Business

Robert Devaney • April 11, 2016

The Georgetown Improvement District held its annual meeting June 11 at the Powerhouse building on Grace Street. Georgetown BID board president Crystal Sullivan welcomed the group and touted the BID’s “new era” under CEO Joe Sternlieb. Also recognized were new employees Jonathon Kass as the BID’s first ever transportation  director and Joshua Hermias as its first ever economic development  director.

The BID’s Clean Team under Bill Baker was applauded as well as “employee of the year” Andrew Gill. For its part in revitalizing Washington Harbour and establishing the popular ice skating rink, MRP Realty received the first-ever Community Leadership Award, accepted by MRP’s Bob Murphy. The rink, which opened to the public in November, was “transformative,” Sternlieb said. MRP’s work made a big impact on Georgetown and has attracted new visitors.

Mayor Vincent Gray complimented the BID for its 2028 plan and talked about the District’s own five-year plan, which includes 100,000 new jobs and $1 billion in new tax revenue. Gray cited the ending of “retail leakage,” bringing businesses like Costco to the city, as well as regulation streamlining to make D.C. more business-friendly and adding new high-tech jobs — perhaps even Microsoft in Anacostia, he mused — thus allowing D.C. to be less dependent on the federal government for jobs. Gray also cited the medical industry and tourism as big employees, while he added that D.C. was going after foreign investors, too.

The BID continues to conduct its 15-year plan discussions on Georgetown with the community and any interested party. Visit Plan.Georgetown2028.com to continue the dialogue. The next Community Engagement Meeting on Georgetown 2028 will be in September. The final Georgetown 2028 action plan is scheduled to completed by November.

Robert Devaney •

One of Georgetown Park’s biggest businesses is set to open in November, according to the neighborhood newcomer. The following is from a press release from Pinstripes:

Pinstripes, Inc., today announced it has signed a lease with the Shops at Georgetown Park with the intent to begin construction on the interior and exterior build-out in July. Located on Wisconsin Avenue and overlooking the historic C & O Georgetown Canal, Pinstripes will occupy 34,000 square feet of combined space on the first and second floors and is anticipating a November 2013 opening.

Pinstripes offers a unique dining and entertainment experience featuring Italian and American cuisine, combined with bowling and bocce. The Georgetown location will include 14 bowling lanes, six bocce courts, a bistro and wine cellar, outdoor patios and event space accommodating 20 to 600 persons.

Pinstripes will be open seven days a week for lunch and dinner and is currently taking reservations for private events and parties. In celebration of its opening, Pinstripes is sponsoring a Grand Opening Community Art Contest, with prizes for various age groups.

Robert Devaney •

The neighborhood seems quiet now, but on May 17 Georgetown University began its commencement weekend with post-graduate and special programs on Friday and the main events of its College and School of Foreign Service on Saturday and its Law Center on Sunday. Add to those happy occasions a win for the university on “Jeopardy!” Friday and the recent installation of a John Dreyfuss lyre on its Doha, Qatar, campus of the School of Foreign Service, and you’ve something of an academic trifecta.

Sculptor John Dreyfuss installed his lyre, commissioned by the university two years ago. It was “in our gratitude to Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser and the Royal Family of Qatar,” said university president John DeGioia at the 2011 opening of the new building of Georgetown’s Foreign Service School in Education City. “We hoped to capture the essence of what you have made possible for this campus.” A image of a lyre is on the university’s seal and symbolizes learning and harmony and was invented by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, next to Qatar.

Georgetown’s Jim Coury won the “Jeopardy!” College Championship tournament for the Hoyas. A Foreign Service undergraduate, he claimed the $100,000 grand prize.

As for the commencement ceremonies, neighbors smiled at happy parents and graduates, who listened to Greta van Susteren of Fox News at the law school, where she studied, and saw Walter Pincus of the Washington Post given an honorary degree. Even Lithuania’s President Dalia Grybauskatie was there on Healy Lawn to speak to the Foreign Service School graduates.
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Robert Devaney •

Mike Copperthite and his family held a pie reception May 11 and donated a 1913 landmark photograph to the Georgetown Public Library’s Peabody Room on the occasion the 125th anniversary of the Connecticut-Copperthite Pie Baking Company. For his birthday, Jerry McCoy, director of the special collections at the library, got a strawberry rhubarb pie.

