Today marks the beginning of a years-long $1.3B project over I-395 that will finally reconnect the east end of downtown with Capitol Hill. Property Group Partners executives, Mayor Muriel Bowser and DC Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton held a groundbreaking ceremony for the seven-acre Capitol Crossing, a project that will make the site's moniker "the scar downtown" a distant memory. What's more, it's predicted that the development will create 4,000 construction jobs and 8,000 permanent jobs, and generate $40M in new property tax revenue. The final product will be a three-block, 2.2M SF complex with four office buildings and one residential building, 70k SF of retail, pedestrian plazas, and an 1,100-space underground parking garage, the Washington Business Journal reports. The building will also have a co-generation plant to generate heat and power, and cisterns to capture 90% of stormwater runoff. Rumors have been swirling that Eataly will likely be a tenant, and while PGP president Jeffrey Sussman declined to confirm that, he did say that "the rumors have a large element of truth to them." The entire Capitol Crossing project is expected to deliver in 2019. I-395 will remain open throughout construction. [WBJ]