February 25, 2008
Columbia Heights Still Looking for High End Retail
The developers of the new DC USA shopping center in Columbia Heights are still looking for more high end retail, according to a Washington Business Journal article. DC USA, located at 14th and Irving NW, still has about 80,000 square feet of space to fill, which developers hope to fill partially with fancier fare than the Target, Marshalls and Best Buy already planned for the space.
Regular readers may recall that Columbia Heights residents complained about the prevalence of discount stores like Marshalls, which will open in a few months, and Ross Dress for Less, which is currently in talks, in the DC USA development on their neighborhood listserve. Ellwood Thompson's, an organic grocery store based in Richmond, is also in talks to move in, and there have been rumors about sporting goods store REI, which the company denied to one Columbia Heights listserve user.
The Biz Journal article, part of which is available online without a subscription but which was posted in full on neighborhood listserves, says the developers originally tried to woo places like Nordstrom, Macy's, Sears, Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, but didn't have any luck, getting Target instead. The developers, Grid Properties, fired the leasing company, Newmark Knight Frank, after Newmark didn't attract high end retailers.
Photo by Amber Wiley
"When you talk to [high end retailers] about coming to an urban neighborhood, they look at you kind of cross-eyed," Robert Moore, president of the Development Corporation of Columbia Heights, told the Biz Journal. The article notes that some say getting higher end stores will be easier now, thanks to increasing incomes in the area, while John Asadoorian, a D.C. commercial realtor, said he didn't think chains with market penetration would increase sales by opening in the development.
The article notes that the average household income in Columbia Heights has jumped $16,000 from 1999 to 2006, from about $50,000 to about $66,000. Housing prices, of course, have gone up as well. They note that 77,000 people live within a mile of the development. That's a lot of folks with a lot of buying power.
The Target store is set to open March 9, with more stores opening in the next few months.
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for the love of pete, give us a bookstore.
Oh man, good call.
Border's.
End of discussion.
Yes, because bookstores are such a great business proposition in DC. How many second-hand copies of Catch 22 do you have to sell to pay your quarter-mil tax bill?
Saks? Needless Markup? Poorly preserved Chevy Chase trophy wives are not going to drive their Jags to Columbia Freaking Heights to buy their Jimmy Choo handbags and matching mink/PVC stoles.
How about a grocery store that doesn't violate the laws of physics by sucking AND blowing at the same time?
I could understand Sears or Macy's, but Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus don't really seem to fit the demographics of the neighborhood. Even the kids who were duped into buying $500,000 studio apartments there aren't walking around in fur coats and Italian suits.
Unless, of course, the developers thought that by attracting high-end retail, they might entice those "higher quality" residents to move there.
Neiman Marcus? Nordstrom? They must have smoked the crack that got left behind when they cleared out the lot. Why on earth would we want those here?
I don't care how much money you make. Target is a thousand times more useful than a swanky department store. You need pet food, kitchen gadgets, tube socks, candles, and picture frames a hell of lot more often than you need an $800 suit. Unless you're an empty-nest Potomac housewife with an unlimited allowance and not enough to do, who goes to those sorts of places more than once or twice a year?
I, for one, welcome our new middle-class purveyors of cheap goods. If you really need to freshen your spring wardobe with the latest designer fashions, well, that's why we have Pentagon City and Mazza Gallerie. But you can't get a decent toilet brush there.
Monkey - true, but Candida's only sold travel books. A regular general bookstore would be cool. And hear hear about the Giant, hopefully Ellwood Thompson's could remedy that.
But you can't get a decent toilet brush there.
Have you checked the Apple Store?
This model I call "Big Hungry Joe."
Comparing Candida's to Borders?
Might as well compare the local Kwik-E-Mart to Wegmans.
And don't forget Sisterspace. You know a neighborhood is on the upswing when all the independent bookstores can't afford the rent.
Is it just me, or is every Borders downtown a homeless shelter/library/cafe? Granted, the selection's better than MLK, and the seats are comfier, but you need to bring your own laptop if you want to look at porn. I was at the one on 14th Street and it took the staff half an hour to have the cops eject a vagrant who'd soiled himself under the escalator.
how about a Pearl/Plaza art supplies?
uh, i live in CH, and i would love a nordstrom. i dont make big bucks either. i live in a tiny rented studio. one place i wont shop? dirty snail trail marshalls.
You can ask for any business you want, but it needs to make sense for the retailer and the developer. Just shouting "Borders" doesn't mean that Borders is opening up.
Why only go after big box retailers? How about some smaller retail space to bring more varied amenities to the area? Plenty of other DC neighborhoods get by without big box retail to satisfy their toliet brush whims. And when I read Neiman Marcus and Saks I almost choked on my coffee. They fired a firm because they couldn't bring these stores into columbia freaking heights? Talk about having unrealistic expectations...
