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Robert Devaney • April 11, 2016

Broken-down government property at around $15 million needing even more millions to fix up or an established superplex on the Potomac for millions in three digits?

As the price on the West Heating Plant, now actively getting bids on the auction website of the General Services Administration, keeps going up, ponder the potential price for Washington Harbour, less than a block away from the 29th Street property, set to go on sale.

MRP Realty and investment partner, Rockpoint Group LLC, will put the Georgetown retail, office and residential landmark on K Street and the Potomac River up for sale in March or April, as first reported by Washington Business Journal.

“The Potomac River property could fetch well in excess of $250 million,” according to the Business Journal. “MRP and Rockpoint teamed up in June 2010 to buy the two-building center for $244.5 million, or about $459 per square foot. One real estate expert familiar with the property estimated it could go for as much as $400 million.”

“When we purchased the asset three years ago we saw some phenomenal opportunity at the Harbour. It is an irreplaceable landmark asset,” Bob Murphy, managing principal of MRP Realty, told the Journal. “We really love the project. We really have put our heart and soul into it, and we’re excited when we see value created.”

Along with $50 million in renovation and getting past the April 2011 flood, Washington Harbour premiered the ice skating rink at its center fountain last November. The ice rink and renovated restaurants made the riverside complex a year-round destination.

As for the West Heating Plant, the two-acre government property continues to get bids between two or three bidders. As of Feb. 25, the winning stood at a little more than $15.5 million, with another day of bidding extended yet again. Advised the GSA: “We are now with the soft-close period. Bidders are encouraged to check back frequently to the remaining auction time.” If no one bids on the plant for more than 24 hours, the GSA will then decide if the auction is to be concluded.

Gwendolyn Shearman •

The Glover Park property near Whole Foods Market will get a new look in 2013. The space, located at 2251 Wisconsin Avenue NW, was sold to real estate developers Jan. 15. The property, which now houses Glover Park Hardware and Washington Sports Club, overlooks the Naval Observatory and the vice president’s residence.

“The area has superior age/income demographics and the property generated a great deal of interest from developers,” said Gordon Nielsen, who represented the seller.

Brokered by Gordon Nielsen and Guy d’Amecourt of Summit Commercial Real Estate, LLC, the $20.1 million deal sold the property to a joint venture of Altus Realty Partners, Chesapeake Realty Partners and Ellisdale Construction.

The joint undertaking plans to resurface the exterior of the building to install a glass façade and to renovate the 30,000-square-foot retail space. In addition, plan call for a 65,000-square-foot, 81-unit residential rental property behind the existing building with two levels of underground parking that will hold approximately 97 spaces.

According to a press release from Summit, “The apartments will average 635 square feet with a mix of studios, one-bedroom, and two bedroom units looking to target young professionals.”

Brown Craig Turner architectural firm is providing the design concepts for the renovations and new construction, emphasizing that the project is “Targeting the Gen Y population.”

The joint venture is targeting a LEED Silver classification as well as improving the energy efficiency of the building by improving the current HVAC system in the existing building.

Glover Park Hardware and Washington Sports Club will remain open during the renovation, which is set to start in April of this year. The project will take about a year to complete, with residential spaces to be completed by July 2014.

Gary Tischler •

Forget Lance Armstrong. Forget that Notre Dame guy with the imaginary dead girlfriend. Forget the fact that nobody was nominated to the Baseball Hall of Fame this year and what all of that says about tainted glory.

Let’s talk about Earl Weaver. Let’s talk about Stan Musial. Both of them are already in the Baseball Hall of Fame, with no disclaimers, no errors, just grand slam lives and careers. Weaver and Musial, diminishing further a sports world dominated by obscene amounts of money, crazy, outrageous and sometimes criminal behavior and egos that can only be shaded and shared by confessions with Oprah.

When it comes to baseball, both Weaver, whose fame rests on his hugely successful run as a crafty, crusty Baltimore Oriole manager, and Musial, a major nice guy and star as a St. Louis Cardinal who counted among his peers players like Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, were old school, each in his own way.

EARL WEAVER

Weaver was a major figure in the ranks of managers as colorful characters—a la Casey Stengel—but was also a pragmatic, shrewd visionary who anticipated stat-driven strategies and team building. He was a very smart, hard-working, completely to a fault honest, a man who salivated in front of umpires and became a legend. Musial, for sheer consistency of excellence and effort, stood right up there with his more glamorous peers. Sometimes, he stood above them. Each man defined their baseball times to some extent, and surely their teams and the cities they represented.