Robert Devaney •

It seems you can go home again, especially with your car. While other neighborhoods see their old-time gas and service stations close, Georgetown has added a new one — with top-notch auto repair technicians, to boot. The new Georgetown Shell Station at 1576 Wisconsin Ave., N.W., has opened at the familiar corner of Wisconsin and Q.

Along with Georgetown Exxon, across the street at 1601 Wisconsin Ave., NW, that corner may hold the last of the true full-service and auto repair stations on Wisconsin Avenue from the Potomac River up past the Beltway in Maryland. For Georgetowners, the convenience of two auto repair service stations in the middle of town is an unexpected boon and rarity.
The new Shell station — with service manager Bobby Ladson and master technician Abe Elias — is keen to emphasize its auto repair service. Both Ladson and Elias have decades of experience. Elias comes to town from the former Eastham’s Exxon in Bethesda. The owner of the Georgetown Shell and the Georgetown Exxon, Hamood Abutaa, also owns the Capitol Hill Exxon and says he wants to be involved with the community as he is over on the Hill.

A Shell gas and service station stood at the corner of Wisconsin and Q for years, while Ladd Mills’s Esso was across the street. A fire in March 2011 destroyed the Georgetown Auto Shop and Washingtonian gas station which operated at the site of the new Georgetown Shell.
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Lisa Gillespie •

Washington, D.C., is known for its power players and government workers – they fuel the local economy and drive growth. The lesbian and bisexual women’s community is no different, with a cohort of women that frequent women’s bars and “ladies” nights at gay clubs. Thrown into the mix of D.C. LGBTQ media that includes Metro Weekly and the Washington Blade is Tagg Magazine, a bi-monthly glossy that serves primarily women who like women and the transgender community.

Managing editor and co-owner Ebone Bell had mulled over the idea of creating a women’s magazine for a few years, but it was in December 2011 that she sat down and decided it was time. It took a little over a year for the magazine to launch, with the first edition hitting street corners in January. Before launching Tagg, she worked in the digital strategies department at AARP, and helped put together the organization’s first LGBT page on its website. She also runs a promotion company, B.O.I. Marketing and Promotions, which throws events throughout the LGBT community.

Bell characterizes the magazine under “lifestyle” and says it lists women’s-only events, and reports on everything from home and family life to the social scene.

The publication is currently operating with mostly volunteer writers, with Bell, an intern and another editor – she hopes to expand the business to eventually hire on paid freelance writers and graphic designers.

Tagg caters to a demographic of women who are out and about on the town – from business owners to young professionals, and advertisers are awaking to that.

“As a startup, not everyone is going to run to your door if you don’t have the product to start out with,” Bell said. “Advertising is always an issue, and getting people to believe in the product, but we’ve done well in cultivating our advertisers, especially over the last few months.”

Bell acknowledges it is a volatile time for print publications, but she said she was confident the women’s community would respond, citing feedback from friends that Metro Weekly and the Washington Blade did not have as much LBT content.
“The Blade and Metro Weekly are great publications and I have a lot of respect for them and what they’ve done,” Bell said. “But after being involved for such a long time, you don’t see a lot of the LBT in some of our local and national publications. Sometimes, when you have a certain readership, that’s what happens.” Tagg also is different, Bell said, in that it does not cover as much news events or politics.

The website that accompanies the magazine currently has around 30,000 monthly visitors, but Bell hopes to double that number in coming months.

Upcoming stories include a June feature on lesbian artists and a monthly feature on “Women You Should Meet” on influential women in the area.

Tagg is People magazine meets the lesbian community, as Bell says, and, “if you pick It up and don’t know it’s geared toward women, it’s like any other pub you pick up, there are cool recipes or tips on how to find a date and feature stories. Our goal is to make sure we do a good job in the metro area, couple years to get support, move across the country and have Tagg in other major cities.”
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Gwendolyn Shearman •

Washington, D.C., has seen its share of ups and downs, but after a lull in construction, the cranes are out in the city, indicating that the nation’s capital is on the cusp of even more growth. Along with Walmart coming to the District, there are numerous development projects in the works. Highlighted are a few projects that are planned or underway and are sure to change the face of their D.C. neighborhoods.

