Business

Caitlin Franz • March 26, 2015

Kanchan Singh is looking to open the District’s first cat café, in Georgetown of all places. Singh launched a Kickstarter campaign for the café, called Crumbs and Whiskers, on March 8. By March 9, the page had exceeded its $15,000 goal, with backers and pledges continuing to roll in.

Singh is very excited about the success of the campaign.

“It’s actually blowing my mind,” she said. “This is the best Monday of my life.”

If you pledge $10 or more to their Kickstarter, Crumbs and Whiskers will write your ex’s of (or an other hated being in your life) the name in permanent marker on a litter box. Rewards are based on the amount of money you pledge. Items include post cards, T-shirts, the privilege of naming a cat and a private party.

Writing the name of donor’s ex on a litter box has been the most popular item.

After Zoning and Department of Health qualification requirements are met, campaign supporters will be notified of when to expect their rewards.

Any pledges made will not be charged to the donor’s card if the business is denied zoning approved.
The business in the process of signing a lease with plans to open this summer.

All cats at the café will be available for adoption through the Washington Humane Society. Food, meanwhile, will be prepared off-site and delivered to café. Guests will be expected to make reservations and pay an hourly cover charge.

Robert Devaney •

On March 20 and 21, Sterling & Burke, the stylish, upscale leather goods and specialty-gifts store on Pennsylvania Avenue, hosted “Bespoke: Jermyn Street Comes to Washington, D.C.” The trunk show featured London’s West End tailors Benson & Clegg, shirtmakers Budd and shoemakers Foster & Son.

Robert Devaney •

David Bernand returned to Georgetown this week as general manager of the Four Seasons Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue. Seven years ago, Bernand had been the hotel’s manager and, before that, the director of food and beverage. Most recently, the French native was general manager at the Four Seasons Resort in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He succeeds Dirk Burghartz, who left for a Four Seasons resort in Las Colinas, outside of Dallas.

“Returning to D.C. is like coming home,” Bernand told the press. “All of the best memories I have with the company are here in Washington. From attending to high-profile clientele to working with loyal staff, each aspect of the operation made a difference in my decision to return to this iconic hotel.”

Bernard is the eighth general manager to lead D.C.’s only Forbes Five-Star and AAA Five-Diamond hotel with its 222 rooms, Seasons Restaurant, Bourbon Steak and M29 Lifestyle store, overseeing 450 employees. He arrives at a time when D.C. is seeing hotels opening or being renovated in time for the 2016 General Election and 2017 Presidential Inauguration – and in time for a $13-million renovation of his hotel’s rooms this summer.

Robert Devaney •

Closed for seven years, the once legendary Watergate Hotel – part of the equally legendary Watergate complex on the Potomac River, next to Georgetown – marked a ceremonial “topping off” of the hotel’s grand ballroom – part of a $125-million renovation – on March 19.

“Once it was the grandest luxury hotel,” said Jacques Cohen, principal of Euro Capital Properties, which is developing and owns the Watergate Hotel. The group intends to bring back the hotel’s mystique with retro styling and luxe appointments, as well as a 12th-floor rooftop bar. Other amenities at the hotel, which will re-open this summer, include a whisky bar, fine dining and casual restaurants and a fitness center and spa.

The grand ballroom, the “hotel’s crown jewel,” according to Rakel Cohen, the director of design and development of Euro Capital Properties, will be called the Moretti Ballroom after the hotel’s designer Luigi Moretti, the Italian architect who created the complex’s contemporary and ground-breaking style in 1961.

The hotel opened in 1965. Completed in 1971, the mixed-use Watergate complex with three residential buildings, two office buildings and a hotel was constructed by Italy-based SGI and developer Giuseppe Cecchi.

The Cohens were joined by Mayor Muriel Bowser, Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans and Foggy Bottom advisory neighborhood commissioner William Kennedy Smith, M.D., “Mad Men” costume designer Janie Bryant and hotel managing director Johnny So.

Peter Murray •

With 16 years of success under their belts, Tom Anderson, Dana Landry, Bill Moody and Marc Schappell at Washington Fine Properties are marking their “Sweet Sixteen” with tech savvy and style.

In business since 1999, the firm has made waves in Washington’s real estate market by brokering deals on some of the most luxurious homes in the District. During that time, the internet experienced explosive transformation, transitioning from just another means to communicate to a vast source of data and information utilized by businesses and individuals alike.

The internet revolution hit the real estate market in a big way. “Statistics show that 98 percent of people buying homes use the internet as a tool in their search process,” Landry points out. He goes on to say that the web has revolutionized the house touring process. Prospective buyers’ “first appointment is all online and if they like what they see on the web, they’ll come see the house.”

So WFP fine-tuned their site, gearing it “towards the properties, not the agents,” by blowing out their photography, embedding video (sometimes filmed by drones flown by ex-military pilots) and information about nearby schools and, most impressive, bringing Google Street View-like technology to virtual tours of homes on the market through Matterport 3D Modeling. Landry describes it, saying, “If you click on circles in the pictures, it takes you right through the room and you can walk through the whole house.” (Take a tour for yourself here.)

Then, he says, there’s the “dollhouse version” feature on the new site, allowing prospective buyers – or just those with high aspirations or a lot of curiosity – to look through the house in “layers,” with a simple click putting you inside any room in the house. Landry boasts that no other real estate firm in the area is using this technology (yet).

In addition, four weeks ago WFP launched a new in-house app that connects their team, bringing brokers together to better serve the firm’s clients. Landry says, “When we can get our whole team working on an assignment for one of our clients, the power of the team is incredible.” He compares it to Facebook, saying that agents can push notifications to one another about new listings or a client’s specific needs.

The app also stores “critical information” previously only accessible by PC, such as essential forms and lists of home inspectors, appraisers and settlement attorneys.

Landry notes that WFP’s tech upgrades weren’t cheap, but that they have paid off with regard to bringing in and streamlining business. With a relatively small 130-person team, Landry says, “We’ve always prided ourselves on being agile and able to implement effective tools for our agents.” WFP is doing just that with their new web tools.