O/T: How a stadium led to the building of a neighborhood

[emu steve]

This might be an ideal case [[case study) of how a barren area gets a stadium and a NEIGHBORHOOD develops.

First the day of the game activity and eventually a full fledged neighborhood develops [[52 x 7 neighborhood) complete with all of the happy hours and things which make life what it is, especially for the younger professionals.

Doubt this can really happen to the same degree near the new arena, but there are hopes that thousands of folk reside will there and a new neighborhood develops over the next 5 - 10 years.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...y.html?hpid=z6

"Nationals Park opened in 2008. In the immediate years afterward, when the area was still gritty, the community surrounding the new, gleaming stadium had two personalities: one with ample foot traffic during the days and nights when the team suited up, and one that was far more barren when the home team was away. Back in those days, the makeshift fairgrounds on Half Street just outside the park’s center-field gate was the only place to go before and after games. There were only a few places to grab a bite to eat or shop for groceries if you lived in one of the new high-rises."

"“We were on the complete other side, off the Red Line, which I hated,” Ternes, 33, said. “I feel like I’ve really seen this neighborhood go through that transition. Sometimes I feel like when we first moved here that we only had Starbucks, Five Guys and Subway, that like, I’ve paid my dues, and so I love our neighborhood now. It’s very exciting to see all the restaurants and the family activities. It’s a super family-friendly neighborhood.”

"Several residents said that while the evolution in the neighborhood has been gradual over six years, the change has been particularly steady since 2012."

I might add that by 2018, ten years after the stadium opened, that the neighborhood transformation will be essentially complete.

The pace of development has picked up over the last few years [[as the economy improved and the neighborhood took shape) and plans are in place to develop some of the obvious undeveloped big parcels [[like the one right outside the centerfield gate). There are some key developments underway at M St. S.E. and 1st. S.E., very close to the stadium. The last biggies will be at 1/2st. S.E. between M and N., at the stadium's doorstep [[the property recently changed hands - that, I believe, was necessary to get a new developer on board).