ARTICLE
By: Rebecca Cooper- Senior Staff Reporter, Washington Business Journal The Collection in Chevy Chase has a new neighborhood-serving bent and a lot more restaurants coming in as owner Chevy Chase Land Co. continues to try to lease it up more than three years after it began a $17.5 million renovation. The development, which consists of several buildings that once held a who’s who of luxury brands and high-end shops, is now dubbed The Collection, and it is going the way of many of its retail center counterparts. Where Ralph Lauren once stood will now be two new restaurants: the Junction Bakery, Bar and Bistro we wrote about last month, and BeeHive, a casual, full-service restaurant from two New York restaurateurs. Where Bulgari once peddled its handbags and jewelry, another restaurant has leased 5,700 square feet — though Chevy Chase Land Co. declined to identify the tenant. Across the way, Little Beet Table, a full-service restaurant offering a vegetable-forward menu, will open in 4,834 square feet next to the former Christian Dior store. Both will have large outdoor patios spilling out onto a central park space between the north and south Wisconsin Avenue buildings. Chevy Chase lost several of its high-end stores in 2017 as they moved to new spaces in CityCenterDC. Currently, Tiffany & Co. and Cartier remain, along with the standalone Saks Fifth Avenue store at the development’s north end. Rather than maintaining the closed-off exclusivity, the renovation aimed to open up the center with inviting public spaces. “Food and beverage is a definite pillar, but the idea is a quality product and experience that’s approachable, a place where both parents and their kids want to spend time in,” said Mike Smith, director of real estate for Streetsense, who led leasing on the project. “We identified a pretty substantive void in the market for this kind of food.” The project removed all of the restricted access to the internal pathways through the property, and took down some of the walls that served as visual barriers to the site. The corner where Clyde’s sits on Wisconsin, for example, now features a wide-open plaza with a water feature and a view of Clyde’s outdoor patio. “Removing that gate off Wisconsin, that, to me, was a huge bang for the buck, it’s just instead of ‘stay out’ … the renovation spoke a lot to the welcoming, approachable, ‘come on in’ feeling as opposed to before, not as much,” said Lisa Stoddard of CBRE, one of the property's leasing agents. There is a new amphitheater on the plaza behind the three buildings, and several pieces of public art that will be installed are meant to be played with, climbed on and enjoyed by children, said Tom Regnell, CEO of Chevy Chase Land Co. There are plans to begin programming the Collection with farmers markets, movie nights and other events. The renovation has brought in a few new tenants: there’s Busybees, an indoor children’s play space, and Chevy Chase Florist, both of which opened in 2018. Like so many looking to fill retail space these days, Chevy Chase Land Co. has also been embracing pop-ups, such as the Sugar & Ice candy store, and the Whyte House Monograms pop-up, both of which have open-ended leases. Earlier this year, the center hosted a weekend-long pop-up for preppy clothing line Tuckernuck that had lines stretching down the block. But there’s still more than 20,000 square feet available of the 111,000 square feet of retail — not including Saks — and it’s likely it won’t be leased to the kind of apparel or other soft goods retailers Regnell and his team envisioned. “Where I think we were probably focused on fashion and aspirational luxury to begin with, we just found that the market wasn’t there,” Regnell said. Instead, the leasing team is focusing on landing tenants that sell home goods, boutique fitness operators and other neighborhood-serving amenities, said Stoddard. It’s possible there will always be one or two pop-ups in some smaller spaces they create at the site in order to keep things fresh. In those spaces — created in the former Louis Vuitton store — Regnell said they have the ability to sign shorter-term leases with retailers who want to stay longer than a pop-up but aren’t committing for 10 or 15 years. Though he didn’t initially imagine they’d still be working on leasing three years after starting the project, Regnell says there is renewed interest from tenants now the project is nearly complete. “I think those things that make retail leasing challenging have become more acute in this cycle that we’re in — people who are going to say, ‘I want to see it before I commit,’ and ‘I’m not going in until construction is done,’” Regnell said. Local tenants in particular are more gun shy and want to be able to walk into the completed project, added Stoddard. Junction is expected to open later this year, as is BeeHive, which comes from Jason O’Brien and Donal Crosbie, who own two neighborhood restaurants in New York: Hudson Hound and Trinity Place. The new spot will have a modern American menu and a focus on craft beer and cocktails. A Fit for Moms group is doing stroller workouts at the development three days a week, and live music at lunch time will launch in the patio this spring. All of it has Regnell feeling optimistic for the remaining leasing. “With the construction completion, I would say interest has really spiked,” Regnell said. “With these restaurant announcements, I think it will further add to the compelling story of why others really want to be here.”
