Brief update to DC and Streetcars #4

Following up on last week's entry, "DC and streetcars #4: from the standpoint of stoking real estate development," the Prince of Petworth blog calls our attention to the brochure marketing the retail spaces for the property on the south side of the 600 block of H Street NE.

This is the project that involves the reconfiguration and expansion of two office buildings rented to DC government as primarily housing.

(An earlier iteration was planned around 2005 but didn't move forward.  Jair Lynch Properties purchased the site and pursued the same kind of project, but with different plans and designs from what had been approved earlier.  This is another example of the length of time it can take projects to come to fruition.  This one is 10+ years.)

And it shows how the new construction section of the development will be 9 to 10 stories tall, compared to the 5 story buildings constructed in the late 1980s.

This supports my thesis that the streetcar is leading to the development of taller buildings than would normally be expected in site locations outside of the half-mile radius from Metrorail stations.

The marketing brochure, from KLNB, highlights the fact that the property, which will be located across the street from Whole Foods, has recently signed Starbucks and Unleashed by Petco, which will join a CVS, which opened last year.

And like how such marketing brochures show subway stations, this one also calls out streetcar stops as an element of particular interest to retailers looking for the best locations for new stores.

It's worth looking at the entire brochure (POP unhelpfully did not provide a link to the primary document) to see how such properties are marketed, as well as to see the comprehensive map diagram they've provided for housing and retail developments in the H Street/NoMA retail trade area.

The question asked in a March 2015 cover headline of the Express has been definitively answered, and that's without the streetcar being in service.

As the streetcar enters service, and people get experience with it, the drumbeat for expansion will steadily increase.