Green Capital Washington, D.C., is the first major city to pass legislation requiring private development projects to meet green building standards. The law, which goes into effect in 2012, will apply to residential projects over 10,000 square feet where 15 percent of the project’s cost is provided through public financing, and to all non-residential buildings over 50,000 square feet. —R.Z.A.
Go Nets The mega Atlantic Yards project, which will include a new basketball arena for the New Jersey Nets, got the green light. A New York state panel gave final approval to the $4 billion plan to redevelop 22 acres in downtown Brooklyn. The project, developed by Forest City Ratner Cos., is expected to take 10 years to complete and will include more than 6,400 units of affordable, middle-income, and market-rate housing. —R.Z.A.
Lost in Translation New HUD regulations require apartment owners who receive any federal assistance, including from the Section 8 program, to translate a broad range of vital documents in multiple languages. Documents include resident applications, leases, property rules and regulations, and termination/eviction notices. HUD also requires verbal translations into English for non-English speakers who can only read in their native language. —R.Z.A.
Rec Rooms Short on space in your Washington, D.C., high-rise projects? Help is on the way. The D.C. Zoning Commission is expected to approve an amendment that will exempt residential developers from including mandatory fitness centers in buildings in commercially zoned areas. Currently, developers are required to turn 5 percent to 20 percent of the residential space into a recreational area. —R.Z.A.
Goal! San Francisco developer Victor MacFarlane of MacFarlane Partners is one of the new owners of the D.C. United major league soccer team. The minority-led ownership group, D.C. United Holdings, paid $33 million in cash for the team. Other owners include William Chang, chairman of the global investment firm Westlake International Group, and Brian K. Davis and Christian Laettner, co-managing members of Blue Devil Partners, a real estate development firm in Durham, N.C. “Our growing Washington, D.C., business presence and the fact that my partners are friends and business associates made the acquisition decision easy,” says MacFarlane. —R.Z.A.
Condos by Choice Nearly half of all condo buyers choose their homes without considering any other type of housing, according to a new survey by NAHB that examines the preferences of condo buyers. Lifestyle and affordability are the top factors driving condo sales. Industry experts expect the condo market to stabilize at 30 percent of the approximately 350,000 multifamily units built annually. —R.Z.A.
Executive Feedback Q & A How is the housing market slowdownQ& affecting your A business?
A: “Frankly, not as much as we had expected. Our rental-apartment occupancy has stayed the same. And while we are told that labor and materials would be readily available and reasonably priced, I am not sure that we have felt the benefit yet.”—Alan Hammer, director, Westminster Management
A: “The slowdown in the single-family and condo business has slowed down the rampant construction cost escalation over the past two years. The number of speculators has been reduced so that the residential for-sale business will return to a normal state in 2007. Financing also is returning to normal underwriting.”—Rick Cavenaugh, president, Fifield Cos.
A: “Business fundamentals are still the same for us. Our goal is still to deliver great property in a great location. This is obviously the best time for people to buy, and we are competing for those buyers as earnestly as possible.”— Michael Lerner, principal, MCZ/Centrum Developers