Walmarts under Construction

Georgia & Missouri Ave. NW – traditional one level project, scheduled to open by the end of the year.
99 H St. NW – part of mixed-use building with 300+ apartments

Other Planned Walmarts
New York Avenue & Bladensburg Road NE
Good Hope Rd. and Alabama Ave. SE
East Capitol Street & 58th St.
Riggs Road NE & South Dakota Ave. NE

CityCenter Boundaries: New York Avenue NW, 9th Street NW, H Street NW, and 11th Street NW

• The 10-acre mixed development, currently in Phase I, plans to use the 4.5 blocks between New York Avenue, 9th Street, and H & 11th Streets NW to include a seven building spread.

• The structures will house a total 270,000 square feet of retail space, 520,000 square feet of office space, 458 rental apartment units, 216 condominiums, a 370 room luxury hotel, a public park, and pedestrian-oriented streets and alleyways.

• The tenants for the office spaces have started filling up in anticipation of the completion of the project, including CoStar, American Hospital Association, which recently announced they will lease 42,000 square feet of office space.

• CityCenter announced March 5 that there is more than 51 percent occupancy at the 925 H Street location, which is still under construction. The price of homes in CityCenter range from $500,000 to $3.5 million.

• William B. Alsup, III, senior managing director at Hines, the developer of CityCenter DC, said in a statement, “The achievement is a testament to the superior quality and attention to detail of not only the residences, but also the design and delivery of the entire CityCenterDC development, which will serve as the signature destination for business, culture, and community.”

• The retail spaces in CityCenter will house 60 stores and restaurants. No leases have been announced.

H Street NE
Capitol Place, 701 2nd Street NE
Station Place, F Street & 2nd Street NE

• Capitol Place will hold 375 residential units, including studios to two bedrooms, 309 parking spaces in an underground garage, and upwards of 20,000 square feet of retail space, according to Fisher Brothers Real Estate, the space’s developers. Amenities will include a rooftop pool and courtyard.

• Across the street and attached to Union Station, Station Place, is planned to be a multi-building workspace with 1.5 million square feet on a 5.5-acre site. Property group, Louis Dreyfus, has leased two building with 1,070,000 square feet to the Securities and Exchange Commission Building. A third building has a total of 505,000 square feet of office space available.

• Louis Dreyfus Property Group has leased building 1 and 2 with a rentable areas of 1,070,000 square feet to the Securities and Exchange Commission Building

• The Department of Small and Local Business Development estimates that the H Street Great Street and Streetcar Project will invest $65 million into the area’s streetlights, curbs, sidewalks, as well as trees and landscaping over the next few years.

• Also coming to H Street, the first segment of the new D.C. Streetcar system, which is in its last 20 percent of roadway construction. The 2.4-mile streetcar line will run from Union Station to Benning Road/Oklahoma Ave. The District Department of Transportation Service plans to extend the line to include a 37-mile system that will span all eight wards.

St. Elizabeth’s East
1100 Alabama Ave. SE

• One of the last large-scale redevelopment locations left in D.C., St. Elizabeth’s East was originally part of the mental health hospital complex established by Congress in the 1850s and was in use until 1987.

• Now, led by executive director Catherine Buell, the 183-acre campus will bring together community, commerce, universities and federal partners and will cohabit to bring innovation and invigorate the growing local economy in the transit-oriented location.

• Beginning in 2012, 16 of the historic buildings began to undergo restoration in order to prepare them for their new life as part of the revitalized St. Elizabeth’s East.

• Among the new tenants, the Department of Homeland Security will be consolidating their headquarters currently spread across the D.C. area, to the East campus.

• According to the Executive Office of the Mayor, a partnership of international firms, KADCON, Davis Brody Bond, and Robert Silman Associates, have been contracted for the first stage of renovation on the Gateway Pavilion, which is slated to open by the end of 2013.

• Looking into the future, a decision on the construction of Phase 1 of the development will be selected in April.

