What: a producers only market selling veggie, fruit, meats, cheeses, breads, pies, cookies, soups, coffee from Sidamo, and more.
Where: middle of the south side of the 600 block of H Street.
When: 9am-12pm Saturdays
Why: get your shopping done, take youself/kids/dog to the market because it is a fun way to start a Saturday, talk to the farmers who actually grew your food, see your neighbors, support a local market that gets people out on H Street, support local farmers.
12 comments:
Elise---
Is it okay if I made a general comment on the state of H?
I think that we are still 3-5 years away from very many souls willing to invest in H street other than our group.
The main problem is, H street is not cheap. Asking prices have continued to climb. Almost every building is in miserable shape.
And there is no discount for doing business on H. The government doesn't not expedite your permits because you are on H. Architects, lawyers, electricians, plumbers, carpenters don't give you a discount because you are on H either.
Any way you slice it, you have to spend $250-300,000 to build out a non-restaurant space into a place that can be granted a restaurant c of o. Only then can you have a liquor license.
And if you are not crazy, why would you put so much money into a neighborhood not nearly as dense or populated as Dupont or Adams-Morgan or U St? It costs the same, other than rent and because of all the money you must spend on buildout, it is just as expensive any how.
Thank God we have people like Cliff (Martini lounge) Eric (Show) Scott Magnuson (Argo), Steve Lambert (RnR) Fritz Wood (RnR), Thomas Gallo (H St. Bid) Chris Surrasco (Granville) Getinet (GM) Kersten and Matt (R&B) holding done the fort while we plug away at scratching into break-even status.
Guys this has been a huge financial sacrifice and a really hard journey.
Night life will survive. But we have awhile to go before the evening and day businesses can even dream of thriving. I look at Sidamo and give them huge props. Only being at your space 80 hours a week will bring you sucess.
So cross your fingers for more of the great reviews and great weekend nights on H. We are going to make it and make it big. It is just a matter of time.........
When Sticky Rice and Granville come on line do your part and patronize them. It is the only way to get others to also come into business on the strip. Thanks--Joe
I don't know. I remember when Barracks Row looked a lot like H Street... around 5 years ago when I moved to Swampoodle (or Capitol Hill/SoFlo as the realtors call us). It seemed that once the city's renovations took place (new sidewalks and lighting), the new businesses moved in. In fact, I think H is much further along than I remember 8th Street back then. It'll be tough going while the work goes on, but H will once again be one of the main commercial districts in DC. As downtown keeps moving east along M street near the metro, H will continue to improve. Downtown will bring the daytime business and the new condos (especially Abdo as the biggest so far) will bring more people to the nightlife. I think the business and residential density around here is much higher than Capitol Hill proper. I can't imagine a great neighborhood not deveolping from it (though I already feel this is a great neighborhood).
Joe -- Regarding bringing asking prices down, I'd be interested in your opinion on two things.
The first is the effort to get vacant properties along H identified as such by the city, and thus taxed at the vacant property rate, 4-5 times higher than their current tax rate. If vacant property owners are given a monetary kick in the behind to either do something with the property or sell it, perhaps their need to unload properties will bring the prices down.
The second -- at a recent meeting regarding creation of/enlargement of nearby historical districts, the argument was made that reclassification of vacant properties isn't enough, because a lot of the vacant property owners are hoping for entire blocks to be bought out for block-size construction (e.g. the 600 block of H) and so eating the vacant property tax is still worth it if one believes a big windfall will come. The claim was that classification as a historic district limits the ability to build such huge projects, and thus removes that incentive to hold properties vacant. Of course, it also creates additional constraints for the folks who *do* use the existing structures, which might hinder the kind of development on H we *do* want.
Anyway, just curious what you think about these two things.
Anon 9:58 -- I agree that the residential density around H is no lower than the residential density around 8th Street/Barracks Row. But the development of 8th Street had two things going for it that H Street doesn't have: an already active retail/entertainment area within short walking distance (Pennsylvania Avenue from 2nd to 4th and 6th to 7th, and 7th Street up towards Eastern Market), and easy access via Metrorail. It's hard to overemphasize how much these things matter.
I can't help but wonder how much the streetcar will help. People haven't been that enthusiastic about taking the Metro to Union Station and switching to a bus. Why will they be more enthusiastic about taking the Metro to Union Station and switching to a streetcar, when that streetcar will likely be stopping frequently just like the bus?
Chris,
I am all over the proposition of taxing the hell out of these terrible building owners. Problem is, there is a small matter in the way--DC Government.
The government and DCRA has never been more broken. My property at 1238 which has a c of o and a liquor license is considered an abandoned property. Even though I have been done to the office dozens of times, I can't get them to lower my tax rate. It is just unfathomable. However, dozens of abandoned properties along the block are not taxed at a high rate.
There is no way many of these people holding their buildings wouldn't bail and then sale if they were being taxed tens of thousands of dollars a year.
However, you are still in the District. If they attempt to do it without a lot of local and citizen's help, they will mess it up--you can count on that.
As far as 8th street goes, it is in my opinion successful but only in a local sense. They do well as a district but I really don't sense lots of people coming to the area from other parts of town. And it is really tough to be extremely profitable when you can only rely on a local market to sustain you.
However, as an affluent-adult dining area, I think it is a winner! Hopefully, segments of H eventually will mirror the area
Sorry, that last comment was from me, Joe Englert
Quick question for Joe:
Any word on how close we are to the opening of Granville Moore's?
A concept to consider is if H St. was a super cheap location to open a business we'd end up with more carry out places, independent dollar stores, pawn shops, crappy pet stores that don't serve the needs of the pet owners in the community, etc. The steep price tag is certainly a barrier. But the price tag then attracts seasoned business owners who are in for the long haul and know how to manage a successful business. Also, the tax issue wrt to vacant properties is something that everyone should consider an outrage. It's more than just a broken DCRA, but it's Barry era corruption inside the city agencies - trust (annoymous) me. Wasn't there suppose to be some kind of organized effort to bring enforcement to the property tax issue?
I love that someone else knows that part of the H Street 'hood was called Swampoodle. I think it is a great name. I can see the 'Swampoodle Cafe' doing really well someday.
Anon:
The reasoning here baffles me. Why would anybody open a business on H with no incentives when they could open in Dupont or Logan Circle or U?
Anon:
The reasoning here baffles me. Why would anybody open a business on H with no incentives when they could open in Dupont or Logan Circle or U?
Joe Englert said:
When I was praising all the operators on the 1200-1500 blocks, I forgot Tony T and the Pug. Tony has made a substantial investment and also bought his building. A big tip of the hat to a terrific business and guy.
Post a Comment