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With the western portion of the 5.5-acre Florida Rock site along the Anacostia River just south of Nats Park not likely to be built on for a number of years (thanks to that pesky little detail of needing to demolish the existing Douglass Bridge first), there are again plans being discussed to "activate" the area with an interim use, even while construction continues to the east on the project's first-phase apartment building.
Developer MRP Realty will be going to ANC 6D in the coming days/weeks to look for feedback on what the space could offer, but the basics they are envisioning at this point are to use the space as an outdoor "brew garden" while also providing a large neighborhood-oriented park.
MRP would partner with the brewing team from Bardo, who would be in charge of the on-site vats and the craft beer-filled taps, while the rest of the site could see a number of sub-vendors offering various activities, like a putt-putt course or maybe even batting cages. There would also be picnic tables along the river, food (on-site offerings and food trucks are both possibilities), and family-friendly programming as yet undetermined.
What the site will not offer is large concerts or private events, though smaller-scale music could be a possibility. I'm told the site would have a maximum capacity of around 1,000 guests.
This is not the first rodeo for the idea of using this large open space, although previous notions were on a larger scale and perhaps might be described as more Fairgrounds-like, a comparison that this new proposal is apparently trying very hard to avoid.
Since it's all still in the brainstorming phase, and still has to go through the ANC, the alcohol/beverage folks, and various city agencies for permits, it remains a bit nebulous. (Feel free to use the comments to pass along any ideas for activities and offerings.)
In the meantime, work continues on the Riverfront, the 300-unit apartment building on the east end of the site, by Diamond Teague Park. This first phase construction will also see an expanded plaza between the building and Teague Park, a westward extension of the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail into the Florida Rock site, and an already planned temporary use space separating the brew garden/park from the new building, with some surface parking, a small green space, and "The Beach," a sand-covered spot with volleyball courts. The building is expected to be completed in 2016.
More details as they become available....
 

Forest City announced this afternoon, and this tweet and its accompanying photo would seem to confirm, that local men's clothing store Hugh & Crye is coming to the Boilermaker Shops at the Yards.
Known for their slim-fit dress shirts and other offerings that are tailored (ahem) to a buyer's physique type, the company operated out of a Georgetown storefront until recently, along with its main offices in Shaw.
The press release from Forest City says that the location will open "next month," but We Shall See.
On its web site, Hugh and Crye bills itself as a "new kind of retail company" that's "here to shake up the retail establishment along with its ridiculous margins and unsustainable practices," but that "deep down, we're a Mom and Pop." They have a program where shoppers can bring in old dress shirts and receive 10 percent off their next order, with the old items donated to Martha's Table.
This is the last next-to-last empty retail space--for the moment--on Tingey Street. And note that Hugh & Crye is the first clothing retailer to open at the Yards, and in the entire neighborhood itself (unless you count the team store at Nats Park, I guess).
(Note: Editing and fixing boo-boos on the fly today. Too much happening too fast.)
Comments (8)
More posts: Boilermaker Shops/Yards, hueandcrye, Retail
 

Trying to narrate what's gone on progress-wise in 2014 in Near Southeast/Capitol Riverfront/Navy Yard Territory/Near Capitol Ballpark River Yards would require a torrent of words that would be too over the top even for me, so I've decided to go visual.
Quite simply, here's the lineup of restaurants and retail offerings that opened east of South Capitol and south of the Southeast Freeway since January 1, 2014:
Coming in 2015, assuming all goes well? Banfield Pet Hospital at 4th and Tingey is the only retail offering announced, but in terms of food, there's The Brig beer garden at 8th and L, the Navy Yard Oyster Company and Due South at the Lumber Shed, Bonchon at 1015 Half Street, and Scarlet Oak at 909 New Jersey. Plus CBS Radio. And maybe Nicoletta? I would also imagine there will be some things we haven't heard about yet.
You can see full list and locations of all the neighborhood's eateries on my Near Southeast Food Options map.
Comments (14)
More posts: Restaurants/Nightlife, Retail
 

