The Top Stories of 2014
It wasn't just Miley Cyrus and Hilary Clinton dominating the headlines the first half of this year—at least the ones we read. Here's he top ones we recall:
JBG Goes Big in Rosslyn
Almost a decade in the works, the residential portion of Central Place adjacent to the Rosslyn Metro finally got started in February, thanks to a big equity investment from the State Teacher's Retirement System of Ohio. (Every time they sign a lease, a teacher in Ohio gets to retire a year earlier.) The 31-stories (to deliver by 2017) will include 377 apartments and 25k SF of retail. Here's JBG's Andy VanHorn, who runs point on the project, at our Bisnow Future of Rosslyn event in April. There's also an office portion due, and it's widely believed close to pre-lease with the Corporate Executive Board.
Here Comes The Wharf
Monty Hoffman's vision of a mile-long waterfront community in Southwest DC got started in March as a massive Madison-Hoffman project broke ground. Ten years in the making (have sympathy, you know how long it takes you to get started in the morning), the first phase delivers in three years. Monty says he expects 20 million visitors to check out the 3.2M SF each year after.
CoStar On the March
CoStar CEO Andy Florance is hunting for acquisitions, and he bagged a big one in March: apartment search company Apartments.com for a whopping $585M. DC born-and-bred CoStar saw its stock rise as high as $214/share following the purchase, though it's dipped since then (as of late Thursday, $159/share).
Muriel Bowser
Not a household name in DC until she won the Democratic in April, the City Council's economic development committee chair (shaping many of the city's real estate projects) took a big step toward becoming the District's next mayor, defeating incumbent Vince Gray. She faces a serious challenger in independent David Catania in November's general, though. We snapped her in Las Vegas in May (flanked by Savills Studley's Kim Roth and JBG Rosenfeld's Bethany Scanlon) for ICSC.
Marriott Marquis, At Last
On May 1, DC got 1,200 more hotel rooms when the long-talked-about convention center hotel opened its doors. The first public event held at the hotel, which includes 100k SF of meeting space, was Bisnow's very own Hotel Investment Summit, which we call BLIS. (We broke it in like a new baseball mitt.) Inside the hotel's huge atrium shortly before opening day, we snapped the signature "Birth of the American Flag" statue.
Post to Franklin Square
The Washington Post ended a bevy of speculation in May when it announced it would move to Hines' One Franklin Square at 13th and K in 2016. Owners throughout the District were chomping at the bit to nab the Jeff Bezos-owned tenant, as the paper opted for less flashy digs not far from its current location on 15th Street, which was sold to Carr Properties last year.
Hoskins to PG
After three-and-a-half years as Mayor Gray's top economic development official (and almost $7B in new real estate investment), Victor Hoskins resigned in late May to join the staff of Prince George's County executive Rushern Baker. He's expected to help lead the county's charge to get the FBI for a site in Greenbelt.
Silver Line: Open!
Okay, so this one hasn't actually happened yet. But at least we know when it will. WMATA recently announced that Silver Line service will begin on Saturday, July 26, as Metro riders will finally be able to reach destinations like Tysons Corner and Reston.
