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Rendering of plans for the new VIDA Fitness center at 16th and U streets NW. Courtesy of VIDA Fitness.

VIDA Gets in Shape
Fitness fanatics in the U Street area will soon have a new place to do their crunches and pump their biceps. VIDA Fitness got the go-ahead in December from the Board of Zoning Adjustment to build its “flagship” gym and spa in the space Results the Gym currently occupies.

VIDA owner David von Storch plans to renovate the building at 1612 U St. NW and build a glass addition to make room for the biggest VIDA gym yet – nearly twice the size of its Verizon Center location. The 51,500-square-foot, four-story gym will feature, according to von Storch’s plans, “a private rooftop club with a 60-foot pool, resort cabanas, communal fire pit, outdoor waterfall, sundeck and a member lounge with restaurant service.”

The new gym / spa / restaurant will integrate all four kingdoms of von Storch’s empire under one roof: VIDA, Bang Salon, Aura Spa and the Capitol City Brewing Company (though the restaurant he plans to open, replacing Café 1612, will likely be operated by CCBC but called something else.) The Bang Salon will be expanded, and an Aura Spa will be added. The new gym will be the fourth VIDA in the area, bringing von Storch that much closer to his goal of eight gyms.

Results will continue to operate uninterrupted throughout 2010. Owner Doug Jeffries is  reportedly looking for a new location in the neighborhood, ideally one available for purchase. Though VIDA publicity keeps trumpeting a March 2011 opening date, insiders expect the space to be vacant for as long as a year as the renovations are made and the glass extension built.

Von Storch has owned the building for decades and has had a conflictive relationship with Results owner Doug Jeffries since the late 1990s, according to the Washington City Paper. Both parties have honored the lease, however, and the change of tenancy will come only when the lease reaches its expiration date.

Visit VIDA fitness at www.vidafitness.com; Results at www.resultsthegym.com.

Building Problems
The 9:30 Club may not be getting 750 new neighbors to annoy. The planned U Street Atlantic Towers retail/residential development has hit some significant roadblocks.

The Washington Business Journal reports that New York-based developer Broadway Management Co. Inc., which has gotten into financial trouble with projects in Mount Vernon Triangle and in Northeast Washington, bought the two-acre site at Ninth and V streets in 2006 in conjunction with a Chicago-based company.

Broadway went into default but couldn’t even get foreclosure to go smoothly. Environmental contaminants in the soil and groundwater seem to be scaring away potential buyers.

New Spaces from Familiar Faces
Busboys and Poets and Marvin may have some new competition for the artsy hipster crowd on 14th and U. The people behind Local 16 are moving two blocks east to open a “music and arts” venue.

Chief Financial Officer Salvatore Rosa told reporters at the 14th and You Blog that they’re planning a performance space in the basement and a separate bar. Contentious discussions with Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Peter Raia, notoriously unfriendly to new liquor licenses in the area, led Rosa, Aman Ayoubi and other co-owners to exercise an abundance of caution, stressing that they don’t plan to become another Black Cat-style nightclub. (Indeed, they plan to avoid the “nightclub” category of liquor license.) Rosa says they plan to “open it up to the community” for local artists and charity events.

The Local 16 team has leases for the basement and the second and third floors, but not the first floor, which Rosa says will likely be a bank. They’re planning to turn the upper floors into a high-end steak-and-burger joint (a combination of Hell-Burgers and Ray’s Steakhouse, says Ayoubi). They hope to open by next July, serving dinner every day and brunch on the weekends. They’re still looking for an executive chef to serve up their fancy $20 burgers. Expect the yet-unnamed burger joint to open in January.

The Local 16ers held an invitation-only farm-to-table banquet in an area farm over the summer to celebrate the launch of two new restaurants – but neither one was the new burger place on 14th and U. One other new venture is on 14th Street between T and Swann, planned to open early next year, called Table 14 for the moment but expected to change. (The other new restaurant was planned for Petworth.) Table 14 is expected to open in time for next July Fourth in the building that used to house Ware’s Department Store.

The Local 16 crew’s plans for Table 14 include a farm-to-table restaurant serving American-Italian fusion cuisine on the main floor, seating 103; yakitori (Japanese-style grilled chicken) on the second floor; and yet another events space upstairs (for private events and birthdays, says Ayoubi, though he allows that “anything artistic” would be welcome in the “multipurpose” space). They’ll have a two-story atrium, an open kitchen, a green roof and garden, and a small roof deck.