The Capitol Riverfront is a business improvement district (BID) located just south of the United States Capitol between Capitol Hill and the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. It was created by the District of Columbia City Council and approved by Mayor Fenty in August 2007. [1] The BID is a mixed-use neighborhood. It was a former industrial area transformed into a business center, urban neighborhood, entertainment district, and waterfront destination. The project involves adding over 9,000 new apartments, condominiums, lofts, modern office towers, 1,200 hotel rooms, one million square feet of retail amenities, two grocery stores, new restaurants, shops, and cafes. Over 33,900,000 square feet (3,150,000 m2) of office, residential, hotel, and retail space, as well as four new parks, were planned over 10–15 years. The new 5-acre (20,000 m2) riverfront Yards Park opened in fall 2010.
The BID is governed by a board of directors composed of twenty property and business owners and seven non-voting community stakeholders. [2] The BID's FY2009 budget was approximately $1.5 million and was funded by an assessment that applied to commercial property (including land and parking lots), residences of ten or more units, and hotels.
The Capitol Riverfront is served by the Navy Yard – Ballpark and Capitol South stations on the Washington Metro system. The neighborhood is also served by I-395 and I-295 and by a circulator bus route to Union Station, and it is a 10-minute taxi ride to Reagan National Airport.
A 16-mile (26 km) riverwalk provides a path for people to walk, run, or bike on along the banks of the Anacostia River. The trail exists to the eleventh street bridge and behind the Washington Navy Yard. Upon completion of Yards park in 2010, the Navy opened the riverwalk trail behind the Navy Yard to the public.
Key points in the history of the Capitol Riverfront include:
Historically, the Anacostia River, along the banks of the Capitol Riverfront, was once a deep water channel, burgeoning with natural resources and home to the Nacotchtank Indians. In 1791, L'Enfant designed the plan for Washington D.C. and, recognizing the assets of the Anacostia River, located the city's new commercial center and wharves there. In 1799, the Washington Navy Yard was established in the area. It was the nation's largest naval shipbuilding facility for several decades. Today, the Washington Navy Yard is the Navy's longest continuously operated Federal facility.
The Navy Yard was a bustling nautical center during the nineteenth century and played an integral role in the area's development. The lively wharf was a hub for jobs, serving ships with lumber and raw materials for the growing city. It also played a key role in defending the city from the British invasion in 1812. Surrounding the wharves was an extensive commercial district, light industrial businesses, and one of the city's most significant neighborhood communities. As the city and nation evolved, the Navy Yard changed from shipbuilding to producing finished ship products and weapons ammunition. By the mid-1940s, the Navy Yard and the expanded Annex area reached peak production with 26,000 employees in 132 buildings on 127 acres (0.51 km2) of land.
However, during the last century of the city's growth, the river had deteriorated. The pollution of the river diminished its value as an asset to the city. After WWII, the Navy Yard consolidated its operations to a smaller campus, which slowed the economic and neighborhood activity of the area. Around this same time, the elevated portion of the Southeast-Southwest Freeway was completed, creating a physical barrier for access to the River. The combination of these and several other factors led to the river and the riverfront neighborhoods becoming neglected.
Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C. Its downtown is located at the intersection of Marion Barry Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. It is located east of the Anacostia River, after which the neighborhood is named.
Navy Yard–Ballpark station is a Washington Metro station in Washington, D.C., on the Green Line. The station is located in the Navy Yard/Near Southeast neighborhood of Southeast, with entrances on M Street at Half Street and New Jersey Avenue.
Anacostia station is a Washington Metro station in Washington, D.C., on the Green Line. The station is located in the Anacostia neighborhood of Southeast Washington, with entrances at Shannon Place and Howard Road near Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE. The station serves as a hub for Metrobus routes in Southeast, Washington, D.C., and Prince George's County, Maryland.
The Anacostia River is a river in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States. It flows from Prince George's County in Maryland into Washington, D.C., where it joins with the Washington Channel and ultimately empties into the Potomac River at Buzzard Point. It is about 8.7 miles (14.0 km) long. The name "Anacostia" derives from the area's early history as Nacotchtank, a settlement of Necostan or Anacostan Native Americans on the banks of the Anacostia River.
Southeast is the southeastern quadrant of Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, and is located south of East Capitol Street and east of South Capitol Street. It includes the Capitol Hill and Anacostia neighborhoods, the Navy Yard, the Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling (JBAB), the U.S. Marine Barracks, the Anacostia River waterfront, Eastern Market, the remains of several Civil War-era forts, historic St. Elizabeths Hospital, RFK Stadium, Nationals Park, and the Congressional Cemetery. It also contains a landmark known as "The Big Chair," located on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. The quadrant is split by the Anacostia River, with the portion that is west of the river sometimes referred to as "Near Southeast". Geographically, it is the second-smallest quadrant of the city.
Southwest is the southwestern quadrant of Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, and is located south of the National Mall and west of South Capitol Street. It is the smallest quadrant of the city, and contains a small number of named neighborhoods and districts, including Bellevue, Southwest Federal Center, the Southwest Waterfront, Buzzard Point, and the military installation known as Joint Base Anacostia–Bolling.
Congress Heights is a residential neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C., in the United States. The irregularly shaped neighborhood is bounded by the St. Elizabeths Hospital campus, Lebaum Street SE, 4th Street SE, and Newcomb Street SE on the northeast; Shepard Parkway and South Capitol Street on the west; Atlantic Street SE and 1st Street SE on the south; Oxon Run Parkway on the southeast; and Wheeler Street SE and Alabama Avenue SE on the east. Commercial development is heavy along Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue and Malcolm X Avenue.
