Dear Penguin: I noticed people and equipment moving into the building on Colesville Road and Ramsey Avenue, across from Discovery Communications (it has kid-painted plywood murals on the Colesville side). Any idea what’s going on in there? — Chaz
Chaz –
Last night, I dreamed of sauntering through an Apple store. The fluorescent lights were blinding, and dozens of shiny red iPod Nanos glowed like hot coals.
I walked up to the information desk, TV remote control in hand, and traded it in for a sleek new iPhone. It was a magical iPhone, possessing powers that no other iPhone had. It could change the channel on my TV. It loaded dishes into the dishwasher. It even did my laundry.
Now, I don’t know if such technology exists, or if there will ever be an Apple store in downtown Silver Spring.
What I do know is that the building of which you speak will have four retail store fronts, according to Mel Tull, who handles economic development for the Silver Spring Regional Center. One unconfirmed report puts a donut shop in one of those spaces.
The second floor will be designed to accommodate a variety of purposes, from a large open area, to office suites along a central hallway, Tull told The Penguin in an email. Businesses could move in early next year.
That’s the story, Chaz. If you’ve ever dreamed of glazed donuts and French vanilla coffee, you just might be in luck.
– The Penguin
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I hope it’s a Krispy Creme or better yet, a Cafe Du Monde (I’m craving beignets)…
I vote for a Fractured Prune. And and Apple Store. :-)
After making a few visits to the extremely cramped and crowded Bethesda Row Apple Store, I REALLY want to see an Apple store in SS.
The Apple store in the Montgomery Mall is equally nuts. I had to fight off a dozen people just to play with an iPhone display model.
As for the building on colesville…. I really hope (but yet have my doubts) that they did some serious extermination on the burnt out building before starting construction. Anyone who lives on that end of said ajoining apartment building may or may not (if they’re very lucky or oblivious) have heard of the rodent woes in our unfortunately named apartment complex. The building manager told me that the company that handles extermination for southern management was pretty certain that burnt out building was the source of our problems. SM allegedly contacted the county about it – but I never heard anymore. I fear if they started construction without getting rid of the little fury creatures first, they’ve probably just sent them running next door. Haven’t caught anything in a few weeks though… so thats good…. keeping my fingers crossed. While they’re at it, the pocket park between McD’s and Cameron Hills could use some serious rodent killin’ efforts. I e-mailed MoCo HHS about my frequent sightings there and heard nothing back…. but I digress.
I know what’s going to be there: hair salons! At least five in a row, with maybe a cell phone store in-between.
DTSS needs more hair salons, people! You all know it!
Perhaps Ms. Deseo knows the answer to this…. are they renovating what’s there? Or demolishing and rebuilding? Seems like a waste of precious downtown land to leave a little one level building there…. there’s no windows on that side of twin towers, so they could easily build a taller mixed use space there…. Even just a few floors of apartments on top if the lot is too small to go REALLY tall.
Thanks, Penguin!
Paul, without turning this into an apartment ratings thread, I’m not too happy with the pest situation on the lower levels of TT, myself. We have no furry friends, but we do see more than our fair share of bugs. I blame the trash chute.
Paul_Silver_Spring wrote:
The existing building is undergoing renovation.
According to one unconfirmed source, the owner of the Colesville Road building, and the owner of a space on Ramsey (adjacent to the Twin Towers apartments), haven’t spoken to each other in years. Translation: zero chance of any successful negotiation.
Then there’s the gas station on Colesville and Georgia. Again, the unconfirmed scoop says the station makes money hand over fist. Translation: They’re not going anywhere.
Chaz… yea.. we dealt with those for 4 solid months beginning the day we moved in… our friend who helped us move in crushed one in the bathroom, but didn’t have the heart to tell us on moving day, hahaha. We finally got rid of them though… Rumor was the source for us was a un-kept kitchen nextdoor… same guy’s still there, so I guess he’s cleaned up.
But we had a very short lived experience with those at a much pricier building up the road too, so I don’t fault the complex really… just a fact of apartment living I guess.
For what it’s worth, this joint is apparently coming to City Place…
http://www.steveandbarrys.com
Saw the Coming Soon sign up last night.
Thanks, Easley Does It! I’ve been trying to confirm that info all morning.
FINALLY! God, that vacant building has been a real eye-sore despite the cute art. I wonder why it took so long for the property owner to make something happen. My only theory is that the fire damaged many businesses in that building. The business owners filed a lawsuit against the property owner for damages. The property owner probably filed a lawsuit against the insurance company because maybe the insurance company thinks the owner was fault for the fire: a vicious legal cycle, maybe? Insurance/property damage suits can last years in the courts.
