For the last decade, residents of D.C.’s largest and most populous ward have had to travel far to buy groceries, usually going outside city lines. The last supermarket in Ward 8 closed in 1998, leaving residents with only convenience stores for neighborhood shopping. A report released last year revealed that Ward 8 offered the city’s least nutritious food options.

That all changed in December, when a massive new Giant supermarket opened in Congress Heights – the first new supermarket to open in Ward 8 in 40 years, and the biggest Giant supermarket in the city. Neighbors were thrilled to welcome it.

But while no one denies the benefits of having a full-service supermarket in the area, some wish the new Giant, and surrounding retail complex, had been developed differently.

Strip Mall Dinosaur
“Ward 8 in general, and Anacostia and Congress Heights specifically, have been desperate for development,” says area resident and urban planning expert David Garber. “Over the past years, the projects proposed and completed have reflected that: let’s develop anything, rather than nothing.”

The Giant is set 450 feet back from the street (the length of an entire city block), with 420 parking spaces in front of it, creating a long walk for pedestrians coming from Alabama Avenue. Store employees say that the lot “never” fills up, even at peak shopping times, as many shoppers come by foot or by bus. The store has an enormous footprint, at 63,000 square feet, all on one level. A separate retail building next door, sharing the same lot, is still filling its last few vacancies. It has a Wachovia Bank, and will soon have an IHOP – the area’s first sit-down restaurant. An ice cream store, a women’s apparel shop, a dry cleaner, and a flooring company will also set up shop in the new complex.

“The strip mall is a dinosaur in 2008,” says Paul Savage, former Deputy Director of the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). “It’s like the Statue of Liberty, standing there all by itself.”

Savage, Garber, and other urban planning gurus promote a "Main Street" model of urban development, rather than strip malls. “D.C., for some reason, is not willing to extend urbanity when it’s faced with this kind of development opportunity,” says Richard Layman, a local development consultant and neighborhood advocate. “We should extend urban design.”

Developers of the site say that they designed it to fit in with the existing infrastructure in an area of D.C. that does have a more “suburban” feel to it, partly because the existing commercial and residential areas are less dense, more spread out.

Matt Ritz, project manager at William C. Smith & Co., the real estate firm that spearheaded the Giant project, adds, “If you put too much density, you could compromise the existing infrastructure. Mississippi Avenue is two-lane road; Alabama is a four-lane road. Too much density could create traffic problems.”

David Garber says, “When you’re approaching a site like the new Giant, it’s a place you’ll feel less safe and more uncomfortable walking than driving... it gives the impression that if I’m someone trying to lead a walking lifestyle, this was not built for me.”

Developers counter that they did all they could to create a “pedestrian friendly” environment, putting in pedestrian walkways from several different access roads so people don’t have to wade through a sea of parking to get to the stores.

Ritz also defends the decision to put parking in the front of the store, instead of behind it or underground. Underground parking is prohibitively expensive, he says, adding that retailers like to have trash and deliveries handled behind the store, and completely separate from the customers, who enter from the front. The front of the store is also the façade that is designed to greet customers on their way in, not the back. Finally, he says, for safety reasons, front parking is preferable, as employees can more easily keep an eye on it. Ritz says that plentiful parking in front of the store was one of the key factors attracting the Giant to that space.

Attracting the Giant
Attracting the Giant was no easy task. Development in Ward 8 has been significantly slower and more difficult than in areas west of the river. When developers first started trying to sell Giant on the space, the old Stanton Dwellings public housing complex across the street was still vacant and abandoned – not an appealing environment for a retailer. “Now you have brand new rooftops across the street,” says Ritz. “That's what brought Giant across the finish line.”

Ultimately, developers were able to lure Giant by demonstrating the investment, both public and private, that has been made in Congress Heights in the last few years. Since 2001, $450 million has been invested in the neighborhood, including the new metro station, renovations, new projects and infrastructure, according to William C. Smith & Co.

Shawna Jones, on the retail leasing staff of Lewis Real Estate Services, the firm handling retail leasing, says that the population density of the area was also attractive to retailers, including the level of disposable income. She cites the average household income, which is $33,000 within a half mile of the new shopping center, $40,000 within one mile, and $48,000 within two miles.

