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Signs of Change Line the Shelves
Loretta Smith, left, and Sandee Wallett stock medicine at the new Giant, Ward 8's first supermarket since 1998.
(By Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)
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Matthew Ritz, project manager for William C. Smith & Co., said the developer's longtime quest to lure a grocer to Southeast was hobbled by the sight of vacant housing and "misperceptions" that there "wasn't sustainable income to support a supermarket."
"We had to overcome it by showing the economic growth in the area," he said.
Taken altogether, community leaders tout the development as a signal to the broader business community that Ward 8 is becoming more economically diverse.
James Bunn, executive director of the Ward 8 Business Council, said he plans to lobby the District to enact controls on the kinds of stores he believes the area has too many of. "We don't want fast food. We don't want liquor stores. We want first-class retail," he said, citing shoe and clothing stores and quality hotels as examples.
Although residents applaud the changes, they can be derisive about the prices of new homes in their neighborhood. Sarcastic laughter rippled from the audience at one community meeting when representatives of William C. Smith & Co. said the price of an "affordable" unit at Asheford Court is in the low $400,000s.
Clarence Jackson, a D.C. police officer who patrols Ward 8, said the neighborhood's transformation gave his family confidence to invest in the IHOP, which will open next spring. Streets once defined by loitering and drug dealing are quieter. "What changed things was the wrecking ball," he said of the demolition of public housing. "It's like a whole new neighborhood."
The added stability also made the neighborhood attractive to Giant, said Barry F. Scher, a vice president of public affairs for the supermarket. "When we build a new store, we need to make sure there's a strong neighborhood base," he said. "And that was shorn up by the development of new homes."
Most of the new housing in the area wasn't around in 1998, when Ward 8's last supermarket closed. Nathaniel Howard, president of the Congress Heights Community Association, was at the Safeway on its last day of business, a depressing experience because the place where he bumped into so many friends was slipping away.
He plans on being at the Giant when it opens. "The moment of truth will be when you see the inside for the first time," he said. "I want to be dazzled."
