From: Washington Business Journal
Date: June 15, 2007

Signs of retail life at Dupont's old Riggs bank branch
by Erin Killian Staff Reporter 
Joanne S. Lawton 
Hard left: The east side of Connecticut Avenue NW, on the left, is considered a no-man’s land to some in the neighborhood because it lacks retailers like those across the street, on the right.
On any given day or evening, the east side of Connecticut Avenue NW just north of Dupont Circle is bustling, the sidewalks crowded with people visiting Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe, Starbucks and other retail stores. But across the street, in front of the old Riggs National Bank branch, there are few people and not much retail activity. For more than a decade, people have avoided walking along the strip of dark vacant offices.

But that dead zone may soon come to life.

PNC Financial Services Group Inc., the building's owner since acquiring Riggs National two years ago, slowly moved workers from the office space and plans to lease it to retailers to take advantage of one of the most coveted retail corridors in the city.

The Pittsburgh-based bank has hired veteran broker John Asadoorian of D.C.-based Asadoorian Retail Solutions to market the 20,000 square feet that was once a vibrant retail strip when there were five townhouses facing the street. That was before Riggs integrated them into the bank for office space. Now PNC hopes to command commercial rents of up to $100 per square foot.

Asadoorian has been in quiet talks with retail brokers and potential tenants for about a year but plans to post signs around the property in the next couple of weeks to more aggressively market the space.

"We've been waiting for the architectural plans to be drawn up," Asadoorian said.

He hopes to get leases with one to five retailers such as home-furnishing stores, clothing stores or ice cream parlors. Asadoorian is still determining the tenant mix.

He said he has shown some space already to unidentified national retailers.

Asadoorian wants retailers similar to Georgetown's Italian gelato place Dolcezza, the yoga apparel store Lululemon Athletica and The Organic Butcher of Charlottesville.

National chains -- including Chipotle, Ann Taylor Loft and Starbucks, which have all opened on the east side of north Dupont Circle -- have left some community members upset.

"We've gone through a lot of attempts by outside corporate influences to challenge the underpinnings of the ambiance of the Dupont Circle independent stores," said attorney Ed Grandis, who has run the Dupont Circle Merchants and Professional Association since 1981.

Dupont Circle, one of the hottest retail corridors in D.C., along with Georgetown and Gallery Place near Verizon Center, was "a lot funkier and grittier when we moved in" than it is now, said Penelope Diamanti, owner of Beadazzled, a bead shop she opened in 1989 in the strip now being marketed by PNC. Her 1,000 square-foot space was in a townhouse 10 steps up from the street next to other independent stores.

When Riggs bought the townhouses from local developer Michael Kain in the 1990s, it did not renew the retailers' expiring leases.

Riggs, however, failed to win over the community to its plans to convert the building into a 10-story massive international headquarters. But by then, Beadazzled and Burrito Brothers were the last two retailers standing.

"We felt the pain by the end," Diamanti said. "There was no reason to walk down the street. The rest of the buildings were scuzzy with dirt and graffiti."

In 1997, Riggs asked Burrito Brothers and Beadazzled to leave so it could turn the townhouses into office space.

In 2005, after Riggs was fined $16 million when it pleaded guilty to violating U.S. money-laundering laws, PNC bought the company and its real estate. PNC slowly moved out the remaining bank employees stationed in the building. It has been a retail no-man's land since -- except when the Dupont Circle farmers market, in Rigg's small parking lot, is teeming with people on Sunday mornings.

That should change as soon as Asadoorian signs tenants. He acknowledged the neighborhood's desire to keep the shops funky and independent, but said $100-per-square-foot rents could limit his options. Asadoorian said he won't sign a restaurateur, citing a moratorium on liquor licenses in Dupont Circle.

Rob Halligan, the president of the Dupont Circle Citizen's Association, said: "We have a low-scale retail environment and need to do something affirmative to make sure [the real estate] has some spunk to it. I would like the owners of the property to not lease the entire row to one humongous chain store and instead lease it to several retailers."

E-MAIL: EKILLIAN@BIZJOURNALS.COM 
PHONE: 703/258-0833

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