9th Street: DC's Next "It" Boulevard?

• February 13th 2012

by Shilpi Paul

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NoMa, H Street and 14th Street are regularly mentioned as the booming development corridors in DC. But another avenue will soon be on everyone’s radar: 9th Street NW.

From the 10-acre CityCenter project at H Street NW to multi-block developments like CityMarket at O and JBG’s planned project on Florida Avenue NW, the development in the works for the area is substantial.

“9th Street is a corridor with well over a billion dollars in development currently underway,” Ralph Brabham, Chair of the Board of Directors of Shaw Main Streets and the author of renewshaw.com told UrbanTurf.

For an example of change, Brabham pointed to the corner of 9th and Q Streets, an intersection that was vacant and deteriorating a few years ago. “Today, a hole in the ground has been replaced by a four-unit Christian Zapatka-designed condominium building, a former pizza place is now a single-family home, and properties that were once boarded up are being completely gutted and restored.”

Like most of Shaw, 9th Street struggled after streetcars stopped running in 1962 and the riots tore through in 1968. Vacancies abounded, a situation that is quickly changing. “It makes no sense for someone to pay blighted property tax on a [vacant] building when they could sell it for a handsome profit or when there’s a clearly realizable better use for it,” said Brabham.

While the catalyctic developments are emerging in the middle and southern sections of the avenue, the northern end of 9th Street will be capped by a massive mixed-use project from JBG, which is expected to be a modern, five-story edifice and may even house a Trader Joe’s. “JBG scored a prime property, so they’re going to have a big say on what [the area] looks like,” Gerard DiRuggiero, Broker & Managing Member of UrbanLand Company, told UrbanTurf.

Nearby development just off of 9th Street includes Jefferson at Market Place at 7th and P and Progression Place at 7th and S Street NW, which will bring almost 500 residential units and additional retail to the area.

The development extends beyond monster residential projects, too. A four-star, 1,175-room Marriott Marquis at 9th and Massachusetts, a smaller Marriott at 9th and L, and endless smaller retail outlets are on the boards or have already popped up. In 2011, the street welcomed market Seasonal Pantry, sandwich shop SUNdeVICH, and restaurant Rogue 24, among other retailers.

ANC 2C Commissioner and Shaw Main Street Executive Director Alex Padro said that about a dozen leases are currently in negotiation and rattled off a list of offices that recently took space on or around the street: Devrouax and Purnell Architects at 875 N Street NW, Family Matters on the second floor of 1507 9th Street NW, Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind at 1426 9th Street NW. Joining Rogue 24 and the DC-location of Mandalay Cafe in the restaurant scene will be Cafe Nima at 1230 9th Street NW and a new project from Corduroy chef and owner Tom Power at 1224 9th Street NW. In addition to restaurants, Shaw Art Walk recently brought more attention to the row of art galleries dotting the blocks between M and O streets.

The ANC is trying to insure that quieter retail fills the street, so that it doesn’t turn into a club scene. “Stable, sustainable, non-nightclub businesses will predominate in Little Ethiopia’s 1900 block of 9th Street and the mixed-use blocks closer to the convention center,” Padro tells us. “[Nevertheless], in the coming years, major new developments will bring hundreds of new residents and workers to the neighborhood and tens of thousands of visitors annually.”

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/9th_street_nw_is_blowing_up/5112.