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Shopping Centers Today -> July 2001
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MAJOR REDEVELOPMENT AFOOT IN DOWNTOWN D.C.
By Debra Hazel
Washington, D.C. — Visitors to the U.S. capital see a city that doesn’t change much: The Capitol, Washington Monument, Smithsonian Institution and the White House, among other structures, remain in place and unchanged. Those who live and work in Washington, D.C., can expect to see a drastically changed city, as retail and residential developments spring up to revive the district.
A tour of redevelopment projects in conjunction with ICSC’s Mid-Atlantic Idea Exchange, held here in April, showed a market ready to rebuild some areas devastated by race riots more than 30 years ago as well as neighborhoods close to its historic and business districts.
Some 3.6 million square feet of new retail space is either planned or under construction, according to the Washington D.C. Marketing Center, which led a tour of development sites for ICSC conference attendees. Retail sales for the district totaled $8.29 billion last year, up from $7.73 billion in 1999.
Perhaps most dramatic are the plans for Columbia Heights, which saw massive looting and destruction during the riots touched off by the death of Martin Luther King Jr. The main shopping thoroughfare, 14th Street, now pockmarked with vacant lots, soon will be a hotbed of activity.
"This is an area at the crossroads of gentrification," said Joe Horning, president of locally based Horning Bros. Horning is a co-developer of Tivoli Square, the redevelopment of the Tivoli Theater, a shuttered 2,000-seat house that will be converted to retail (including a 46,000-square-foot Giant supermarket), office and a 250-seat theater.
Other projects planned nearby include DC USA, being developed by the same team that completed the Harlem USA center in Manhattan. The project will bring 550,000 square feet of retail and entertainment, including a multiscreen cinema and an ice skating rink, to 14th Street, as well as a 1,000-car parking garage.
"We have tremendous needs in the area, and people didn’t want to see [visitors] parking on their residential streets," said Robert L. Moore, president and CEO of the Development Corporation of Columbia Heights, the nonprofit co-developer of both the Tivoli project and DC USA.
Residential units, including lofts, are being built, with small retail on the street level also being built in the area.
On Georgia Avenue/Shaw, near Howard University, two different plans are under way for the Howard University Town Center, said Telaekah Brooks of the Georgia Avenue Business Resource Center. One plan for the project, at George Avenue and Barry Place, calls for the construction of a science center and 100,000 square feet of retail. The second plan calls for 650,000 square feet of entertainment and retail.
Just one mile east of the U.S. Capitol in Barracks Row, five city blocks at the historic Navy Yard at M Street are being redeveloped as a Main Street project.
The total complex consists of 600,000 square feet, with about 125,000 square feet already being dedicated to service-oriented retail. The redevelopment will focus more on arts, entertainment and restaurants.
Several D.C. redevelopments are geared toward both visitors and residents, including the retail being included in the new Washington Convention Center, scheduled to open in March 2003. The 2.3 million-square-foot facility will include 44,000 square feet of retail, including food and beverage vendors and a business center.
Once a thriving retail corridor, D.C.’s downtown was devastated by the 1990s closing of such landmark department stores as Hecht’s, Woodward & Lothrop and Garfinkel’s. Today, the 110-square-block Downtown Business Improvement District has identified 50 projects under construction or in the near or medium-term planning stages. These include residential, the development of Gallery Place into a 525,000-square-foot mixed-use project containing 220,000 square feet of retail and a 12-screen cinema, and the conversion of the former Hecht’s building into residential, office, arts and retail.
Other upcoming projects previewed on the tour included: Anacostia Gateway, with 300,000 square feet of office and 50,000 square feet of retail at Good Hope Road and Martin Luther King Boulevard S.E.; and the continuing redevelopment of the Hechinger Mall building at Benning Road N.E.
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