Harry Jaffe
Apple could fall far from Georgetown
February 6, 2009
Georgetown is dying; actually, it might already be a dead town walking.
These days the once-chic shopping district on the Potomac River has the feel of a dowager way past her prime; teeth yellowing, hems threadbare, furs moth-eaten. Name one restaurant that wants to open its doors on M Street or Wisconsin Avenue. Nathan’s, a cornerstone bar and restaurant at the main intersection, might be closing its doors.
Developer Herb Miller has been trying to lure Nordstrom into the poorly designed Georgetown Park mall for years. No dice.
A decade or two ago, Georgetown was the hippest place in the nation’s capital. Now folks who want to shop and eat and spend a day on the town can go to U Street or Columbia Heights or Penn Quarter or Capitol Hill. Friendship Heights has movies and food. Cleveland Park beckons with both. Shaw is still edgy but hipper by a mile.
Georgetown is the agent of its own decline. Witness its death dance with Apple.
Two years ago, Apple chose Georgetown to site its first retail store in the nation’s capital. It bought a storefront on M Street, drew up plans to tear down the nondescript building, designed a modern front with its iconic Apple missing a small, crescent bite.
Ever seen an Apple Store? They crackle with action 24/7, selling and repairing all Apple devices. An Apple Store could revive an old whaling village.
Two years later, the storefront remains empty, and Apple has yet to put a shovel in the ground. Why? Because an architectural advisory panel, appropriately named the Old Georgetown Board, has rejected four designs because they are too glassy and modern.
“It shows you how flawed the city’s system is for attracting retail outlets,” says Terry Lynch, executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations. Lynch is an architect of Penn Quarter’s revival as a living downtown. “The message is the city is closed for business.”
Lynch sent a letter to Neil Albert, deputy mayor for economic development, urging him to “immediately engage Apple in other locations.”
My sources say Albert is already working with Apple to look beyond Georgetown.
“We want them,” Councilman Jim Graham tells me. Graham represents Ward 1, in the city’s core along 14th Street north of downtown. “We can put them on U Street, or Adams Morgan or Columbia Heights. We have Metro access. We’ve got locations where they can truly prosper.”
I would not be surprised if many of the monied elite who inhabit Georgetown’s brick mansions are not quietly pleased by the Old Georgetown Board’s dismissal of Apple’s design. It reminds me of Georgetown’s opposition to a Metro stop. Keeps out the riffraff.
But Georgetown’s stuffiness should not prevent D.C. from landing an Apple store. Every “big city” has one. If Mayor “CrackBerry” Fenty wants to be a big-city mayor, he should make sure Georgetown doesn’t ruin it for the rest of us.
E-mail Harry Jaffe at hjaffe@washingtonian.com.
These days the once-chic shopping district on the Potomac River has the feel of a dowager way past her prime; teeth yellowing, hems threadbare, furs moth-eaten. Name one restaurant that wants to open its doors on M Street or Wisconsin Avenue. Nathan’s, a cornerstone bar and restaurant at the main intersection, might be closing its doors.
Developer Herb Miller has been trying to lure Nordstrom into the poorly designed Georgetown Park mall for years. No dice.
A decade or two ago, Georgetown was the hippest place in the nation’s capital. Now folks who want to shop and eat and spend a day on the town can go to U Street or Columbia Heights or Penn Quarter or Capitol Hill. Friendship Heights has movies and food. Cleveland Park beckons with both. Shaw is still edgy but hipper by a mile.
Georgetown is the agent of its own decline. Witness its death dance with Apple.
Two years ago, Apple chose Georgetown to site its first retail store in the nation’s capital. It bought a storefront on M Street, drew up plans to tear down the nondescript building, designed a modern front with its iconic Apple missing a small, crescent bite.
Ever seen an Apple Store? They crackle with action 24/7, selling and repairing all Apple devices. An Apple Store could revive an old whaling village.
Two years later, the storefront remains empty, and Apple has yet to put a shovel in the ground. Why? Because an architectural advisory panel, appropriately named the Old Georgetown Board, has rejected four designs because they are too glassy and modern.
“It shows you how flawed the city’s system is for attracting retail outlets,” says Terry Lynch, executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations. Lynch is an architect of Penn Quarter’s revival as a living downtown. “The message is the city is closed for business.”
Lynch sent a letter to Neil Albert, deputy mayor for economic development, urging him to “immediately engage Apple in other locations.”
My sources say Albert is already working with Apple to look beyond Georgetown.
“We want them,” Councilman Jim Graham tells me. Graham represents Ward 1, in the city’s core along 14th Street north of downtown. “We can put them on U Street, or Adams Morgan or Columbia Heights. We have Metro access. We’ve got locations where they can truly prosper.”
I would not be surprised if many of the monied elite who inhabit Georgetown’s brick mansions are not quietly pleased by the Old Georgetown Board’s dismissal of Apple’s design. It reminds me of Georgetown’s opposition to a Metro stop. Keeps out the riffraff.
But Georgetown’s stuffiness should not prevent D.C. from landing an Apple store. Every “big city” has one. If Mayor “CrackBerry” Fenty wants to be a big-city mayor, he should make sure Georgetown doesn’t ruin it for the rest of us.
E-mail Harry Jaffe at hjaffe@washingtonian.com.
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