The Georgetowner
March 22, 2001

The Big Digs

By Cal Cobb

To one who views the Potomac River as it flows under Key Bridge, the river appears to be as calm and tranquil a body of water one could imagine as it meanders along the Coastal Plain to the Chesapeake Bay. However a short hike up the C&O canal to the treacherous rapids of Little Falls and Great Falls, gives one the proper perspective of the sheer power the Potomac holds. The river is said to have been in existence since the Miocene epoch, 30 million years ago. In that time it has scraped, gouged and carried millions of tons of rock to the Chesapeake, but it has never put a dent into the strata of granite like bedrock underlying the Georgetown waterfront.
Which brings us to our theme of the big dig. On a 1.3-acre site bounded by K Street, Wisconsin Avenue, 31st Street and South Street one block from the Potomac River is a 50-foot deep excavation marking the spot where the old Georgetown Incinerator once operated. The bedrock finally lost its ages-old war to massive charges of explosives. The incinerator, with its tall, red brick chimney (the chimney and a portion of the original structure will remain), had dominated the block since the District government built it in 1932. A controversial project at the time, Georgetown residents insisted the city construct an attractive building with nice landscaping. When completed, the art deco structure drew national attention for its architecture and efficient burning system. The shuttered building had become a home for vagrants since it closed in 1971. That is until Anthony Lanier and EastBanc showed up.
Tearing through Georgetown like a tornado ravaging a trailer park, EastBanc has been turning M Street and lower Wisconsin Avenue into a mecca for a slew of high-end, Upper-East-Side Manhattan-styled clients. Spending money like a drunken sailor (nothing new to old Georgetown), the company has bought up huge tracts of under-used real estate around the business district of Georgetown.
Buying and refurbishing dilapidated buildings is one thing, developing the old Georgetown incinerator site is another. However, Lanier found the perfect partner, for not one mammoth project but two. Enter Millennium Partners: a New York based real estate gargantuan with more notches on its belt than Wyatt Earp. Beginning with its Lincoln Center project in New York City (incorporating a luxury hotel, residential condominiums, a movie theater, fitness facilities and high-end retail spaces into a single urban development), this real estate development company has taken its formula for developing mixed use projects across the United States.
The cookie-cutter approach developed by Millennium and spearheaded by Lanier in D.C. appears to split into two developments. The 1.2 million-square-feet 2200 M Street project has been completed. The 300 room Ritz-Carlton anchors a glass and masonry complex containing 160 luxury condos (not yet all sold), a 100,000-square-feet fitness facility (the Sports club/LA) and 10,000 square feet of retail space (which will be leased to convenience-oriented businesses).
Construction of the incinerator project continues and is due to be completed by spring of 2002. The 500,000-square-feet Incinerator project plan originally set forth to build a 93 room Ritz-Carlton Boutique Hotel (with amenities), 30 luxury residencies, 10,000 square feet of upscale retail space and a 2,800-seat, 13-screen, Loews Multiplex Theater.
Now here is the rub. Loews is bankrupt and unable to finance its portion of the development (it will remain as the operator). The project managers would like to replace the loss of the Loews' financing by adding one more floor to the building to provide more luxury condos. Revenue generated by those additional condo units, EastBanc says, will ensure the construction of the promised theater space. A theater in Georgetown is desperately needed. During the 1980s, Georgetown had five movie houses the Key, the Georgetown, the Biograph, the Cerebus and the Foundry. Today, with the exception of the Foundry, they're all gone. In conversation with Lanier (a resident of Georgetown), he has discussed his vision of making Georgetown more of a village, not unlike the one he grew up in while a child in Austria, with parks and shops and a THEATER. We in Georgetown have done without a theater showing first run movies for too long. Lanier's vision will not likely be thwarted by the bankruptcy of Loews. If EastBanc and Millennium can excavate in a few months, the solid granite that the Potomac River couldn't excavate in a million years; they can complete this project with a movie theater as promised. I can already smell the popcorn.