Compared to the Area Median Income of almost $79,000, these figures don’t seem high. That’s not a surprise to anyone familiar with Ward 8, long the city’s poorest area. Layman says these numbers help explain the special need for mixed use development in Congress Heights. “Mixed use” refers to development that includes residential and retail spaces, sometimes also including office space, accommodations, or other uses.

“The competitive advantage of the city is density,” Layman says. “They need more people in Congress Heights with more income, and to do that they need to add housing in appropriate ways: mixed use in association with retail. It’s a shame that opportunity has not been taken.”

In other words, you have to have a community that will sustain retail, and you have to have retail that will sustain the community. The new development offers an exciting opportunity to raise the level of services the neighborhood offers to potential residents, thus attracting more residents with more income. But those people will need somewhere to live.

Carol Chatham of William C. Smith & Co. says that the development in Congress Heights does include residential. “The second part of development is just starting,” she says, noting that 75 single-family homes are being built on the lower part of the lot that includes the Giant, a housing development called Asheford Court. “We’re closing on the first one March 12,” Chatham says.

Bringing in more people with more income, as Layman advocates, could have the negative effect of raising housing prices and displacing low-income residents. Twenty percent of the Asheford Court homes are reserved for “moderate income” residents, with the rest selling at market rates. The more people that come into the neighborhood, attracted by new growth and new opportunities, the more the poorest people will feel the squeeze.

The Evolution of Camp Simms
The Giant and adjoining shopping center sit on the site of Camp Simms, a former military base. The city acquired the 25-acre lot from the federal government 25 years ago, while Marion Barry was mayor. The Barry administration never managed to get any development going on the site, but in 2001 the Williams administration invited developers to present proposals for developing the vacant lot. William C. Smith & Co. and the East of the River Community Development Corporation responded with a joint venture and were sold the property for half a million dollars – about a quarter of what the city paid to the federal government in 1983.

Many observers compare the new Camp Simms development to the DC USA retail and entertainment complex in Columbia Heights, at 540,000 square feet the largest retail development in the District. The complex is anchored by Target. The city subsidized a $47 million underground parking lot with 1,000 spaces, across the street from a metro station. The DC USA development, with big box stores like Target and Bed, Bath, and Beyond, is seen as a more modern style of construction, with high density retail, underground parking, immediate metro access, and hundreds of new high-end residential units being built alongside it.

Paul Savage notes that with the price of gas so high, high-density development becomes a greater necessity, so that shoppers have fewer miles to travel from their home to the store and can fill more of their needs in one place – if not in one store, then in a variety of stores they can easily walk to from the same parking spot.

Garber, who says he moved to Ward 8 because he was attracted by its “great bones,” compares the Camp Simms development with DC USA by saying, “[The Camp Simms development] is suburban, not urban. The key difference is that it’s built for people in cars, not people [walking].”

He adds that an urban format store comes right up to the sidewalk with multiple stories and mixed uses. The suburban style of the Camp Simms complex “doesn’t not fit in to the neighborhood,” he says, but it also “doesn’t provide a new standard of excellence.”

The Best Thing That’s Ever Happened
Despite all of these concerns, shoppers and neighbors of the new Giant are thrilled by its arrival. Dashea, 21, used to go to Oxon Hill to shop for groceries for her family of four. She says people are excited: the food is fresh, the employees are helpful, and the store is clean. Robert, 39, lives in an apartment across the street says the retail development is “the best thing that’s ever happened” to the neighborhood. He says, “This is what the people of Southeast were looking for.” Many shoppers expressed some concern over the prices, which are significantly higher than the prices they’re used to. Still, Allison, 40, says, “Maybe it’s because they just opened.” Robert agrees: “I guess they got to make their money back!”

Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry worked with D.C. Department of Employment Services and the Giant to assure that the 200 new jobs went to Ward 8 residents, and 98% of them did. The city helped job-seekers fill out the online job application, pre-screened applicants, and facilitated job readiness workshops.

Despite all the undeniably positive aspects of the new Giant’s arrival, David Garber might have the final word on what will become of the massive new development. “They didn’t build it as a place that’s going to be loved,” he says. “Just a place to park and go shop.”