A crisis at the Watergate that involves a parking garage, but not a president
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Version 0 of 1. Can Washington handle another Watergate crisis? This one doesn’t involve a third-rate burglary, but for the several thousand people who live and work at one of the city’s most famous addresses, the latest woes at the Watergate are creating more havoc than the botched 1972 break-in that cost Richard Nixon his presidency. The collapse of a parking garage on May 1, which injured two people and destroyed dozens of cars, caused all kinds of collateral damage. The pancaking floors ripped open water pipes, flooding the adjacent CVS and shutting the Watergate mall’s shops for several days. Plumbers — real ones — were called in to help with repairs. [Watergate parking garage collapses, injuring two] The collapse also knocked out phone and Internet service to many of the stores, and all were ordered closed until Wednesday, frustrating owners and customers alike. The eastbound lane of Virginia Avenue, in front of the Watergate, will be closed to traffic for at least three weeks: It’s serving as a staging ground for cranes, backhoes, excavators and emergency vehicles as workers try to repair the damage. In the meantime, inspectors from the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) are trying to determine the cause of the cave-in. So far, city officials and the building’s management have been mum, but some in the complex of residences, offices and shops — a small city-within-a-city on the shores of the Potomac River — believe that the ongoing renovation of the Watergate Hotel may be to blame for the collapse of a 75- to 100-foot section of the underground garage. Mounds of debris and dirt from the construction project were situated just above where the garage roof gave way, residents said. For now, though, that’s just a theory — an official report on Watergate-gate may not be issued for a couple of weeks. “I want to wait to see the report, but this [collapse] raises the question of how well thought out this construction was,” said Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner William Kennedy Smith, who lives in the Watergate complex. [William Kennedy Smith focuses on D.C., not his 1991 rape trial] As part of the hotel’s $125 million makeover, crews recently completed a new ballroom. The work required raising a portion of the Watergate complex’s central garden seven feet to create a 7,000-square-foot grand ballroom with high ceilings. Rakel Cohen, a co-owner of the project with Euro Capital Properties, said in March that the company was planning to rebuild the courtyard area with a new garden. The hotel owners said the renovations would make the Watergate Hotel “one of the most sophisticated hotels in the region.” “The Watergate was once the finest address in Washington, and we are restoring it to be the finest address in Washington,” Jacques Cohen, principal of Euro Capital Properties, said at the ceremonial topping off of the property’s new grand ballroom on March 19. The relaunched hotel, which was scheduled to open in August, has been a beacon of hope for business and shop owners in the adjacent Watergate plaza. With the hotel vacant since 2007, many have suffered through lean years . The garage collapse and its aftermath feel like giant setbacks. [March 19: Watergate Hotel set for late summer or fall opening] The frustration was boiling over for David Katib, the owner of Atlantic Travel. For a week, his business has been without Internet and phone service. He said that late last week, a Verizon representative told him the line couldn’t be immediately repaired. Katib, whose business has been at the Watergate for three decades and who recently signed a five-year lease extension, wonders if it might be time to leave. “Every day they tell us, ‘We’re trying, we’re trying, we’re trying,’ but this affected us pretty hard,” he said. “No phone, no Internet. We’re out of the world.” Dale Johnson owns Watergate Gallery & Frame Design, and, like Katib, has been in the building for more than 30 years. “We were all sort of hoping that the hotel was going to rejuvenate the place,” Johnson said. “It was finally going forward, and now this happens.” Business was fine before the recession, Johnson said, but since then, it has been “tough.” The last thing she and the other businesses owners needed was a lengthy interruption to commerce. The CVS in the courtyard — where many of the elderly residents fill their prescriptions — was hit hardest by last week’s accident. It will likely not open again for weeks, an employee who asked not to be identified said. Those who call the Watergate home are now left with questions about what the future holds for one of Washington’s most renowned buildings. George Arnstein, 90, moved into a new apartment at the Watergate in the fall of 1965. From his balcony, he can see the office building next door, where the 1972 break-in occurred. Since the Nixon scandal, he doesn’t remember another instance that has drawn as much attention to the iconic building. “It felt like an earthquake,” said Arnstein, who was home when a portion of the underground garage of his building fell. “I said, ‘No, it can’t be an earthquake — it’s just another example of the construction noise,’ which has been going on since last August. Then I went out to look and saw a hole — a big hole.” Arnstein had voiced concern about the construction next door and in the complex’s courtyard, in front of his balcony. “There is a good deal of frustration,” Smith said. “Obviously, people are anxiously awaiting the determination of what caused the collapse and obviously want to make sure that that doesn’t happen again.” |