Among the many photographs you saw printed of Weaver, after his passing Jan. 19 of a heart attack, included one where he was getting into an umpire’s face, mouth wide open in a scream, full of combative fury, about to kick up home plate, the umpire a moment from yelling, “You’re outta here.” Weaver did not suffer fools gladly, and that included especially umpires, but also his players and the media, which covered just about everybody in his professional world.

But he was always a very smart guy in terms of managing and strategy, and he was blessed with great players like Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson and great pitching topped by Jim Palmer. He once quipped that managing was easy—all you needed was a team where every guy was named Robinson. As a man and person, and manager, he understood himself very well, but he understood the game better. He was short of temper and short of stature—five foot seven—but long on game knowledge, charisma, loyalty and a few other things that make up the complexity of being human.

Weaver managed the Orioles from 1968 to 1982 and again for a year and a half in 1985 and 1986. He won 1,480 games and lost 1,060, for the ninth best percentage among managers ever. He won one World Series and lost three; two to the Pittsburgh Pirates and one to the New York Mets, an astonishing upset.

He believed in great pitching and the three-run homer and hated bunting, squeeze or otherwise, or playing for one run. “If you play for one run, that’s all you get,” he once said. He avoided friendship with his players which peeved Palmer but worked for Weaver. He did not avoid criticizing his players—he told one player, according to reports, who was in the midst of a big slump and heading for a chapel to “take your bat.”

For Weaver, who drank inordinate amounts of beer and smoked a lot, managing was work, but sometimes you suspect that heckling umpires was a joy for him. When one umpire offered to let him read his rule book after one loud dispute, he declined, saying “I can’t read Braille.” He was ejected from more than 100 games, which may be a record. But when he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, in his acceptance speech, he thanked “the umpires.”

According to the New York Times, when Pat Kelly, a player who led prayer meetings, was peeved that they didn’t get enough time for the meetings, he asked Weaver, “Don’t you want us to walk with the Lord?” Weaver replied “I’d rather have you walk with the bases loaded.”

In his final season—his only losing one—he said, “Just write on my tombstone: ‘The sorest loser who ever lived.’ ”

I’m not going to check that one. You never know.

STAN MUSIAL

Stan Musial, who died at the age of 92, didn’t cuss out umpires as far as anybody knows. If he did, it was quietly, where only the second baseman might have heard what he said. They called him “Stan the Man,” and he was described as a gentlemanly slugger, which seems a contradictory term, but there you are.

As a player, he had attitude: the same kind Ernie Banks, the perennially sunny and great Chicago Cubs player and Little Orphan Annie had: the sun will come out tomorrow, and that’s when we’ll play two.

He was born grit and true working class, the son of a Polish immigrant working in the steel town of Donora, Pa., a little ways away from Pittsburgh, the kind of town full of Eastern European mill workers from Serbia, Poland, the former Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Ohio and Pennsylvania were full of towns like that—one such was featured in “The Deerhunter.”

But Musial wasn’t rough and tumble: he became a legend for his performances and the way he hit a baseball better than most people. He was one of the good guys. He was an exuberant, warm, what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of guy. He did not have DiMaggio’s aloofness, Williams’s fixated bully competitiveness, May’s bustle-hustling spectacular style or Mantle’s self-destructiveness. Indeed, he was “The Man.”

Here’s why: from 1941 to the 1960s, he hit 475 home runs, got 3,630 hits, drove in 1,951 and had a career batting average of .331, playing on three World Series Championship teams and was named Most Valuable Player three times, playing the outfield and third base. His favorite song? “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” which he could play on his harmonica. He married his wife Lillian, who died last year at the age of 91, in 1940. He was in the restaurant business, hosting Stan and Biggie’s since 1949.

Musial was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2011. The president said Musial was “untarnished, a beloved pillar of the community, a gentleman you’d want your kids to emulate.”

Sara Gilgore •

The Jan. 22, 1973, United States Supreme Court ruling, which established that restricting a woman’s access to an abortion is unconstitutional and violates the 14th Amendment’s guaranteed right to privacy, is celebrating its 40th anniversary today.

Abortion, a heavily debated and consistently controversial human rights issue, will receive substantial attention this week, as opponents and proponents alike remember the decision.

Every January, Washington, D.C., is the destination for numerous gatherings, protests and celebrations, hosting people from across the country who assemble in the nation’s capital.

One of such demonstrations is the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, an annual anti-abortion event that culminates in a march to the Supreme Court, to be held this year on Friday, Jan. 25, beginning at noon.

According to March for Life, the rally “draws thousands of pro-life activists and supporters” to D.C. each year.

In addition to this rally and subsequent march, related events will occur throughout the weekend, information for which is available at marchforlife.org. Other organizations similarly convene in the District to express discontentment with the legalization of abortion, in conjunction with the ongoing movement to overturn Roe v. Wade.

