The Georgetown Metropolitan

A notable commercial property has hit the market. The L’Enfant Gallery building at the corner of Wisconsin and P is for sale. The asking price is $7.25 million.

Here is a description from the listing:

Historic Commercial/Residential Space For Sale! Rare opportunity to own 19th Century landmark property on one of the most prominent corners in historic Georgetown. Three story Italianate style building with 10 foot ceilings on each above ground level . A lower level large basement is used for storage. For many years the building included residential space with multiple two-bedroom units. Presently two floors are used as gallery space. The top floor has been converted into a spacious two Bedroom apartment flooded with natural light streaming from the walls of windows. The building has been featured in several Hollywood movies due to its optimum setting and noted architecture such as eight sets of double Palladian windows with sweeping views across the city. Whether residential or commercial use, the location is in the heart of Georgetown with excellent traffic. First time on the market in 25 years. Building is a mixed use property and can be used as commercial, residential, or both as it is currently set up.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Live in an old police station.
• Thinking about buying or selling a house this year? Here’s some advice from Georgetown brokers.

This edition of Where the Streets Had Old Names, GM is tackling one of the oddest old street names in Georgetown: Road Street. But sadly he couldn’t get to the bottom of it.

Road Street is what is now known as R St. It became R at the same time the other streets changed over in the 1890s. (Although starting in the 1880s, it was already getting called R St. occasionally.)

But what an odd name. Road Street. What could explain this redundant name?

The first thing to note is that it was called Road Street seemingly from the very beginning. There is an act of the City of Georgetown in 1808 referring to the roadway with this name:

That’s notable because being such a northern street for Georgetown, it was very much the backwoods of the neighborhood at the time.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Are you concerned about the situation with Ukraine and Russia? Come to the next Q & A Cafe Feb 22 for a talk with Margaret Brennan of CBS on the topic.
• Great photo of a streetcar passing the old Georgetown Theater in the 1950s.

The cap on tavern liquor licenses in Georgetown looks set to double in the near future. But given the current trends, it might not make much of a difference.

First some law, then some history. Most liquor licenses in DC are issued as restaurant licenses. Since the licenses are meant to be for genuine restaurants, they come with a requirement that the establishment generate at least 45% of its revenues from the sale of food. Taverns, on the other hand, are meant to run as bars primarily. As such, they do not have any food sales requirements. From the perspective of an establishment owner, therefore, tavern licenses are more desirable for places that want to get most of their revenues from sales of beer, wine and liquor.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• GU’s Covid numbers are spiking again…
• Takeout Tuesday is Los Cuates and City Sliders today. Share your experience for a chance to win a $50 gift card!

Another large retail space is about to become vacant: the CB2 is closing. Its last day of operations with be February 20th. GM is not aware of any tenants planning on taking over the space.

This spin-off from Crate & Barrel first opened in Georgetown in 2011. (It took over a space that was vacant long enough that GM has no records of what preceded it.) This space joins the Gap and Zara (not to mention large parts of the former mall) among the largest vacant gaps in the streetscape.

On the positive side, this space is owned by Eastbanc. And that firm has generally had success leasing out vacant space, either to long term tenants or to one or more short term pop-ups (as we’ve seen in Cady’s Alley). So perhaps it won’t be vacant long. We’ll see.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Last Friday was the 127th anniversary of the end of the independent municipality of Georgetown.
• GM mentioned that it looked like the 7-Eleven was really done last week, and then on Thursday it looks like the last of the remaining equipment was removed as well.