Mysterious Lady Face On Storefront Poster At 10th & F St NW (Panera Bread)

I thought the Panera was going across the street at the NE corner of 10 and F (Carroll Square).

Some of the Atlantic Building along 10th St is going to be incorporated into the new Fords Theater campus. Perhaps the sign is in preparation for that.

I had thought the same thing about location of Panera. I spoke to Norman Jemal once about their vision / desired tenants for F Street and it generally did not include food service. They were mostly looking for clothing and home furnishing retailers.

I saw that too, and thought it was very odd. I thought maybe Benneton was moving their H Street location to F Street.

On another note, did anyone see Mayor Fenty on this morning’s NBC 4 “Connecting with the Mayor” segment? He was asked about grocery stores downtown and he mentioned some possible locations (old convention center site) and then he mentioned a “new Whole Foods downtown.” I almost fell off the treadmill. He mentioned it in passing, and there was no follow-up. Anyone know anything? I thought that idea was dead.

I think the south side of that block is destined to feature vacant retail space forever, unfortunately. What’s the deal? Across the street we have Mia Gemma, the cheese shop, a shoe store coming, and the chocolate cafe almost ready. The retail space on the south side has been finished a long time now, and just sitting there. The landlord asking too much in rent, or being too picky?

Jemal is responsible for a large share of the vacant property in PQ. Obviously the rents he seeks are not justified by the market, or there wouldn’t be so many vacant properties. Jemal & other developers are searching for a big score – DC should tax vacant commercial property at a far higher rate than occupied property, as is done in many jurisdictions. Then we might see some of the properties occupied.
Has anyone done a survey on the vacant properties & the entities in charge of the properties? It seems about 25-30% of the commercial space in PQ is vacant.
As for Whole Foods, forget about it. Fenty, as usual, is just talking without any basis for his words. I’d settle for a Fresh & Easy, the English version of Trader Joe’s, or any small market where I could get a green pepper or some good cheese without endangering my life by crossing Eye Street.

Is it possible that Jemal is waiting for the District to release the funding that is going to be used to help retail come to the nieghborhood. I think Jemal might be looking at millions of dollars. I think that was part of the deal with the H&M – money for “building out” costs. Does anyone know more about this.

http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2008/01/28/daily22.html

The store fronts aren’t entirely vacant….the doorways are occupied by the homeless and their belongings.

Jemal owns much vacant property, much of it taxed at the commercial rate which is much lower than the vacant rate. He was also given a great gift from Councilman Jack Evans in the form of commercial property reduction supposedly targeted to small business. The tax rate on the first 3 million of assessed value of commercial property was pretty much cut in half. The vacant property owned by land banking developers that’s mis-taxed also benefits. So when i see this article, I’m yelling DUH!
http://www.examiner.com/a-1247218~Gandhi_projects_budget_shortfall.html

wow- it’s worse than I’d thought, but thanks for the info, friends. it’s sad that we let this exceptionally greedy person diminish our neighborhood. and it’s clear that the city is giving our tax money as an incentive to these [statist] [psuedo] [pick your adjective] “businessmen” speculators to leave properties vacant in hopes of hitting a jackpot.
bad policy; bad business [unless you have corrupt politicians aiding & abetting].

Si and joe – do you have any Internet links or articles you can point to to substantiate your vacant retail space statements?

I see it a little differently. there’s the business viewpoint and there’s the public policy viewpoint. they are in constant tension with each other with the government acting as the mediating entity. punitive public policy that forces retail in for the sake of forcing retail in may not result in the best selection of stores nor does it encourage the attraction of riskier capital. my sense is that developing downtown retail is still a “frontier” investment and Jemal goes where others haven’t dared to tread (now changing with the likes of Akridge – it is curious that they aggressively got their spaces filled but we don’t know their cost structure compared to Jemal’s). tax increment financing (TIF) which is a positive incentive is a good public policy solution. that’s how we got West Elm.

if you remember the retail we had before in the downtown zone, it included stores like Payless Shoes, Sunny’s Surplus (this was on F St.), that nightclub-wear store in the Woodward Building (think vinyl body suits and glow sticks) and Decades night club (please, please don’t turn the lights on so I don’t see that nasty floor I’m dancing on). their clientele certainly had “character” but given a choice between the B & Ks of the world and nicely maintained vacancies waiting for the Vastus, the Pulps and the President Cigars of the world (all DC stores each with their own personalities, each of which I would patronize and each of which have items afforded by all income levels (maybe not Vastu)), I’ll take the vacancies. I’d love to see tenants in there now but I didn’t put up the coin either.

the demand side of the equation (more downtown residents and workers) should pick up in the next three years which will perk up the supply side already made available by Jemal and others.

just my two cents on a late night.

