Development in Petworth

Development in Petworth community, a mix of brick row houses and single-family homes tucked between Arkansas Avenue and North Capital Street Northwest, is forging ahead. This community has come a long way from its origins as two privately owned country estates in the 1800s.

Petworth, which started to blossom as a community with a streetcar stop on a route from Silver Spring to downtown, is bulging with projects, most notably the long-awaited Safeway. This week, the Washington Business Journal, counted the cranes in Petworth as among the more than 60 cranes city-wide that are signaling a rebirth of local development.

Washington D.C. recently issued a tower crane permit to Duball Petworth LLC to construct the community’s beloved Safeway, which will anchor mixed-use development at 3830 Georgia Ave. NW, the paper reports.  The development encompasses 1.56 acres one block from the Georgia Avenue-Petworth Metro station. In addition to the new 62,400-square-foot Safeway, the development will include 220 apartment units. Construction started several months ago with delivery planned for 2014.

Aside from this massive project, other development in Petworth includes more bars along Georgia Avenue and at least one new restaurant on Upshur Street that are already receiving strong reviews from patrons.

Along Georgia Avenue, newer bars include D.C. Reynolds, which opened earlier this year with patio full of outdoor seating, and Chez Billy Bistro and Bar, a more upscale French eatery a few blocks north. With solid four star ratings on Yelp, both restaurants seem worth stopping in along with the other new eatery projects in Petworth.

The area’s first development came after Washington D.C. annexed the 204-acre Petworth site owned by Col. John Tayloe and the 183-acre Marshall Brown Estate. Two private development firms purchased the properties for development in the 1880s and soon thereafter Petworth's business district got rolling. The community's metro station opening in 1999 triggered a second surge in development that's still thriving today.

But regarding modern-day development in Petworth, plans for Safeway include a Starbucks and full deli onsite and the number of employees will triple to about 150. It’s on track to be the second-largest grocery store in the district and certainly the gem in development in Petworth.

Related Links:

Rock Creek Development: http://www.rcrdc.com/

Washington Business Journals: http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/breaking_ground/2013/02/tower-crane-in-petworth-raze-in-mount.html

Prince of Petworth: http://www.princeofpetworth.com/2008/09/new-restaurant-on-upshur-street-ainsworth-alexander/