Bigger retail could be coming to the District’s downtown area adding to the robust resurgence in shopping along some of the central city’s main corridors. With Seventh and H streets the new epicenter for downtown shopping (the newly opened Benetton, Urban Outfitters, Ann Taylor Loft, et al) and Hechts and H&M over toward Metro Center, the Post took a look at the status of the rebirth of downtown Washington’s shopping. Some critics might say that the shopping options aren’t all that varied, but it’s a start.
While new residential units downtown have certainly helped this rebirth, the Post says that the daytime office population has laid a firm foundation for new businesses to open and do well. And more is coming.
DCist will be watching the redevelopment of the old Convention Center site (bounded by New York Avenue, H Street, Ninth and 11th sts) as that could be the keystone that will cement a healthy commercial district. Some are eyeing part of the site for a hotel that would serve the new Convention Center on Mount Vernon Square. There has been talk of a music museum, residential and commercial buildings. The Post indicates that a department store like Saks Fifth Avenue or Bloomingdale’s could anchor the redeveloped site.
DCist thinks that depending on what kind of anchor goes in at the old Convention Center site, H, Ninth and 11th streets could develop into healthy pedestrian corridors where shopping could thrive. Certainly, D.C. will never have a Magnificent Mile, but could have something similar to the area surrounding Seattle’s Westlake Center. But this is the District. Lofty visions often get mired in the realities of local politics. We’ll have to wait and see.
— DCist on Seventh Street’s new architecture.
— More on Downtown D.C.
