City Center retail update (Washington: stores, food, parking)
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Basically, the author finds it very sleek, but with a generic anyplace feel. Ok, fine. Sounds like a typical architectural review of modern buildings.
However, I agree that the surrounding location is terrible (from an urban vibrancy standpoint). All drab, retail-less office buildings and the secret service bunker. IMO, this is unfortunate. Ideally center city would be seamlessly integrated into an active city street scene, the way union square does with the surrounding streets in SF (or Union in NYC links with 14th and Broadway) . City Center does a nice job with having retail on the north side of H street and the other exterior streets. But, the opposite sides of H and 9th are the retail-less brick walls of landscapers. This is too bad, ideally retail would line both sides of H Street and create seamless activity to the Gallery Place action at 7th and H. It would also be nice if there were seem less vibrant street linking from this into the retail on F street.
I fear the project will just feel like a smallish master planed retail zone plopped down in the middle of a 9-5 office district. The project is going to be all low volume/high end retail, which is fine. But, ideally it would link to more mid level stuff like Uniqlo, TopShop which will bring out the crowds (even better if it attracted Bloomingdales or Sacks).
Someone has got to lead the charge right? I think City Center will bring shopping north from gallery place. You say its going to be low volume, but from what I have read the project will have 70 stores. I don't know if that is just the first phase or both together though.
Someone has got to lead the charge right? I think City Center will bring shopping north from gallery place. You say its going to be low volume, but from what I have read the project will have 70 stores. I don't know if that is just the first phase or both together though.
Well phase has 185,000 sq feet. The 2nd phase (still a few years out as it isn't U/C yet) will bring an extra 110,000 sq feet. Not bad. But, by itself not really enough space to make it a major regional shopping destination. http://www.citycenterdc.com/sites/de..._press_kit.pdf
Pentagon city, by contrast, has 820,000 sq feet of retail, with an additional 50,000 U/C. Plus another 300k sq feet at the adjacent Pentagon Row development and more across the way at the Costco/best buy development. The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Granted the F street and Macy's retail add some to the "downtown retail total." According to the city, the DT BID has about 659 sq feet of retail space (including city center). Not to bad, but there is almost no vacant spots left. The old ESPN zone spot is really the only one big enough to hold anything more than a boutique. http://www.downtowndc.org/reports/state-downtown-2013
Well phase has 185,000 sq feet. The 2nd phase (still a few years out as it isn't U/C yet) will bring an extra 110,000 sq feet. Not bad. But, by itself not really enough space to make it a major regional shopping destination. http://www.citycenterdc.com/sites/de..._press_kit.pdf
Pentagon city, by contrast, has 820,000 sq feet of retail, with an additional 50,000 U/C. Plus another 300k sq feet at the adjacent Pentagon Row development and more across the way at the Costco/best buy development. The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Granted the F street and Macy's retail add some to the "downtown retail total." According to the city, the DT BID has about 659 sq feet of retail space (including city center). Not to bad, but there is almost no vacant spots left. The old ESPN zone spot is really the only one big enough to hold anything more than a boutique. State of Downtown 2013 | DowntownDC
I don't think square footage is as important as you make it out to be, stores know that when they are in a city they are going to have smaller spaces, so they work with it. Like I said, city center is supposed to have somewhere between 70-80 stores, which means each stores will be pretty small, but that doesn't seem to phase all the retailers signing up there. Yes, there are very few big box spaces left, but several buildings that aren't currently commercial could become commercial
I don't think square footage is as important as you make it out to be, stores know that when they are in a city they are going to have smaller spaces, so they work with it. Like I said, city center is supposed to have somewhere between 70-80 stores, which means each stores will be pretty small, but that doesn't seem to phase all the retailers signing up there. Yes, there are very few big box spaces left, but several buildings that aren't currently commercial could become commercial
I'm not sure it's still that high a number. It looks like several of the lots that were originally planned have been merged to produce larger spaces (e.g., the Paul Stewart location consumed what was formerly 3 separate spaces on an older merchandising plan, and Zadig&Voltaire and Ferragamo each consumed 2). I wouldn't be surprised if this trend continues as more gets built out, so it's probably going to be more like 50-60 including restaurants and cafes when all is said and done.
Burberry is now open! Opened today. I was really impressed with the store - inside and out. You can see the exterior store lighting on the building's facade from quite a distance away from the store.
Burberry at CityCenter DC. Photo by me.
Last edited by revitalizer; 08-27-2014 at 10:54 PM..
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PK12
The Ferragamo pic is from NYC?
That is definitely DC in the pic, there is a reflection of a metrobus in the window. I was in NYC last week and saw the 5th Ave store it's almost 3 floors if I'm not mistaken.
The Hugo Boss store is amazing. Flagship. Burberry slated to open within 1 - 2 weeks. DCBG, Mango, and Del Friscos should be open shortly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by the resident09
That is definitely DC in the pic, there is a reflection of a metrobus in the window. I was in NYC last week and saw the 5th Ave store it's almost 3 floors if I'm not mistaken.
Okay yeah, sorry the 212 phone area code for their HR dept is what threw me off. Racked DC says Ferragamo is indeed slated for DC.
Exciting to see some solid high end fashion options coming to DC!!
Does anyone have any sense how foot traffic has been at these stores or is it still too soon to tell?
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