Ballpark's Early Birds Patiently Waiting For Retail and Restaurants

• November 18th 2011

by Rebecca Cooper

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It seemed like a smart move. The city government had just signed a deal to bring the Nationals to DC and build a state-of-the-art stadium in Southeast that would surely be surrounded by a hot new neighborhood full of hotels, bars and restaurants. Who wouldn’t want to get in on that?

David Wissman was one of those that jumped at the chance; he bought a unit at Capitol Hill Tower in 2006, shortly after the city inked the deal with the Nationals. He was attracted to the project’s proximity to his new office — he works for the Department of Transportation — and to the prospect of the fun, new neighborhood springing up.

However, five years later, Wissman is still looking hungrily at the barren spaces around his building. “I thought the street going to the stadium was going to be filled with restaurants by now,” he lamented.

Wissman is not alone. Many of those who bought early on have watched as existing retail spaces have remained empty since they purchased. It’s been a long few years, and residents have had to get creative — ordering delivery food early from Capitol Hill that can take upwards of an hour to arrive, or making sure to have a “robust home food operation,” as one of the people UrbanTurf interviewed put it.

Adam Froemming works for the Nationals, and lived in the neighborhood from 2008 until this past May. His commute to work was a breeze, but he and his wife were still walking to Barracks Row three or four nights a week.

“8th Street is only seven blocks away. We kind of viewed it as an extension of the same neighborhood,” Froemming said. But he understood that new home owners were probably eager to create a neighborhood identity of their own, and he welcomed the arrival of Justin’s Cafe, a local bar and grill at 1025 First St. SE, when it opened in April 2010 and became the first sit-down spot in the area.

“It was frustrating as a resident to see people everywhere, but not see an entrepreneur, an investor, or a restaurant chain willing to come into the neighborhood,” Froemming said.

Justin’s was the first, and in the past several months there have been other glimmers of retail/restaurant hope. Several eateries have supposedly committed to opening in the new Boilermaker Shops just east of the baseball stadium. A brand new espresso bar, Lot 38, is currently under construction and aiming for a December opening.

And there is clearly a need for more restaurants, coffeeshops and bars. Justin’s owner Justin Ross said business has exceeded his expectations — but then again, it’s hard not to be busy when you’re the only bar around. On a recent weekday afternoon, there were more than a dozen people there.

“The reason I opened up here is that I’m from DC, and I saw what the Verizon Center did to Chinatown,” he said. (Ross has since moved to the neighborhood.)

Still, one restaurant amid scores of empty retail space does not a scene make. “Probably a half dozen restaurants slash bars could move in overnight, and I’d still feel like we’d need more,” says Ben Fischer, who moved to the neighborhood in the summer of 2010.

And that growth, while universally welcomed among residents, would mean competition for Justin’s, which hasn’t had to work too hard to corner the market. “I mean, it’s not a bad bar; I’ve had a good beer there before,” Fischer said. “But if it was on Barrack’s Row, I wouldn’t even know it was there.”

But Ross isn’t too worried about the competition that will inevitably move in.

“I think anything that brings people to the neighborhood is going to be good for business,” he says. “Right now, we have people come in all the time. Hopefully they’ll remember that we were here first.”

And until the doors of those other places open — there are seven restaurants predicting openings at various points in 2012 — locals aren’t holding their breath. “You don’t want to be a pessimist, but for three years they’ve been saying [the Boilermaker Shops] are going to happen,” says Froemming, trailing off. “I’ll be glad when they open the doors. It’s certainly been a long time coming.”

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/ballparks_early_birds_still_waiting_for_retail_and_restaurants/4612.