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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rumor is the Giant in FH is closing in January, but there's a covenant in the lease or something that says that space must always offer a full-service grocery store so something else is taking its place ASAP.

Aldis please!!!

Real curious what's going in there. Probably not a safeway, considering there are two within a mile of that location. Trader Joe's is right up the road already. Seems too small for a whole foods. Harris Teeter would be nice, I guess.

There's already a Whole Foods just across the street basically in Friendship Heights. I would guess Harris Teeter. I'd love it if Trader Joe's moved there from that terrible location in Bethesda, but it seems too big for a TJs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rumor is the Giant in FH is closing in January, but there's a covenant in the lease or something that says that space must always offer a full-service grocery store so something else is taking its place ASAP.

Aldis please!!!

Giant is facing headwinds and is consolidating. There speculation that the “Giant Giant” on Wisconsin Ave. in DC, which is just 5 or 6 years old, may not survive very long after Wegmans opens just three blocks away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Chevy Chase DC on the Connecticut Ave side is a pedestrian-scale, vibrant neighborhood atmosphere shopping and dining area. It’s success belies the tired refrain by Big Development and Greater Greater (Hog)Wash that successful commercial districts in DC require upzoning to build a lot taller and denser.

That is hardly vibrant. Bad shopping, dirty, and nothing good to eat. The Politics and Prose block is better, but not a lot there. Much better food. Great community bookstore with events every night.

We love CCDC, with the Avalon, the arcade and the human scale. It lacks the corporate restaurant concepts that make other areas so much ... the same. Macon is great and the other places are decent neighborhood serving eateries. We look forward to the diner location reopening.

[Anonymous]

No one has mentioned that many of the apartment buildings in FH are for seniors. There's a lot of retirees around there, and the mix of stores most people want may be different from what they want.

As for Montgomery Mall, it's busy whenever I go there, which is all times of the day depending on my schedule. They really upped their game over the last couple years, probably to try and compete better with Tysons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rumor is the Giant in FH is closing in January, but there's a covenant in the lease or something that says that space must always offer a full-service grocery store so something else is taking its place ASAP.

Aldis please!!!

Giant is facing headwinds and is consolidating. There speculation that the “Giant Giant” on Wisconsin Ave. in DC, which is just 5 or 6 years old, may not survive very long after Wegmans opens just three blocks away.

That is news to me and uninformed speculation on your part - a quick google search reveals no news articles about Giants either closing or consolidating.

And the only speculation about the CP Giant is coming from you.

The FH Giant is closing, according to the manager I spoke with, because the rent was jacked up.

Interestingly the Zoning requires a grocery store in that development so the landlord is going to have to find a new grocer. The space is probably too big for a Trader Joe's and too small for a Wegmans and Whole Foods has their 2nd largest store in the country across the street so it will be interesting to see if they find a new tenant. The landlord of the Chevy Chase Center has been pretty good at finding tenants though not so good at putting lipstick on the pig of that awful car oriented complex so we'll see if their hubris doesn't blow up in their face in the same manner that it did for the Chevy Chase Pavilion.

[Anonymous]

RIP TILA’S I’LL NEVER FORGET YOU

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rumor is the Giant in FH is closing in January, but there's a covenant in the lease or something that says that space must always offer a full-service grocery store so something else is taking its place ASAP.

Aldis please!!!

Real curious what's going in there. Probably not a safeway, considering there are two within a mile of that location. Trader Joe's is right up the road already. Seems too small for a whole foods. Harris Teeter would be nice, I guess.

No safeway will be built unless safeway is allowed to build mixed use with hundreds of apartments above it. See for examples the newer safeways in wheaton, rockville @ twinbrook, DTSS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You guys forgot about City Center. All of the really high end boutiques moved out of FH and went downtown.

Not ALL of them. For example, the FH Cartier closed and isn't in City Center. It's only at Tyson's Galleria.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rumor is the Giant in FH is closing in January, but there's a covenant in the lease or something that says that space must always offer a full-service grocery store so something else is taking its place ASAP.

Aldis please!!!

Real curious what's going in there. Probably not a safeway, considering there are two within a mile of that location. Trader Joe's is right up the road already. Seems too small for a whole foods. Harris Teeter would be nice, I guess.

No safeway will be built unless safeway is allowed to build mixed use with hundreds of apartments above it. See for examples the newer safeways in wheaton, rockville @ twinbrook, DTSS.

There’s a perfectly adequate Safeway in Connecticut Ave.

[Anonymous]

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

What? I am there almost every day and haven’t seen any, so-called, thugs. What are you talking about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rumor is the Giant in FH is closing in January, but there's a covenant in the lease or something that says that space must always offer a full-service grocery store so something else is taking its place ASAP.

Aldis please!!!

Giant is facing headwinds and is consolidating. There speculation that the “Giant Giant” on Wisconsin Ave. in DC, which is just 5 or 6 years old, may not survive very long after Wegmans opens just three blocks away.

That is news to me and uninformed speculation on your part - a quick google search reveals no news articles about Giants either closing or consolidating.

And the only speculation about the CP Giant is coming from you.

The FH Giant is closing, according to the manager I spoke with, because the rent was jacked up.

Interestingly the Zoning requires a grocery store in that development so the landlord is going to have to find a new grocer. The space is probably too big for a Trader Joe's and too small for a Wegmans and Whole Foods has their 2nd largest store in the country across the street so it will be interesting to see if they find a new tenant. The landlord of the Chevy Chase Center has been pretty good at finding tenants though not so good at putting lipstick on the pig of that awful car oriented complex so we'll see if their hubris doesn't blow up in their face in the same manner that it did for the Chevy Chase Pavilion.

Well, I gotta say that I heard it first here on DCUM. Now here's confirmation from Bethesda Magazine:

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/business/giant-to-close-in-friendship-heights-next-month/

[Anonymous]

I think the stores there are just not youth oriented - seems the main clientele are older people. Need a string of pearls, expensive sensible walking shoes or a place to store your fur coat? Head to FH. Need a hip and semi-adorable summer dress for a wedding? Don’t head to FH.

[Anonymous]

Funny no one has mentioned Pike and Rose which is close to Montgomery Mall and is just so PLEASANT. I think it’s better architecture and better emphasis on fast casual or trendy restaurants mixed in with shopping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Funny no one has mentioned Pike and Rose which is close to Montgomery Mall and is just so PLEASANT. I think it’s better architecture and better emphasis on fast casual or trendy restaurants mixed in with shopping.

I mentioned Pike and Rose earlier and that all the FH department stores should relocate to the White Flint site to be close to Pike and Rose. White Flint could be MoCo’s Tysons Galleria.

[Anonymous]

I think someone mentioned this earlier, but what’s the deal with the surface parking lot behind Mazza in that little triangle of land?

And is Geico there for the long haul?