The Georgetown Metropolitan

The western end of Water Street will soon have a completely different feel, as the project to renovate it takes shape. The work, captured by BID transportation director Greg Billing, began recently and should be wrapped up within weeks.

As Billing describes, the project is accomplishing several goals. The first and most pressing was the restoration of the steps going from Water Street up to the canal towpath. For years they have been in such bad shape that they resembled something from a Roman ruin. If they weren’t repaired they were on the way to becoming more of a ramp than a set of stairs.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Plotted plant attacks on M St.
• The “most interesting store in the world” coming to Georgetown.

The ANC meets for its July session tonight via Zoom at 6:30.

One item of note is the application by the recent purchaser of the historic “tavern” building on 33rd St. (scare quote used because despite the plaque, the building was not likely ever used as a tavern). They would like to subdivide the property to allow the construction of two new houses on Volta.

This sounds like an odd request, since the home is on 33rd St., several houses away from Volta, but the lot is huge and wraps all the way around to Volta. The plan would be to replace a two car driveway with the new homes:

There’s a really housing shortage in DC, and any more building will help. You might think that homes like this, which will likely sell for 7 figures, won’t help housing affordability, but it does. One more seven figure home in Georgetown, means one sub-seven figure home in other parts of the city doesn’t get bid up, and so on.

GM understands that the design concept for the two new homes was initially rejected by the OGB, but primary on aesthetic grounds. Hopefully a better design will be approved and eventually there will be two more homes, and two new families, in the neighborhood.

Here is the rest of the agenda:

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Terrible news: Sara’s Market closed. (Although, frankly it is still unclear if it really is permanently closed, since the building is still owned by the family that ran the market until 2011).
• GM once tried to rent an apartment in this house and the agent told him not to because it was otherwise filled with loud students. Now it’s selling for over $2 mil.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• GM was informed that the report that Nike is moving into the Aerie building may be a bit premature.
• Monkeypox comes to Georgetown.
• GM is knocking off a bit early in preparation for a trip next week to visit Yellowstone. See you after the Fourth!

DC Urban Turf reported yesterday that the Nike Store is indeed looking to leave its large space at Thomas Jefferson and M. This was reported earlier this year by WBJ. But the new article reports that Nike isn’t leaving the neighborhood entirely. It is moving to 3235 M St. (which currently hosts Aerie, and had hosted All Saints for many years). This would, in either event, leave a large vacancy at the current building. In case you missed it, below is an article GM wrote back in March when the possibility of Nike leaving first emerged:

Last month, WBJ reported that the Nike Store may be on the way out. And GM is hearing rumors that the Amazon Books store next door is also on the way out. These closures, if they come to pass, would add to several other large spaces that have also recently become vacant.

Nike took over the space at 30th and M in 2012. Previously the space was used for many years by Barnes and Nobles (offering one of the more popular third places in the neighborhood). Prior to the Barnes and Nobles, the building hosted the Cerberus 1-2-3 movie theater since 1970. Its unusual size and large windows owe to the fact it was originally built as a car dealership.

From the moment Nike moved in it felt like perhaps they bit off more than they could chew. The three vast floors felt empty, particularly to patrons who once roamed the Barnes and Noble’s bookshelves. And the fact that it appears that Nike is bowing out with years left on the lease would suggest they agree with that assessment.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• GM is hearing word that Sara’s Market may close this week. This would be a huge loss!
• Great old shot of people canoeing along Georgetown waterfront in the early 1900s.

Some more data from GM’s retail survey! Today GM will drill down a little on the openings and closings that took place between November 2019 and now. As mentioned last week, GM counted 68 openings and 123 closings. Here’s where they were:

As you can see, by far the largest category of openings was in restaurants, where there were 22. Clothing stores came in a distant second at 11, and salons trailing at 6. The rest were scattered across a bunch of different categories.

(GM should note here that he did not capture stores that opened and then closed during the gap. There were some, for instance Harper Macaw briefly had a store on M St. But for consistency’s sake, GM did not attempt to capture them.)