Creating the "new new" thing: commercial district revitalization

Focus and quality ideas and especially quality execution are necessary to the revitalization of traditional commercial districts. You need attractions that appeal to people outside a neighborhood, to complement the market capacity of the extant neighborhood, because in today's retail and entertainment environment, most neighborhoods don't have enough market potential to support thriving businesses and to fill all the vacant retail space--space that was built in a time of much different retail industry conditions (independent businesses, small spaces, limited chains, long before "big boxes" and "category-killers" were created).

H Street NE is the "new new thing" these days in DC, proving a couple things. One is that people are always looking for things to do and they are willing to try new places, provided others are talking about it, trying it, and the media is writing about it. And there is value and quality in the destinations. (It doesn't necessarily have to be wildly different but it does have to be worth going to.)

Today's Post has a big feature in the weekend section--the lead article--about the Palace of Wonders "show bar" as well as the Red and the Black small venue music club. See "Sideshow or Rock Show? On H St., You Decide."

These establishments-venues-destinations complement the more neighborhood hangout Argonaut (also opened by the same group) and the H Street Martini Lounge, in addition to the H Street Playhouse, and the developing Atlas Performing Arts Center, which is about to open two large theater spaces within the next couple months.

Main theater at the Atlas under construction and close to completion. Photos by Elise Bernard.

Other establishments that will help attract or serve patrons include the R&B Coffee Shop as well as the DC Sanctuary alternative arts space. Places like Phish Tea failed, because they were never able to get it together enough to provide a quality experience--the service-value equation never matched the most basic expectations of the average customer. (You can find links to most of these places at Frozen Tropics.)

Many years ago, a friend of mine who night-hops far more than I do made a great point that I will never forget. He said that when you go out, you really go to a district, not a place, because you don't want to be stuck in place that isn't fun, isn't happening. When there are a bunch of places nearby in a district--like Adams-Morgan or Dupont Circle--you aren't stuck. You can just "bar hop" over to the next place.

Agglomeration or critical mass is key. The fact that Joe Englert, with a long track record and history of success, decided to stake a claim and push for a focused effort, by buying a bunch of buildings, and bringing together a variety of entrepreneurs with different concepts, got involved is essential. Otherwise, things were just likely to continue sputtering along. It helps that Joe Englert truly is a creative guy with a lot of ideas that are out of the box. (In fact, he's one of the few people I've met with many and more and better ideas than mine).

Opening a couple new carryout/restaurants here and there doesn't have the kind of impact necessary to change people's opinions, and more importantly, attract patrons to a corridor that still has serious (and legitimate) perception issues. It sometimes takes a Joe Englert to move a place forward. Even with an H Street Playhouse or an Atlas Performing Arts Center.

My friend countered his examples (we were talking about 1223, Dragonfly, Sesto Senso, and Red at first) to Dream (now called Love) in Ivy City (off New York Avenue NE) and posited that it wouldn't work, because there is nothing else around. He was kind of right, but that place is successful because they "import" guests from out-of-the-region, doing heavy marketing up Baltimore way and beyond Northern Virginia even to points as south as Virginia Beach and Norfolk. This means that Love isn't fully reliant on the DC marketplace to make it work.

The Ohio Restaurant was featured in this week's City Paper, in "Ohio Players"and the Baltimore Sun, in the article "Baltimore's reputation for weird goes south" lamenting the loss of many of the materials that made up the collection of the American Dime Museum to the new "Palace of Wonders" calls H Street, "a gentrifying street in northeast Washington."

Wow. Who would have thunk it?
Ohio Restaurant photos by Elise Bernard. (after).

Ohio Restaurant's food is decent. Like Wilson's maybe over by Howard University. I wouldn't necessarily go out of my way for it--unlike the bbq at Kenny's at 8th and Maryland Avenue NE--but it is satisfying. More importantly, I had been somewhat derisive because of the facade, which was completely closed up. But they spent their own money to open up the windows, and it makes a huge difference. For that reason alone they deserve my patronage. (And they did it without waiting for the facade improvement program from H Street Main Street which still hasn't moved forward almost two years after the awarding of a grant to do so.)
Ohio Restaurant before.

The key will be to have enough going on that people will return frequently. If the establishments can't build repeat business, eventually they will work through the people in the region willing to sample the district once, and business will fall off. Music clubs, movies, etc., are necessary to help pull repeat customers. The full-page ads that the Palace of Wonders, The Red and the Black, and The Argonaut are paying for in the City Paper are expensive, but as long as more places open that can share the costs, and more and more patrons find "the district" appealing, they will succeed.

Also see previous blog entries such as:
-- A Creative Idea for Adding Entertainment
-- Even more about rocking revitalization
-- Richard's Rules for Restaurant-Driven Revitalization (Updated).

Note: I am on record as not liking the term "Atlas District" to refer to this area. But they have started a decent website.

Index Keywords: urban-revitalization