Georgetown’s Three-Story Barnes & Noble Is Making a Comeback—But It’ll Be Very Different
Following a successful rebrand, the bookstore chain is opening 50 new locations this year. Barnes & Noble is having a renaissance. Under new CEO James Daunt, the bookstore chain is doing away with its cookie-cutter spaces stuffed with board games and toys, and giving its business model a new focus—books. The strategy: to make each existing and forthcoming location feel like a hyperlocal indie bookshop.
New tenants eyed for historic building near Union Station after Truist walks away
A historic building near Union Station that played a role in the Civil Rights Movement could soon get a new lease on life. The nearly 10,000-square-foot building at 2 Massachusetts Ave. NW is being marketed to new tenants, roughly four months after Truist Financial Corp. (NYSE: TFC) shuttered its bank branch there as part of a larger wave of closures.
At least one former Foxtrot location is being marketed for lease. Here’s where.
Foxtrot Market’s Old Town Alexandria store is being marketed to new tenants, a little more than two weeks after the retailer abruptly shuttered all of its locations, including nearly a dozen in Greater Washington. Dochter & Alexander Retail Advisors has begun seeking replacements for the 4,254-square-foot space at 701 King St., per marketing information the retail broker recently posted to its website.
12 years after leaving Georgetown, Barnes & Noble returns to same space
David Dochter, a principal at Dochter & Alexander Retail Advisors who brokered the store’s new lease, said fears of a hollowed-out downtown do not apply to Georgetown, where demand is high. “It’s the best, most active street in this region,” he said. “The sky is not falling on retail.”
Van Leeuwen Signs Lease for Second Greenpoint Outpost
Van Leeuwen Ice Cream is scooping up more retail space in New York City. The artisanal ice cream brand, with about 30 locations in the five boroughs, will have a second outpost in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, after signing a 1,500-square-foot lease at Dax Real Estate’s 136 Franklin Street, according to tenant broker Brand Urban.
Olfactory NYC Smells New Opportunity in DC
Olfactory NYC, a do-it-yourself fragrance experience, has sniffed out a new retail location in Washington, D.C. Jason Richter of Capricorn Retail Advisors represented the landlord in the deal, while David Dochter, Logan Chambers and Matthew Alexander of Dochter & Alexander Retail Advisors represented the tenant
Georgetown Landlords Are Going Small To Stage A Big Comeback
“To some degree, Covid had a cleansing effect on various retail markets, and I think Georgetown is one of those,” Dochter & Alexander Retail Advisors principal Dave Dochter said. “I think what you’re going to see coming back in Georgetown is going to be much more exciting for the consumer.”
Barnes & Noble Returns to Georgetown Building it Vacated in 2011
Barnes & Noble is turning a page on its history and heading back to Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood, the company announced. After leaving the area — and the same building — in 2011, the book giant inked a 33,754-square-foot lease for three floors at 3040 M Street NW.
Marx Realty Adds Immersive Gamebox to Historic DC Office Building
Immersive Gamebox has inked a 4,500-square-foot lease at The Grogan, a five-story office building in Washington, D.C.
Formula 1-themed entertainment concept coming to Union Market area
An adult arcade-centered eatertainment concept featuring Formula 1 racing simulators is coming to Northeast D.C., as part of a much larger, national expansion for London-based F1 Arcade.
EastBanc locks in pair of Italian home furnishing retailers for Georgetown’s Cady’s Alley
The leases are part of a larger flurry of deals that have helped lower Georgetown’s retail vacancy rate to around 13.5%, per Dochter & Alexander Retail Advisors, from nearly 18% during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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.
Los Angeles Clothier Rails Replaces Vans in Georgetown
Los Angeles-based clothing brand Rails will open its first store in Washington, D.C., in Georgetown, according to EastBanc, who facilitated the deal on behalf of owner, the Alafoginis Family.
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.
CREBA Honors Top D.C. Brokers At Annual Awards Ceremony
Four hundred D.C. commercial real estate professionals came together Tuesday evening at The Ritz-Carlton in the West End to bestow honors to the top-performing brokers and most respected executives in the industry.
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.
Exclusive: Online retailer signs 14th Street lease — a bright spot in D.C.’s challenged retail market
Online mattress retailer Saatva has struck a deal to open its first local bricks-and-mortar retail store along D.C.’s 14th Street corridor, part of a larger physical presence for the New York e-commerce company founded a decade ago. The company has signed a full-building lease at 1714 14th St. NW, a mixed-use development by Coba Properties between R and S streets NW that also includes residential and office space. Saatva was picked over a larger pool of retail and restaurateur prospects for a number of reasons, including its willingness to lease all of the building’s nearly 6,000 square feet, split across two levels, said Dave Dochter, a principal with Dochter & Alexander Retail Advisors, who was part of the team marketing the space to prospective tenants.
Q&A: Retail Adviser David Dochter Talks COVID Impact on Downtown DC
Washington, D.C.-based Dochter & Alexander Retail Advisors recently conducted a comprehensive overview of retail units in Downtown D.C. and along the high-street retail corridors, including Georgetown and 14th Street, examining the pandemic’s impact on the retail sector. Its findings showed vacancy rates of 22.6 percent for Downtown D.C., 16.6 percent for Georgetown, and 11.0 percent for 14th Street. When compared to its pre-COVID winter of 2020 numbers, these numbers have just about doubled in all three markets.