved into its 150K SF office at the Hines-owned 55 M St. SE in 2011. The move would leave over half of the 254K SF office building vacant.
In Fascett's post, first reported by JDLand, she said DDOT is looking to move into the building in 2021. She said the District has requested a series of changes to the project, for which WC Smith plans to seek Zoning Commission approval. WC Smith declined to comment on the deal.
The proposed changes would reduce the building's height from 130 feet to 108 feet. The building was designed to have floor plates of around 22K SF, so cutting off two stories would reduce the office square footage to about 172K SF. Fascett said DDOT would be the sole office tenant in the building.
The agency also aims to reduce the parking garage from four underground levels to three, reduce the number of loading berths from three to two and reduce the amount of ground-floor retail space. The agency plans to use the ground-floor space as a multipurpose conference room and a transit store.
