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Major Retail Coming to Columbia Heights

Columbia Heights is poised to become the shopping destination for the entire Washington, DC area. Hundreds of thousands of square feet of retail space are in the works including DC USA, a 500,000 sq. ft. retail complex that will include major retailers such as Target, Best Buy, Bed Bath and Beyond, and possibly Whole Foods Market! More exciting retailers are planning to open in the newly renovated Tivoli Square and other developments across Columbia Heights. Read more in the Retail News section.

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Parking at DC USA

Written by Columbia Heights News

Friday, 17 February 2006

The National Capital Revitalization Corporation (NCRC) is a publicly chartered company that will be funding and managing the underground parking facilities at the DC USA. We were able to correspond with Tiffany Simms, the External Affairs Coordinator for NCRC. We asked her to provide some details about how the DC USA parking facilities would be managed and if there was the possiblity of dedicating a certain number of spaces for a particular retailer who requires it, namely Whole Foods Market.

Ms. Simms replied with the following message:

My apologies for getting back to you so late. You are probably aware that we appeared for our annual Oversight Hearing before City Council and closed on DC USA this week, keeping the staff extremely busy.

First, let me thank you for your interest in DC USA and commend your efforts in keeping your community informed about what’s going on in Columbia Heights.

As you may know, NCRC is using publicly issued, tax-exempt bonds to finance the construction of the 1,000 car parking garage at DC USA. IRS rules mandate that any facility paid for with these types of bonds must be open to the public, and therefore cannot have any sort of dedicated parking. While we would love to see Whole Foods in Columbia Heights, we are not able to offer the parking amenity at DC USA that you indicate is a deal breaker for Whole Foods.

I hope this information is helpful. Thanks very much.

Thank you Ms. Simms for your response and allowing us to publish your words.

In a subsequent email, Ms. Simms confirmed that NCRC would generate revenue by imposing parking fees. We asked if there was any way that a portion of the parking spaces could be leased out to certain retailers. That way the City would still generate revenue but retailers who require dedicated parking spaces could have them at a price. Alternatively, we asked if a portion of the parking spaces could be bought out-right by the developer. Ms. Simms told me none of those scenarios would be feasible. She said that NCRC is obligated to provide parking to all customers equally no matter where they choose to shop.

We asked Ms. Simms if the community could write NCRC to voice our support for Whole Foods Market. She told me that emails would have very little influence on the issue as it is not NCRC's decision to make.

This news may be a stumbling block in the efforts to bring Whole Foods Market to the DC USA. We believe that there will be plenty of parking to go around (1000 spaces total) and that Whole Foods Market would be missing a great market in Columbia Heights where many people walk and take public transit if it decides not to come to DC USA. We wrote in a previous post, Metro's Green Line - Capacity Upgrade, that the Columbia Heights Metro Station, which the planned space for Whole Foods Market would be directly across from, sees an average of 13,900 riders per day. We will keep looking into this but if dedicated parking is ultimately not going to be possible, we hope that Whole Foods Market can overlook their parking requirements and understand that they will have overwhelming support from customers if they locate to DC USA.

If you have any questions for Ms. Simms, her contact information is as follows:

Tiffany Simms
External Affairs Coordinator
National Capital Revitalization Corporation
2025 M Street, NW
Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036
202.530.2469
202.530.5790 (fax)

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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 14 March 2007 )

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