On 14th Street, a Major Player Moves In

Storehouse Joins Start-Ups and Independents in a Reviving Neighborhood

When the doors of the new Logan Circle Storehouse were finally unlocked on April 30 after seven months of renovation, the salespeople were anxious to see how many people would wander in.

But it wasn't long before pedestrians walking their dogs or picking up their dry cleaning that rainy Saturday morning were peering at the Dion chairs in the wide windows of the circa 1920s limestone building that was originally the showroom of Wardman Motors.

"It was just what we had hoped for. We want to be a neighborhood store for people who can stop by while they are doing their errands," said Mark Riddle, Storehouse assistant manager. "We had some customers who picked out upholstery fabrics, ran home to get their spouse or partner, and came back to make a final selection."

The store opening may be a turning point for the 14th Street corridor, which was devastated by rioting after the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968. Over the past few years, a scattering of small independent shops have opened along the once seedy street, and a Whole Foods Market revitalized nearby P Street in 2000. Today, the street is chockablock with cranes and carpenters, as sleek condos and trendy bistros replace boarded-up buildings. Above Storehouse is Lofts 14, 83 units by Metropolis Development, which sold out at prices from $250,000 to $1 million. Talk of a Target store long expected to take over an abandoned lot up the street in nearby Columbia Heights is seen as a sign of continued neighborhood renewal.

This 8,000-square-foot Storehouse, at 1526 14th Street NW, is the first in the District for the Atlanta-based chain, which has 65 stores in 15 states and the District. Storehouse President Caroline Hipple had checked out the area when attending performances at the Studio Theatre across the street. "We realized our furniture was a great fit with these new urban lofts and apartments going up here," Hipple said last week, as she relaxed on a roomy sectional at her newest location.

"We wanted to improve the space, keeping the original limestone blocks, marble floors and terrazzo inlays, but we wanted to keep it hip," said Dixon Bartlett, Storehouse's senior vice president. The space was once a selling floor for now-extinct cars such as Whippets and Willys-Knights, and later became a jazz club.

Bartlett says merchandise was selected with the urban customer in mind: slimmer upholstery silhouettes, dining tables with pull-out extensions and lots of storage units. He pointed out the slipcovered Naples twin sleeper -- a 58-inch-wide loveseat that converts to a twin bed and the Enterprise dining table, a glass-topped model that seats four but has hidden leaves that pull out to accommodate eight.

The Logan Circle venue has been a boon for independent home retailers such as Muleh, Vastu and Go Mama Go. But not every business has survived the wait for economic turnaround. Next week Maison 14, a three-year-old shop specializing in French, Moroccan and contemporary furniture, will close its doors, a victim of rising rents and slow sales. The store plans to reopen soon in Leesburg.

The arrival of Storehouse is being met with general optimism.

"We think it's great," says David Carpenter, a sales associate at Reincarnations, a funky furniture retailer down the street. "This street has come a long way, and it's just getting better and better."

Greg Link, co-owner of Home Rule, the home accessories store that opened here in 1999, recalls "a whole lot of unused vacant and scary buildings back then, but customers were so excited we were here and willing to take a risk."

As for Storehouse, Link says: "It's one more hallmark that this is a safe and established neighborhood. There is a group of consumers who will look to Storehouse as being another sign of that.

"It brings credentials to the street."