Why is Friendship heights shopping district so ... unsatisfying?

[Anonymous]

There are a number of good department stores and chain stores, a Whole Foods and a handful of decent popular restaurants, all basically on top of the Metro. Why is walking around that area so depressing and drab? As far as I can tell, they don’t put up any holiday or Christmas lights. H&M moves out and Mazza seems slowly steadily weakening.

I guess part of the issue is that the shopping district is split across DC and Maryland, but it just seems like it could be so much better. What is it missing?

It just seems less than the sum of its parts, if that makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Honestly I think you’re looking for fulfillment from the wrong things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly I think you’re looking for fulfillment from the wrong things.

I don’t think the op is looking for fulfillment through retail therapy. It is a depressing looking area. Developers are greedy and short sighted. It’s how crystal sh*tty was born.

[Anonymous]

It's gone down hill last ten years. Can not seem to keep stores. Mazza is totally depressing. Rents are super high buildings are old. Online shopping has killed it.

[Anonymous]

No location is keeping retail. Look at Cleveland Park, Glover Park, Georgetown. Empty storefronts and rapid turnover in the occupied spaces. We like Amazon, but this is the result.

[Anonymous]

I was just in FH and saw tons of lights, trees, even giant glowing Moravian stars at The Collection

[Anonymous]

Ten or fifteen years ago, it was hard to get many people to shop downtown, and there were far fewer major stores there. Friendship Heights was on the Metro and had higher end stores than Pentagon City, and was close to the majority of UMC shoppers in NW DC. Tyson's was still an up and coming shopping area with some high end stores, but it wasn't on Metro. Now downtown attracts many more shoppers and it's much closer to many UMC shoppers who have populated neighborhoods close to downtown. Tyson's is both larger and more Metro accessible. Add Amazon to that and it's hard to see what the point of the Friendship Heights shopping area is anymore.

[Anonymous]

This is OP. Not a big shopper for fun so trust me this isn’t about my retail needs! But I am over there quite a bit — to see movies, get pizza or chain family dinners, go to gap and j crew and pop in to one of the department stores or brooks brothers a couple times a year. So it does get plenty of my business; I just wish it were more interesting/enjoyable place to walk around.

That plaza by Bloomingdales was a missed opportunity — kind of dead — and the tiny pan quotidian is weird, tho at least now there is a coffee shop too

[Anonymous]

I think it cause it has waaay too many thugs living there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it cause it has waaay too many thugs living there.

What? Please describe these “thugs.” What do they look and sound like?

[Anonymous]

I agree with you OP. We keep considering moving to that area since it's supposedly so "desirable" but honestly I think it peaked 10-20 years ago when there was nothing else good in DC. Now there are several cute (or high-end) destinations.

[Anonymous]

I think part of it is design/architecture issues. It doesn’t *feel* appealing, somehow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are a number of good department stores and chain stores, a Whole Foods and a handful of decent popular restaurants, all basically on top of the Metro. Why is walking around that area so depressing and drab? As far as I can tell, they don’t put up any holiday or Christmas lights. H&M moves out and Mazza seems slowly steadily weakening.

I guess part of the issue is that the shopping district is split across DC and Maryland, but it just seems like it could be so much better. What is it missing?

It just seems less than the sum of its parts, if that makes sense.

Because it's built for people to drive through, not walk around in.

[Anonymous]

I heard a rumor that the Chevy chase pavilion building is shifting away from retail and going to become a medical building/docs offices.

I was so sad when H & M closed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ten or fifteen years ago, it was hard to get many people to shop downtown, and there were far fewer major stores there. Friendship Heights was on the Metro and had higher end stores than Pentagon City, and was close to the majority of UMC shoppers in NW DC. Tyson's was still an up and coming shopping area with some high end stores, but it wasn't on Metro. Now downtown attracts many more shoppers and it's much closer to many UMC shoppers who have populated neighborhoods close to downtown. Tyson's is both larger and more Metro accessible. Add Amazon to that and it's hard to see what the point of the Friendship Heights shopping area is anymore.

This is the answer. Developers and retailers now have more geographic area in DC/lower MoCo to spread around their amazingness than they did in 1995.

I disagree about the Tysons-Metro part though — the Galleria has always had ultra high-end stores, and nobody who's truly in the market for a $10,000 watch or fur coat is going to take public transportation to the store to purchase those items.