WASHINGTON — A downtown D.C. neighborhood is going to bustle even more in the months ahead as plans for a new development take shape.
A corner grocer with fresh produce, a trendy lounge and a high-end diner are among six retailers that will move into street-level space, empty for years at the D.C. Convention Center.
The retailers will be located in the northernmost section of the sprawling, downtown convention center in the area of 9th and N Streets Northwest in the Shaw neighborhood.
“We will achieve 100 percent occupancy for the public-facing retail around the Walter Washington Convention Center,” Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Monday to an enthusiastic crowd gathered inside the future site of Union Kitchen Grocery — a second site for the Capitol Hill grocer that offers locally produced food and drink.
“One in particular, I like, it sounds like a medical marijuana dispensary but it’s not, it’s called ‘Smoked and Stacked.’ It’s an amazing sandwich shop, it’s going to be great,” says Max Brown, chairman of Events DC — the organization that oversees operations at the convention center.
“We’re going to be connecting the northern part of Shaw with the southern part of Shaw with some amazing tenants, a diverse group, fantastic tenants,” Brown says.
Additional retailers that plan to move in include eateries Unconventional Diner — a high-end diner — and Morris — a lounge that will feature creations from D.C.-based chef and restaurateur Spike Mendelsohn.
A gym, Urban Athletic Club, and Composition ID, a health diagnostic center, are branching out from locations in Georgetown and Glover Park.
A barber shop currently located in the neighborhood is relocating into the convention center space, and eatery, Sbarro, moved in last spring.
Construction on the six sites is expected to begin early in the new year with openings throughout 2016.
