Optimism, and some anxiety, over the booming capitol?s future under a new president Washington, D.C., is a city attuned to deadlines, facing moves, shakeups, and personnel shifts every two to four years. This is especially true between a November election and the inauguration of a new president the following January.
In the midst of such a holding pattern, the promotional billboard with a countdown clock on Maine Avenue may not be the first thing on anybody?s mind. But the ticker, marking the days until The Wharf, a $2.2 billion mixed-use mega-development on the city?s southwest waterfront, opens, also anticipates another significant change for the city.
?We view this as a paradigm shift,? says Monty Hoffman, the co-manager of Hoffman Madison Waterfront LLC, the real estate partnership behind the ambitious scheme. ?If you look at world-class cities, the images you normally see are the skyline next to the waterfront. We?re late to the game of commercializing the waterfront, but now all these connections are possible.? Whatever Americans think of when they picture our nation?s capitol, Hoffman believes that image is about to change.
And it?s not just because of his own massive project?225,000 square feet of office space, 870 residences, 175,000 square feet of restaurant and commercial space, three hotels, and a 6,000-person concert hall?anchors the frenzy of activity in a quadrant of the city suspended by a failed urban renewal scheme.
With other mixed-use development...