Photo by 7194KK.

Jonathan O’Connell reports this morning that Marc Dubick, whose development company Duball LLC partnered with Safeway to build the large CityVista complex in Mount Vernon Square, is currently in talks with the grocer to develop a new project in Petworth. The new development would replace the existing Safeway at 3830 Georgia Avenue NW with a brand new 50,000 square-foot anchor store. 210 housing units would also be built on top of the supermarket.

It’s a promising development for the neighborhood, as the Georgia Avenue Safeway attracts plenty of detractors and has been skipped over for upgrades while the chain has completed a massive rehab on its Georgetown location and minor facelifts on several other locations in the last few years. Of course, Petworthians looking forward to seeing a market like the new Social Safeway just around the corner shouldn’t hold their breath — the CityVista development took nearly eight years to complete, and this isn’t even a done deal yet. Besides, we all know how long some new neighborhood grocery stores can take to get approved in this town.