Posts Tagged ‘rhode island row

08
Aug
12

In Case You Missed It: New Apartment Plan for RIA

Photo from City Paper

In case you missed it, the City Paper reported that Douglas Development has released its plan to construct a 240 unit apartment building behind the Great Mount Calvary School, immediately across the street from Rhode Island Row and the RIA Metro Station. In order to construct the complex, Douglas will need to change part of the property from Industrial to Commercial and has started this process by asking ANC 5B for their approval. Although the ANC’s decision will not be a binding decision, their opinion is considered with great weight by the Zoning Commission.

The City Paper speculated that Douglas Development was spurred into action on these properties that it has owned for nearly 10 years by the pending tax rate increase that has been overlooked by DCRA for some time. Thus far, Douglas does not have a partner on the project.

Good news for a neglected area of RIA especially since it is in prime location by the Metro and the new mixed use development near there.

****UPDATE: According to Insider reader, Woodie, the ANC has already received the presentation for a zoning change: “ANC 5B-04 in May approved the zoning change for this Douglas Development. There was a rep from Douglas Development that gave a presentation requesting the change. The meeting was held at La Luz Del Mundo at 12th & RIA”.

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22
Jun
12

Rhode Island Row Grand Opening

The new mixed use development called Rhode Island Row had its grand opening yesterday (Thursday, June 21) and the neighborhood turned out to enjoy some great food from Carolina Kitchen, great locally brewed beer from DC Brau, and even greater company (the Friends of RIA were well represented in their t-shirts).  The new development, already with an open CVS, will also include a Carolina Kitchen, a Chipotle, and many other retailers. Residents are already living in the residential units above the retail spaces and many could be seen enjoying the live music of the grand opening party from their balconies all around the pool area.

Below are some pictures from the event that we found on Twitter…if you attended and have more, send them to the Insider so we can include them!

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18
Jun
12

Rhode Island Row Grand Opening

The day has finally arrived. Grand opening for Rhode Island Row. Make sure to RSVP here.

06
Jun
12

Chipotle, Confirmed. **Updated

As we have suspected, a Chipotle restaurant will be opening up in Rhode Island Row. As you may remember, many, many people requested this restaurant by name on this blog. According to this Twitter post by Lydia DePillis, it is confirmed:

**Updated: We received the following from Rhode Island Row after our post:

You may have heard some buzz about Chipotle coming to Rhode Island Row via Twitter today… and though we can’t make any official announcements about retail deals until the ink is dry, we want you to know that we appreciate all your interest!

 We are excited that CVS opened on May 27th and that we’ve recently signed deals with convenience retailers including DMV, Sprint and T-Mobile that will bring good traffic our way, which in turn, will attract other great retailers to our neighborhood.

 We hope to announce more deals soon!  Once confirmations are made, we promise you’ll be the first to know!

23
May
12

Carolina Kitchen’s Entry into DC

Carolina Kitchen is coming to Rhode Island Row.

We recently received a postcard in the mail to announce that the restaurant, already with locations in Hyattsville and Largo, is coming to the new development at the Rhode Island Metro station. The restaurants own website does not list the location (although it lists several new locations in the works – including Chinatown). As someone who has been to the restaurant’s location in Hyattsville, next to the AMC Movie Theater, a couple of times, it is a big win for us to have one closer.

The menu for this restaurant includes:

Cajun Grilled Pork Chop
Two flame grilled, tender pork chops with zesty Cajun seasoning served with rice pilaf, macaroni & cheese and classic vegetable blend

Chesapeake Platter
Succulent fried lobster tail, jumbo meat crab cake, fried shrimp, spicy wings and your choice of two side items

Smothered Fried Chicken
Two pieces of fried chicken covered in grandma’s gravy over fresh garlic mashed potatoes and two side fixins

Country Fried Croaker
Country fried bone fish served with collard greens and potato salad

Among other things…see the full menu here.

05
Apr
12

Why We Do What We Do

by Greg Roberts

I started this blog over four years ago as a means to show the rest of the world why I chose to move to a neighborhood off of Rhode Island Avenue. I saw the potential of a DC street that sees over 30,000 car trips daily in and out of the District, wide sidewalks along Main Street type of corridors, and wonderful people. Over the last year, the Insider grew to include more contributors who wanted to share their experiences and insight in this area. In addition, the readers of this blog used it as a means to connect and form a community group called Friends of RIA (FoRIA) to take our neighborhood to another level. None of us get paid for what we do…heck, we barely have time given our full time lives. So why do we do it?

The answer to that is in the email below that I received to a new RIA resident and neighbor:

Greg,

Hi- I have to thank you so much for your awesome blog.  My friends (future roommates) and I have been in DC for a few years.  I lived on H Street for two years and currently live on the Hill, the other two attended Catholic in undergrad and now live in NoVA (No!  terrible! haha) but none of us ever considered Rhode Island Ave.  We stumbled across the Rhode Island Row apartments, really loved the proximity to the metro and also the individual units, but we were concerned about the neighborhood.  Honestly, after reading your blog we were completely sold on the area.  It’s obvious that so many people care and are trying to make it better all the time.  I really just wanted to compliment you on the high quality of the blog, it’s clearly a labor of love on the part of all your talented contributors and that’s unique.  There are other good neighborhood blogs (PoP obviously) but more often than not they’re all posts clamoring for a LuLuLemon or something equally obnoxious. I like that you’re as focused on what the neighbors can do to improve their neighborhood as you are “when are we getting a Starbucks?”  Anyway, keep up the good work- we’re really enjoying all the info!

We’ll be moving in during May.

Thanks to all of our readers, those who comment, and those that volunteer your time… the message is for all of you. We all make a difference.

 




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