Nehemiah Center Faces the Reaper

Level2 Development of DC announced a preliminary plan for developing the Nehemiah Center, a block-long strip mall at 2400 14^th Street between Columbia Heights and U Street. The developer, already marketing View14 condominiums just across the street at 14^th and Florida Ave., is partnering with Chicago-based Centrum Properties for both projects. The team hopes the weight of the two projects will bring a transformation of the area into a “retail anchor” by adding parking, 20,000 square feet of retail and 225 residential units replacing the out-of-place shopping center, and 17,000 s.f. of retail and 170 condos at View14. Shalom Baranes will design the newest project, which should start construction late next year. A spokesman said Level2 purchased the Nehemiah Center for “approximately $13m” and envisions the area as a “gateway between Columbia Heights and the 14 ^th & U corridor, an area largely bypassed by local development.” No name has yet been adopted for the new project.

The ABC’s of NOMA and SOFLO

In the recent best-selling book The Tipping Point, author Malcolm Gladwell tells us that the “best way to understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers…or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do."After reading yet another newspaper article that casually mentions without explanation such once-esoteric neighborhood names like NoMa and SoFlo, I agree – we are infected. Now the question is: Do we want an antidote, or has it passed Gladwell’s tipping point and here to stay?

No matter on which side of this linguistic battle line you reside (this clearly seems to be a “love it or hate it” topic), one thing is for certain: Blame New York City. Read this complete article in the Downtowner newspaper...