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From the July 9, 1999 print edition

Georgetown incinerator work begins
Ritz-Carlton will anchor project
Pat Lopes Harris Staff Reporter
As developer Anthony Lanier and partners begin construction on their second major undertaking in the Washing-ton area -- the redevelopment of the Georgetown incinerator -- the team that will operate the completed project has come together.

New York-based Millennium Part-ners, Bethesda-based Bovis Construction and Lanier's company, D.C.-based EastBanc, recently broke ground on the incinerator property. It's on K Street NW between Wisconsin Avenue and 31st Street NW.

When completed, the project is slated to house a 100-room hotel, 30-unit condominium, 3,000-seat movie theater and 45,000-square-feet of retail space. Lanier estimated the partners will invest $150 million in the venture.

Lanier said Atlanta-based Ritz-Carlton will operate the hotel. A marketing office set up by Millennium and headed by local real estate broker Noel Evans is fielding queries on the condo units. New York-based Loews Cineplex Entertainment will operate the theater.

No real estate broker has been tapped to market the retail space, but D.C.-based Madison Retail Group has leased several other Georgetown properties redeveloped by Lanier and his partners.

Millennium, Bovis and EastBanc also are collaborating on the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Residences under construction at 23rd and M streets NW. The $250 million project will include a 300-room hotel and 200 condominium units. It's slated for completion by the end of next year.

As the incinerator project means new life for a long-abandoned and historic site, construction will be complicated. Bovis officials said they must blast away 50 feet of rock while protecting the incinerator, nearby houses and a church.

The incinerator project is slated for completion in the third quarter of 2001. The architects are D.C.-based Shalom Baranes Associates and New York-based Gary Edward Handel and Associates.

EastBanc and Millennium bought the 1.3-acre incinerator site from the District. The incinerator closed in 1971 after 39 years in operation.