However, the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade is likewise an opportunity for abortion advocates to commemorate this landmark decision.

NARAL Pro-Choice America and the National Organization for Women are some of the pro-choice groups holding events in downtown D.C.

While today marks four decades of abortion access for women, it also represents a human rights debate that has been intensifying since 1973. Various laws at state and national levels have since been passed, according to the Planned Parenthood website, altering the processes required to obtain abortions.

Efforts to change existing abortion laws persist.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., recently introduced the first pro-life legislation for the 113th Congress. The Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act would prevent the Department of Health and Human Services from “providing federal family planning assistance under Title X to abortion businesses until they certify they won’t provide and refer for abortions,” as stated on the congresswoman’s website. Such a bill, introduced before in the House of Representatives, would de-fund groups like Planned Parenthood.

This is but one example of action in response to the Roe v. Wade precedent.

Abortion remains provocative and multifaceted, stimulating passion from individuals on both sides of the issue, nationwide. The Roe v. Wade 40th anniversary certainly reflects this debate’s significance and serves as an occasion to recognize its complexity.

Robert Devaney •

Gant has opened in Georgetown, marking the brand’s continued retail expansion outside New York. The 2,000 square-foot store opened its doors at 3239 M St., NW, near clothiers J. Crew, Rag & Bone and AllSaints Spitalfields

“Georgetown, specifically M Street, has become a key shopping destination in recent years, especially for men,” said David Arbuthnot, chief executive officer of Gant USA. “Expanding into Georgetown was a natural step as Gant’s aesthetic is grounded in our authentic American East Coast heritage.”

The new location will sell a curated assortment from all collections including Gant, Gant Rugger and Gant by Michael Bastian. A grand opening party is set for Nov. 28

Washingtonians may be familiar with the space that Gant now calls home. Once a popular live jazz bar called Saloun, the building’s renovation maintained and upgraded key architectural elements of the original design, paying homage to the lounge that came before it. Upgraded mill work and granite detailing accentuate the newly refreshed facade, while a brushed steel Gant sign now illuminates the charcoal gray exterior. The entryway features a custom wood and glass door with antique brass hardware.

A mix of modern and classic fixtures are utilized throughout the space. Visitors will find a mid-century Cado wall system inside, created by Danish designer Paul Cadovius. One of the most personal touches of Gant’s new store design is what lies upon its walls. Exposed bricks were kept intact, featuring the signatures of former jazz enthusiasts and Saloun patrons who frequented the bar for more than 30 years. The Gant team salvaged the bricks in four visible sections of the space.

Gant’s Georgetown location joins the brand’s existing seven retail locations, including Gant Rugger neighborhood shops and a Fifth Avenue global flagship in New York City, a Gant Campus Store at Yale University. It also recently opened Los Angeles and Boston locations. Gant plans to open four to five additional North American stores in 2013 and is also looking at several spots in the U.S. and Canada. The Sweden-based brand — with $1.23 billion in global sales in 2011 — is owned by Switzerland-based Maus Frères SA.

Gant is a lifestyle brand, with an American sportswear heritage, offering modern high quality casual wear with a European touch. Gant’s values are based on the brand’s authentic history dating back to the company’s inception in New Haven, Conn., in 1949. The brand has since further developed, taking influence from Europe. For more information, visit Gant.com, or call its M Street store at 202-625-1949.

Nico Dodd •

What do you do in D.C. when the in-laws are in town? They’ve already seen the monuments and the major museums, and they aren’t interested in seeing any holiday movies yet. Check out our list of things to do in town to keep the fun turned up.

Thursday, 9 a.m.

Thanksgiving Day Trot for Hunger at Freedom Plaza

Before loosening your belt buckle and tucking the napkin under your chin, round-up the family members and donate some time to help those that are less fortunate. SOME (So Others May Eat) will be hosting its 10th Annual Thanksgiving Day Trot for Hunger. With over 6,000 trotters expected, metro area residents will gather together for the 5K walk/run that raises money for homeless women, men and children.

Register online at http://www.some.org/events_trot_main.html

Friday, 5:30 p.m.

Second Annual Thanksgiving Dinner and Performance For Military Families at Arena Stage

In gratitude for their service, Arena Stage is inviting wounded warriors, service men and women, and their families to a complimentary Thanksgiving dinner and performance of My Fair Lady. The event’s featured speakers include Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton; Executive Vice President of the United Service Organization (USO) John Pray; and keynote speaker Rear Admiral Jeffrey Lemmons, U.S. Navy and Director of the Inter-American Defense College at Ft. McNair.

