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1500 block of 33rd St.

As previewed yesterday, GM has performed his annual census of stores and restaurants around Georgetown and is ready to present the State of Georgetown 2017:

Before going further, GM should insert his typical caveat. First, it’s important to know that it’s more of an art than a science. The term “shop” as used here refers to just about all commercial establishments: retail stores, restaurants, salons, gyms, etc. GM doesn’t count pure office space. The rule of thumb GM uses is if you can walk in without an appointment, it’s a shop. But again, sometimes it’s a close call. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

GM also has no capability to measure square footage or annual sales, etc. Check out the BID’s annual report for that sort of detail. This is more a pure head count.

That said, here we go:

Overall Picture

This year GM counted 512 shops in Georgetown. That’s a slight increase of last year’s count of 498. As described yesterday, the numbers of pure closings and openings is this:

• Closings – 36
• Openings – 30
• Moves within Georgetown – 6

And, as mentioned yesterday, this year’s census comes 14 months after last year’s census. So the increase in openings and closings over last year is partially explained by the longer period. Both this year and last year are pretty slow in terms of openings and closings compared with some previous years. For instance, 2015 had 43 openings and 51 closings. 2014 had 42 openings and 32 closings. So things have appeared to have stabilized. (They’re so stable that GM simply took last year’s article and only had to make a handful of adjustments for this year.)
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Photo by Bill Starrels.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Blue Bottle Coffee opens this weekend on the alley behind Dean and Deluca.
• Clyde’s is opening a waterfront music venue in Columbia, MD, which is Georgetown-related in that it recalls their failed effort to build a floating restaurant in Georgetown.

1500 block of 33rd St.

GM finally did his annual survey of stores this past weekend. And the initial tally (before double checking) would suggest a decently active year in terms of openings and closings.

According to these preliminary numbers there were 36 store openings in Georgetown last year, with 30 closings (and 6 store moves). Last year he counted only 23 openings and 25 closures.

GM should note that last year he counted in April, not June. And last year’s survey only covered 10 months, whereas-due to GM’s tardiness-this year’s covers 14 months. If you normalize the numbers to 12 months it would be 27.6 openings and 30 closures for 2016 vs. 31.0 openings and 25.7 closures. So that makes this year only slightly more active than last year.

GM is still quality checking the numbers and crunching them, so he’ll report more later this week.

Photo by Marc Andre.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Kung Fu Tea no open above Zannchi.
• The Wawa got some serious pushback from the ANC last week. The company needs zoning relief, but it may be tough to get.

GM’s going to knock-off for the long weekend. Enjoy it!

1600 block of 32nd St.

This week for Now and a Long Time Ago, GM is back again with a photo from the Wymer’s map. This one is of M St. facing west from Thomas Jefferson St.

For the most part the buildings haven’t really changed much. There is one big exception though. The second black and white building from the right (the one just to the west of the Old Stone House) is no more. It was (apparently) torn down to access the large surface parking lot that now sits at the end of the alley. Continue reading →

Photo by Bill Starrels.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• A little more on how the DC budget is keeping the gondola dream alive.
• The maze of tunnels under Georgetown University.