New opportunities
Nov 1, 2001 12:00 PM
Approximately 380,000 sq. ft. of retail space is currently under construction downtown. This includes a 14-screen AMC movie theatre at Gallery Place, a 6-screen fine arts cinema at 10th and E Streets (map, #40), homegrown restaurants, and specialty retail.
One new development on 7th and E Streets includes a $180 million project by Texas developer JPI (map, #18 & 21). The project, which broke ground in October, will feature 420 condos; 40,000 sq. ft. of retail; 36,000 sq. ft. of arts space; and a new 250-seat theater for the Woolly Mammoth Theater Company. Variety hails the troupe as having “a fierce dedication to the offbeat.”
The complex, which is slated to open in the fall of 2003, is located among several successful art galleries and just across the street from the Shakespeare Theater. This multi-use urban complex will maintain its historic three-story storefronts. Madison Retail will be entertaining offers from retailers for five different spaces that surround a 21,000-sq.-ft. high-end grocery store.
Serving as the keystone of the 7th and F Street axis is the $150 million mixed-use project by CarrAmerica Urban Development. Terrell Place will span 482,800 sq. ft. Now under construction, it includes an 11-story office building, 37,500 sq. ft. of retail space, 22 condos, and the redevelopment of the former Hecht's department store (map, #14). It sits directly across the street from the MCI Center and the old Tariff Building, which is currently being renovated — and re-wired for the tech-dependant business traveler — into a five-star boutique Hotel Monaco (map, #30) by the Kimpton Group of San Francisco. “Both 7th and F Streets have seen tremendous revitalization over the last two to three years,” says Mike Howard, director of retail services at CarrAmerica in Washington D.C. “We feel we are sitting on one of the best retail corners and development sites in Washington (map, #14).”
Another project currently under redevelopment is the former Woodward & Lothrop department store (map, #41). Located directly above the hub of the Washington region's Metrorail system, the vacant 1920s department store spans approximately 500,000 sq. ft. “Our project features approximately 170,000 sq. ft. of retail space on the first, lower and second floors and 320,000 sq. ft. of Class A office space. Plans and leasing are currently underway,” says Douglas Jemal, president of Douglas Development, owner/developer of the property. The project — which enjoys approximately 800 sq. ft. of frontage along four of downtown's most prominent corridors — is expected to have an impact on the retail leasing along adjacent and surrounding blocks.
Jemal's other project on F Street which is very near completion is a 55,000 sq. ft mixed-use museum complex (map, #44). When it opens in the first quarter of 2002 the new state-of-the-art interactive International Spy Museum should be the hottest new attraction on the East Coast. Primarily renovated Victorian architecture, the mixed-use site also includes 55,000 sq. ft. of offices, a restaurant, and 20 loft apartments with exposed brick walls and hardwood floors.
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