Town Topics

Robert Devaney • March 27, 2015

EastBanc, Inc., completed its purchase of the Valero gas station at 2715 Pennsylvania Ave. NW for $4 million.

The site – at the eastern entrance to Georgetown – is a triangle of land between Rock Creek Park, M Street and Pennsylvania Avenue and sits across from the Four Seasons Hotel. The developer bought it from ABC Automotive LLC, the Washington Business Journal first reported.

Anthony Lanier, president of EastBanc, told the Journal: “This site needed to be done. It’s the entrance of Georgetown. I think it’s one of the most important sites in the city, and it shouldn’t be a gas station.”

EastBanc also is developing the Key Bridge Exxon property at 3607 M St. NW on the west side of town and has completed many additions and renovations to the Georgetown scene, including the Georgetown Post Office, Cady’s Alley, Ritz-Carlton, Nike and 1055 High condos. It is building the new West End Public Library and re-doing the West End firehouse.

At a community meeting in November, Lanier talked about the new project, which will include ground-floor retail with apartments or a hotel on the upper floors. He hired Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura and told the group to “keep an open mind.”

At the Georgetown Valero, Eddie the mechanic said the station was getting new pumps and would be cleaned up.

Robert Devaney • March 26, 2015

At the March 2 Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E meeting, neighbors who live near the Fillmore School property at 1801 35th St. NW expressed concern about development plans for the 1.2-acre site. The owner, George Washington University, will review purchase bids next month.
The Fillmore School building and land served as the Georgetown campus of the Corcoran College of Art and Design. After GW took over the Corcoran school last year, it put the Georgetown property up for sale for $14 million.
Proposed concepts envision 12 to 14 residential units in the old school building on 35th Street and six to nine three-story townhouses on the 34th Street side, currently a parking lot. The plans follow the examples of the rehabilitated Phillips School, developed in the late 1990s on the east side of Georgetown, and the Wormley School, developed in the 2010s on the west side.
ANC chair Ron Lewis said at the March 2 meeting: “Bidders should be well aware of what is likely to be welcomed by the community and what is likely to infringe on the community’s view of what should be there – and the consequences that could flow from that.”
Lewis and the commission outlined “community expectations” that include not more than 10 units in the old building and no major change to it, new townhouses on 34th Street that match the height and massing of existing adjacent homes, access to the north side of the property from a 34th Street driveway and retention of the playground on 35th Street.

Robert Devaney •

Michael Reese, commander of the Metropolitan Police Department’s 2nd District, headquartered at Idaho Avenue NW, has retired. After 30 years as an MPD officer, Reese has moved on to become the deputy chief of police for the D.C. Housing Authority. His cell phone remains the same; his new email is mreese@dchousing.org.

Robert Devaney •

Falling debris from the Pennsylvania Avenue Bridge closed the southbound lane of the Rock Creek Parkway and brought engineers to the scene to assess the damage on Tuesday, March 24. U.S. Park Police said that a parkway driver reported debris on the road below the bridge around 1 a.m. Tuesday.

When structural engineers arrived on the scene for repairs, they were greeted with a flurry of falling debris with pieces as large as golf balls fallinh on them from underneath the bridge.

The bridge underwent repairs early this year and is slated by the D.C. Department of Transportation for substantial improvements starting this summer. No word yet on whether the March 24 incident and its aftermath will force DDOT to act on the bridge sooner than planned.

Robert Devaney •

As of March 19, only the lower level and first floor of the Georgetown Neighborhood Library at 3260 R St. NW has reopened, due to ongoing water damage repairs. Cold temperatures caused a pipe to rupture and the resulting water flow shut down the entire library Feb. 13.

Robert Devaney •

An expired website was listed in the Georgetown Garden Tour story that ran in the March 11 issue of The Georgetowner. The correct address is GeorgetownGardenClubDC.org. Meanwhile, the Georgetown Garden Club has published “Gardens of Georgetown: Exploring Urban Treasures,” profiling 38 neighborhood gardens, available for sale during the May 9 garden tour and on the website.

Robert Devaney •

Lauralyn Lee, associate vice president for community engagement and strategic initiatives at Georgetown University, plans to resign by the end of May to become a consultant. At Georgetown for 13 years, Lee worked on the recent campus plan that resolved many issues and created the Georgetown Community Partnership, a standing group of university administrators, students, community leaders and residents.

In a university letter, Erik Smulson, vice president for public affairs, wrote: “Lauralyn was a key contributor to the negotiations that resolved long-standing tensions with our neighbors, and subsequently developed the strategy and designed the infrastructure to support our community engagement efforts across the region.”

Robert Devaney •

The inaugural Icon of Georgetown Awards presentation filled the back dining room of J.Paul’s restaurant March 11 with well-wishers for two Georgetowners who have served the town for more than 20 years.

Ward 2 council member since 1991, awardee Jack Evans was among old friends and his three 18-year-old children, Christine, John and Katherine. Evans noted that his political life began upstairs at J.Paul’s with the likes of Max Berry, Richard Levy, Bill Jarvis and Paul Cohn. He won his first council race by 320 votes. The longest-serving council member also recalled his first stay in Georgetown at 35th and N Streets in the summer of 1975.

Awardee Paul Cohn, who founded J.Paul’s in 1983 and began many other restaurants, such as Paulo’s, Old Glory, Georgia Brown’s, Georgetown Seafood Grille and the River Club, was introduced by Greg Casten of Tony and Joe’s Seafood Place. Cohn’s latest effort is Boss Shepherd’s on 13th Street in downtown D.C. “The biggest thing about Paul is that no one has anything bad to say about him. As a friend, he is always there,” said Casten.

The awards party benefitted Georgetown Heritage – a nonprofit coordinated by the Georgetown Business Improvement District – which seeks to restore and revitalize the mile-long section of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, including the purchase of a new canal boat and the replacement of locks. The long-term, large-scale efforts call for donations that will likely exceed $25 million.

Host Tom Gregg, the new CEO of Capital Restaurant Concepts, which owns J.Paul’s, Old Glory, Paulo’s and other eateries in the D.C. area, presented the awards to Evans and Cohn.

Gregg said that the C&O Canal is one of Georgetown’s treasures. Among the many other C&O Canal plans, Georgetown BID CEO Joe Sternlieb said that, if all goes according to plan, the canal barge, The Georgetown, will be available for rent on Saturdays for group dinners or parties.