Photo courtesy The Heights LifeEllwood Thompson’s, the organic grocer who, over the last three years, was rumored to be coming to Columbia Heights, then signed a lease at DCUSA, then delayed its plans indefinitely, then started some construction work, then reportedly bailed on the space and pissed off Jim Graham, then claimed they were working with their landlord to “to make this happen” — has now admitted that they will not be opening a store in the retail complex along Irving Street NW.
In a statement released this afternoon, the grocer announced that it had officially terminated its lease on the space along Irving Street after conducting a “full analysis of the challenging economic circumstances.” The lease, which Ellwood Thompson’s entered into in 2008, is held by New York-based developer New York based Grid Properties — according to the Washington Business Journal, there’s no word yet on whether Grid is planning to woo another grocer to the space or not.
Sorry, Columbia Heights residents: you’ll just have to settle for having the Giant and the Target — or just subsisting on a pancake-only diet at the IHOP next door to where Ellwood Thompson’s would have gone — for the time being. Of course, nothing’s stopping you from pining for other grocery stores — like ones that rhyme with Schmader Schmoe’s — to fill the space.
