Bill Press (l) interviews Hine project architect Amy Weinstein and developer Ken Golding
Developer Drops More Hints on New Hine Retail
by Larry Janezich
Ken Golding, partner in Stanton Development – one of the Hine developers – and project architect Amy Weinstein were interviewed Tuesday night at the regular Hill Center program “Talk of the Hill” hosted by Bill Press*.
Golding has been playing his cards close to the vest on what retail is coming into the project, but he showed a little of his hand during the interview.
The major takeaways regarding 7th Street retail:
- a tech company (which Golding says he is not allowed to name) and the cosmetic company Sephora will occupy the prime space at the corner of 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue which will be divided into two units.
- an “exercise place” (Golding refused to call it a gym) will occupy space facing 7th Street.
- the corner space fronting on the plaza at 7th and C Streets (which seems a natural place for a restaurant) is not yet leased.
As for the Hine project’s north building:
- an Asian restaurant will land in the space at the corner of 7th and C Streets, closest to Eastern Market.
- the restaurant will join the forthcoming Trickling Springs Creamery and the juicery JRINK. Antiochia Turkish Linens is already open in the north building.
- Golding says JRINK should open within ten days and Trickling Springs is just getting its building permit.
Other news coming out of the interview:
- 25% of the 46 apartments in the Plaza building have been rented.**
- C Street is expected to open at the end of the month.
- the pre-school STEM child care facility is in the process of getting their building permit.
- Golding and Weinstein estimated the project will add some 1,000 residents and office workers to the community.
*Bill Press is a radio talk host, political commentator, and author. He was Chairman of the California Democratic party from 1993 to 1996.
**Press called the Plaza building units “pricey” citing $3200 for a one bedroom. Golding said that “Bozzuto (the management company leasing the apartments) says that’s what the market is. I’m not going to defend it.” He suggested that prices could change after the apartments on 8th Street open next spring.
CAPITOL HILL CORNER 
Ultimately the market will figure out if the rents are too high, but Bill Press is on to something. Very small one bedrooms at $3,270 a month, plus $200 for a parking spot, a couple hundred a month for utilities, and a $500 one-time fee & $75/month for the cat or dog owners among us ( do not know if canaries or goldfish count) will bring the monthly rent closer to $4,000. Second, do not at all understand the remark by Bozzzuto (sounds like a comic-book villain) that “prices could change after the apartments on 8th Street open.” Rents could go down? Doubtful that.
“C Street is expected to open at the end of the month.”
Hmm, will believe that when I see it. I thought C Street was supposed to open in September.
(Thanks for this article, BTW)
Hope it’s a gym. We have plenty of boutique studios but no gyms centrally located in Capitol Hill.
So Sephora is confirmed? Super excited about that!!
Also excited about not having to cross Penn Ave for non-Western cuisine. A Pho place would be a dream come true!
Passed by JRINK the other day and peeked in to look at the menu. Does anyone else find it ironic that a place charging $10 for juice is located beneath affordable housing? Will the families paying nearly $9000 a month for the townhomes have any disposable income left for $10 juice? I’m in favor of this development but I’d like to see some more retail that my family living one block away can actually use (along the lines of Trader Joe’s or some of the established retailers on 7th St.). I wish Antiochia the best but it seems to much of a niche product to survive.
Stop buying everyday essentials on Amazon, and you will see the return of more family-focussed retail.
I think that’s their point. You have to buy everyday essentials online, or at best leave the neighborhood for them. Call me crazy, but I’d love to see a Dollar Tree open (one that’s clean and organized like the ones in VA, not the Hechinger one).
Using the cost of a Hine one-bedroom apartment as a guide — like $3200/month? — I’ll bet the rents for the retail spaces are out of sight. That limits retail to boutique prices. No place in Hine could sell things at prices competitive to Amazon and stay in business.
Folks complain about Amazon and Walmart and blame the consumers, but what is not mentioned is that landlords keep increasing the retail rents. They are driving the old-fashioned retail business away, and replacing them with restaurants and bars, which can afford higher rents. Apparently that is what folks genuinely want, based on how busy 8th Street is on Friday night.
So if you want family-retail to come back, don’t eat out.