So the developers were trying to woo Sears *and* Neiman-Marcus? Way to go focused strategy! Isn't that like wooing a homeless lady and and a supermodel? How about wooing a dollar store to keep the value of the shoplifting bonanza's lower?
Uh, I didn't say I don't LIKE Nordstrom. I like the Ritz Carlton too, but I sure don't stay at one very often. How often, really, do you go to Nordstrom? There's one in Pentagon City. Would you rather go there to buy a bauble once a year, or go to Crystal Shitty once a week to buy necessities of the sort available at the closest Target to DC?
According to Wikipedial the target customer demographics for Nordstrom are $100,000 average household income, and Saks is $175,000-$200,000. You live in a studio and don't make much. Frankly, they don't give a crap about you and the $162 you might spend there in a year.
Living in Ballston, I'd kill to trade our useless Macy's for a Target. It was passable when it was Hecht's, but as a Macy's it's an utter waste of space.
And for the record, I've seen EXACTLY the same brands in Marshall's and Nordstrom. True, it was on the nice rack at Marshall's and the crappy rack at Nords, but nevertheless: same stuff.
I would really love to have a big arts/crafts store like A.C. Moore or Michael's. Once the Target and Harris Teeter open up, the only reason I'll ever have to trek into the suburbs is for random art supplies.
I frequent Ellwood Thompsons in Richmond often, it has an excellent deli and ready-made section.
one place i wont shop? dirty snail trail marshalls.
Yeah, you might even see a person who makes less than $30,000 there. Or even - gasp - an hourly worker! The horrors!
Oh, I think it would be great to have a Neiman Marcus. That way the kids living in the 14th & Girard projects can get an idea of where they might shop and the kinds of things they might buy for themselves, their friends and family when they get that unsupervised job down at the Office of Tax and Revenue.
It's important to give kids a goal.
i don't understand people who have to provide HTML hyperlinks in all of their comments.
you know who you are.
How about a record store? Make mine vinyl.
...or a comic store? Make mine Marvel.
...or a comic store? Make mine Marvel.
"Yeah, you might even see a person who makes less than $30,000 there"
what? you're crazy. i dont mind shopping with lower income people. i just dont like stores like marshalls that are disgusting. did i say i didn't want a...target? no. i just dont like marshalls and the utter disgusting things they sell, it has nothing to do with their clientele.
Sorry trifecta. I'll try and cut back on the HTML.
[snip] That way the kids living in the 14th & Girard projects can get an idea of where they might shop and the kinds of things they might buy for themselves, their friends and family when they get that unsupervised job down at the Office of Tax and Revenue. [end snip]
That's an admirable goal, but for some reason the local kids really aren't too adept at seeing their future in these terms, despite the $17K/yr that we waste on them. They'll simply effect a redistribution of wealth as you leave that high-end store. At gunpoint. This IS Dodge City, after all.
The area does need a bookstore and some bars that don't suck. You either have to go to Mount Pleasant, Adams Morgan, or Petworth to find a decent bar. Restaurants that happen to have a bar don't count. Candidas was a bit out of the way and only sold travel book, as already noted. Nice place, but it was a bit single purpose. A foot locker, a toy/videogame store, a vespa dealer, and an ikea (you could only fit a half of an ikea in there though) would likely see decent business. Somebody slap ikea and get them to come up with an urban version of their store that only stocks a small selection of chairs, couches, tables, beds, and bookshelves.
What makes you think they're referring to you, Monkey? On the other hand, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that everyone's NOT out to get you. Please keep up your anal-obsessed postings, w/ html links. I'm writing-in Monkeyrotica for Prez when I vote in November.
How about a PetSmart! I want to be able to buy cat food in bulk and stroke rescued kitties on weekend jaunts!
A Vespa dealer would likely see decent business?
Really?
Why not a Applebee’s, that’s right I said it, Applebee’s; nothing will piss off listserve/neighborhood elitist more than the thought of a mega chain restaurant. What would hurt even more is the fact that the joint would be would thriving and filled with the hated working class.
Too late RJ, there's one in the Tivoli
Then Olive Garden.
Don't they already have a Ruby Tuesday?
Three words: Texas Cheescake Suppository.
Not necessarily in that order.
Don't tell the folks over at DonRockwell, they might delete my screen name, but I think Ruby Tuesday makes a really good burger...
"i dont mind shopping with lower income people. i just dont like stores like marshalls that are disgusting. did i say i didn't want a...target? no. i just dont like marshalls and the utter disgusting things they sell, it has nothing to do with their clientele."
Seriously? Have you ever actually been to one? I haven't bought a dress shirt any place else in 15 years. I don't know what the "girl's" section is like, but for men's dress/work clothes, it rocks.
"I don't know what the "girl's" section is like, but for men's dress/work clothes, it rocks."
Not like SYMS in Rockville. That store is da' bomb.