Columbia Heights News - Washington, DC

Help Bring Whole Foods Market To Columbia Heights!

Would you like Whole Foods Market to come to Columbia Heights? You can join our campaign to bring Whole Foods Market to the DC USA retail complex! The best way for you to voice your support for Whole Foods is to email Karen Riley at karen.riley@wholefoods.com. Karen Riley is the real estate coordinator for Whole Foods Market. She can demonstrate the level of our support directly to the Whole Foods team working on the negotiations. Please be as descriptive as you can in your emails. Please also cc or bcc your emails to Ms. Riley to us at info@columbiaheightsnews.org. We need to keep a running tally of how many messages have been sent to Whole Foods Market so we can gage how much more work we need to do. The more people who can email Whole Foods Market the more powerful our collective voices will be! It looks like we are facing an uphill battle but as a community we can make a difference! Please spread the word!

Friday, September 05, 2008

Whole Foods

Latest Comments

Meridian Hill Park Still Under Construction
(8 comments)
Mrs. Columbia Heights Wins 2008 Mrs. DC Title
(1 comment)
View14
(10 comments)
Pete's Apizza To Open On Monday
(16 comments)
DC USA
(51 comments)
DC USA and Ellwood Thompson's: Prospects
(12 comments)
Ellwood Thompson's Continue To Pursue DC USA
(14 comments)
Mayorga Coffee Opening Monday
(11 comments)
Best Buy Grand Opening
(3 comments)
Wrapping Up Our Whole Foods Campaign
(10 comments)

Browse the Web Faster

Home

Whole Foods Market

DC USA

Page 1 of 6

DC USA is a 546,000 square feet shopping and entertainment complex that is under construction in the heart of Columbia Heights. With major retailers like Target, Best Buy, Washington Sports Club, and Bed Bath and Beyond, DC USA will become the one-stop shopping destination for all of Washington, DC.

Information

Location:	14th St NW and Park Road NW
	Washington, DC 20010
Developers:	Grid Properties
	Gotham Organization
	Development Corporation of Columbia Heights
	National Capital Revitalization Corporation
Leasing Agent:	Newmark Knight Frank
Architect:	Bower Lewis Thrower Architects
Project Cost:	$140 Million
Completion Date:	2008
Total Retail Space:	546,000 sq. ft.

Retailers

The following is a list of anticipated tenants for the DC USA shopping complex (Source: Development Corporation of Columbia Heights).

Commited Tenants
Target Best Buy Bed Bath & Beyond Washington Sports Club Modell's Staples Marshalls (Added 8/14/2006)

Tenants with Pending Leases
Whole Foods Vitamin Shoppe Payless Quizno's Maggie Moo's Lane Bryant Radio Shack Caribou Coffee (Added 8/14/2006)	Children's Place McDonald's Mattress Discounters Panda Express Desi's Chicken

Many residents have expressed interest in bringing Whole Foods Market to the DC USA retail complex. Whole Foods Market and DC USA developers are still under negotiation. There are a few major hurdles. We have set up a special Whole Foods Market section to provide you the latest information on this situation and let you know what we can do as a community to make it happen.

Updates

February 2006

"...Modell's and Staples have struck agreements with New York-based Grid Properties and the Gotham Organization, according to sources close to the deals...Citibank is giving the project an $89 million construction loan, according to NCRC...NCRC will finance $47 million for three levels of underground parking by issuing tax-exempt bonds to Citibank Community Development Bank. NCRC started issuing the bonds last month. The bonds will be repaid with $4.9 million in parking revenue and $42 million in tax increment financing, which uses some of the taxes generated by new development to pay off bonds...DC USA has 15,000 square feet of first-floor space reserved for minority businesses, and 14 businesses have applied for it, including franchise owners for Maggie Moo's Ice Cream and Treatery and Quizno's."

