The Georgetown Metropolitan

The Washington Business Journal reported yesterday that Capital One Bank has purchased the old Nathans building from Sagamore Development. And they paid a lot for it. A ridiculously lot for it. Namely $50 million.

WBJ is estimating that this puts the price at more than $5,700 per square foot, which could make it the most expensive square footage sold in DC ever. Sagamore bought the property from the Heon family in 2014 for a price reported to be around $14 million. Significant money must have been put into the project, but it still seems likely that Sagamore made a tidy profit on the deal.

This, of course, comes as a bit of a surprise. It was long expected that Under Armour would move in since Kevin Plank, the founder and CEO of Under Armour (and a Georgetown resident), owns Sagamore Development. But news reports emerged last spring that suggested that they were looking for a different tenant. Now this. Continue reading →

Photo by John Weiss.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Watermelon slushies at the Graham.
• Short profile on Cady’s Alley.

1000 block of 31st st.

There will be a brief ANC meeting next week. It will be at a different time than normal. It will be at 5 pm on Wednesday (still at Visitation).

Typically the ANC skips August, and it appears the primary reason that a meeting is being called is to weigh in on some liquor licenses before the protest period ends. Specifically they’re addressing a new wine shop on Grace St., Church (a, you got it, church-themed restaurant coming to the mall by Geoff Dawson), and the Georgetown Cafe, a restaurant proposed for N St. just east of Wisconsin.

They are also discussion the safety issue of Water St., which is of particular concern following the homicide there last month. Continue reading →

Photo by Daniel Lobo.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Bottle from old soda factory in Georgetown shows up in demolished Maryland home.
• Great footage of a concert on the canal in the 1970s.

3200 block of P St.

This week for now and a long time ago, GM returns to the Wymer Map collection for a great shot of Grace St.

Much hasn’t changed between the 1940s and today. The buildings along the right appear almost all the same. However, the building that currently holds the Patagonia was actually built in the 70s, and it appears there was another building immediately to the west that no longer exists.

The building that now houses Chaia tacos was at the time of the older photo occupied by G. Morris Steinbraker & Sons. In fact, they built the building in 1945, only a few years before the photo was taken. This family-owned contractor incredibly continued to use this building as a woodworking shop until a few years ago.

The family still owns the building and is renting it to the restaurant. Continue reading →

Photo by Bill Starrels.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Guide for Georgetown restaurants.
• New farmstand coming to the parking lot at Grace and Wisconsin. Hopefully they’ll have more luck than the farmer’s market at P and Wisconsin, which isn’t coming back.

Potomac River

As GM wrote in June, the city is proposing to chop the Wisconsin Ave. leg of the Circulator bus. GM reflexively rejected this proposal. And perhaps that’s the correct position, but there are some possible alternatives that could make it a worthwhile trade off. Let GM know what you think of them.

The city’s argument (as expressed by DDOT) for ending Circulator service up Wisconsin Ave. is that it is causing the entire line to fail. The original promise of the Circulator was that it would come every ten minutes. It does not meet that goal anymore. And the city largely blames traffic on Wisconsin Ave. for that failure. If the bus turned around at M St., DDOT argues, it would gain back a lot of the time lost.

Additionally, DDOT argues that the supposedly ridership on Wisconsin Ave. further justifies cutting it.

As GM mentioned, his initial reaction was to reject this proposal. If any traffic is hurting the Circulator on Wisconsin, it’s mostly coming from below M (and along K) and cutting service above M won’t address that. Additionally, ridership is always worse at the end of a line, particularly one that doesn’t end at a node. Maybe if the city complied with the Council’s legislation that ordered the line extended to the Cathedral, ridership would pick up. Continue reading →