50 D.C. retail corridors profiled for potential development, tenants

The list of marketable retail corridors in the District is multiplying.

The Washington, D.C. Economic Partnership released its 2013 Neighborhood Profiles publication, and it lists more neighborhoods than ever before. Fifty corridors are profiled by the WDCEP this year, up from 37 in 2012, 35 in 2008 and 13 in 2001, when the document was first published.

Among those new to the list: Foggy Bottom, Park Morton, Brightwood, Capitol Hill and Barry Farm.

“We try to stay ahead of the curve,” said Keith Sellars, the economic partnership’s CEO. “We want to be ahead of developers and small businesses to show them evolving opportunities that they may want to invest in now or five years from now.”

The partnership is funded by the D.C. government and its private partners. It has two main responsibilities: representing D.C. during the International Council of Shopping Centers conference in Las Vegas and promoting the District’s retail corridors through meetings, site tours and research.

A 2012 Delta Associates report, commissioned by the WDCEP, found that the organization has or will be responsible for attracting or retaining 7,976 jobs in the District across 105 retail, office and hotel sites. Those locations, the study found, will generate $1.1 billion in annual sales and $53.6 million in annual sales tax revenue for the District by 2015.

The WDCEP certainly views itself as a solid taxpayer investment, despite a late 2011 dust-up with District officials that nearly destroyed the partnership.

The Neighborhood Profiles publication is widely used by developers and potential tenants to assess individual submarkets. Each neighborhood page offers a description (“The MidCity experience is all about energy and vitality”), details demographics (population, households, income, age), consumer expenditures, Metrorail exits and a Walk Score.

“Individual neighborhoods have different personalities and the data available in the Profiles has been instructive in project programming and design to ensure our development projects meet the community’s needs,” said Richard Lake, managing partner of Roadside Development LLC and co-chairman of the WDCEP board.

Below is a list of neighborhoods or corridors new to the 2013 Neighborhood Profiles. The document will be available on the WDCEP website Thursday.

  • Barry Farm
  • Capitol Hill
  • Congress Heights/St. Elizabeths (St. E’s was added)
  • East Capitol Street/Capitol Gateway
  • Fort Lincoln/Dakota Crossing
  • Georgia Avenue/Brightwood
  • Lincoln Heights/Richardson Dwellings
  • Northwest One
  • Park Morton
  • Parkside/Kenwilworth
  • Rhode Island Avenue/Brentwood
  • Rhode Island Avenue/Woodridge
  • Union Market
  • Union Station/Burnham Place
  • West End/Foggy Bottom
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