Building Three Update:

They have started on the roofing of building three now.  Building two all that is left to do on the outside are some minor touch up things like the sides of the dormer windows.

Building three looks to be exactly where building two was in early March.  This means if they are following the same pace on building three that the closings should take place for those units in early August.

Interestingly it appears they have not even cleared the land for building four yet so I am not sure what the timeframe on that one will be.

I would like to see the commercial building that the going to be across the street from building 2 and 3 begin soon (the apartment building and parking deck) so that they are not building it for a really long time while we are moved in there.  It does seem like more materials are starting to stack up there so hopefully they begin that soon.

The Giant Bear:

I was just curious what readers thought of the giant bear they put out in front the center of Village Square.

There was an article in the Hyattsville Wire about it here:

http://www.hyattsvillewire.com/2017/04/27/riverdale-park-station-bear-sculpture-whole-foods/

I thought maybe Riverdale had something to do with bears which I was not aware of... but then I saw in this article that it just said:

"Bear is many things to many people and subject to different interpretations. My hope is the community will enjoy his protective presence and serene spirit in Bear Square."

What do you all think?

Closing Date Set:

I was worried we would not hit our lease end date of 5-31-17 when we had our pre-drywall walkthrough on 4-14 when the project manager said that closing is usually 45 days after the walkthrough.  (which would have put us closing on 5-29)

Looks like ours will be 52 days after the pre-drywall walkthrough on June 5^th.

We are a little disappointed since in early March we were being told early/mid-May would be possible…but the original closing date we were told back in February when we signed the contract was late May/early June so it appears it will end up hitting the original target.   So we can’t complain too much.

Had we not asked them to fix the items found in the inspection (which took 3 days) we may have made it, but I would rather have it right even if we have to wait.

So we will be wandering about and/or staying with family for 5 days, but we will find a way to make it work.  Luckily we have figured out quite a few good options even if things go longer for one reason or another.

I was happy to see so many comments from other folks who have already bought in Riverdale on the last post.   Please continue to share any information you have on your process.   I heard the rest of building two is closing throughout the month of June.

Pre-Drywall Walkthrough:

We had our pre-drywall walkthrough last Friday (4-14-17)

Pictures and what you see in a pre-drywall inspection are pretty boring… they all look like this.

One thing I would STRONGLY recommend is getting a pre-drywall inspection done.   Although our inspector did not find anything major he did find 8-9 smaller issues that we are glad got identified and fixed.

We used Cliff Kornegay with Captiol Hill Home Inspection and were very happy with his work.

His website is here:

https://www.capitolhillps.com/

Phone:

202.215.5723

Email: 

DCHomeInspection@gmail.com

Now we are just waiting on a closing date and still holding on to hope we close at the end of May as planned.

Building three went vertical and the Gold’s Gym frame is up.

Of course I had to stop by the Whole Foods today..  

It was still jam packed on day two with only a few parking spots open and police directing traffic.

The Whole Foods is great but I was more happy to see the progress on the other buildings.   The commercial building that will host the Gold's Gym had not been started last time I was there and today the entire metal frame of that building was up.  (see below)

The second townhouse building (Building two) is coming along nicely.  This is how it looked today.  (see below)

The third townhouse building also has finally went vertical.   From the looks of it I am thinking they went vertical last weekend (4-9-17) as I was there late last week and it had not started yet and now they already have the bottom level in.  (see below)

We have our pre-drywall walk through tomorrow and hope to have a firm May closing date after this meeting.

Washington Post Article and Cafritz Website Redesign

Washington Post Article:

This one is a great read:

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/whole-foods-debuts-in-riverdale-park-another-symbol-of-prince-georges-progress/2017/04/11/ba3e0ab4-1ae5-11e7-9887-1a5314b56a08_story.html

Also the Riverdale Park Station developer (Cafritz) website got a much needed face lift:

http://riverdaleparkstation.com/

Although the site looks better they did not actually add any new data.

Also HyattsvileLife had a good article here:

http://hyattsvillelife.com/riverdale-park-whole-foods-opening-shines-spotlight-on-new-development-route-1-corridor/

There is some slightly incorrect information in this story but the key takeaway from this one is that NINE retail tenants are now under negotiation.   (from Geoffrey Mackler, a leasing agent with H&R Retail)  

Assuming that information is correct that is much higher than the two that are listed on the H&R website which has not been updated for a long time.

Hoping this means we see a few more retail commitment announcements soon.

Sales update and Capital Bikeshare!

I was told by the agent that building three is almost sold out already.  Considering they have not even went vertical (starting building up on the foundation) on building three yet and they raised prices recently that’s great news.   

Building two went vertical on 2/23/17 and looks like it will be completed by the end of May… so it seems it takes around 3 months for them to finish a building once they go vertical.   

Unless Stanley Martin starts selling units further out from their delivery date they are going to be in the good position of not having anything to sell.

We have our pre-drywall walkthrough scheduled for the end of next week.  We are hoping to still close in May.

Something else I am excited about is Capital Bikeshare is FINALLY coming to PG County and Riverdale!

Riverdale is in Phase 1 for Capital Bikeshare's PG county plan which should happen in Spring of 2018.

See the story here:

http://www.thesentinel.com/pgs/news/local/item/3585-capital-bikeshare-expected-in-county-by-next-spring

I have only been a member of Capital Bikeshare for just over a year but I am BIG fan:

Starbucks

Friday, 3/31 the Starbucks opened so I swung by yesterday to take a look.

I was surprised that every table in the Starbucks was full.   Considering the Starbucks is the ONLY thing open in Riverdale right now I thought I would be the only person there.  I guess a lot of people just wanted to check it out.  Folks were parking at the Whole Foods which does not open for 10 days.

Here is another picture from right in the middle of what will be considered "Village Square" once it is completed.

The second building is coming along nicely and the pre-drywall walkthroughs for that building are scheduled to start next week. (Week of April 10th)

Here is what building two looked like yesterday from Village Square.   Remember from the siteplan:  (http://riverdaleparkstation.blogspot.com/p/riverdale-park-station.html) that you will not be able to see building two from Village Square as there will be a large apartment building in between these two.