Anyway, I think the building should be completely knocked down and an updated architectural edifice would take its place. The building design still reminds me of the OLD Silver Spring…the 1970s Silver Spring.
Steve & Barry’s looks like another craptastic City Place Store. This comes directly from their website: “By delivering on our promise to provide premium apparel at impossibly low prices, Steve & Barry’s is single-handedly changing the retail landscape…We currently operate more than 200 super-stores in 33 states and plan to open approximately 70 stores in 2007.”
Isn’t one Designer Shoe Warehouse (DSW) eyesore enough for DTSS? Jeebus!
You know what would help fix up and fill more empty buildings around Silver Spring? MORE YUPPIES!
More Yuppies in Silver Spring would be a good thing. Young people settling in, bringing energy and style. Urban — beats suburban and rural, in my humble opinion. Professional. That’s good. Professionals have disposable income and tend to be well-educated, or at least considerate and responsible and involved in their community. Yuppies are a good thing.
I will post this for a 8th gazillion time. The yuppie population in Silver Spring will never grow large enough to make a significant impact. There is a finite number of urban professionals making close to six figures in the DC area. Most of them would rather live in a cool urban area such as Adams Morgan, Logan Circle, Capitol Hill, and Orange Line corridor in Arlington, VA.
Silver Spring…is…not…cool…or…hip! Some condo projects in Silver Spring have been put on ice because market conditions are not favorable. Some condos that are completed have vacancy issues in the downtown Silver Spring area. There’s simply not enough high-income professionals to buy real estate in Silver Spring. They would rather buy property in The District or Arlington, VA Thank You Very Much.
Can you really envision a “trendy”, “cool” Yuppie couple feeling comfortable walking down Ellsworth with tons of screaming, mis-behaving teens and little children around them on a Saturday night? I can’t. Can you see a Yuppie couple feeling safe walking in the southern downtown area of Silver Spring at night where there is poor lighting and small pedestrian traffic? Nope.
The fact of the matter is that Silver Spring is an older, family-oriented community with a significant minority population. The demographics alone are not conducive for Yuppies to uproot from the Cool of DC or the Hip of Arlington to find a swanky condo in downtown Silver Spring. Yuppies are predominately white and they prefer to live in communities where there are lots of expensive import vehicles and white people. That’s just a factual observation. Most upper class, professional African Americans prefer to live in upscale communities in Prince George’s County. That’s just a factual observation.
Silver Spring will always be a professional middle-class haven for families and retirees. Silver Spring will always have its under-developed neighborhoods with the hair salons, car mechanic shops, Latino karaoke bars, dive Ethiopian cafes and The Quarry House. The “NEW” downtown Silver Spring will NOT change this reality.
Silver Spring will NEVER, EVER become another Arlington, another Bethesda, another DuPont Circle, another Adams Morgan and on. The pro-gentrification crowd has to accept this and move on.
I have to disagree, IHY. There are new condo buildings being put up. New restaurants and stores opening up away from the Hellsworth wasteland.
The fact is that D.C. and N. Virginia have become too expensive for many so-called yuppies, and that is why Silver Spring has seen, and will see, gentrification and revitalization.
Recall that Bethesda and Clarendon were once sleepy little backwaters. There is still great potential in Silver Spring, and probably Wheaton, for yuppie-fication.
Lastly, I don’t know about you, but places like the Quarry House are yuppie bait.
Thanks for sharing your observations, IHY.
Let me throw these questions out there: Does commercial revitalization equate with gentrification? Can urban vitality happen without drastically altering the area’s socio-economic composition?
To answer your questions, Jennifer, I think in general the answer is no. Revitalization requires oeople with disposable incomes; poor people don’t have as much money to spend on fine dining and upscale clothing stores, etc.
If you define “Urban Vitality” as thriving stores, thriving nightlife, a decrease in crime, and in general making a neighborhood a more desirable place to live, then you need an influx of people with money. That will change the socio-economic composition. For those who might be upset about that, consider what Silver Spring used to be like and ask yourselves if you want to go back to those days.
Commercial revitalization for middle-class and working-class people has worked in Silver Spring. Think of Men’s Warehouse, Fuddruckers, The Majestic Theater, Borders, Austin Grill or DSW as examples where everyone regardless of socio-economic status has access. Most customers at these places are NOT yuppies. In this sense, Springvale is off-the-mark about commercial revitalization requiring market participation from the Yuppies.
