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A while back, GM wondered “what’s wrong with upper Georgetown“? GM tried to pin the chronic vacancies and failed stores on the lack of population density around the 1700 block of Wisconsin Ave. The conditions have changed little since this observation, however, as the Washington Business Journal reported yesterday, a few enterprising developers appear to be snatching up whatever available property they can find in upper Georgetown right now.

Michael Neibauer of WBJ reported yesterday that:

A D.C. developer who specializes in building multifamily over restaurants has acquired two properties in upper Georgetown, where he plans to do just that.

Hashim Hassan of Inle Development this week closed on the $900,000 acquisition of 1728 Wisconsin Ave. NW, the former home of P.O. Boxes Etc., a shipping center. In January, Hassan paid $1.1 million for 1659 Wisconsin, a now-shuttered antiques shop.

In both cases, Hassan said he’s thinking restaurant on the ground-floor in both cases, with two stories residential above. In the case of 1728 Wisconsin, Hassan said he is in talks with Aung Toe Myint of Silver Spring’s Mandalay Restaurant & Cafe about a “new trendy, hip Asian concept.”

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Photo by m01299.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Plans emerge for a hotel replacing the old Latham Hotel (which was at one point going to become a micro-unit apartment building).
• See what a Georgetowner and former astronaut had to say at the Q & A Cafe.

Dumbarton Oaks

Behold the list of all 498 stores in Georgetown, as categorized:

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Photo by Rob Mathews.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The old P.O. Boxes Etc. building sold.
• Does Georgetown need a restaurant czar?

As previewed last week, GM has performed his annual census of stores and restaurants around Georgetown and is ready to present the State of Georgetown 2016:

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 498 shops in Georgetown. That’s a tick down from last year’s 506, but that represents only a drop of 1.6%. And some of that is just noise from GM sometimes finding shops he missed the previous count (or realizing he may have over-counted the previous year). The numbers of pure closings and openings is this:

• Closings – 25
• Openings – 23
• Moves within Georgetown – 3

And, as mentioned on Friday, this year’s census comes only 10 months after last year’s tardy census. So it’s a slightly shorter review period.

These numbers would represent a fairly typical year for Georgetown. We add some, we lose some, but it’s mostly horizontal. At least a handful of these closings are for spaces that have already been “claimed” by incoming businesses. Next year they’ll be openings. Continue reading →

Photo by Andrew Griffith.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• What you can do with a unique canal-side home.
• San Fran-based pop-up in the space previously occupied by Uggs.

3200 block of Volta Pl.

Sure you might want to read a Georgetown Metropolitan article right now, but GM thinks you ought spend that time reading a different article instead. The New York Times published a moving article yesterday about Georgetown University’s effort to track the descendants of 272 slaves that the school sold for financial reasons in 1838. Just read it.