H Street Getting Its Giant

• November 10, 2010
• 6 Comments

by Joe Marhamati

After months of speculation about which grocery store would be coming to H Street NE, the wait is finally over.

After Trader Joe’s, Harris Teeter and Yes! Organic all passed on the opportunity, DCist reports that a 41,200 square-foot Giant Food has signed on to open at 3rd and H Street NE (map). Construction is expected to begin this coming spring and the store will open in 2013. The grocery store will anchor what is now being called 360 (degrees) H Street, a 286,500 square-foot project from Steuart Investment Co. that will eventually include 212 rental units and 279 parking spaces as well as additional retail.

It will be interesting to see what type of effect this news has on the H Street Corridor, a neighborhood that lay dormant for years, but is now one of the hippest areas in the city for the under-35 set.

In April, we wrote about the “explosive effect” that the opening of a grocery store can have on a neighborhood. Examples throughout the city are numerous: the “urban lifestyle” Safeway on the ground floor of CityVista at 5th and L Street NW is always one of the first amenities cited by residents of Mount Vernon Triangle; the rapidly changing but oft-overlooked Southwest neighborhood now has a newly renovated Safeway that was long derided as sloppy and understocked; and the Jenkins Row Harris Teeter on Pennsylvania Avenue in Capitol Hill helped sell the 250+ units in that condo project.

As David Mayhood, president of real estate marketing firm the Mayhood Company, noted in a Housing Complex post a few months ago “…the consumer really follows the shopping cart. When the grocery store happens, it just explodes.” It will be interesting to see if this adage holds true on H Street.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/h_street_getting_its_giant/2662

6 Comments

1. Mike said at 1:55 pm on Wednesday November 10, 2010:

   good news indeed for resurging H street, but wonder why it takes 2 years to build a grocery store.

1. Probs said at 2:08 pm on Wednesday November 10, 2010:

   because of the 5 floors containing 215 apartments. 2 years is aggressive.

1. Lauren said at 3:19 pm on Wednesday November 10, 2010:

   Yay! It is sad, but I am very excited for a supermarket in the neighborhood that won’t exist for three years.

1. Laura said at 3:22 pm on Wednesday November 10, 2010:

   I think it is great that we are getting a giant on 3rd and H, however it would be hard to measure the accuracy of Mayhood’s statement, though I believe it is usually true, because there is already a plan to build apartments there. Housing is so coveted in dc that it has no choice but to do well, plus to be that close the metro is ideal. What I’d really like to see is affordable new apartments in the city that are nice yet don’t cost half your monthly salary. On another note, there is already a safeway off maryland, near H street. I think the development from 3rd st to 7th street still has a long way to go right now.

1. Mike said at 8:48 am on Thursday November 11, 2010:

   That is great news! That neighborhood really is improving! There are so many renovations going on between 2nd St, H and Florida, it really is amazing. Plus, Harris Teeter opens in less than a month!

1. roots said at 11:15 am on Friday November 12, 2010:

   great for the area. I still think H Street is about 10 years from being where it wants to be but progress is being made. Just have to tear down those strip malls, ugly.

   Marriott just broke ground in another “hot” area: 9th street near Convention center.

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