I think the Montgomery County Economic Development office and the real estate developers had some sense to realize that you need businesses that cater to working people for economic vitality. If you created a new downtown core that catered ONLY to the upper-income bracket, you would have a woeful, incomplete re-birth of Silver Spring. The demographics work against the total gentrification model. Again, most current residents of Silver Spring have middle-class incomes (well under six figures), most households have families and there is a high percentage of retirees residing here. People who own property in Silver Spring are asset rich with the inflated housing prices but they draw a modest income.
Now if more single, high-income professionals move to Silver Spring, then we will see more upscale restaurants and trendy shopping establishments. The only upscale joint in Silver Spring is Ray’s Classics and there are only a couple of “cool”, over-priced shopping places I can think of.
btw…Quarry House is hardly a hang-out for the Yuppie crowd. When I go there, I still see working-class guys, college kids, struggling artist Bohemian types as paying customers. Jackie Greenbaum (the owner) did a good job of updating the menu and drinking selection…but other than that…it’s still the dumpy Quarry House of old.
Where Silver Spring is coming up short is affordable housing for people who make less than six-figures. But that is another debate down the road.
IHY, a 25 year-old lawyer who lives in the city and works for a nonprofit making $30,000 is a yuppie. Young. Urban. Professional. Also, working or middle class, depending on how you view things.
Your definition of yuppies seems to suggest only rich snobs. That’s a very narrow way to look at it.
According to Wikipedia:
“Yuppies (young urban professionals, or less commonly young upwardly-mobile professionals is a market segment whose consumers are characterized as self-reliant, financially secure individualists. Since the late 1980s, the phrase affluent professionals has been used as a synonym, stripped of negative associations with the once-homogenous market”.
I would hardly call a lawyer working for a non-profit making $30,000 as “self-reliant” and “financially secure” in the Washington, DC area. It’s hard to make a living when you have sky-high rents and huge law school student loan payments.
I should change my screen name to IHateYappies…Young Affluent Professionals IES.
Yappie Hater? Just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
With all due respect, IHY, a.k.a. IHY, why hate people based on a generality? I know very wealthy people who have wonderful social values, and I know working class people who may as well be wearing swastikas.
I grew up under Reagan, unfortunately. There was a new breed of young turks on Wall Street who held regressive, snobbish and elitist values and spent money like vulgarians. They were called Yuppies, and it was fine and fitting to hate them. However, they were of their time, and hating “Yuppies” now is as anachronistic as hating “Hippies,” or “Beatniks,” or “Flappers,” or those damned British Loyalists.
It’s all about the attitude, dude.
I fear for I Hate Yuppies. All that rage and bile will likely lead to an early heart attack.
[...] Dunkin Doughnuts is all good but this is the one I’ve been waiting for. There’s something new for the taste buds of Silver Spring yet familiar since you could say, it’s from a coastal cousin. [...]
I want my got-damned Carolina Kitchen with its dreamy mashed taters and its astonishingly good German chocolate cake back. I don’t care what else goes in there. Carolina Kitchen has to come back. And yes I know this won’t happen.
“Silver Spring will NEVER, EVER become another Arlington, another Bethesda, another DuPont Circle, another Adams Morgan”
& thank God
“…or if there will ever be an Apple store in downtown Silver Spring.”
Your keyboard to God’s ears, Jennifer!
Oh, by the way, IHY… my wife and I *were* a hip, young professional couple who lived in Dupont Circle for more than 10 years before we decided to have a kid. Silver Spring was a great attractive alternative to the ultra-suburbs out near Vienna and the blandness of Bethesda or Clarendon. As far as local suburbs go, Silver Spring is cool.
(And for me, the housing stock was quite nice too–a nice variety of homes here surrounding downtown. )
Editor’s note: This comment has been edited for content. — JD (Nov 1, 2007)
Lindemann, OMG…I long for Carolina Kitchen, too. When I first started working in DTSS in 2000 there were VERY few places to go out to lunch. Being a southerner, I couldn’t believe that this place was right around the corner! It had been years since I had regular access to that kind of comfort food. I mean where else could you get good fried fish and collard greens around here? The manager and workers there seemed to be from the islands and my favorite part (other than the food) was that when you would walk in the door they would literally yell with their island accents: WELCOME, WELCOME! In fact, my co-workers and I never referred to the restaurant by its real name, but always called it welcome, welcome.
They have a restaurant in Largo at the Boulevard at Cap Centre, but who wants to trek over there.
Posted by Mr.Joel | October 29, 2007, 10:27 pm
“Silver Spring will NEVER, EVER become another Arlington, another Bethesda, another DuPont Circle, another Adams Morgan”
& thank God
Amen brother!
Soooooo… construction seems to be coming along at this site–any hard news on what’s going in there?