By: Rebecca Cooper- Senior Staff Reporter, Washington Business Journal The Collection in Chevy Chase has a new neighborhood-serving bent and a lot more restaurants coming in as owner Chevy Chase Land Co. continues to try to lease it up more than three years after it began a $17.5 million renovation.
The development, which consists of several buildings that once held a who’s who of luxury brands and high-end shops, is now dubbed The Collection, and it is going the way of many of its retail center counterparts.
Where Ralph Lauren once stood will now be two new restaurants: the Junction Bakery, Bar and Bistro we wrote about last month, and BeeHive, a casual, full-service restaurant from two New York restaurateurs.
Where Bulgari once peddled its handbags and jewelry, another restaurant has leased 5,700 square feet — though Chevy Chase Land Co. declined to identify the tenant. Across the way, Little Beet Table, a full-service restaurant offering a vegetable-forward menu, will open in 4,834 square feet next to the former Christian Dior store. Both will have large outdoor patios spilling out onto a central park space between the north and south Wisconsin Avenue buildings.
Chevy Chase lost several of its high-end stores in 2017 as they moved to new spaces in CityCenterDC. Currently, Tiffany & Co. and Cartier remain, along with the standalone Saks Fifth Avenue store at the development’s north end.
Rather than maintaining the closed-off exclusivity, the renovation aimed to open up the center with inviting public spaces.
“Food and beverage is a definite pillar, but the idea is a quality product and experience that’s approachable, a place where both parents and their kids want to spend time in,” said Mike Smith, director of real estate for Streetsense, who led leasing on the project. “We identified a pretty substantive void in the market for this kind of food.”
The project removed all of the restricted access to the internal pathways through the property, and took down some of the walls that served as visual barriers to the site. The corner where Clyde’s sits on Wisconsin, for example, now features a wide-open plaza with a water feature and a view of Clyde’s outdoor patio.
“Removing that gate off Wisconsin, that, to me, was a huge bang for the buck, it’s just instead of ‘stay out’ … the renovation spoke a lot to the welcoming, approachable, ‘come on in’ feeling as opposed to before, not as much,” said Lisa Stoddard of CBRE, one of the property's leasing agents.
There is a new amphitheater on the plaza behind the three buildings, and several pieces of public art that will be installed are meant to be played with, climbed on and enjoyed by children, said Tom Regnell, CEO of Chevy Chase Land Co. There are plans to begin programming the Collection with farmers markets, movie nights and other events.
The renovation has brought in a few new tenants: there’s Busybees, an indoor children’s play space, and Chevy Chase Florist, both of which opened in 2018. Like so many looking to fill retail space these days, Chevy Chase Land Co. has also been embracing pop-ups, such as the Sugar & Ice candy store, and the Whyte House Monograms pop-up, both of which have open-ended leases. Earlier this year, the center hosted a weekend-long pop-up for preppy clothing line Tuckernuck that had lines stretching down the block.
But there’s still more than 20,000 square feet available of the 111,000 square feet of retail — not including Saks — and it’s likely it won’t be leased to the kind of apparel or other soft goods retailers Regnell and his team envisioned.
“Where I think we were probably focused on fashion and aspirational luxury to begin with, we just found that the market wasn’t there,” Regnell said.
Instead, the leasing team is focusing on landing tenants that sell home goods, boutique fitness operators and other neighborhood-serving amenities, said Stoddard.
It’s possible there will always be one or two pop-ups in some smaller spaces they create at the site in order to keep things fresh. In those spaces — created in the former Louis Vuitton store — Regnell said they have the ability to sign shorter-term leases with retailers who want to stay longer than a pop-up but aren’t committing for 10 or 15 years.
Though he didn’t initially imagine they’d still be working on leasing three years after starting the project, Regnell says there is renewed interest from tenants now the project is nearly complete.
“I think those things that make retail leasing challenging have become more acute in this cycle that we’re in — people who are going to say, ‘I want to see it before I commit,’ and ‘I’m not going in until construction is done,’” Regnell said. Local tenants in particular are more gun shy and want to be able to walk into the completed project, added Stoddard.
Junction is expected to open later this year, as is BeeHive, which comes from Jason O’Brien and Donal Crosbie, who own two neighborhood restaurants in New York: Hudson Hound and Trinity Place. The new spot will have a modern American menu and a focus on craft beer and cocktails. A Fit for Moms group is doing stroller workouts at the development three days a week, and live music at lunch time will launch in the patio this spring.
All of it has Regnell feeling optimistic for the remaining leasing.
“With the construction completion, I would say interest has really spiked,” Regnell said. “With these restaurant announcements, I think it will further add to the compelling story of why others really want to be here.”