PQRes- not to start a flame war, as you had some good points, but aren’t Vastu and Pulp both in the U Street area, and off the beaten path for that area? I don’t think stores like these would have been able to grow and thrive in an area such as the new Penn Quarter, with the rent demands as they are, and the greed of certain developers. I for one would like to see a better mix of affordable shops, as well as high end retail, and I don’t think it must be one or the other. For instance, as much as I love the products of Cowgirl Creamery, I woould love to see an affordable deli, such as the Calvert Woodley one in Van Ness join our neighborhood. The fledgling upstarts that become the Vastus and Pulps don’t have a chance in this neighborhood, or must charge outrageous prices to even have a shot.

data Ive got…
http://www.box.net/shared/a8j23rk1cq
check out square 0450, Jemal is sitting on most of it until he completes his monopoly – he plans a big development on both sides of NY Ave. Ive been staring at the same broken windows for many years now. The city is not collecting the vacant taxes that it should be. for this one block, jemal has 7 properties being taxed at the commercial rate vs the vacant rate. from 2005-2007 the city lost $389,238 because of this. in 2008 they will lose $547,648. For SEVEN properties. And that doesnt even reflect the commercial property tax break I previously mentioned. That would certainly put the total over a million dollars.

this is just a snapshot of whats going on. DC has rules about vacant property exceptions but they arent enforced. some developers slap a “for lease” sign up and skate for years when by law they have 8 months. Some even make money off giant billboards situated on their vacant property (11th & K) or operate crappy parking lots (6th & NY.) This is a massive multilayered problem and i stare at it constantly. I live next to vacant property.

pq resident i see what you are saying, ive got no problem with the city doing its part to spur economic development. I think there should be a balanced approach combining incentives and penalties because right now, in many cases, it costs comparatively little to sit on a vacant building or lot.

anyway if you all want to keep up with mvsna vacant property efforts, here is the rundown from the last meeting with the city…we should be starting a survey of the triangle soon, volunteers welcome:)

http://lifein.mvsna.org/index.cfm/2007/12/13/Vacant-Property-Meeting

Back on topic – I just walked by this and up close in person its much more clear what the intent of the picture is.

From a distance it looks sort of old fashioned / historical possibly related to Madame Tousads or Ford’s theater.

Up close it is more clear that it is a more fashionable picture and presumably trying to portray the image of the storefront as a location for a retail clothing store.

Looks a little strange in the picture and from far away, but up close its pretty clear the intent.

Si and Denver2dc – good points. thanks!

sorry i get sidetracked interesting that Jemal is putting up something other than his standard for lease sign. i’m intrigued. its certainly more attractive.

I largely agree with #10, and I think we should keep in mind that Jemal lives in the neighborhood, so I would think he wants those buildings filled up as much as the next person. I would be interested to see the analysis of commercial spaces and who owns them. It very well could be that Jemal has brought us more retail than any other single entity. I wonder what people would say if he did fill his empty spots with someting like a check cashing store, a weak liquor store (think the Chinatown Market), and another MacDonald’s. You’d probably have people who were happy (maybe not on this blog) and people that weren’t, but you can’t please everyone. I would imagine that from here, things seem a lot easier and straight forward than from where he sits.

It is a retail clothing store – specifically, Peruvian knitwear- I think the store is called Peruvian Connection- see link below-
http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2007/10/15/story12.html

Whatever happens with the retail space on that block, I hope this mosaic is preserved (at the west end of the row, nearer 9th Street): http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_t_in_dc/2199764310/

UPDATE: As of this afternoon, that storefront with the woman’s face also has signs for a Peruvian clothing store. They were stenciling it in on the glass as I walked by on my lunch hour.

Update on Textile Museum (signs in windows taken down)
http://www.textilemuseum.org/expansion.htm