If You Build a Grocery Store, Will They Come?

• September 8, 2009
• 6 Comments

by Mark Wellborn

The Capitol Riverfront will finally get the establishment that it has long been missing: a grocery store. The North Carolina-based Harris Teeter chain will build a store in the 2,000-resident neighborhood surrounding Nationals Stadium at some point in the next three years, according to the Washington Business Journal.

The Journal noted that the store will span 50,000 square feet on the ground floor of a building planned for 401 M Street SE, a part of The Yards complex. The blame for the three-year waiting period can be attributed to the fact that we now live in an era when financing new construction is increasingly difficult.

The Capitol Riverfront neighborhood has long been in need of a grocery store, so it will be interesting to see if just the announcement of this new store will open the flood gates for new residents into this area. What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/if_you_build_a_grocery_store_will_they_come/1287

6 Comments

1. Brandon Green said at 1:43 pm on Tuesday September 8, 2009:

   For a Harris Teeter they will!

1. Simon said at 3:05 pm on Tuesday September 8, 2009:

   Yes, it is the main thing that this neighborhood has been missing, so I suspect that it will bring an influx of new residents. Even if it is three years from being built.

1. JohnDC said at 5:17 pm on Tuesday September 8, 2009:

   I don’t think the Harris Teeter being built at New York Ave metro had a lot of impact on the NOMA & surrounding neighborhoods yet.

   I have noticed more people in suits walking around though but I imagine that’s due to the new office space & ATF building

1. ML said at 10:48 am on Wednesday September 9, 2009:

   JohnDC,

   The NOMA Harris Teeter is still a year off. Once it is closer to opening you will see an impact. I know it was a large factor in my deciding to move to the area near it.

1. Wayne said at 4:58 pm on Wednesday September 9, 2009:

   I have friends who live in Bloomingdale and Brookland that shop at the Harris Tetter on Potomac Avenue. I know they will stop shopping at that Harris Teeter and start shopping at the NOMA Harris Teeter once it’s finished. It used to be we had to go to Maryland and Virginia to shop at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. So, yes once HT’s built people will come and shop there. Just don’t put a Whole Foods in—they’re known to wipe out Harris Teeter!

1. G said at 12:02 am on Thursday September 10, 2009:

   The Riverfront area has a grocery store… the Safeway in SW is being remodeled.

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