A high-end furniture retailer has signed a lease for more than 37,000 square feet of space in the historic Woodward & Lothrop building, better known as the Woodies building, on G Street NW, city officials said Wednesday.
West Elm — a member of the Williams-Sonoma family, which also includes Pottery Barn — will use the space as its flagship store on the East Coast, officials said.
The retailer, which opened a store in Tysons Corner last year, will receive $4.9 million in tax incentives as part of the city’s Downtown Retail Tax Increment Financing Program, said Stan Jackson, deputy mayor for planning and economic development.
With an expected $18.5 million in annual sales — about $500 per square foot, according to developers — the city can expect to reap nearly $1.5 million in additional sales tax revenue. The company has also promised that 51 percent of employees at the store will be District residents, officials said.
West Elm has 14 stores across the country, and the new store will be the largest in the chain when it opens in January 2007, officials said.
Douglas Jemal, president of Douglas Development Corporation, purchased the historic Woodies building in 1998. The Woodward & Lothrop department store closed it doors in 1995. Jemal said the landmark building, originally built in 1880 and filling nearly the entire city block bounded by 10th and 11th streets and F and G Streets, underwent the highest level of historic preservation in restoring it to its original beauty.
A sizable structure
» 10 stories of retail and office space
» 356,000 square feet of office space on seven floors
» First office tenant was the Environmental Protection Agency, which leased the entire third floor
» Total square footage: 497,268