Friday-Sunday

Mount Vernon by Candlelight

Join “Mrs. Washington” as she hosts an enchanting evening of candlelight tours for the whole family. Tours include dancing, merry music, and characters from the Washingtons’ world guiding visitors through the first and second floors of the home, adding ambiance and authenticity to a traditional Christmas evening event at Mount Vernon. Live music and festive decorations add cheer to the Ford Orientation Center and Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center.

Tickets: $22 for adults, $15 for youth (12 and under)

Friday-Sunday 2-5 p.m.

“All Sides Considered: New Research on the Maya Collection” at Dumbarton Oaks

Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown is displaying ancient Maya treasures in All Sides Considered. The artifacts illustrate the beauty and ingenuity of Maya art, remarkable production techniques, and the value placed on quality materials. Displays also shed light on the modern scientific inquiry that led to these findings. They are the result of extensive collaboration across disciplines and institutions among Maya archaeologists, art historians, epigraphers, geologists, biologists and others.

Admission: Free

Saturday, 8 p.m.

B.B. King at the Howard Theatre

For more than 60 years, Riley B. King – better known as B.B. King – has defined the blues for a worldwide audience. Since he started recording in the 1940s, he has received countless honors as a national treasure. After 10,000 concerts, B.B. King continues to bring his music to audiences around the globe spending the better part of each year on the road with his beloved guitar, “Lucille.”
Tickets: $150

Sunday, 12 p.m.

NSO Pops: Megan Hilty at Kennedy Center Concert Hall

Megan Hilty, known as triple-threat Ivy Lynn on NBC’s hit Smash, pays tribute to the music of Frank Sinatra, as well as the Rat Pack, Ella Fitzgerald, and Etta James, with Aaron Lazar in NSO Pops concerts led by Steven Reineke.

Tickets: $20-$85

Sunday, Nov. 25 4 p.m.

Pianist Anna Han at the Phillips Collection

16-year-old Anna Han, winner of the 2012 New York Piano International Piano Competition will be performing pieces by Bach, Haydn, Chopin, Rachmoninoff, and Liszt, and Prokofiev.

Tickets: $20, $8 with student ID

Sunday, 5-9 p.m.

ZooLights at the National Zoo

ZooLights at the National Zoo is the annual Holiday lights event at the National Zoo. Walk around a winter wonderland lit by more than 500,000 environmentally friendly LED lights in the shapes of your favorite exotic animals.

Emily Lindstrand •

Mayor Vincent Gray has lowered speeding ticket fees within the District of Columbia. Effective Nov. 5, those caught speeding on camera will encounter lower fines.

Eric Goulet, Gray’s budget director, noted that automated traffic enforcement generated a surplus of $27 million in fiscal 2012, and this was expected to reoccur in fiscal 2013. Now, lowered fines are expected to bring the extra revenue down to $3.5 million.

Violators caught at 10 miles-per-hour above the limit will be fined $50, rather than $75, and violators caught at 11 to 15 miles-per-hour above the limit will be fined $100 rather than $125.

However, this new regulation will hurt those who are caught exceeding the speed limit by 25 miles-per-hour. These violators will face and increased fine of $300 instead of $250.

These changes do not apply to tickets issued by officers who pull over violators. These fees, and the fine for running a red light, will remain the same.

The bill was introduced by D.C. council members Mary Cheh, Tommy Wells and Marion Barry. Wells argued that fines did not need to be as high as they previously were to have a deterrent effect on speeding.

Gray was able to enforce this bill immediately, working through a regulatory fix rather than the District Council’s lengthier process to amend traffic-camera fines.

Gray noted that he is not seeking a rift with lawmakers. “I’ve said many times that we would have our own plan, so we’re pursuing that,” he said, “If there are other issues on the table, we’d be happy to work with the council.”

Nico Dodd •

Ralph Lauren has announced plans to close Rugby’s 14 stores in 2013, including its location on Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown.

Founded in 2004, Rugby sells a preppy look marketed towards a younger audience.

A salesperson at Rugby in Georgetown said that they learned about the closing on Friday and that they expect that a human resources representative from Ralph Lauren will come to discuss the future of the company this week.

Rugby isn’t the first business Ralph Lauren has opened and closed in Georgetown. RRL, Ralph Lauren’s western wear-inspired line, opened in 2007 and closed in 2009 at 1069 Wisconsin Ave., NW. The Ralph Lauren company still owns the building.

The building the Rugby store is in was formerly Houston’s Restaurant, which closed in 2001.

Update 11/7
According to a bartender at Rugby Cafe, the restaurant and bar will not be closing with the store.

