Friday, May 15, 2009

Capital Spice: HSCC Update

Capital Spice dishes on the H Street Country Club, and names May 27th as opening day.

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is great news.In reading the article,it makes refference to H street offering quirky dinning options.This strip can be very unique ,with something different.I enjoy U Street Corriodor,Barricks Row,China-Town,and Adams Morgan.However,we must support our neighborhood venues to make H street can be the best.O yea 1 more thing....Will there be a soft opening ?

JJ said...

Not to get to drippy, but you really have to hand it to Joe. He's put together quite a string of great places along the H St. strip in very little time (considering the progress -- or lack thereof -- the rest of the strip has made since '68).

It really makes me wonder though what everybody else is doing to help revitalize H. Where is Anwar Saleem? What has he done or HSMS done aside from giving interviews to City Paper and NY Times about the progress H St. has made (progress due mostly to other people's effort)?

I don't mean to be overly negative -- but I really feel for the entrepreneurs who are out there by their lonesome pushing the development of H St. while the so-called community development company has seemingly done nothing and absentee landlords let their places sit vacant rather than lower there asking price or rents to reasonable rates.

I'd really like to see the rest of H St. start to redevelop (not just the West side) but I don't know what its going to take short of demolishing or declaring eminent domain over all the empty places that are sitting there with "For Lease" signs on them. It seems like the East end is just chock full of these places.

Anonymous said...

Anwar is a waste..He does NOTHING for H st NE at all..he talks big but produces litte.

Dolemite said...

"I'd really like to see the rest of H St. start to redevelop (not just the West side) but I don't know what its going to take short of demolishing or declaring eminent domain over all the empty places that are sitting there with "For Lease" signs on them. It seems like the East end is just chock full of these places."

Given the presence of the Atlas, Playhouse, Sova and all the development coming from the Englert group on the East end of H Street, I'd actually argue that end is a lot more developed than the West end.

JJ said...

I meant West end need redevelopment (got my ends reversed) -- thanks for the catch Dolemite.

DCJaded said...

One of my big hopes is that when Senate square finally starts to fill up, Union Place gets up and running, and the Washington Center Intern dorm gets done, we will have more demand on the west side of H for stuff.

Some of my neighbors are complaining about the washington center dorm, but having a concentrated influx of 400 20-somethings will definitely help with bar/club/restaurant demand.

K Street said...

Where's the Washington Center Intern dorm? I haven't even heard of this.

Anonymous said...

What can I do as a homeowner to get those vaccant properties owners on H street to at least paint the front of their buildings.It really makes H street looks atrouous than it actually is.Perhaps we could get Home Depot to supply the paint and we (The neighborhood) could supply the labor.If you are interested ,Send me an e-mail to byron.elerby@hq.doe.gov.I am willing to host a meeting at my home.

Anonymous said...

I think they should change the name of this blog to "Blow Joe Englert."

Tom A. said...

anon- err... Bryan Elerby... The city has a grant program to fix up the exterior of buildings in the area for FREE. Free paint, new windows, etc. The program is overseen by the fore mentioned H Street Main Street Group. You can decide for yourself how successful this program has been and how well the money is being spent.

On a similar note- has anyone seen the work done on 1405 H? It's looking rather spiffy. And orange. Me likee.

Anonymous said...

Joe Englert said:

We have never gotten a cent from any government agency for our buildings. Tom A. do you know something we don't know? We submitted proposals years ago for 7 facade grants.........all of them were turned down.

Chris Metzler said...

What time on the 27th? If it's early enough, I'll go watch the Champions League final there.

npm said...

The intern dorm will be 345 beds at Third and K Streets, NE. Details here: http://dcmud.blogspot.com/2009/02/fewer-condos-more-interns-for-noma.html

Anonymous said...

Tom A,thanks for the information about the grant program.As we see for ourselves,that program does not work.Therefore,we must be pro-active and make this happen for our neighborhood.Again,if there are that is intresested in making this happen,I am willing to host this meeting in my home.My e-mail is byron.elerby@hq.doe.gov


5th Street

6th & h homeowner said...

Just a word of support for Anwar Saleem. Anwar is an H St. business owner and has been supportive of the corridor for a long time. When I moved to this area in 1999, I volunteered along with Anwar and Richard Laymen picking up trash and organizing H St business owners for a number of years and even attended Main Street training myself. At that time, H St. Main St. had a small amount of money from the Main Street program that decreased annually. It also worked with businesses to apply for the facade grants. Anyway, while there are always differences of opinion about how to approach community development, Anwar is a good guy who has been doing positive things for the corridor. I often wonder if he and the H St. Main St. program are being confused with the H St. CDC - a completely different organization - because he really doesn't deserve the scorn constantly heaped on him.

Anonymous said...

My fiancé and I were trying to open up a restaurant and contacted the many "For Lease" properties and most them don't even bother to return our calls. We even hired a real estate agent to represent us and sadly the result was pretty much the same. At this point we are concluding that most of them are "holding up" to cash in big...

