Sunday, September 19, 2010

? new retail/cafe at 512-520 Florida Avenue NW ?

Have you noticed that the former One Drop Records store on the south side of the 500 block of Florida Avenue NW is under renovation? There are great new wooden multi-pane windows with a dark red stain facing Florida Avenue NW.

Note that this property is not part of the Greater U Street Historic District. That begins one block over on the 600 block of Florida Avenue NW, even addresses. So there is no design review for the work planned. (But the replacement windows do look great!)

The address on one of the posted permits is 512-520 Florida Avenue NW. The owner of record from the DC Real Property Assessment Database is: MARYAM FATHI ABBAS FATHI in Gaithersburg.

The posted permit has this text: Permission is hereby graned to Howard University. (to do what?)

Proposed use: Retail or wholesale store.

Eric over at LeftforLeDroit has posted some info: http://leftforledroit.com/2010/09/recent-renovations/

Eric reports that no tenant has been found (yet).

Scenic Artisan took some photos of this building, which can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scenicartisan/5005439089/in/photostream /

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Walking to the Farmer's Market yesterday, I stopped to chat with the owner of the storefront (he sells used furniture out of the place on weekends) on the corner of 1st and Seaton. He told me that he is in the process of signing a lease now and the prospective new tenants are looking at opening an eatery.

Scott Roberts of Bloomingdale said...

The owner of the 1st & Seaton Place NW property (northwest corner) (not the new drycleaner property across the street) advised me a number of weeks ago that the tenant will be renovating the first floor space to become a wine bar.

Anonymous said...

scott,
havent we been hearing the wine bar story for a long time?
is it true?

Scott Roberts of Bloomingdale said...

I wouldn't hold my breath.

Chris said...

This is the same guy that tried to sell me the property for $1,500,000.00 and in the meantime uses the store as a weekend yard sale....

Anonymous said...

Hello,
I'm sorry to chime in on your post, but I just moved into the area and heard there was a Bloomingdale Civic Association. I was wondering if you knew anything about this association? Thanks, Nicole

Scott Roberts of Bloomingdale said...

A goood place to start might be the organization's website: http://www.neighborhoodlink.com/Bloomingdale_Civic/home/