Mortgage rates hold steady this week

After falling for two consecutive weeks, long-term borrowing costs were largely unchanged this week and remain well below year-ago levels.

Freddie Mac says the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in the week ending April 2 was 3.70 percent, up from 3.69 percent last week. A year ago, 30-year rates averaged 4.41 percent.

A 15-year fix averaged 2.98 percent this week, up from 2.97 percent. A one-year adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 2.46 percent this week. up from 2.45 percent.

“Mortgage…

International discount grocer Lidl to establish corporate offices in Arlington

The real estate arm of Germany-based discount grocer Lidl plans to establish a major corporate presence in Arlington that will give it a foothold in the D.C. region as it rolls out a significant expansion in the U.S., according to sources familiar with the deal

MGP Retail Consulting LLC, Lidl’s real estate affiliate, acquired a condominium interest in National Gateway I at 3500 S. Clark St. for $56.6 million and will occupy a majority of the roughly 217,500-square-foot building, which has has had…

Bowser names cabinet member to focus on development in overlooked communities

Mayor Muriel Bowser on Wednesday named the District’s first deputy mayor for greater economic opportunity, a cabinet post crafted to focus solely on the economic needs of “overlooked communities.”

Courtney Snowden, who most recently served as principal at government relations firm The Raben Group, will serve in the newly created role. Snowden, a resident of the Deanwood community in Ward 7, is a D.C. Public Schools graduate and a former congressional staffer.

“As a sixth-generation Washingtonian,…

Alfred Liu still pursuing massive global trade center for Mount Vernon Triangle

In November 2011, I reported on an unlikely, if not seemingly impossible, plan to build a global trade center on a platform atop Interstate 395 in Mount Vernon Triangle. The project, proposed by architect Alfred Liu, would combine office space, a hotel, residential, restaurants and entertainment to form a privately-owned international center of commerce.

April 1 seems as good a time as any for an update. But this is no joke.

Liu, president of AEPA Architects Engineers PC, told me on Wednesday that…

In advance of Pope Francis visit, Vatican Embassy plans papal perimeter

The upcoming visit of Pope Francis to the District has the Vatican Embassy, and the U.S. Secret Service, thinking security.

The Apostolic Nuncio of the Holy See (also known as the Embassy of the Vatican), has submitted plans with the Board of Zoning Adjustments to encircle its 2.5-acre Embassy Row campus with a 6-foot security fence, “in anticipation of the visit of His Holiness.” According to a statement accompanying the plans, “The Embassy will construct this fence on the advice of the U.S.…