Source: Washington Business Journal "Big retailers sign on for Columbia Heights revamp" (Reprint from MSNBC)

More Reading: Columbia Heights News "DC USA Update", GlobalSt.com "$89M Financing Package Paves Way for Retail Project"

December 20, 2005

"The closing date for the construction loan. Eighty percent of the DC USA retail space must be claimed in order to break ground. 'Closing has started, with tenants under lease at an amount sufficient for the lender to proceed,' says Robert Moore, president of the Development Corporation of Columbia Heights. City sources say ground will be broken sometime in the coming months."

Source: Washington City Paper - "Target Practice" by Brian Beutler

November 2005

Site preparation has been completed by National Capital Revitalization Corporation (NCRC). The site will be transferred to DC USA Operation Company, LLC. Construction is expected to begin in spring 2006 and completed sometime in 2008.

Source: NCRC

Renderings

DC USA Interior Rendering - A glimpse to what it may look like inside.

Source: BLT Architects

DC USA Exterior Rendering

Source: BLT Architects

Floor Plans

Source - Development Corporation of Columbia Heights

Photos

This is a photo of the sign posted on the DC USA site - January 2006.

Comments

Traffic improvements?
Written by on 2006-04-27 08:07:38

Are there any traffic/transit improvements planned to go along with this project? It has the potential to snarl area roads. Picture 25+ cars waiting to turn onto 14th St, and 25 people from the Metro waiting to cross the same street.

Traffic... how about pedestrians?
Written by on 2006-06-15 17:17:30

That too, but-- where will all these people walk-- between all the sitting cars??

Are there plans for walkways over the street level?

Written by GforGood on 2006-08-14 19:33:30

Marshalls.. woohoo! Cheap brand boxer shorts!!! No, seriously, that's where you get them.. ;-)

Daydreaming
Written by Mr. D on 2006-08-15 08:50:45

At this point, I know I'm walking woozily through a daydream... But wouldn't it be great if they just added a below-street walkthrough from the metro to DC USA? It would require a tunnel... what... 20 feet long? It would connect the metro to a corner of the underground parking garage, or a small area that could be sectioned off into a stairway or whatever to the main entrance. It's a pipe dream, but it would do a lot to make the place more pedestrian accessible.

Written by GforGood on 2006-08-15 09:20:23

Mr. D, great idea! Wonder if they have even considered it? The problem is probably cost and who would shoulder it. But in any case, perhaps you can try to email the developers?

Written by on 2006-08-15 21:26:59

I realize nothing can be done at this point, but does anyone not agree that DC USA is a horrendous name for a retail center? It has the same sort of weird inappropriate nationalist feel of an american flag bumper sticker. Can someone explain why they would do this?

Written by

on 2006-08-15 23:42:29

The DC USA retail center is modeled after the Harlem USA retail center in New York City.

Written by GforGood on 2006-08-16 07:33:11

Concerned Resident,

could not agree more. But as it may be too late to change the official name and its fashioned after the Harlem USA (which is an equally silly name for a mall), one can only hope us residents will come up with a better nick name.. Columbia Heights Mall is a bit too long I guess? :)

Agreed!
Written by Mr. D on 2006-08-16 13:58:49

Glad to see others hate the name, too. But it really isn't a mall as such... more of a shopping center. Who really bothers to remember the name of a shopping center? I'm sure that once it's up, I'll be able to keep a warm place in my hard for the big Target thing.

Written by GforGood on 2006-08-16 14:15:05

Lol.. true. I am not native English speaker so I use mall and shopping center completely interchangeably. To be frank, I don't know what the difference is. :)

Written by KG on 2006-08-23 18:53:02

I'm really disappointed with the stores that are coming in. Mattress Discounters? I was hoping that we would be the new Dupont Circle with similar local flair, but it's looking more like a bad strip mall. I'm sad.

<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next > End >>

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 14 March 2007 )

Search Columbia Heights News or the entire web with:

Community Forum

Search

Advanced Search