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The best shopping complexes in the D.C. area are considered to be Tysons Corner and Pentagon City malls in Virginia, I think. Georgetown used to be a more of a go-to place for shopping. But I've wondered why D.C. doesn't have an area like 5th Avenue in Manhattan, Michigan Avenue in Chicago or Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles.
Do you think D.C. will ever have a shopping district on that level?
With e-commerce being what it is, I don't see us developing a world class shopping district. I probably do 80% of my shopping online, and that wouldn't change even if there were a convenient mega-mall near me.
I see a couple of stores in that Friendship Heights strip have closed (Barney's and some other boutique). I've been around there in the daytime and you see almost nobody in those stores. Perhaps there's just not much of a market in the DC area for high end and 'world class' shopping, which needs not just high income folks but a steady supply of high net worth repeat shoppers to survive.
The best shopping complexes in the D.C. area are considered to be Tysons Corner and Pentagon City malls in Virginia, I think. Georgetown used to be a more of a go-to place for shopping. But I've wondered why D.C. doesn't have an area like 5th Avenue in Manhattan, Michigan Avenue in Chicago or Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles.
Do you think D.C. will ever have a shopping district on that level?
No, but then NYC, Chicago and Beverly Hills don't sell as many FBI sweatshirts as DC.
Chevy Chase has high end stores and is a few blocks from DC. Tysons Corner Galleria is the most upscale and comparable to Rodeo Drive (minus the restaurants).
My assumption is that DC is mainly concentrated around government, and with government comes security related concerns. It may be too cost prohibitive to retail investors to setup such a thing. Added to that burden is the fact that the ratio of office space to residential housing within DC is lacking to support such a retail environment.
You have city center DC which will open up soon and will add to retail in Gallery Place, but considering its size/square footage of retail, it pales in comparison to other cities in terms of the amount of retail.
Most likely, because of the Martin Luther King riots. The city lost everything during that time. Any chance retail that could have come the last 50 years ended that day. People just started talking about DC not even 10 years ago. I remember growing up and nobody talked about DC like they do now. Everyone was scared of the city.
Most likely, because of the Martin Luther King riots. The city lost everything during that time. Any chance retail that could have come the last 50 years ended that day. People just started talking about DC not even 10 years ago. I remember growing up and nobody talked about DC like they do now. Everyone was scared of the city.
Yeah, this had a lot to do with it. Also, I think the height restrictions do as well. Since DC cannot build large buildings, office space downtown is at a premium. I think the land is just too expensive for large scale retail like you see in Manhattan or Chicago. The larger stores downtown (Macy's and H&M) are located in historic buildings that were protected, but really weren't easily suitable for office space.
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