Wisconsin avenue Giant development shut down again

[Anonymous]

I really despise my neighbors who are so anti progress.

http://dcmud.blogspot.com/2011/08/cathedral-commons-delayed-until-2012.html

[Anonymous]

That is ridiculous. I've been waiting for that 1960s Giant to be renovated for what is it... going on ten years now? What a waste of space. Do you remember several small business going out on that strip to make way for the renovation? They could have been there along, for Christ's sake.

[Anonymous]

I understand financing may be coming this fall. It is all, however, about the awful people who have been holding up the development for almost a generation.

[Anonymous]

I think it's mostly old farts who are refusing change. Maybe they'll die soon.

[Anonymous]

Most of them don't even live in the neighborhood anymore, or at least are not registered DC voters.

[Anonymous]

Yep. (Shakes head and congratulates self for not living in Cleveland Park.)

[Anonymous]

It's actually been about twenty years. They started talking about it when I lived in Cleveland Park in 1990. One example of why I don't live there anymore.

[Anonymous]

I live in the neighborhood, too, and want a modern store, but cannot overemphasize how much Giant's development group has screwed this one up. Apparently they went to the wrong zoning body in the city to get their approvals and will probably have to go back to a different DC commission, if the court invalidates their permits as expected. They emptied out the block of great businesses like Sullivan's Toys before they had even secured financing. They made a lot of promises like having reduced rents so existing tenants could stay and to build a LEED-certified store, but then backtracked. And unlike most developers, they've refused even to make small modifications (like moving their loading dock away from some existing houses and closer to the townhomes Giant plans to build), which would have moved the project forward, sooner. During this whole saga, Safeway managed to build a new, green store north of Georgetwon, whihc is taking market share from Giant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in the neighborhood, too, and want a modern store, but cannot overemphasize how much Giant's development group has screwed this one up. Apparently they went to the wrong zoning body in the city to get their approvals and will probably have to go back to a different DC commission, if the court invalidates their permits as expected. They emptied out the block of great businesses like Sullivan's Toys before they had even secured financing. They made a lot of promises like having reduced rents so existing tenants could stay and to build a LEED-certified store, but then backtracked. And unlike most developers, they've refused even to make small modifications (like moving their loading dock away from some existing houses and closer to the townhomes Giant plans to build), which would have moved the project forward, sooner. During this whole saga, Safeway managed to build a new, green store north of Georgetwon, whihc is taking market share from Giant.

I doubt that Safeway is taking much market share from Giant because SOviet style Giant had very few customers to begin with. Most of us Loyal Giant customers go to Giant on CT ave. Basically an empty shell will sit on Wisconsin for years and years because some old fuddy duddy on Newark or Macomb hates "tall buildings", or is afraid of who may come to shop there. Newsflash: it's just your neighbors.

[Anonymous]

There are a lot of urban myths about this store and the neighborhood, but here's some context:
--in 1999 Giant proposed to build a large supermarket with some other retail and an above-ground parking garage. The proposal met with a mixed reaction in the community, but Giant withdrew it before ever seeking city approvals.
--in 2001 Giant proposed a modified grocery store plan that would have left a blank wall of several hundred feet facing Wisconsin Ave. (like the Safeway in Tenleytown, but right along Wisconsin). Supporters and opponents of the original plan thought this would deaden the Wisconsin streetscape.
--in 2002, Giant entered into a formal agreement, announced by Mayor Williams, with the Office of Planning and a neighborhood citizens group, to build a new store according to a defined plan, with entrances on Wisconsin Avenue. An application to landmark the store was withdrawn as part of the agreement. The expectation was that Giant would start construction of a new store very soon. Then nothing happended.
--in 2004/05, the local ANC and the same neighborhood citizens group hired an architect and actually approached Giant with architectural sketches to get a modernized supermarket going. After a seriies of meetings over many months with representatives of the ANC from Cleveland Park, McLean Gardens and Cathedral Heights and the neighborhood association Giant then proposed a plan that differed from the 2002 agreement, with a three story building on the north block it owns, and a new store and retail on the south block. The plan met with widespread support from the representatives and in various public community meetings. There was virtually no opposition, and, once again, people expected the project to move forward quickly. Then Giant went radio silent for a year. Again, nothing happened.
--When Giant came back more than a year later, they had changed the project yet again, upping its size significantly which greatlly increased the project's complexity and required all sorts of exceptions to the zoning. In a particularly boneheaded move, they moved the loading dock complex to the far end of the site, as far away as possible from the new housing units Giant planned to build and next to existing residences on Idaho Ave., stirring up opposition. Incredibly, they chose a regulatory end-run around the DC Board of Zoning Adjustment because their lawyer admitted the project was "too big, too dense, too much" to easily get an exception from the zoning overlay, a strategy will likely will result in the court of appeals invalidating their permits. Most big development projects start off big and then modifications and compromises are made to address impacts and opposition. This one could have been built easily in 2002 and again in 2004/05 when it had nearly universal support. But then Giant got greedy and/or got bad advice from its advisors, and moved in the opposite direction. Giant would be better off comproising or just selling the site to Traders Joes's.

[Anonymous]

I hope they sell it and the new owner builds condos at max density.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope they sell it and the new owner builds condos at max density.

+1, as long as there's no above-ground parking. We'll need streetcars with overhead lines running down Wisc. Ave, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope they sell it and the new owner builds condos at max density.

I hear that the condo project above the Janney schoolyard and Tenley library has come back alive -- 9 or 10 floor project. DC wants maximum density there. It will be convenient for the new condo families to have Janney so close!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope they sell it and the new owner builds condos at max density.

I hear that the condo project above the Janney schoolyard and Tenley library has come back alive -- 9 or 10 floor project. DC wants maximum density there. It will be convenient for the new condo families to have Janney so close!

How dare they. The Clarendonization of Tenleytown and AU Park needs to stop. We want the old DC. I'm tired of yuppies and their Volvos, and driving up prices etc.

Signed,

Old AU Park curmudgeon who still has 1940s awnings on his front door.

[Anonymous]

Hey, what's wrong with "1940s awnings"?! They are a low-tech, energy-saving way to keep the house cool, and a lot more green than today's meat locker-temperature, large min--mansions.