Moving Forward in Shaw: A Year in Review by ANC Commissioner Alexander M. Padro [Via Capital Community News].
Back in 2008, it looked like all the major projects proposed in central Shaw were preparing to get underway. Then came the world financial crisis, and the wheels of progress came to an immediate screeching halt. It`s taken two years, but the wheels started turning again for most of the big developments in 2010. Groundbreakings were busting out all over, with Councilmembers and mayoral and council chair candidates everywhere, beginning with the June 14th event that launched 1501 9th Street, NW, the future home of a DC location for Silver Spring`s Mandalay Café. The project, with SBA financing in place, has been held up by DCRA permitting delays, but is moving forward. Next came the Sept 1 CityMarket at O groundbreaking, with more elected and appointed officials, local and federal, than you could count, in a tent that seated 300 at 7th and P Streets, NW. Work on the historic market building will begin as soon as permits are obtained, with the demolition of the Giant Food store coming in early summer 2011. The next day, the Howard Theatre renovation broke ground with a music filled celebration that closed the 600 block of T Street, NW. Work inside the theater began the following week. And on November 10, the long awaited Marriott Marquis Convention Center Hotel finally broke ground, after what some speakers called a 19-year wait. While it will be 18 months before steel rises from the 100 foot hole that will be dug at the Ninth Street and Massachusetts Avenue, NW site, at least the permits were in place and the hole began to be dug days after the ceremony. And work quietly began on Progression Place, the mixed use development at 7th and S Streets, NW, formerly known as Broadcast Center One, in November. So the dirt will be flying all over Shaw in 2011, after the first shovels-full went airborne in 2010.
Bates Area Civic Association 