Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The most Second Empirest of Georgetown Second Empire homes is still for sale.
• GM heard it was going to be a Good Stuff Eatery, but if that’s not going to happen, what would you like to happen with Morso?

Good morning Georgetown. GM’s still basking in his new world of diapers and short sleep, but is ready to get the Georgetown Metropolitan back in gear. He can’t guarantee that the posts will be as consistent as they have been, but he’ll promise the old college try. So without further ado, here’s the latest:

• GM heard this a while back, but it looks like the GAP is finally moving to consolidate its kids store into its grown-up store across the street. No word yet on any possible new tenants for the soon-to-be vacated GAP Kids space.
• Evermay to become headquarters of new owners’ non-profit.
• A steal at $7.9 million?

Good morning Georgetown and happy 2012! May the Mayans be wrong and your coffee just right! Here’s the latest:

• Couple interesting Georgetown real estate news items.
• The Post goes long on Violet Drath.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The Georgetowniest home in Georgetown?
• Terrible, terrible news from the Key Bridge.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Wow, that’s $1,500 a square foot.
• Lamenting the imminent demise of Barnes and Noble.

The panel included representatives from across the Georgetown business spectrum and also Councilmembers Jack Evans and Vincent Orange. When asked what the city can do for Georgetown, Evans highlighted three things: keeping crime low, transportation, and taxes. Typically when Evans talks about taxes, he talks about keeping income taxes low in order to attract and keep high income residents, but on this occasion he focused on the effect of higher taxes on small businesses. He stated that 25-30% of the new top income tax rate for DC will hit small businesses (for what it’s worth GM’s never heard that stat before, and it doesn’t sound quite right to him).

Vincent Orange emphasized a DC law that requires DC agencies to spend 50% of their procurement budget on small businesses. He stated that right now 31 agencies are out of compliance. Orange also highlighted the DC Streetscape Relief Fund, which offers interest free loans to businesses affected by disruptive street construction, like that seen on H St. NE. Good initiatives both of them, but they’re not really going to help out Georgetown small retail shops much (although Karen Ohri of Georgetown Flooring pointed out that a lot of their business is for institutional clients, so stores like hers could benefit from the procurement law).

Charles McGrath of MRP Realty, who recently bought Washington Harbour, emphasized the office space aspect of Georgetown. He stated that right now, Georgetown has a 11% office vacancy rate. McGrath argued that much of this office space is dated and needs capital investment to attract new tenants. This is essentially the mindset the MRP Realty is following with the Washington Harbour. The property is showing its age and many of the architectural elements are very 1980s, which is not an era known for particularly attractive architecture. McGrath hopes to transform the Washington Harbour office space into “Class A” office space. (Frankly all GM cares about is getting that ice skating rink built…)

The Q & A demonstrated that there is a lot of frustration among Georgetown businesses with the current state of affairs. They repeatedly complained about the shoddy stores on Wisconsin Ave. between O and P St. Also, they complained that the public has a perception that it’s too difficult to get to Georgetown. The business owners stated that given the large number of garages, parking is not really a problem (this is why the BID is behind performance parking) and there are plenty of bus lines through Georgetown.

Despite the frustrations, the overall take was positive. CAG hopes to advance this discussion when it hosts its next membership meeting on November 29th. The topic is “Ideas, Prospect, and Vision for Wisconsin Ave.” Speaking at the meeting will be Jack Evans, John Assadorian of Assadorian retail brokerage, and Herb Miller of Western Development. It’s going to be held at the old Georgetown Theater at Wisconsin and Dumbarton. The idea behind this bizarre location is to show how the theater is emblematic of the decline of Wisconsin Ave., and hopefully also how it represents the potential for the corridor’s rebirth.

GM finally got around to crunching the real estate numbers for the first half of 2011, and they’re not good. While the average price ticked up, the price per square foot is down and the volume is way down . Here’s how it breaks out:

• Total Homes Sold:
• First Half 2010: 147
• First Half 2011: 107 (down 27%)
• Average Starting Price:
• First Half 2010: $1,377,478
• First Half 2011: $ 1,471,836 (up 7%)
• Average Selling Price:
• First Half 2010: $1,242,767
• First Half 2011: $1,307,922 (up 10 %)
• Average Drop in Price From List:
• First Half 2010: 9.8% drop
• First Half 2011: 11.1% drop
• Average $ per Square Feet:
• First Half 2010: $719.05 $/SQF
• First Half 2011: $685.68 $/SQF

Despite the potential for a double-dip recession, condo construction in Georgetown is moving ahead full steam. On top of the planned projects at the Ket Bridge Exxon site, the Post Office, and the Verizon building parking lot (all EastBanc projects) a new project has popped up. It’s for a brand new building at the corner of Cecil Pl. and Grace St.

Right now the location is a parking lot:

The lot is owned by G.M. Steinbraker & Sons, a third generation Georgetown-based general contractor firm based out of a workshop just down the block on Grace St.

The property is going to be developed by Wilco Residential. They call the project the “Grace Street Loft”. It is planned to have seven units ranging from a tiny 446 sqf. to a spacious 1,280 sqf.

The design concept right now is somewhat modern in the style of the East Banc projects, which is to say a mix of brick with industrial-style windows.

The plans call for no on-site parking, but the developer plans to secure parking in one of the lots on K St.

Unsurprisingly, the neighbors had an initially negative reaction to the proposed plans. Primarily they are objecting to the massing of the building and its contemporary style.

Units are expected to be sold in the range of $900,000 to $1,000,000.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Is there more retail theft recently? Well, GM found that it’s actually down a bit this first half of this year.
• This project on Thomas Jefferson St. has been kicking around the ANC for a while, but here’s a nice description of it.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• It took until Junior year of college before GM figured out that the library had most of the books he was supposed to buy.
• A very fancy way to sell a house.