The full gallery is here, and it was good timing that the visit came on the first non-gloomy day in what felt like weeks, since the bright sunlight (remember that?) gives many of the photos, especially from the roof, some added pop.

The final stop on the tour was at the building's first retail tenant, where the official word came that Bethesda Bagels will open for business at 6:30 am tomorrow, Saturday, June 3.

For actual information about the building, check out the official web site, or to be reminded of the "befores" of 1111 New Jersey, see my project page.

Here's a sampling of shots, but there's plenty more in the full gallery:

And while the photo isn't from yesterday, here is the official before-and-after of the northwest corner of New Jersey and M, as another project moves to the "Completed" column.

My lack of interest in coffee and coffee-like beverages is well documented by this point, so I will just leave it to the JDLand Commentariat to weigh in with their opinions. But it is always nice to welcome a new retail outpost to the neighborhood.

(And I got a nice chuckle out of the line of people marching directly from next-door neighbor Orangetheory Fitness right into Slipstream. Hope they burned a lot of calories first!)

Slipstream is just the first of a mini-wave of arrivals, with reports via the Commentariat that the Salt Line is apparently coming this week and Bethesda Bagels is in Any Minute Now mode as well.

Unfortunately, there is also apparently a farewell, as reader JH_105 reported that a sign at the register says that Congressional Cleaners, in the ground floor of Capitol Hill Tower, is closing permanently on June 14. which is just two weeks short of the 10th anniversary of its opening. Which would also make it two weeks short of the 10th anniversary of it getting robbed just a few hours after it opened. Things were different then.

(PS: I'm still very much in and out. Patience requested, noted, and truly appreciated.)

Both Orangetheory Fitness and Slipstream Coffee now have their locations well marked, in the new ORE 82 apartment building at New Jersey and I. Ditto Conte's Bike Shop, on 4th Street just north of the Yards Park:

Elsewhere, I alas have to improvise, having either been too lazy to walk closer or too boneheaded to take a photo when I was actually standing right in front of the dang sign. But nonetheless here's evidence of Bethesda Bagels, coming to Insignia on M, and Shake Shack, which recently received its building permit for its space at the Homewood Suites, in the retail space at Cushing and M (a second space does not yet have any announced tenant):

(I'll resort to pointing you to photos I took in October of the signage for both The Salt Line and All-Purpose Pizzeria, at Dock 79.)

In non-signage retail news, here's the current state of construction on the new District Winery building at the Yards, along with photographic evidence that the shipping containers have indeed been removed from the southern two-thirds of the former Fairgrounds footprint. They remain up by Half and M, however.

Everything mentioned here is expected to open in 2017, as are some other not-photographed venues. Scroll down below my Food Map for the full list of announced-but-not-open offerings.

This will be Bethesda Bagels' third location, alongside its shops in Bethesda (duh) and at Dupont Circle.

The Insignia building has approximately 11,000 square feet of ground-floor retail spaces that both face M Street as well as at the corner of New Jersey and L, and this is the first news of a tenant. (I *think* BB will be in one of the spaces along M, but I don't yet have confirmation of that.)

See Insignia's official web site for more details about the building, or check out my project page to be reminded of what this stretch of New Jersey looked like not all that long ago.