Hey, there is a great article in Roll Call on the development on H Street. They interview a number of people, but mostly focus on Anwar Saleem (head of H Street Main Street). Here's the info on the article (which does require a subscrition for access):
New H St. Takes Shape
February 1, 2006
By Tom Gottlieb,
Roll Call Staff
Even if you can't read the article, I think it's still nice to know that H Street is getting so much good press recently.
8 comments:
Anyone know where I can get a look at this article? I don't have $300 to sign up for rollcall.com!!
All this ink for H Street is great news. I rember thinking to myself a couple months ago that H street really needed someone "pitching" its story to the press to help attract businesses.
Since that time there has been an explosion of good stories. I assume somebody is out there getting into reporters ears. To that person or persons I say good job and thanks.
Any chance of having the HStreet web-site updated will all the latest clippings?
It would be awesome if we could read the article. Thanks for keeping us informed with this blog!
New H St. Takes Shape
February 1, 2006
By Tom Gottlieb,
Roll Call Staff
There’s a story you may know about a man named Rip Van Winkle. As the legend goes, good old Rip went for a walk in the countryside after a day of bowling and merriment and decided to take a nap. He woke up 20 years and two days later to find out that everything he knew about the world around him had changed.
It’s quite probable H Street Main Street board chairman Anwar Saleem doesn’t condone sleeping for 20 years. However, he does suggest a nap — comparatively — if you want to wake up to the discovery that the world around Capitol Hill has changed.
“Go to sleep for a year and a half if you want, wake up, and you won’t recognize H Street,” Saleem advised.
That’s because the H Street Northeast corridor Saleem is speaking of, from Third Street to Benning Road, is the crux of one of the areas Washington, D.C., officials chose for their $100 million Great Streets Initiative and is undergoing vast changes over the next few years. Everything from streets to sidewalks to local businesses to residential properties will be overhauled, all in the hopes of breathing life into this once down-and-out neighborhood.
‘A Crime Corridor’
The H Street Northeast corridor wasn’t always so down-trodden. About 50 years ago, it was a major retail center in the District.
And then, the unthinkable happened.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968, by James Earl Ray. The news sparked immediate riots in Washington and other American cities.
Here in D.C., the devastation the riots wrought was unimaginable. Storefronts were destroyed. Buildings were burned to the ground. Businesses were forced to shut down. Twelve people died, and more than 1,000 were injured.
And several business districts, including the H Street Northeast corridor, were dealt a punishing blow, one they would not recover from for several decades.
It got so bad that Saleem said the area became known as “a crime corridor” — hardly the reputation a once-thriving commercial district wants hanging around its neck when trying to rebound.
A glimmer of hope, though, came in the form of a similar revitalization, one less than two miles away.
The run-down 500 to 700 blocks of Eighth Street Southeast, also known as Barracks Row, began rebuilding in 1999, and, six years later, the corridor was honored with the Great American Main Street Award.
“It gave us hope,” Saleem said. “We thought, if they could do that with Barracks Row, we could do that with H Street.”
And so an initiative that was already a long time coming was put into motion in earnest. This vision contains several highlights:
• plans for an arts and entertainment district on the eastern end of the corridor;
• a centralized retail district;
• a residential district on the corridor’s western side; and
• with the help of the District Department of Transportation, a facelift for the street itself and the sidewalks that line it.
All of these plans, in combination with numerous other unseen efforts, are either already under way or set to commence this fall in the hopes of creating what everyone involved thinks can be an across-the-board renaissance for the corridor.
A Little Something for Everyone
The arts and entertainment district will be located on the eastern end of the corridor and will feature a host of options to serve a wide demographic — from coffee lovers to martini aficionados to theater-goers.
Arguably the centerpiece of this zone, the Atlas Performing Arts Center is experiencing a renaissance of its own, after falling on hard times like the rest of the corridor.
Patrick Stewart, executive director of the Atlas, described Board of Directors Chairman Jane Lang’s initial reaction to the Atlas a few years ago as thinking the place was “too ‘for-God’s-sakes-where-am-I?’” to be considered viable.
Luckily for the Atlas, its bad first impression wasn’t a lasting one.
