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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard Square?! We were promised the Spanish Steps!

"The Spanish Steps at GDS Harvard Square" perhaps?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sad. What ever happened to JBG and the Roster of Aces? With Trump coming to town, by comparison they will just look like little boys playing with toys.

Trump's real estate empire and prowess are massively over-stated. He isn't even in the top 10 of property owners or developers in his home market of NYC. His empire is based upon a licensing and branding strategy.

It seems that massively over-stating real estate experience and prowess is not confined to Mr. Trump alone.

Anonymous wrote:Sad. What ever happened to JBG and the Roster of Aces? With Trump coming to town, by comparison they will just look like little boys playing with toys.

Trump's real estate empire and prowess are massively over-stated. He isn't even in the top 10 of property owners or developers in his home market of NYC. His empire is based upon a licensing and branding strategy.

Anonymous wrote:Harvard Square?! We were promised the Spanish Steps!

Harvard Square?! We were promised the Spanish Steps!

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.

You mean that "Harvard Square" probably won't be built?

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.

Anonymous wrote:GDS got had by influential parent/real estate moguls who sold the school a bill of goods. It's time for that team of aces to fix the problem. Getting a little embarasing.

Perhaps true. Reportedly for the proposed Wisconsin PUD development to "borrow" unused density from the GDS campus, including the former Safeway site, the campus and the PUD parcels needed to be under common ownership -- i.e., through GDS. For these purposes, the school is like a stalking horse for the real developers, to facilitate this "borrowing" under zoning law. Presumably, if and when GDS got the PUD approvals, it would transfer the PUD to the Aces who are currently waiting behind the curtain.

Anonymous wrote:GDS got had by influential parent/real estate moguls who sold the school a bill of goods. It's time for that team of aces to fix the problem. Getting a little embarasing.

The school needs to concentrate on being a school, not dabbling in big-time commercial real estate development.

GDS got had by influential parent/real estate moguls who sold the school a bill of goods. It's time for that team of aces to fix the problem. Getting a little embarasing.

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it's for the best and GDS will realize it needs the land it owns for school facilities.

+1

Maybe it's for the best and GDS will realize it needs the land it owns for school facilities.

Sad. What ever happened to JBG and the Roster of Aces? With Trump coming to town, by comparison they will just look like little boys playing with toys.

According to the Wash Post, Sidwell Friends also is buying the Fannie building next to the school to enlarge its campus even further beyond the purchase of the Washington Home. Meanwhile, the GDS campus consolidation waits for a stalled PUD that may never happen. Frustrating.