Anonymous said...

I agree that Anwar is being wronged in this forum. You know how it is all of those black folks look the same.

Anonymous said...

Joe Englert is out to make money for himself because he is a good businessman. Anwar is a businessman who's goal is for the whole HstNE to succeed. People who sit on the sidelines like to complain about Anwar, it make me laugh because I know that they know nothing about what he has done.

Banners
Street cleaning ( the tumble weeds of trash are largely gone)
Facades
Business Partnership help (Pap & Petey's)
HstNE festival
Countless advertisements in Hill Rag (he even advertises Joe Englert's places)
HstNE promotion at Conferences

But all this you will soon see on the H street NE website.....coming soon.

inked said...

Hey, I know Joe Englert, and I know Anwar Saleem (and have had interactions over the years with HSMS). HSMS isn't perfect. In fact, it has had many problems, one of which is that it tends to be a bt insular, and so people on the outside don't now what's going on with it. It is a volunteer driven organization. It has had some major infighting problems. Some of my not so favorite people have been involved with it. Some of my favorite people have also been involved with it. It has done good things, and, at times, it seems to do nothing.

I think we are closer than we have been in the past decade to everyone actually working in the same direction towards possible change. It's fine to criticize. But I hope that before anyone casts a stone, they make the effort to try to get involved and help. Just to clarify (I don't want an earlier comment to confuse), none of this is about the H Street CDC. I don't think this org does much good around here. I hope it stays away, because I think we are better off without it.

I've seen both Anwar and Joe do some good stuff around here, but what we really need is a concerted effort, and less infighting (I'm talking about everyone, not these two individuals). Let's make H Street, and our residential areas great. It's not impossible. We just have to stop sniping at each other, and be real and committed. Let's grow up and DO IT.

"Keep your eyes shut and live your life. Someone else will pay the price. Open-up your eyes and speak your mind. Leave your youth far behind."
-Beat Happening

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know anything about the Star and the Shamrock? There's an Alchol License sign for it at 1341 H St.

Anonymous said...

St. Patrick said:

Jewish/Irish bar. Corned beef, ruebens, klezmmer and the Pogues

Anonymous said...

All kidding aside, I am curious abut the Star/Shamrock as well. We've heard nothing about it on this site and the last I checked, that Taurus site was supposed to be shared office and/or retail? Here's the summary from their ABC application:
An Irish tavern and restaurant serving brunch, lunch and dinner. Offering a mix of
authentic Irish and American dishes and with satellite TV, jukebox and live Irish/Folk
music. No dance floor. Occupancy Load is 80. Sidewalk Café with seating capacity for 12
patrons."

Sounds like it'd be a GREAT addition to the neighborhood--curious who's behind it?

Tom A. said...

Joe- Your properties are probably too well maintained to get facade grants. I think the intent is to fix broken windows and doors, and rotting walls in abandoned buildings exposed to the street.

But contact H Street Main Street for more info on the grants program. I was at an ANC 6A meeting in 2008 where someone was talking up the program!

Anonymous said...

St Patrick said:

Star and the Shamrock is Mark and Mike from the Pourhouse and Trusty's Full Serve.

inked said...

Anon 9:05,
we actually did talk about an Irish place opening up in the 1300 block of H. But I didn't know the name.

Anonymous said...

Re: Star and Shamrock,

Is it too early to be asking for timelines?

Anonymous said...

Joe Englert said:

Tom A., it was very disheartening that we were the ONLY businesses on the strip not the get the grants. Sidamo, Stan's, Sova, the shoe place, Italian Ice, Martini (I think) etc, etc, etc, etc. got them. Palace, Pug, R&B, GM, RnR, Argo, Sticky, H St CC did not. I think it was very unfair and very eye-brow raising that not one of the places qualified. This is why we are very wary of the government, economic development and quasi-government groups.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Englert,

Can you comment on the ANC6B note in Voice of the Hill stating that you are applying for a liquor license at 1400 Penn SE for a Louisiana-themed restaurant? If this is true, is this the current mini-mart on the corner on Penn and Potomac?

Mark -- L SE

Anonymous said...

Joe Englert--

Yes, it is

Anonymous said...

Just to be fair, it should be noted that most of those signs were done way before any of Joe's places even existed.

It was a special program and the sign were done by artists. They were a great idea, and I wish that we had more of them done. Two of my favorites, the Luna laundrymat and R&B are already gone. As far as I know, Sidamo's is the only new sign and it is terrific. Maybe the program can be revived.

Anonymous said...

Not sure if Sova's new signs were a part of this program, but they look great. I heard the owner say they were done by the same guys who did Taylor's signage.

Anonymous said...

Joe Englert:

Sugar-coat it any way you like. Money was available. We applied and without any rhyme or reason, we were denied while others received $4-6,000 a piece for their signs. You are not right about the timing.