Thursday, April 19, 2012

Construction for Cathedral Commons a Step Closer


A sign today announces the parking lot of the now-closed Giant Food at 3336 Wisconsin Ave. will close April 23 to prepare for construction of Cathedral Commons. The grocery store closed last week, but the parking lot remained open. Crews also have removed the classic Giant sign on the building.

Bozzuto, Giant's financial partner for the project, posted a site plan yesterday for the $125 million mixed-use development that will span two blocks along Wisconsin Avenue.

Street-Works is developing the site that will have a new Giant Food anchoring 128,000 s.f. of new retail space. The site also will include 137 apartments, eight townhouses and 500 parking spaces.

A raze permit for the Giant as well as other parts of the 3300 block were approved Jan. 30th by the Historic Preservation Office according to documents released by the Office. Permit applications for the 3400 block also were filed.

Washington, D.C., real estate development news

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Expect to see a couple of the anti-development NIMBYs chain themselves to the old Giant building in protest...

Anonymous said...

Ha! More likely that the owners of Cactus Cantina, 2 Amys and Cafe Deluxe will chain themselves to Giant's parking lot, which in the evening serves as the free, off-street lot for those restaurants. Without it, their customers will have a tough time finding spots on area streets, which are already parked up at night with residents. It's not Giants job to solve their parking problems, but still, you gotta' feel for these restaurants.

Ben said...

@Anonymous 2:01 PM:

The new Giant will have sixty subterranean parking spots available to neighborhing businesses. According to this presentation, there will be 30 spaces for existing retail and restaurants and 30 community overnight parking spaces. During construction, perhaps the loss of parking spaces will encourage more people to take transit or walk to the restaurants here.

http://www.wisconsinavegiant.com/PDFs/SS%20Wisconsin%20Zoning%20Commission%20to%20Website_021909.pdf

Anonymous said...

There is plenty of bus service on Wisconsin Ave. for anyone who wants to venture to the restaurants if they think parking will be hard to find in the area while the Giant is reconstructed.

Western Ward 3 is a little short on Capital Bikeshare locations but one can always lock their personal bike up somewhere nearby, too.

Anonymous said...

30 or 60 parking spots sounds good, but it's been more like 200+ cars filling Giant's lots in the evening when, to be honest, there were like 10 customers in the cruddy old Giant. All the cars belonged to people eating in Cactus, Deluxe, 2 Amys, etc. I do like this project, but let's not pretend. It's going to be tough for those restaurants and customers going forward, and it's going to be an absolute parking cluster f---during 2 years of construction. The side streets by the restaurants are jammed, and McLean Gardens is looking at a special parking zone and extended RPP hours in the evening, which will add to the pressure.:<(

Anonymous said...

It's about time they trashed that old Giant building. It was like some vestige of a third-world, post-Soviet nightmare. The joke of the neighborhood was that it was our "Chernobyl Giant" because it was in a perpetual state of meltdown. One expected to see Dennis the Menance or June and Ward Cleaver to come walking out of that store, it was so out-dated. Good riddance. Now, can we finally move into the 21st century?

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