So remember when Nationals Park was supposed to be the key to revitalizing the neighborhood around Half Street? I do too. Then, the economy crashed, and all the development firms who were investing in the area had to put their efforts on hold due to a lack of resources. The end result is that fans continue to seen endless "coming soon" signs as they made the trek from the metro to the stadium.
But here's some good news: there's one group that's resuming their building efforts. Forest City Washington, a local branch of a Cleveland development firm, will reportedly resume building a $60 million, 170-unit luxury apartment complex that they stopped doing in 2008, according to the Washington Post.
The luxury apartments will fill a former Navy industrial building a few blocks east of the ballpark, part of a planned 42-acre Forest City development called the Yards on the site of the former Southeast Federal Center. Ultimately, the apartments will be surrounded by office buildings, retail outlets and more than 2,000 other housing units. The city is near completion on a 5.5-acre public park there.
Before we go crazy, this is the only project that is supposed to resume in the area. Not all projects can receive a $47.7 million bond from the D.C. Housing Finance Agency, and there are currently no plans for any other projects to resume. But it's a start, and as anyone who followed the revitalization of Chinatown knows, it's not something that happened overnight.
Here's hoping this is the start the area needs.