A Golden Wrecking Ball for Waterside Mall in SW

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DEMOLITION is nothing new to the city's Southwest quadrant. In fact, the vast majority of the area was razed in the 1950s and '60s for urban renewal schemes.

Now, one Southwest's concrete dinosaurs, the old Waterside Mall, is coming down. This time however, the wrecking ball being used is extra special: It's painted in gold. D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty is pictured above at right getting ready to sign the wrecking ball with developer Charlie Bresler.

As The Post's Alejandro Lazo reports, the long-delayed $800 million project to redevelop the Waterside Mall site, at 4th and M streets SW, is back on track. Home mortgage lender Fannie Mae had planned on moving its headquarters to a new complex at the site, but when it backed out in 2005, the future of the project was in question.

Two District government offices will eventually move into the mixed-used site, which will consist of 1.2 million square feet of residential space and at least 110,000 square feet of retail space, all located near a reconnected and re-opened 4th Street SW, Lazo reports.

Want to see Thursday's demolition ceremony? Click here for a video from washingtonpost.com's Akira Hakuta.

» "After Delays, Ground Breaks on Waterside Mall Project" [WaPo]
» "Symbolic Demolition in Southwest" [WaPo Video]

» EARLIER: "A Wreck of a Plan" [WaPo]

Photo by Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post