The 11th Street Bridges are a complex of three bridges across the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C., United States. The bridges convey Interstate 695 across the Anacostia to its southern terminus at Interstate 295 and DC 295. The bridges also connect the neighborhood of Anacostia with the rest of the city of Washington.
The DC Circulator is a bus system in Washington, D.C. The District of Columbia Department of Transportation operates the service in a public–private partnership with RATP Dev.
Barney Circle is a small residential neighborhood located between the west bank of the Anacostia River and the eastern edge of Capitol Hill in southeast Washington, D.C., in the United States. The neighborhood is characterized by its sense of community, activism, walkability, and historic feel. The neighborhood's name derives from the eponymous former traffic circle Pennsylvania Avenue SE just before it crosses the John Philip Sousa Bridge over the Anacostia. The traffic circle is named for Commodore Joshua Barney, Commander of the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla in the War of 1812.
The Southwest Waterfront is a neighborhood in Southwest Washington, D.C. The Southwest quadrant is the smallest of Washington's four quadrants, and the Southwest Waterfront is one of only two residential neighborhoods in the quadrant; the other is Bellevue, which, being east of the Anacostia River, is frequently, if mistakenly, regarded as being in Southeast.
Navy Yard is a neighborhood of Washington, D.C., located in Southeast D.C. Navy Yard, situated along the Anacostia Riverfront south of Capitol Hill, takes its name from Washington Navy Yard, the administrative seat of the U.S. Navy. Historically an industrial area, today Navy Yard is a popular entertainment district, home to Nationals Park, a notable nightlife scene, and numerous waterfront esplanades.
Greenway is a residential neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C., in the United States. The neighborhood is bounded by East Capitol Street to the north, Pennsylvania Avenue SE to the south, Interstate 295 to the west, and Minnesota Avenue to the east.
Kenilworth is a residential neighborhood in Northeast Washington, D.C., located on the eastern bank of the Anacostia River and just inside the D.C.-Maryland border. A large public housing complex, Kenilworth Courts, dominates the area. The neighborhood is famous for the Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, a national park whose centerpiece is a series of ponds carved out of Anacostia River marshland. Visitors come especially during June and July to see the beautiful blooming water lilies and lotus flowers. In 1895 the name “Kenilworth” was first applied to the area by white real estate developer Allen Mallery, who named this neighborhood after Kenilworth Castle in England, the ruins of which can still be seen today in Warwickshire. Kenilworth Park, which includes the Kenilworth-Parkside Recreation Center, also carries the neighborhood name, though most of the park's area is actually located adjacent to the modern neighborhoods of Parkside and Eastland Gardens.
Washington, D.C., is administratively divided into four geographical quadrants of unequal size, each delineated by their ordinal directions from the medallion located in the Crypt under the Rotunda of the Capitol. Street and number addressing, centered on the Capitol, radiates out into each of the quadrants, producing a number of intersections of identically named cross-streets in each quadrant. Originally, the District of Columbia was a near-perfect square but contained more than one settlement; the Capitol was to be the center of the City of Washington. Thus, the Capitol was never located at the geographic center of the whole territory, which was eventually north of the Potomac River, consolidated into one city. As a result, the quadrants are of greatly varying size. Northwest is quite large, encompassing over a third of the city's geographical area, while Southwest is little more than a few neighborhoods, large parks, and a military base.
Buzzard Point, sometimes known as Greenleaf Point, is a peninsula and neighborhood of Washington, D.C., located in Southwest D.C., at the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia River.
The Anacostia Waterfront Corporation (AWC) was a government-owned corporation established in 2004 by the government of District of Columbia, in the United States, to revitalize neighborhoods next to the Anacostia River and to coordinate the environmental rehabilitation and use of the river. The corporation was intended to have a 20-year lifespan, during which it would oversee an $8 billion public-private redevelopment plan covering the Anacostia River waterfront and numerous parcels of land in the city east of the river. However, a change in mayoral administrations and frustration with the slow pace of redevelopment resulted in the abolition of the corporation after three years.
The Yards is a 42-acre (17 ha) development on the Anacostia River waterfront in Washington, D.C. The area is at the center of the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District and was originally an annex of the Washington Navy Yard. The development is part of the larger Navy Yard neighborhood. In 2004, the U.S. General Services Administration awarded the property to Forest City Washington, Inc. for redevelopment into an area with 2,800 new residential units and 2,200,000 sq ft (200,000 m2) of office and retail space. The development is situated in the Navy Yard neighborhood, located just west of the historic Washington Navy Yard and east of Nationals Park. It is served by the Navy Yard – Ballpark station on the Green Line of the Washington Metro.
The Anacostia Line is a partially constructed line of the DC Streetcar, never put into service, intended to connect the Anacostia neighborhood with Joint Base Anacostia–Bolling. Construction occurred in 2009 and 2010, but was terminated before the line was complete.
The Anacostia Riverwalk Trail is a multi-use trail system in Washington, DC, which, when complete, will be ~25 miles long, spanning both sides of the Anacostia River, the Washington Channel waterfront, and projecting into neighborhoods away from the Anacostia. It has more recently been branded as part of a larger Anacostia Riverwalk Trail Network which includes an additional 8 segments and 15 miles of trail. On the north end it connects to the Anacostia Tributary Trail System; on the south end it will connect to the Oxon Hill Farm Trail and on the west it connects to the Rock Creek Park Trail and the 14th Street Bridge. Of the 19 planned segments, 14 are complete for a combined total of 16 miles.
{{cite web}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(help)[ title missing ]