14th Street NW as a retail district

Before image of Room & Board building from Apartment Therapy. Note that the store is amazing, really well laid out, with the addition of a fourth floor balcony, also promoting the store's furniture options, as well as the use of the ground floor side yard as a patio, again promoting their offerings.

With the opening of the new Room & Board furniture/lifestyle store at 14th and T Streets NW over the weekend, I took the opportunity to review a bit, the state of retail and entertainment from P Street to T Street on 14th Street.

There have been ups and downs of course. Some businesses have failed. Not all of the condominium projects are successful (their construction plans didn't beat the real estate market downturn), and 14th and U, what in commercial real estate is called the 100% intersection or the "Main and Main" location, continues to dominated by a government office building that sucks the life out of a key corner.

Recently there has been a lot of angst about the role of restaurants, what an "arts district" is, etc., which I have written about here, "Should a restaurant or bar or coffee shop be considered an arts-related business as a matter of course?," plus the article from a couple years ago, "Other 14th Street NW Galleries Could Close in Wake of G Fine Art" in the Post.

I'm thinking that with the addition of Room & Board, a national furniture mail order company with a limited number of stores, fewer than 15 around the country, that the other lifestyle stores that have been developing along the corridor (Muleh, Home Rule, etc.) along with the other limited edition chain furniture/lifestyle store, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, along with the key anchor, Whole Foods Market on P Street, which has helped to center that block around lifestyle (Lululemon), mostly restaurants (Logan Tavern, etc.) drawing people out onto the corridor from a larger retail trade area, that the corridor, at least from P to T, can take on a more "design district" orientation.

But it's going to take awhile before the district fills in between say Rhode Island and T Streets. Jumping from T to U Street is going to take a long time, requiring a lot of new construction. The U to V block will be tough too, although beyond that, with Busboys & Poet and Eatonville, things are strengthening.

Not an art orientation, at least in terms of "arts as production" galleries, etc., although arts and entertainment as by presenting institutions such as the Studio Theatre, the Black Cat music venue, the Source Theatre building, along with other night time establishments will continue to bring people out to the corridor at night.

Note that Studio Theatre started the revitalization process for the corridor in 1978. With the opening of Room & Board in 2010, you can see that commercial district revitalization is rarely an immediate success, it is a long term process with many bumps in the road.

There was opposition to the opening of the R&B store on the part of some, because it is a chain. It took me some time to learn and appreciate, but the best "independent" commercial districts are a mix of mostly independent retailers, along with some chains, up to 20% or so.

The chain stores are anchors, they do advertising, they draw patrons to the corridor who in turn shop in other stores, they set a high bar for customer service and identity which in turn shapes the corridor as a professionally run commercial district with high standards.

These blog entries (also mentioned in the previous entry) discuss the necessity of independent retailers setting and meeting high expectations through robust, complete concepts and identity systems.

- Why ask why? Because (discusses the systems of individual businesses as well as the trends impacting commercial districts)

- Indepependent retail businesses can succeed and thrive

This blog entry, ""The "soft side" of commercial district competition,"discusses people's perceptions of commercial districts and how too often, at least in DC, independent retailers and commercial districts don't meet what we might consider minimum standards of operations, which of course is the primary reason (other than high rents, see "Once again, when you ask the wrong question, parking is always the answer," Cleveland Park Retail: My off-hand evaluation, the rents are too high" and "Commercial retail rents #2" about Cleveland Park) that the stores and the commercial districts continue to languish.

From the soft side blog entry:

Few people are going to patronize the business except as a reflection of "community support" or having no other options. (The issue is to work to get the facade improved... not to discourage the business from improving, but in the current condition this business is unlikely to generate "catalytic" improvement benefits that contribute to the commercial district as a whole.)

Ohio Restaurant, 1300 block H Street NE, Washington, DC. Photo by Elise Bernard.

This is why I talk about "soft aspects" in relation to the Reilly Law of Retail Gravitation:

(1) the quality and condition of the buildings;
(2) the cleanliness of the street and sidewalks;
(3) the condition of the street furniture, treeboxes and other aspects of the physical environment;
(4) the signage and windows of the businesses;
(5) the quality and organization of the store interiors.

Each influences whether or not people will choose to shop in your commercial district, or if they will merely continue to shop elsewhere because you provide no compelling reason for them to change their minds, attitudes, habits, and comfortability.

These factors plus the number and quality of stores and the issue of how to get there are the primary considerations influencing people's decisions about where to shop, eat, or play...
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For the first time in years, biking down 14th Street NW last Sunday (after having picked up a couple of items at Whole Foods, but not cilantro for $1.99/bunch), I felt like at last, here is a commercial district that has a preponderance of independently owned stores all with high quality production values, complete identity systems, that are well merchandised and well run.

I'm not counting Georgetown because most of the independent stores don't meet these standards, but all the chain stores there do, and there are many from funky Urban Outfitters to the Gap and Polo, and they are really what drives patronage of that commercial district in terms of the retail offer. (The night time establishments have a different market position.)

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Principles for creating complete concepts/identity systems for retail businesses*
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• Understand the needs, preferences, habits, and aspirations of the target audience.
• Good design sells. It is a competitive advantage. Design is systems and processes, not just graphics.
• A disciplined, coherent approach leads to a unified and powerful brand presence.
• Create a distinct position and complete identity for your store/concept.
• Experience and study the competition and learn from their successes and failures.
• Understand traffic flow, the volume of business, and economic considerations of your location.
• The storefront is a mass communications medium that works 24/7 and can attract new customers, influence purchasing decisions, and increase sales.
• Logo and signage expresses the brand and builds on understanding the needs and habits of users in the environment.
• Exterior signage must consider both vehicular and pedestrian traffic.
• Design an interior space that is sustainable, durable, easy to maintain and clean, and is energy efficient.
• Consider the dimensions of space: visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, and thermal.
• Understand the pyschological effect of light and lighting sources.
• Consider the needs of handicapped customers and those of different ages.
• The shelf is the most competitive marketing environment that exists.
• Align merchandising strategies with displays, advertising, and sales strategies.
• Create an experience and environment that makes it easy for customers to buy, and that inspires them to come back again and again.
• Create an environment that helps the sales force sell and makes it easy to complete a transaction.
• Align the quality and speed of service with the experience of the environment.
• Benchmark the quality and speed of service against the competition.
• Consider all operational needs so that the store delivers on the brand promise.
• Anticipate future growth. Measure, evaluate, change. Constantly ask: is the message clear?; is the content accessible?; is the experience positive?

* This table was built from the section on "creating touchpoints" from Designing Brand Identity (second edition) by Alina Wheeler