After discussions with the community and investors, Stewart said Lang made the commitment to renovating the former movie theater into a “multi-disciplinary, community-based” center for the arts.
Since that time, the Atlas has reopened in phases, with two small lab theaters (90 seats and 130 seats) and three dance studios welcoming the public back last April. However, according to Stewart, that represents only about 20 percent of the 60,000 square feet the Atlas will boast upon full reopening.
Two much larger theaters — one a 250-seat flex theater, and the other a 286-seat fixed-seat theater — in addition to more dressing rooms and costume shops and two art galleries are slated to be ready for early fall.
“The big role that the Atlas has been playing in redevelopment is just by muscling up and doing it,” Stewart said. “This phase, the Atlas, is one that’s firmly rooted in the community, and firmly rooted in the needs of the community. It’s more than just putting a building into the arts and entertainment area. It’s so that the community can participate in every aspect of music and dance and reap the benefits of that.
“And it not only offers something for the community to get involved in, but something that, phase by phase, can remain a catalyst for the change that’s going on down here.”
Another business aiming to be a catalyst is the H Street Martini Lounge. One of nine bars that have either opened already or are slated to open on H Street in the next year or two — the other eight are being developed by D.C. bar mogul Joe Englert — the Martini Lounge offers live jazz entertainment four nights a week in addition to a wide variety of, you guessed it, martinis.
Nyika Hinson, a manager at the lounge, said the grand opening and the ensuing week was a very big boon. Since then, business has slowed a little, which Hinson believes has a lot to do with the ever-improving image of H Street.
“People are probably kind of skeptical of going out to an establishment on H Street,” Hinson said.
Still, Hinson believes the Martini Lounge can do the same thing the Atlas is doing for the revitalization of the corridor.
“When people come to H Street now, they have variety. Sometimes you want to chug a beer, and sometimes you want to sip a martini and listen to jazz,” Hinson said. “I think this is one of the first establishments that can set the tone for new H Street.”
The new H Street is Saleem’s business. And his vision for the arts and entertainment district is simple: “What we have to do is develop that and make it the place to be.”
But Shalonda Hunter, executive director of H Street Main Street, is slightly more cautious when pumping up the new district, maintaining that it isn’t the only focal point of the revitalization effort.
“We aren’t shooting to be a bar and entertain district,” Hunter said. “We’re aiming to be a district that serves all our residents’ needs.”
Go West, Young Man (And Woman)
At the western end of the corridor, one of the most important of H Street residents’ needs is being consolidated — residential properties.
All told, an estimated 5,000 new residential units are being added to the H Street area.
And, despite growing concerns about the bubble bursting in D.C.’s housing market sometime in the near future, Saleem said that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
“A lot of things are happening right now that you can’t see taking place,” Saleem said. “But despite what the market is saying, it’s very good for us. It’s not cooling down.”
One of the largest proposed projects in the corridor is Capitol Place, a mixed-use property planned for the block between Second and Third streets.
The company that plans to construct the 449,000-square-foot project is the Louis Dreyfus Property Group, which also built and owns the office center directly across the street, Station Place.
Capitol Place, according to plans Louis Dreyfus submitted to the District, will consist of 305 condominiums and 70,000 square feet of what Senior Development Manager Sean Cahill called “neighborhood retail” — shops and restaurants serving the local community.
“There won’t be a Best Buy or anything like that,” Cahill said. “There will be more small-time retail users and possibly a small grocery ... we hope to have a complementary grocery outlet.”
Dreyfus’ Capitol Place project is directly across the street from another large-scale project, this one spearheaded by Abdo Development and Broadway Partners. Dubbed Senate Square, the $245 million development will consist of about 480 residential units, some of them built in the building that formerly housed the National Children’s Museum.
According to Saleem, Steuart Investments is in the process of developing the old BP Amoco gas station on Third and H streets into a mixed-use retail center. It will consist of 230 housing units and 72,000 square feet of retail, into which Harris Teeter will be moving after signing a letter of commitment, Saleem said.
Harris Teeter communications specialist Jo Sorenson said that while no lease has been signed for the location, Harris Teeter is actively seeking new sites in all of its marketing areas to locate stores that serve its customer base.