The Wharf
690 Water Street SW

• Utilizing three-quarters of a mile of continuous waterfront and marina space, the project looks to bring affordable housing, hotels, amenities, and retail in combination with local business and open public space to the Southwest Waterfront.

• The water-focused development, lead by developer Hoffman-Madison Marquette, received approval to begin construction in January of this year. Monty Hoffman, managing member of Hoffman-Madison Waterfront said this January, “After more than six years of planning and substantial investment, we are preparing to launch one of the highest profile redevelopments in the country. We are ready to put shovels in the ground for this $2 billion redevelopment of the Southwest.”

• The redevelopment looks to bring sustainable design, including being the first LEED-Gold (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) mixed use project in the District.

• Modeled after other famous wharves in Baltimore and San Francisco, the project plans to house 560 residential units, a 600-room hotel, 840,000 square feet of office space, 335,000 square feet of retail space, 2,500 underground parking spaces, as well as a possible musical hall or museum focused on maritime education.
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Robert Devaney •

The General Services Administration concluded its online auction for the West Heating Plant on 29th Street March 6 with a win for “Bidder # 2,” it indicated, at $19.5 million.

For days, real estate and business watchers wondered who won the auction. The winner was revealed March 12, when Richard Levy told the Washington Business Journal that his firm, the Fours Season and the New York-based Georgetown Group had gotten the property.

Levy told the journal the team plans to spend more than $100 million on the reconstruction project.
After the auction began on Jan. 18, the first bid at $500,001 came on Feb. 14 with a few bidders going back and forth for days. Each 24 hours required a new bid to keep the auction going; March 5 saw the final bid.

Here’s what the Georgetowner reported about the Levy Group plan in November 2011:

The Levy Group, a longtime and well-known owner of Georgetown commercial real estate, and the Georgetown Company of New York City, which is working with Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Strategic Hotels & Resorts, Inc., are proposing a project to build a Four Seasons Private Residences and create an adjacent park on the site of the West Heating Plant. According to the group, “the proposal, which has been developed over the past year and a half, is being made public following the GSA’s recent announcement that it plans to dispose of the underutilized and inaccessible property that sits at the confluence of the C&O Canal and Rock Creek Park at the foot of Georgetown.”

“We and the Georgetown Company have joined forces with the Four Seasons to bring life to a cordoned-off section of Georgetown,” said the Levy Group’s managing principal Richard Levy. “Our priorities are clear: transform the West Heating Plant into an attractive and contributing building that complements and respects the neighborhood and create a new park that links the the C&O Canal and Rock Creek Park with the Georgetown Waterfront Park. … The proposed renovated building will include approximately 80 Four Seasons Private Residences … A significant part of the property south of the West Heating Plant will be dedicated to parkland …”

Robert Devaney •

Coming to the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and S Street, NW, in the former Miller & Arney Antiques, is Sweet Frog, a frozen yogurt franchise, founded in 2009 in Richmond by Derek Cha and his wife Annah Kim. So reports the Georgetown Metropolitan blog. The frozen yogurt business had more than 100 stores in 15 states and one in South Korea. The company states: “SweetFrog was founded on the principles of Christianity and our belief in bringing happiness and a positive attitude into the lives of our consumers. At sweetFrog, F.R.O.G stands for Fully Rely On God – and we hope to be an example of that in every community!”

Robert Devaney •

MRP Realty and investment partner, Rock- point Group LLC, will put Washington Harbour, the Georgetown retail, office and residential landmark on K Street and the Potomac River up for sale in March or April, as first reported by Washington Business Journal.

“The Potomac River property could fetch well in excess of $250 million,” according to the Business Journal. “MRP and Rockpoint teamed up in June 2010 to buy the two-building center for $244.5 million, or about $459 per square foot. One real estate expert familiar with the property estimated it could go for as much as $400 million.”

“When we purchased the asset three years ago we saw some phenomenal opportunity at the Harbour. It is an irreplaceable landmark as- set,” Bob Murphy, managing principal of MRP Realty, told the Journal. “We really love the project. We really have put our heart and soul into it, and we’re excited when we see value created.”

Along with $50 million in renovation and getting past the April 2011 flood, Washington Harbour premiered the ice skating rink at its center fountain last November. The ice rink and renovated restaurants made the riverside complex a year-round destination.