Bill Alsup at Hines and a look at CityCentre DC

Bill Alsup, SVP Development at Hines, was kind enough to present to me their CityCentre DC project in Washington. As I walked onto the site it became clear why this site was envied by many developers. Its size at 10 acres is unheard of in the city. The only reason this parcel exists is because the previous convention center was demolished here. (It seems that it was obsolete as soon as it was built.) Since demolition the property has remained dormant, other than the interesting twist of it being used for some pro-tennis matches. The current project is the fruit of an incredibly difficult entitlement process that included plans for tearing down old convention center, building a new one and opening up new streets that hadn't been open in years.

CityCenter DC will soon contain 2.5 million sf of mixed-use development, intended to be comprised of three phases. The project will include the re-introduction of two streets through the site, a new park, a central plaza, retail-oriented alleyways and streetscapes, and a 1,600-car parking facility. The project will kick off with approximately 1.5 million sf including two, 11-story 260,000 sf office buildings, 240,000 sf of retail, two 11-story apartment buildings containing 229 apartments each, and two condominium buildings. The condo towers will be 10 and 11 stories, each containing 216 condo units. Phase II will contain a 10-story, 275,000 sf, 400-room hotel and 100,000-120,000 sf of retail. Phase III (master planned by Hines but to be developed by another party) will contain 560,000 sq. ft. of office space and 40,000 sq. ft. of retail space.

To ensure this project gets done right, and since Hines doesn’t have any residential experience, this project was done as a 50/50 JV with Archstone. I was told that Hines recently lost a lead tenant, Skadden and Arps, who was going to occupy 350K sf. Unfortunately, they will renew at their existing location. The project hasn't started yet, but it is expected to commence during second quarter 2011.

Picture – from project website