Robert Devaney •

The Halloween night meeting of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E was held three nights late because of Hurricane Sandy. Among the more noteworthy items discussed were the nomination of the O and P Street Project for a preservation award and a liquor license approval for a new restaurant with live music performances.

The Citizens Association of Georgetown has nominated the District Department of Transportation and its O and P Street Project for the Mayor’s 2013 historic preservation award. Pamla Moore, CAG’s chair of the historic preservation committee, sought and received the ANC’s support on the DDOT nomination. The ANC agreed with CAG that the project was a “model of rehabilitation and restoration. . . . DDOT was continuously cooperative with the community and set the highest standard for a public works project.”

Commissioners, such as Jeff Jones and Ed Solomon, regularly communicated with the project’s supervisors at day-to-day operations. “This is not hype,” Jones said. “DDOT deserves this award, from the management level to those who put in the pavers.” P Street business owner, Solomon said that DDOT was “very sensitive to businesses.” Other commissioners concurred on how DDOT listened closely to the community to get the job done right.

Also seeking support from the ANC was Gypsy Sally’s Acoustic Tavern, which plans to open at 3401 K Street, NW, as a live music venue and eatery. It will be on the second floor of the building where the soon-to-open Malmaison will be on the ground floor. Gypsy Sally’s music featured will rock, country, blue grass and folk. The space has a 300-person capacity. One of the owners, David Ensor, is a guitarist and teachers. For more for Ensor, visit www.SilkyDave.com.

As for Malmaison, a dessert specialty eatery and bar, it is being put together by Omar Popal, who also runs Cafe Bonaparte on Wisconsin Avenue and Napoleon Bistro and Lounge on Columbia Road. It is expected to open mid-November.

Details for Gypsy Sally’s: 3401 K Street, NW, Gypsy Sally’s Acoustic Tavern, LLC, License No. ABRA-090582, application for license (petition date, Nov. 19; hearing date, Dec. 3).

David Post •

Pity today’s students. The old math is out. The new math is in.

Under the old math, higher tax rates meant more tax collections.

Under the new math, lower tax rates mean more tax collections.

A hundred years ago, the old math worked. The first income tax in 1913 had a top tax rate of 7 percent, but that was quickly increased to 73 percent to pay for World War I — we paid for wars back then — and tax collections rose dramatically.

During the Roaring Twenties, tax rates were cut to 25 percent (hmm, Romney’s proposed rate). Government revenues declined 70 percent. The nerve of those times.

When revenues dropped by half in the Great Depression, Republican President Herbert Hoover raised the top rate to 63 percent. Revenues doubled over the next four years. After spending massively on stimulus efforts that cut unemployment 23 percent to 17 percent, President Roosevelt, a very wealthy man himself, increased the top rate to 79 percent in 1936, an election year. He still won by a landslide. In 1937, tax collections rose almost 40 percent, but unemployment also inched up to 19 percent.

World War II led to 94 percent rates — remember, we paid for wars back then. Revenues grew more than six-fold from $7 billion to $45 billion. The old math worked. Over the next 40 years, government raised and lowered rates depending on national needs. Even in the 1970s, we increased taxes to pay for the Vietnam War.

President Reagan embraced the new math and said that lowering taxes would increase government revenues. Voters like lower taxes, so they voted for him. He also convinced us that the government is the enemy, but that’s another story.

Reagan cut tax rates and revenues went up. Here’s a dirty little secret: Reagan increased taxes more than a dozen times and doubled the tax on capital gains. Tax collections remained 18 percent of GDP, the same as the Kennedy-Johnson-Nixon-Ford years. Reagan’s deficits – 4.3 percent of GDP – were the highest in US history except World War II.

Reagan deficits crossed $100 billion for the first time ever, then passed $200 billion, and almost reached $300 billion. President George H.W. Bush called the new math “voodoo economics” and courageously lost his presidency with a tax increase he believed necessary to reduce the deficits he inherited from Reagan.

President Clinton raised taxes to 19 percent of GDP, generated the nation’s only four-year streak of surpluses . . . and created 23 million new jobs.

President Bush, the W, cut taxes, increased spending, and didn’t pay for wars. The Great Recession and tax cuts reduced revenues to 15 percent of GDP. Deficits exploded to $450 billion and eventually hit $1.4 trillion in his last year, the highest ever. Bush W’s tax cuts generated one (yes, One!) million new jobs in eight years. That’s the new math.

The Great Recession unemployment rate is half the Great Depression unemployment rate. The Great Depression took 12 years to recover. Today we expect the economy to recover in one year.

Obama believes in the old math. Romney believes in the new math.

I wonder which math will count the votes.