Big GDS news

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looks like my fellow cranky Tenleytown neighbors are yet again crowing over thwarting development. But the Volvo lot won't remain a used car dealership forever. Just like every other neighborhood"victory" there, low density development will eventually go in, and it inevitably will be yet another fast food joint. Did you know that, other than the food court at Union Station, Tenleytowm has the highest concentration of chain takeaway food in the District? Nice going, neighbors. I assume that GDS will eventually sell its Wisconsin Avenue sir to a developer who will have zero interest in the neighborhood and then exercise their right to build on the Safeway site. The idiot neighborhood association has been screwing our neighborhood for years, as they long for some fifties-style bygone neighborhood where outsiders didn't go west of Rock Creek.

Largely because of Wilson demand?

[Anonymous]

This thread has always made me wonder why there is so much hostility to GDS. Why the repeated Harvard and Team of Aces comments? It's just a school trying to make a smart investment decision. Maybe what they were proposing was good for all interested parties. Maybe not. But why not just debate it based on the specifics of the proposal? The venom isn't necessary. Or healthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks like my fellow cranky Tenleytown neighbors are yet again crowing over thwarting development. But the Volvo lot won't remain a used car dealership forever. Just like every other neighborhood"victory" there, low density development will eventually go in, and it inevitably will be yet another fast food joint. Did you know that, other than the food court at Union Station, Tenleytowm has the highest concentration of chain takeaway food in the District? Nice going, neighbors. I assume that GDS will eventually sell its Wisconsin Avenue sir to a developer who will have zero interest in the neighborhood and then exercise their right to build on the Safeway site. The idiot neighborhood association has been screwing our neighborhood for years, as they long for some fifties-style bygone neighborhood where outsiders didn't go west of Rock Creek.

Largely because of Wilson demand?

And AU and Deal and GDS. Basically, Tenleytown hosts lots of kids for school, sports, music lessons, etc. Cheap and fast food is a pretty logical/lucrative use for storefronts in the area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread has always made me wonder why there is so much hostility to GDS. Why the repeated Harvard and Team of Aces comments? It's just a school trying to make a smart investment decision. Maybe what they were proposing was good for all interested parties. Maybe not. But why not just debate it based on the specifics of the proposal? The venom isn't necessary. Or healthy.

The guy who writes that stuff over and over is such a douche he wears Summer's Eve for cologne. I hope to God my kids don't go to school with his.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Aces advised GDS but never committed to the project. Meanwhile JBG's governance structure and portfolio has changed dramatically, the development pipeline for multifamily in upper NW is threatening to glut the market before GDS gets zoning approval, and Sidwell will not only consolidate before GDS but will do so on a much larger campus than GDS's and with room for growth.

So every assumption GDS made has proven wrong -- no partner, no scarcity of new multifamily units, and no comparative advantage over Sidwell.

Glut? I think you know not the meaning of the word. There is huge demand for multifamily housing in upper NW. The 5333 CT Ave is mostly leased, well ahead of schedule, and every other residential building is fully rented or sold, except for a couple of the flip condos near Nebraska and Conn. Aves.

You could line Wisconsin Avenue with 10 story buildings from Glover Park to Western Ave and they would all rent out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Aces advised GDS but never committed to the project. Meanwhile JBG's governance structure and portfolio has changed dramatically, the development pipeline for multifamily in upper NW is threatening to glut the market before GDS gets zoning approval, and Sidwell will not only consolidate before GDS but will do so on a much larger campus than GDS's and with room for growth.

So every assumption GDS made has proven wrong -- no partner, no scarcity of new multifamily units, and no comparative advantage over Sidwell.

Glut? I think you know not the meaning of the word. There is huge demand for multifamily housing in upper NW. The 5333 CT Ave is mostly leased, well ahead of schedule, and every other residential building is fully rented or sold, except for a couple of the flip condos near Nebraska and Conn. Aves.

You could line Wisconsin Avenue with 10 story buildings from Glover Park to Western Ave and they would all rent out.

Or we can continue to line the street with single story Chik Fil A's and then blame Wilson kids for how crappy our neighborhood looks with our lineup of franchises.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Aces advised GDS but never committed to the project. Meanwhile JBG's governance structure and portfolio has changed dramatically, the development pipeline for multifamily in upper NW is threatening to glut the market before GDS gets zoning approval, and Sidwell will not only consolidate before GDS but will do so on a much larger campus than GDS's and with room for growth.

So every assumption GDS made has proven wrong -- no partner, no scarcity of new multifamily units, and no comparative advantage over Sidwell.

Glut? I think you know not the meaning of the word. There is huge demand for multifamily housing in upper NW. The 5333 CT Ave is mostly leased, well ahead of schedule, and every other residential building is fully rented or sold, except for a couple of the flip condos near Nebraska and Conn. Aves.

You could line Wisconsin Avenue with 10 story buildings from Glover Park to Western Ave and they would all rent out.

