Ice cream, peanuts, staff meeting!

200 brokers and friends gathered last night on the top floor of 20 M Street, SW, to see Lerner’s new building in Southwest—and the vista of a stadium clearly rising two blocks down the street. The ten stories hold 190,000 SF, and rumor is they already have Wachovia and Kinkos signed for ground floor retail, and are thinking that government contractors are the likeliest pool of tenants for offices, since you can also see out the windows the Navy Yard, Southeast Federal Center, and new DoT headquarters.

DC MayorAdrian Fenty, right, showered compliments on the Lernerfamily, including son-in-law Bob Tanenbaum, center, here with Lerner Enterprises COOAlan Gottlieb. Alan reminds us they purchased the site 5 years ago, before the stadium was planned, and besides an undeveloped site three blocks away, have no other property this side of downtown—don't forget, while they own the team, the stadium is the city's.

Look closely: The stadium's behind DC Council member Jack Evans, left, and Lerner tenant services architect Gavin Bowie.

Cushman and Wakefield's mid-Atlantic head Jim Underhill, left, hosted the party as leasing agent, while tenant reps like Studley DC office co-head Tom Fulcher came to scope out the offering. Tom usually goes toDeer Valley for spring break (a big Washington group meets up there) but this year is headed to India for a friend's 40th birthday—maybe he can ski the Himalayas?

Lerner General Counsel Jeff Guelcher, just back from his annual trip to Las Vegas for the first round of March Madness (of which he has a really acute case this year as a Georgetown alum), here with other Lerner attorneys Bonnie Pulise, center, and Ann Sablosky. Bonnie, who negotiates leases and reviews construction plans for tenants, is pretty excited: she's going back to work next week after four months of maternity leave.

This is our idea of an action shot. Standing with the elevator operator going to the top is the Grubb & Ellis contingent, from left, Jim Layton, Josh Peyton, and Keith Lavey. Jim just got back from Tahoe on Sunday, skiing with high school friends who came in from Seattle, where he grew up. They couldn't have come here and met him in White Tail?