United Colors of Benneton Announces Store Closing, AT&T/Cingular Store To Replace It (785 7th St NW)

I can’t speak for the women but the mens department was a load anyway

Just visited, and a salesperson said their last day is September 15.

I have to agree; the men’s department was a total bust. I won’t miss this store for a second.

I won’t miss it either but I am concerned that a store such as Benetton could not make it in our area? What doest his say for other retail coming into the area?

Anon: It’s just my opinion, but I think that higher paying tenants are currently preying upon weaker performing retail tenants. I think that bodes well for the neighborhood.

Has anyone else noticed that it looks like Shimba Hills is closing?

I’m a female and live in the neighborhood and will completely miss the women’s department and the great customer service. I shopped there all the time since I didn’t want to look like a typical DC bureaucrat. I’ve seen the same Ann Taylor skirt on 3 different women today!!!

I walked by Shimba Hills last night and also noticed that it looked like they were packing up. I hope the space will be scooped up by something other than another coffee shop.

it’s a wash

Now that Benneton is up to 70% off, you can shop during the Sales Tax Holiday August 4-12 and really get a deal! Will I miss them? Not at all, there are only a zillion other Benneton’s around, just like the Ann Taylor franchise. If you want unique go to a boutique.

How many damn mobile phone stores do we really need?

did benneton possibly suffer from the location? would having frontage on 7th street have helped? the att store is a destination retail spot. people will find it who need the service. maybe benneton would have been better served it joined h&m, zara, and american apparel in a mini ‘fashion district’

Will the AT&T store use both floors? What a waste if not. It would have made a cool Apple store!

What the hell does a cell phone store need with a space that big? Seems to me that there are a thousand other stores that would have been better suited to that space. ALSO… about the grocery store situation in the area….I was just in Florida for vacation and went to a store that many of you from the south would know called the Fresh Market. It’s kind of like Whole Foods but also carries regular brands, like coke. I went to their website, and they are expanding all over the place, including a new store in Baltimore. Perhaps we can start some sort of email campaign to them? Just a thought.

Since we are dreaming of what the space could have been…how about a grocery store with a little restaurant upstairs?

The retailers should be consulting the locals, as our ideas are much better.

High paying tenants that we don’t need ANY more of in DC:

Cellular phone stores
Banks
CVS
Starbucks

Who goes to cell phone stores anyway? I haven’t had cause to go into one for 6 years. Can’t you just order everything online now? I’m not sorry to see Benneton leave, but having another cell phone store in such a high traffic area is a bit obscene.

i totally second the idea of no more banks! there are so many. and nothing bums me out more than when i see a new development going up with ground floor retail and have to find out that two or three of the spaces are filled with banks. they’re better than the check cashing places, but here’s an example. within all the development around the columbia heights metro station, there are 5 banks; lafayette, wachovia, sitibank, pnc, bb&t. way to many for a two block stretch of land. anyway, off of soupbox. and soap box.

at least its an at&t and not a citibank.

Wow! That is a 10,000 square foot space! And, now AT&T will be in it. It would be a giant store of this type in our city I believe. I would hope that the second floor of the space will be used also.

Maybe they are planning some super signage on the outside to compete with the Verizon Center signage on the 7th Street side.

otavio: Western Development is trying to get approval to put up 3 fugly electronic billboards on the outside of the 7th & H St pagoda. Of course, they say that Cingular is buying ad space on them.

However, the billboard approval is tied up in DC gov because of several reasons (safety, public space, etc).

Sorry to see Benneton go and certainly don’t need another cell phone store–what a waste! Wish the developers would read this blog.

I agree with Daniel. Let’s start an email campaign to Fresh Market. I love living in PQ but the lack of a market I can walk to is a huge inconvenience.

I would like to see and Barnes and Noble, Borders, Grocery Store, or Cheesecake Factory in the Space. We don’t need a big cell phone store.

Developers don’t care what we want. They are in the business to make money.

A cell phone store…what a waste! Along with Ecco/Comfort One Shoes….buh bye!

Do we actually have confirmation about AT&T moving into the location?

gpliving: thanks for the info.

I was hoping that these electronic billboards would not turn out to be fugly.

I can also see how AT&T/Cingular paid top dollar for this space, especially with all the advertising they’ll be getting out of it.

The retail turnover in this neighbourhood is interersting. I never really saw a volume of people shopping at the Benetton. I wonder who could be next on the list…..

I also wonder about the volume of business at the Bed, Bath & Beyond there.

Otavio, Akridge has said that B,B & Beyond is doing okay. As you know that Store was orginally supposed to be the Safeway in the area. And one of the reasons I decided to buy in GP. Sigh!
I left a voice message for Norman Jemal on the Fresh Market grocery. I see that they have a mid-Atlantic distribution. Daniel, how large a space do they need?

Cheryl (no. 27) — The grocery store issue is obvious. Stop the complaining. It is of no use. (Sigh.)

Cheryl: the Fresh Market store I went to in FL wasn’t that big at all. The website says the store is 22,000 square feet. That is the perfect size store for our area.

Looks like Zara will have more customers now.

[children in third world country making clothes applauding]

Everyone, don’t forget that next summer the new Safeway in CityVista will be opening! Of course, it is not in Penn Quarter or Gallery Place but it should be a nice, clean, quite large store within an easy walk for most of us!

I was just saying the other day how nice it would be to put a restaurant there with that view. Then we drove by and saw that the store was closing. No surprise there. A grocery store would be convenient, but then I remembered that Safeway is coming to the new Condominiums off New York Ave. I could deal with two grocery stores though. Maybe a Whole Foods? Trader Joe’s?