Wrecking Corp. of America is scheduled to begin demolishing Waterside Mall next week, kicking off years of planned construction that will bring retail and residential space and two D.C. agencies to Fourth and M streets SW.
“This is the largest single building in the District to be razed,” Terry Anderson, vice president of the Alexandria company, said in a news release this week.
Part of a greater vision of a revitalized Southwest waterfront area, the project involves the demolition of 1.2 million square feet of the desolate mall and construction of a series of buildings that eventually will comprise 1.2 million square feet each of residential and office space and at least 110,000 square feet of retail.
The center’s new tenants are slated to include the District’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer and the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. The development also will open a two-block stretch of Fourth Street that has been closed since the mall was built over it in the 1960s.
The city has not issued zoning approval for the massive project but is on track to, according to Sean Madigan, spokesman for D.C.’s planning and economic development office.
“We’re really excited about getting this started,” said Advisory Neighborhood Commission member Max Skolnik, whose district encompasses the area. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had a ‘town center.’ It’s just been dragging on and on, so I think there’s definitely excitement that this is finally, fingers crossed, getting done.”
Redevelopment plans stalled in early 2006, when mortgage giant Fannie Mae, which was considering relocating its headquarters there, pulled out.
One of the mall’s largest tenants, the Environmental Protection Agency, moved out of the center in 2002.
Residents’ negotiations with developer Forest City ensured that a Safeway on the site — the neighborhood’s only grocery store — will remain open during demolition and construction, with a CVS and a Bank of America.
The first phase of construction is scheduled to begin in early 2008.