Still more development is taking place just off H Street, including the rehabilitation of the Uline Arena into a mixed-use development that could possibly include a grocery store. Other scheduled projects include revamping the Uptown Bakery, located at Fourth and I streets Northeast, and Arboretum Place, a proposed 500-unit residential complex near Hechinger Mall.
Of course, becoming a part of an established neighborhood means that you have to deal with those who already dwell there. And H Street is no stranger to such situations: BP Amoco abandoned plans several years ago to build a massive gas station and mini-mart on the site now being developed by Steuart after neighborhood opposition grew over the proposed appearance of the station.
Cahill said he’s well aware that an open line of communication with the neighbors is key, and hopes the next few months will feature as healthy a give-and-take as the last few have produced.
“We believe that we’re good listeners and can react accordingly to the input by the neighborhood community,” Cahill said.
Street Makeover, Extreme Edition
According to Saleem, 22,000 commuters pass through the H Street Northeast corridor at rush hour.
Previously, most would pass through without giving a second thought as to their surroundings. But measures are being put in place to ensure that, in the future, H Street not only gives them pause, but a reason to stop and stay a while.
The most noticeable of these measures will be installed via the H Street Streetscape project, part of the Great Streets Initiative being spearheaded by DDOT.
The program is estimated to cost $20 million to $23 million for the H Street Northeast corridor, according to Great Streets Project Coordinator Karina Ricks, and will tackle a number of beautification issues, including full street reconstruction in some places, the replacement of all concrete sidewalks with an addition of brick accents, new tree pits for the sidewalks and new pedestrian lighting. And recently, streetcar tracks were tacked on to the list of renovations being made to the corridor.
DDOT will also be making changes to Benning Road, which will be completely reconstructed and repaved, and the Starburst intersection, where Florida Avenue, Maryland Avenue, Bladensburg Road and Benning Road intersect with H Street at the eastern end of the corridor.
“It’s messy and it’s ugly and it’s dangerous,” Ricks said of the intersection. “So the H Street transportation plan looked at that intersection and came up with a plan to organize traffic a little more, one that includes about a half-acre public plaza instead of a mess of roadway pavement.”
Factoring in the Starburst modifications and Benning Road reconstruction, the tally for the entire project comes to around $35 million, Ricks said.
Ricks estimated the construction would take 18 months to two years once started, which is slated to happen this fall after the construction document designs are finished and all the projects are bid out to contractors.
Numbers and figures are fine and dandy, but they don’t tell the whole story — for instance, the implications of all this construction for the future of the H Street Northeast corridor.
The answer to that, according to Hunter, is made easy because of one characteristic of this stretch of H Street.
“This is already a business corridor,” the H Street Main Street executive director said. “Any improvement coming from transportation will do nothing but strengthen it. Being able to produce pedestrian activity will enhance the businesses that are already here. You can come in to coffee shops, to dining, to theater. As people begin to start coming to the corridor as far as moving in, they will have their basic needs as well as attractions to the area for entertain and dining.”
The key, Saleem said, is to get residents to come out and experience these new businesses that H Street Northeast has to offer.
“We’ve attracted over 40 new businesses in over a year and a half,” Saleem said. “A lot of rehabilitation has taken place. That doesn’t even count those that want to come in. [We just opened] a new gym, and we haven’t had one forever in this neighborhood. Those are the types of things we need to attract people.
“And people who haven’t been on H Street in a while need to see what businesses we have. Because if we don’t have business support, we won’t survive. When support is no longer there, they will move out. We need more participation from residents to make the businesses work.”
An Uphill Battle
Nothing in life comes easy. Especially renovating a one-mile stretch of roadway, sidewalks and businesses. And the H Street project has several built-in disadvantages.
There is the lack of Metro access to the area (the closest stations are Union Station, located three blocks south of the extreme eastern end of the corridor, and the New York Avenue Metro station, five blocks north of the extreme western end of the corridor). It’s decidedly larger than the Barracks Row revitalization, which was initially focused on just two blocks. All the new housing in the area has the potential to cause a shift in housing prices that may force lower-income families out of the neighborhood. And, of course, there’s the need for money to keep the grass-roots effort alive while the big picture comes into focus.
Saleem and Hunter have heard all of these before and acknowledge that there is great truth to them.