The fate of Forest City's planned movie theater, residential, and retail project on the east side of 1st Street near Nats Park has remained stalled while DC Water works to find a suitable spot to relocate some (but not all) of its activities.
There has been no public news of a new site, but the DC government has announced that there will be a public meeting on Nov. 20 at 6:30 pm "to receive public comments on the proposed surplus" of a portion of the DC Water site, which presumably includes all or some of the footprint of the Forest City planned development.
The meeting announcement also contains this string of caveats:
"Because DC Water will continue to occupy the Property while pre-development is ongoing, declaration of the Property as surplus will be conditioned on (i) DC Water receiving rights to occupy suitable relocation/replacement property(ies), (ii) available funding for activities necessary to allow DC Water to relocate to and operate on such relocation/replacement property(ies) and (iii) approval by an independent engineer procured by DC Water of an operational plan during and after relocation."
The meeting is at the Boilermaker Shops at 3rd and Tingey, in Unit 140 (the empty space next to Nando's). In addition, written public comments will be accepted until Nov. 25.
If you're just joining us, it was a smidge over two years ago that news first started bubbling up that Forest City was looking to bring a "high-quality theater operator" to a six-acre portion of the DC Water site. In November 2012 the potential operator was revealed to be Showplace Icon, and in 2013 the plans for the entire site went through the Zoning PUD fun factory, and were approved late in the year.
The first phase of the project, which received Stage 2 PUD approvals from the Zoning Comission, will be the movie theater, a two-story 16-screen offering, built above a four-story parking structure, located at a new intersection of N Place SE and the to-be-built 1 1/2 Place.
The rest of the project envisions two residential buildings totaling 600 units, built along 1st Street directly across from the ballpark. with the facade of the existing red brick building at the corner of 1st and N Place preserved and incorporated into one of the buildings. Potomac Avenue would be extended eastward to the new 1 1/2 Place, and Diamond Teague Park would be expanded northward. There would also be a minimum 40,000 square feet of retail.
But all of this has to wait until DC Water can find a suitable new home for some of the operations that currently live at 125 O Street SE.
It's also worth noting with each post on this project that DC Water will not be departing the site completely--the beautiful historic Main Pumping Station building will keep right on pumping, as will the less-beautiful and less-historic O Street Pumping station. In addition, earlier this year DC Water solicited bids for the design of a new headquarters building, which would bring the agency's HQ from Blue Plains to a space on top of the O Street station.
 

(First off, go vote! Second, if you're in ANC 6D07, read about your candidates before you go vote.)
I fear I'm reaching maximum velocity in the posting department, but I don't want to let these terribly important Boilermaker Shops observations slide:
* Unleashed(!) by Petco is open. Apologies for the blurry interior photo, but the two staffers froze in terror when I said I'd like to take a photograph inside, so I didn't really dilly-dally.
* The door to the 100 Montaditos space just happened to be open when I walked by, and, well, you know....:
 

At 5:30 pm on Tuesday, Nov. 4, the ribbon will be cut and Harris Teeter, the neighborhood's first grocery store, will at last open at 4th and M, SE. And, after the ceremonies and a free tasting event that runs until 8 pm, the store will be open for shopping until midnight, and then will open at 6 am Wednesday for its first full day.
And of course heaven forbid that I'd just wait until the doors open to the public--the folks at Teeter were nice enough to give my camera a quick tour, while dodging the hive of activity that you can imagine marks a 50,000-square-foot grocery store 24 hours before it opens.
I took way too many photos of something that will just become part of the neighborhood's fabric quite quickly, but, well, it was fun.
Check out the gallery. There's a lot more than just these.
UPDATE: Since the numbers just arrived, I thought I'd mention that this store is 6,000 square feet larger than the Jenkins Row store at 14th and Pennsylvania, SE, and basically the same size as the one at 1st and M, NE.
Comments (9)
More posts: Retail, teeter, The Yards, Twelve12/Teeter/Yards
 

I mentioned this last week at the bottom of my Willie-is-opening post, as an update, but acknowledge that that may have not seeped into the news-stream consciousness appropriately, so here's an official entry:
The neighborhood's newest retail establishment, Unleashed by Petco, says it will be opening at the Boilermaker Shops in the Yards on Monday, Nov. 3, thus beating Harris Teeter to the finish line by two days.
As you can see in the photo provided by my personal stringer, the store will be open from 9 am to 9 pm six days a week, and 10 am to 7 pm on Sundays.
The shelves are already looking well stocked, and certainly this could become a prime destination for the bajillion dog owners who live nearby. And I suppose I should make a full disclosure that I assume I will duck in there on occasion, as my not-dogs continue to eat us out of house and home. (It's a good thing they are cute.)
 

