Comments on Busboys & Poets: Take your pick of Anacostia's vacant commercial properties - Greater Greater Washington

Comment by MC_in_SEDC

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 00:47:16 EDT

Busboys would be the perfect tenant for the Uniontown space. They could do both floors.

Comment by H Street Landlord

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 13:03:25 EDT

I'd rather see him do it in a location other than Uniontown. Because the more options, the better.

Comment by Matthew Yglesias

Sat, 09 Jun 2012 16:22:45 EDT

City Vista does date back to the waning days of the George W Bush administration but it's hardly a "historic" building and that hasn't kept Shallal away.

Comment by Richard Layman

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 06:31:04 EDT

Someone recounted to me a conversation with Shallal wrt locating in the NoMA area, and apparently Shallal said he'd only locate in a "historic" type building, that NoMA is too full of new buildings.

I countered, how could that be, every one of his B&P locations is in a new development in a new building? (He got his start in "old" buildings in Dupont Circle, but that was a long time ago.)

But dan reed is right in that Andy S. doesn't appear to be what Everett Rogers would have called an innovator (or in the case of cities, what some people call a pioneer, although that isn't fair, because people are already there), more an early adopter, in the 2nd wave, once a place has already been marked as being in play and likely to be successful. E.g. NoMA is in a much different place than Anacostia.

Speaking of which, I haven't been to the Minnesota Ave. Ray's. That is an example of being willing to jump into an emerging market that most retailers aren't willing to do.

That being said, B&P is a good concept and Andy Shallal deserves props for doing it, and for opening locations in places that are still early in the curve of revitalization success.

Comment by John Muller

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 18:06:52 EDT

@Dan With brevity in mind I left out the size and tax info for each building. With creativity I think the spaces would work --- the 1306 - 1308 Good Hope Rd. is small, 15th & Good Hope larger, and the former furniture store has good size. Good points about Shallal and the locations he's dropped his bucket. Time will tell what happens in Anacostia.

Comment by dan reed!

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 17:28:48 EDT

How big are each of these spaces you mentioned, John? Looking at BB+P's locations at 5th & K and in Hyattsville, they seem to need about 7,000 square feet on preferably one floor - or two, if necessary. None of these spaces in Anacostia seem to be that big, though I could be wrong. This might also be an opportunity to do a different or smaller concept that may be more well-suited to an emerging neighborhood with less traffic (foot or otherwise) than some of their other locations.

Which brings me to my main point: is Shallal really a "frontiersman" in redeveloping neighborhoods? None of the locations he's gone to were particularly bad at the time. The 14th & V location opened in 2005, five years after the apartments above the U Street Metro and the Whole Foods a few blocks away. Shirlington was well established as a mini-Clarendon before Busboys came there. And the Hyattsville branch is part of a larger planned community in a pretty stable suburban area. Neighboring University Park has a median income over $100k/year.

The "worst" location Shallal picked is probably 5th & K. It's still surrounded by parking lots and has a lingering problem with prostitution, but it's basically downtown, two blocks from the convention center, and surrounded by new high-end residential buildings.

I think Anacostia has a lot of potential and will probably see some new restaurants or bars started by enterprising folks in coming years. But I'm curious if Andy Shallal would really take a chance on it, given where Busboys + Poets has landed in the past.

Comment by SweetP

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 17:25:15 EDT

I might actually consider checking out the B& B in Ana if there were one to be built. Its worth seeing how it would compare to other locations in DC.

Comment by MJ

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 15:29:02 EDT

Is this something that is actually being pursued, or just a pie-in-the-sky dream? It's a nice idea, but no one from the Hill is going to cross the river to eat next door to a methadone clinic. This sad Catch-22 is why the city government needs to do more to promote business as a means for neighborhood growth.