“Money is the biggest obstacle. To stay in business, we are nonprofit, so really being able to work with merchants to come up with plans and get financing, just from merchants and developers, it’s an obstacle,” Hunter said.
“We’ve had to battle a couple of elements of the past, such as vacant buildings and the fact that it’s viewed as a crime corridor,” Saleem added.
But both of the H Street Main Street leaders maintain that there are silver linings to each of these clouds.
Hunter, for instance, points to Columbia Heights, where the process of revitalization included the cost of revamping the neighborhood’s Metro station and adding a canopy above it.
“The Metro could have added more pedestrian activity [to H Street], but not having the Metro was sort of a blessing as well, because it could have also brought in more crime,” Hunter said. “Columbia Heights ... had to revitalize the station to help make people want to come there.”
Sure to aid the lack of Metro situation in the future will be the streetcar tracks that will run from the Minnesota Avenue Metro station to near Union Station, thus linking the corridor to two busy Metro stations on two different lines.
And according to both Saleem and Hunter, the housing situation that is developing is a blessing in disguise.
A development called Union Place, planned to be built at Second and K streets Northeast, will be creating 78 affordable housing units, in addition to the almost 200 affordable units being constructed near the D.C. Public Library branch at 13th and H streets Northeast, according to Saleem.
The chairman also described the situation as “not more of a push-out, but more of a push-up.”
“When new developments take place, when people have a house worth, say, $200,000, and new ones are selling for $700,000 down the street, the value of that house goes up, as well. You’re looking at a $300,000 to $400,000 equity.
“And at the end of the day, there are probably 12,000 new people coming into this area. And that’s something businesses love.”
Ultimately, Saleem cites D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams (D) as the harbinger of the good fortune that has given H Street new life.
The studies the District conducted and the subsequent forms and recommendations gave H Street Main Street “the opportunity to bring the numerous neighborhood groups and residents together to talk about crime and traffic ... and caused people to believe again,” Saleem said. “It made it easier for us.”
New Year’s Resolutions
Everybody has his or her own personal resolutions come this time of every calendar year. But for Saleem and Hunter, they take on double duty this year.
As the driving force behind the complementary changes that go hand-in-hand with the grandiose plans of DDOT, H Street Main Street still has much it can do to improve the little things, Saleem said.
There is the untidy appearance of the street: “Not to say it’s dirty, because two or three years ago it was dirty. But if you want to attract people, they’re not attracted to trash.”
There are the local retail businesses that are still chugging along dutifully: “We have to strengthen the businesses that are down here now. It’s hard to grow until you solidify what you have.”
And there is the mediation role they can play for businesses interested in their neighborhood: “We want to communicate with new developers and see what they want and fit into their plans and work with them. If they need expedited services to help them develop, we want to be there for them. Use us as facilitators. And we can use them to help us.”
It’s this willingness of those involved to pitch in however they can that has made the H Street Great Street initiative a pleasure to work on, Ricks said.
“It’s been pretty clear all along, this is not just one small group of people with articulate ideas,” Ricks said. “It’s been a diverse coalition of people north and south of the corridor, the ANCs, future developers. They’ve all helped. It’s pretty unique.
“It’s really a community-driven process, a land-use revitalization process which led to a transportation plan. It’s been one of most successful community-involvement processes I’ve been involved in.”
Of course, as unique as H Street Northeast may be, visible results are still the bottom line when it comes to residents. Saleem recognizes this, and said his group has its own bottom line for the future of the corridor.
“People measure success by how many stores open and the things they see,” Saleem said. “We definitely want to push opening new businesses, attracting businesses, improve the tax base, improve the cleanliness and safety of the corridor and improve the bottom line for businesses. And it will improve the way the city looks.
“But our bottom line is to improve the quality of life for the people who live here.”
Copyright 2006 © Roll Call Inc. All rights reserved.
Thanks for posting the article. A great piece.
Let's just hope Roll Call has a relaxed attitude towards infringement of their Copyright.
HStreet web-site is in the process of being redone. Once the new webpage is ready, I'm sure it will be announced.
From what I heard, the new H street web site will have a different url than the current one. The drama continues.
I'm hoping the new director of H street main street can bring focus back to H street improvements. She has a huge job without all of the negative baggage.
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