The final installment of this week's Fence Peeking is a bit more haphazard. Let's start with looking on fences:
(Left) The new Parc Riverside signage has been hung along 1st Street by the sales trailer, though at least I have the River Parc signs recorded for posterity.
(Right) There's a bunch of new signage on the black fences along Half and N, presumably to at least in part draw attention away from the big hole in the ground behind them. One portion of the sign is a map of places to see things, eat food, drink beverages, and spend money, placed by the Capitol Riverfront BID. And it helpfully provides confirmation of the Unleashed by Petco coming to the Boilermaker Shops, and lets the cat out of the bag (ahem) that the pet hospital at Twelve12 will be a Banfield.
(Left) While we wait to see when Willie's is going to open, I did at least finally get a photo of the ready-to-go interior. (Yeah, yeah, the glass isn't technically a fence, but work with me here.)
(Right) Speaking of the spiffy new signage on the black fences across from the ballpark, I finally got an updated photo from on high of exactly what those fences are hiding. Let's imagine the potential interim uses while Jair Lynch and MacFarlane Partners decide what to build -- Urban campground? ATV track? Wildlife sanctuary?
 

* VET HOSPITAL PERMITTED: An approved building permit made it through the pipeline on Thursday for the "construction of a new pet veterinary boarding hospital and vet uses" at Twelve12 in the Yards. There has as yet been no official announcement from Forest City as to the name of the operator, but this new retail offering was telegraphed thanks to some necessary zoning reworkings earlier this year. Look for a lot of pet traffic along Tingey Street between this store and the still-as-yet-not-officially-announced Unleashed by Petco that got its building permit for a space in the Boilermaker Shops earlier this month.
UPDATE: A reader reports that promotional signage on Half Street by Nats Park showing the neighborhood's offerings does let the cat out of the bag, that it's going to be a Banfield Pet Hospital.
* CLASSIC UNVEILED: The publicity machine for the NHL Winter Classic at Nats Park on Jan. 1 is beginning to ramp up, with the official announcement (finally) of the game, alongside the unveiling of the Capitals' throwback jerseys, which begat lots of photos of somewhat uncomfortable looking hockey players at the ballpark. There was also the cool outline of where the rink will be set up.
* RAMP REOPENED: This week saw the reopening of the new-ish ramp from 11th Street SE to the westbound SE Freeway/I-695. It had been closed down in June to allow for demolition of the old flyover exit ramp from the inbound freeway to I Street SE. And some day I will actually get over there again to check it all out.
* TRAILER PARKED: A few readers have passed along the news that a construction trailer has appeared within the past week or so on the Florida Rock site along the Anacostia River just south of the ballpark. While plans are to get underway Any Minute Now on the first-phase 350-unit apartment building at the site's eastern end, next to Diamond Teague Park and Piers, there's not yet been any news that the construction financing has been finalized, nor is there as yet an approved shoring/sheeting/excavation permit. But the time does appear to be drawing nigh that development of this 5.8-acre parcel will finally get underway, at which point people will shift from complaining about the empty lot right across from the ballpark to complaining about a tall building ruining the views of the river.
 

It's still a few weeks from opening, but today my camera was taken on a tour of the mammoth VIDA Fitness space on the northeast corner of 4th and Tingey, including the Bang Salon, Aura Spa, and Penthouse Pool Club offerings. (Does walking through four floors and 30,000 square feet of a fitness center count as a workout?)
I've put a pile of photos in this gallery as a narrated walking tour, so that you can see spots like the "experiential cycling studio" with a virtual reality wall, the "inner fitness" room (with its own HVAC system to allow for hot yoga and rapid cooling afterward), the locker rooms, the pool deck, and much more--you'll just need to pardon their dust as they race toward an opening probably in the first week in October.
The VIDA web site has much more information on all the offerings, which also will include a Kids Zone for babysitting while Mom and Dad sweat. I was told that VIDA expects to have about 900 memberships within the next few weeks--and pre-opening membership rates are still available. (There's also 50 on-site parking spaces, though be sure to appreciate the irony of driving to the gym.)
Here's a couple of shots, but check out the full gallery.
Meanwhile, just up the street, in the same Twelve12 complex, the Harris Teeter is looking very spiffy with its signage--but alas is seeing its own opening date slip, probably to early November.
Comments (2)
More posts: Retail, teeter, vida, The Yards, Twelve12/Teeter/Yards
 
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