Photo by alex.DC.

The Post’s Danielle Douglas provides an update on the leasing activity at DCUSA, and finds that space in and around it, like so many ripe bananas at the building’s anchor Target, is going fast. Or at least it is when it comes to national food retailers.

Douglas reports that Modell’s Sporting Goods, DSW Shoes and Panera Bread have all signed leases to move into the development, while all of the other slots are currently under negotiation. And that, in turn, is having an effect on the real estate around the neighborhood:

And those are just the signed leases. All of the remaining slots at the 550,000-square-foot shopping center are in various stages of negotiations, said Drew Greenwald, president of Grid Properties, the New York outfit that owns the site. At the moment, the complex is 85 percent occupied, anchored by the big-box trifecta of Target, Best Buy and Bed Bath & Beyond.

[…]

“There’s been a lot of transactions in that trade area; it has great density and diverse socioeconomics,” said KLNB Retail broker Benjamin Becker, who is marketing a storefront at 3018 14th St. “We’ve gotten a few dozen inquiries, mostly from national food retailers.”

The report reopens the debate about retail diversity in Columbia Heights’ core. The neighborhood is arguably without peer if you’re looking to pick up a television, some sneakers, a comforter, a ream of printer paper and, of course, some cheap takeout in one fell swoop. But those looking to buy a book that’s not written by John Grisham or Danielle Steel are pretty much out of luck. Becker’s words might concern some neighborhood residents who are worried about the area becoming a nexus of sorts for national fast food — after all, DCUSA by itself already features pancake, Chinese, Peruvian chicken, and sub joints in which a neighborhood where a killer bowl of pho or a decent taco is just a short stroll away. (Not to mention the proximity around DCUSA features any number of fast food eateries like Five Guys, Potbelly’s and Pollo Campero, plus other quasi-fast sit-down joints like Pete’s Apizza and Ruby Tuesday.)

It doesn’t sound like we can expect D.C. small businesses to be competing for the remainder of the space inside the development either, despite a 30 percent rent discount for locally-owned businesses. Last month, New Columbia Heights asked Robert Moore of the Development Corporation of Columbia Heights about small businesses inside the development. Said Moore:

We have responded to any number of small businesses interested in leasing in DCUSA. For the most part, the buildings spaces are a bit too large for most start up businesses. Financing the costs of build out also is too costly for many small tenants and lenders have not been interested in making business loans for start ups. We remain aggressively interested in assisting small businesses.

The DCCH and DCUSA can be as aggressive as they’d like in recruiting local small businesses. I don’t doubt they are trying. But if the costs are too prohibitive, nearby residents should probably brace themselves for the continued invasion of the cheap eateries.