New York City ice cream brand Van Leeuwen to open first location in Times Square
Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, which is known for its made-from-scratch dairy and vegan ice cream, has opened 17 stores in Manhattan and 24 in New York City.
Tracking D.C.’s Bakery ‘Explosion’: What’s Behind The Rise Of The Region’s Tastiest Retail Trend
A few months into the pandemic, Jason and Yuri Oberbillig began selling Japanese and French-inspired pastries from a tiny counter at the front of Cleveland Park Italian restaurant Al Volo. The compact pop-up operation, SakuSaku Flakerie, allowed guests to order a coffee and pastry to go or bring their goodies to the serene patio behind the restaurant, well before the dinner crowd arrived.
Member-Only Vet Clinic Parker & Ace Debuting in DC
Parker & Ace, a full-service, membership-based veterinary clinic, will open its first location in Washington, D.C., later this month. The clinic signed a 2,700-square-foot lease at 501 H Street NE with landlord Douglas Development, which acquired the property in 2013 for $5 million. At the time, the developer demolished an existing building and replaced it with a six-story, 22,165-square-foot mixed-use building with three levels of retail and 28 apartment units.
Georgetown Landlords Are Going Small To Stage A Big Comeback
After ceding ground to upstart neighborhoods, one of the oldest retail destinations in D.C. has mounted a comeback. Georgetown has seen retail vacancy fall by 7 percentage points since it peaked at 20% in the spring of 2021, according to Dochter & Alexander Retail Advisors. The submarket has roughly 1.6M SF of total retail space. Direct-to-consumer brands and smaller tenants looking for a prestige address to showcase their products are leading the charge, retail brokers in the area told Bisnow.
Retail Vacancy Tops 20% In Downtown D.C. While Suburban Storefronts Fill Up
Retail vacancies have begun to come down from their pandemic highs across the Metropolitan Washington region, but not in Downtown D.C. The District’s central business district’s vacancy has risen from 6.6% in winter 2020 to 20.7% this summer, according to new research by retail advisory firm Dochter & Alexander. The East End‘s vacancy rose from 9.2% to 21.2%. Combined, there is more than 800K SF of vacant high street retail in the heart of the nation’s capital. Those office-heavy areas are lagging behind the rest of the region, where high-street retail vacancy dropped overall vacancy rate to just over 14%, down from about 15.8% last fall.
After Prominent Closures, D.C. Restaurants Operating With ‘A Sword Over Your Neck’
Certain areas of the city are recovering more swiftly. While downtown and other office-heavy districts remain soft, the 14th Street corridor continues to be an active place, said Dochter & Alexander Retail Advisors principal and co-founder Dave Dochter. But within those submarkets lie further particularities, Dochter said. “Is it a well-positioned corner with good ceiling heights and outdoor space and appropriate infrastructure? You’re in a good place,” Dochter said. “Are you mid-block with low ceiling heights? Then no.”
A new twist on Alexandria’s Carlyle Club coming to downtown D.C.
A rebooted version of what Alexandria’s Carlyle Club was meant to be is coming to downtown D.C. Owner Brennan Reilly has leased the 12,000-square-foot former Pennsylvania 6 restaurant at 1350 Eye St. NW, where he’s working on plans for a pair of concepts, event venue Carlyle Room and Brennan’s Bar. It’ll be a return to what Reilly hoped the Carlyle Club would become when it opened about 15 years ago. The venue will feature more live events and performances than the former one did in Alexandria’s Carlyle neighborhood.
Monumental Sports & Entertainment Bringing Esports Theater to DC’s Gallery Place
Washington D.C. is getting into the esports game. Gallery Place, a 660,000-square-foot power center in Downtown D.C., is adding District E Powered by Ticketmaster, a 14,000-square-foot live theater under the Monumental Sports & Entertainment banner.
Amazon Fresh opens first D.C.-area location. In this full-size grocery store, no cashier is needed.
Amazon Fresh is open for business in the D.C. region. The first of Amazon.com Inc.’s full-size branded grocery stores in Greater Washington opened its doors Thursday morning to a crowd of more than 300 who started showing up around 4:30 a.m. They were greeted by green-and-white balloons, security directing motorists in the parking lot, music playing from speakers outside the store, free swag, and lots of technology on display up and down the aisles of the Amazon Fresh in Franconia.
D.C. Area’s First Amazon Fresh Grocery Store Opens In Northern Virginia
Amazon has opened the first location of its grocery store concept in the D.C. area, with several more in the works. Customers lined up as early as 4 a.m. Thursday for the opening of the Amazon Fresh store in Franconia, Virginia, NBC Washington reported. The 30K SF store features a selection of grocery items and prepared foods, and it has technology that allows customers to scan a QR code in the Amazon app and add items to their Amazon Dash Cart, which tracks purchases and charges customers’ cards when they leave the store.