Trader Joe’s of Capitol Hill Set to Open Friday, September 29 & Inside the Hine Project – A Photo Essay

by Larry Janezich

Stanton Development told some neighbors of the Hine Project this morning that the 11,000 square foot Trader Joe’s would open on Friday, September 29. Capitol Hill Corner subsequently confirmed with Trader Joe’s that it has set that tentative date for opening. The store will be two levels below grade – beneath the Southeast corner of the project at 8th and D Streets – in the building with the grey brick façade.

Also, last night, Eastern Market Mainstreet, headed by Manuel Cortes of GroovyDC, held a fundraiser “Hard Hats for Hine” to benefit the recently founded Mainstreet organization whose purpose is to “promote, retain, and attract diverse small businesses to the immediate area.”

The fundraiser featured a tour of a model two-bedroom apartment in the project’s residential Plaza Building at C and 7th Street, and some of the commercial space on the 6th and 7th floors of the 160,000 square foot office building running the length of 7th Street and wrapping around the corner and fronting on Pennsylvania Avenue. There is a total of 61,000 square feet of retail, and Stanton Development partner Ken Golding told the Washington Business Journal’s Rebecca Cooper in June that he hoped to attract “a fitness user, a fast casual restaurant, a more formal sit-down restaurant, a nail or hair salon as well as a couple of other neighborhood-serving tenants.” Washington Business Journal also reported that the developers were in talks with cosmetics retailer Sephora for retail space. In addition, ANC6B negotiated the inclusion of a small day-care center on the first floor Southeast corner of the building as a community benefit during the PUD process, as well as a 150 square foot office on the second floor for itself at a lease rate of $1 a year – in perpetuity. The Trader Joe’s will be underneath the day care center. The Yard, out of New York city, providing coworking and private office space, will occupy a part of the office building’s second floor. An Eastbanc representative said the company was in negotiations with law firms for space on the third and other floors.

Eastbanc has already announced that Trickling Springs Creamery, a Turkish linen shop – Antiochia, a veterinary hospital, and JRINK – a cold press fruit and vegetable juice bar, as four of the tenants who will open in the retail space of the North Building. The creamery will sell ice cream, milk, yogurt, cheese and other dairy products, including milkshakes. The veterinary hospital will be below grade in a 5,000 square foot space.

Last night’s tour included a model 1350 square foot two bedroom-two bath apartment in the residential portion of the South Building overlooking the newly reopened C Street and Plaza between the North and South Buildings that will rent for more than $6000 a month. The Bozzuto Group – the residential manager – expects the first tenants to move in by the end of September. The rents will range from $3270 per month for an 800 square foot one bedroom to $8720 a month for an 1800 square foot three bedroom, though according to a Bozzuto representative, the prices have not been finalized. The residences along 8th Street will not be finished until late October. There will be 160 residential units in the project.

Eastern Market Main Street’s Board of Directors: Manuel Cortes, Chair; Mary Quillian Helms, Vice Chair; Terry McDonald, Treasurer; Lona Valmoro, Secretary; Mike Berman, Promotions Committee Chair; Loren Bushkar; Alex Golding, Economic Vitality Committee Chair; Shaun Marble, Barry Margeson; Sean Pichon, Design Committee Chair; Meg Shapiro. For more, see: www.easternmarketmainstreet.org