And the kids in many of those 10 story apartments would all crowd into Janney. But so what, as long as GDS, the Aces and their developer cronies get to pocket the profits...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Aces advised GDS but never committed to the project. Meanwhile JBG's governance structure and portfolio has changed dramatically, the development pipeline for multifamily in upper NW is threatening to glut the market before GDS gets zoning approval, and Sidwell will not only consolidate before GDS but will do so on a much larger campus than GDS's and with room for growth.

So every assumption GDS made has proven wrong -- no partner, no scarcity of new multifamily units, and no comparative advantage over Sidwell.

Glut? I think you know not the meaning of the word. There is huge demand for multifamily housing in upper NW. The 5333 CT Ave is mostly leased, well ahead of schedule, and every other residential building is fully rented or sold, except for a couple of the flip condos near Nebraska and Conn. Aves.

You could line Wisconsin Avenue with 10 story buildings from Glover Park to Western Ave and they would all rent out.

Today's young professionals want to be near U St. They don't consider Tenleytown and Conn Ave. exactly cool. The Eighties and Nineties are over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

And the kids in many of those 10 story apartments would all crowd into Janney. But so what, as long as GDS, the Aces and their developer cronies get to pocket the profits...

Umm. Yeah. Kids living on apartments get to go to "your" neighborhood public school.

Is that what this is all about, now that the neighborhood has taken back Janney and mostly rid itself of out of bound kids, let's make sure they don't get back in by buying or renting an apartment three blocks from the school? I've been reading this ridiculous NIMBY chain for months now and finally realized what it's about. Should have figured, given the neighborhood's sorry history on race.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

And the kids in many of those 10 story apartments would all crowd into Janney. But so what, as long as GDS, the Aces and their developer cronies get to pocket the profits...

Umm. Yeah. Kids living on apartments get to go to "your" neighborhood public school.

Is that what this is all about, now that the neighborhood has taken back Janney and mostly rid itself of out of bound kids, let's make sure they don't get back in by buying or renting an apartment three blocks from the school? I've been reading this ridiculous NIMBY chain for months now and finally realized what it's about. Should have figured, given the neighborhood's sorry history on race.

Yes. The Tenleytown "citizens associations" lobbied for DC's governors to use eminent domain to bulldoze the African-American Fort Reno neigbhorhood and build the then-white-only Wilson high school and Deal junior high, as well as the park. At the same time, all of the lovely new developments were selling houses replete with restrictive covenants. The result was a saran wrapped white suburb within a city. But the city keeps encroaching and the neighbors keep pushing back. The latest threat is apartment kids going to Janney--and so soon after the school flipped back to being overwhelmingly in-bounds.

I'm willing to bet there wouldn't be nearly the same pushback if the new Wisconsin Avenue development was offices---or residences only for high-income or elderly people, who won't change the neighborhood school makeup.

[Anonymous]

And of course the primary opponent to the new development at Martens were the residents at Tenley Hill, the 10 story building across the street, who didn't want their view blocked.

Irony?

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/article/13027041/wisconsin-badgers

And to add, the owner-occupied PN Hoffman building was ok, but a rental building of the same size is not.

You people are deplorable.

[Anonymous]

Don't know enough to say who is most deeply concerned about overdevelopment, but the concern is broad. Overdevelopment hurts the entire Janney/Deal/Wilson area and the traffic impacts almost as wide an area.

There is room for more development on Wisconsin Ave. right above the Tenley station with lots of single story property if the market supports development. I do hope, though, that the city can find a way to make developers pay for neighborhood improvements to support the additional density. Anyone know how the city deals with of right development which adds density?

[Anonymous]

Before calling people in the neighborhood deplorable, you should visit Janney and explain to Janney parents how it is not over-crowded. And perhaps you can compare density levels at Janney to GDS as well as the suburban neighborhood schools from which many GDS students travel to DC. There are practical issues here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't know enough to say who is most deeply concerned about overdevelopment, but the concern is broad. Overdevelopment hurts the entire Janney/Deal/Wilson area and the traffic impacts almost as wide an area.

There is room for more development on Wisconsin Ave. right above the Tenley station with lots of single story property if the market supports development. I do hope, though, that the city can find a way to make developers pay for neighborhood improvements to support the additional density. Anyone know how the city deals with of right development which adds density?

The people who would live in these buildings would probably not be car owners, so the traffic concerns are unwarranted, particularly for a street that is already begrimed with traffic. Suburban traffic, which will only get worse because we are pushing people to live further out with cars rather than closer in without cars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Before calling people in the neighborhood deplorable, you should visit Janney and explain to Janney parents how it is not over-crowded. And perhaps you can compare density levels at Janney to GDS as well as the suburban neighborhood schools from which many GDS students travel to DC. There are practical issues here.

Maybe the boundaries need to be redrawn to alleviate the current overcrowding, but wait, you already fought that to maintain the status quo.