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Payless Shoes Closing in Adams Morgan
Payless Shoes is located at 1777 Columbia Rd, NW. Not sure if you can tell from the photos but this is a beautiful building. Lots of potential here given the prime location. It’ll be very interesting to see who takes over this space. I wonder if it’ll go the Game Stop route or the Mintwood Place route?
Category: Adams Morgan, Coming and Going, Retail
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2:31am
Wow. That's horrible. I cannot believe the audacity of some people. Did she not thin you... 
Anonymous
1:51am
thanks for writing citykids! great addition!
1:36am
I live a block away from that corner too... and it's the one area I try to avoid passing...
10:55pm
Rant: a friend of mine cancelled on our plans to go to a play this afternoon because she...
Anonymous
10:55pm
you do live in a transitional neighborhood. news like this is rough, but it shouldn't be...
Well, I can’t imagine any other place in the world that there’s two Payless stores under a mile apart of eachother. This seems inevitable.
I have of late noticed a woeful lack of Comfort One stores in the so-called “Cool Heights.” How any neighborhood can call itself “cool” whilst lacking a Comfort One is for a far more brilliant mind than mine to fathom.
It seems that Comfort One has scaled back on its retail colonization and plans for world orthopedic domination. When their empire was expanding in the Dupont region (threatening Starbucks’ long-held but totally product unrelated claim), I was convinced we’d all be relegated to velcro-strapped posture-perfect footwear and dansko clogs.
YAY!
Can’t say I’ve ever shopped in this store, so I won’t miss it. However, I’m disappointed over Adams Morgan’s inability to keep a functioning retail store open. Not everyone comes here to get sloshed on the weekends, you know!
I know! I go down there to get sloshed on weeknights!
Ha ha.
Bring back Popeye’s!
Many years ago that building and the buildings up to and including where Radio Shack is now was a restaurant/catering business called Avingnone Freres which was very popular particularly for weekend breakfast/brunch as well as home made french ice cream with 21 percent butter fat…..later a restaurant/club called Dakota….
Oh, I remember Avignon Freres. We loved that place even though they seemed to put salsa on EVERYTHING.
I remember Dakota as being a fun gay place on Sunday nights back in the day.
Avignon Freres was one of my favorite places for breakfast when I lived in the neighborhood.
I’m not sorry to see the Payless close (although it’s been there for years).
Thanks for reminding me of Avignon Freres, I used to eat there all the time, but somehow they had slipped out of memory. There are some nice reminiscences online, but no photos of the place as it looked then.
Bring back Avingnone Freres!
I remeber both of those. I miss Avignon Frers.
I think retail will have it’s day in Adams Morgan. Especially if the lux hotel gets built. The Payless would actually be a good spot for an Urban Outfitters if they loft a second floor. But I think it’s more likely to become a restaurant if the moratorium doesn’t include Columbia rd. It would be great if they could add a few floors of office space above this and the neighboring store fronts.
This and the Pizza Hut closing gives this area a chance to go in a different direction. Hopefully an enterprising entrepreneur will take advantage of the situation. +1 on the Urban Outfitters idea. They would be perfect for this spot.
So will it become a bank or a wireless store? The area is void of good options, despite that misleading picture.
How about another bar!?!?!?!
But we don’t want it to turn into the next Adams-Morgan!
+ 1/2 of a hundred!
winner
With all the yoga studios within walking distance, Lululemon would seem to be a fit, or at least some type of athletic clothing – AdMo seems to be the center of drinking and running/exercising!
In adams morgan, drinking is an exercise.
Before it became Dakotait was called Opera, a great little club!
a Taco Bell/KFC hybrid would be lovely here. I hate having to trudge down Georgia avenue for my Chalupa fix.
eataly!
Finally! That eye-sore of American Corporate greed has been polluting the aesthetics of Adams Morgan for far too long.
Whilst I agree that a Lululemon would be perfect (Logan Circle is too far!), I’d like to see a new tea store, specialty pet shop (I do love to pamper my retriever Tom), or, speaking of Tom, a stand alone Tom’s Store!
Looking forward to the progress of Adams Morgan!
I’m no fan of Payless… but how is Lululemon, with its outrageously priced yoga apparel, any less a symbol of “American corporate greed”??
One is just more upscale (WAY more upscale) than the other.
+100
Correction: It’s CANADIAN corporate greed.
They are assholes. A friend of mine worked there, and they are a terrible to their employees. (However, I do like their pants).
I think if I saw that they’d put a Lulumon in this spot, my eyes would melt out of my head. You talk about American corporate greed, those Ayn Rand-fetishizing self-absorbtion professionals are the real blight, not inexpensive shoes.
+ohm
I’m hoping for an eco-friendly art collective/cupcakery, myself.
I’d love to see an independent pet store too. I hate shopping at Petco. I’d love to see Urban Sustainable expand as well.
Chick-fil-A!
Like Ben, I’m hoping that the Payless and Pizza Hut closing will give the 1700 block of Columbia a chance to go in a different direction.
I’m not holding my breath, though. Too many times a storefront on that block has gone vacant and I’ve thought that some interesting retail or restaurant might be coming… only for it to become yet another cell phone reseller.
I’m curious as to when that planned boutique hotel is (if ever) going to break ground. Once the construction on that starts, I guarantee there will be a shift in the types of businesses the setup in the store fronts (and with that the increase in retail rents). I believe the council approved the tax break for the development, just haven’t heard word on it in awhile.
Columbia Road seems to me to have an identity crisis.
It’s clearly a center of thriving Latino-oriented businesses, which is a good thing. It also runs into the intersection with 18th street and its plethora of bars and restaurants (which are also good in terms of vibrant city life) so extending those establishments seems like a natural fit. However, some would like to see the area’s shops go more upscale (which would also be nice). In other words, 3 somewhat competing visions at a literal crossroads.
Something along the lines of what Col Heights is producing (Acre 121, Petes, The Heights, Lou’s etc.) in terms of ‘level’ would be pretty ideal.
The current options either seem to be low-key or not that great (Mixtec, Pasta Mia, Old City Cafe) or bad retreads of places actually on 18th (the new BBQ place where Adams Mill was, Shwarma King, Burger King).
My thought is a legit (semi-upscale) Mexican, Tex-Mex, New Mexican place.
Sure there’s Mixtec but it’s not very good. I love Casa Oaxaca, but its expensive. Lauriol is mediocre and more of a scene. The plethora of Mex-Salvadorian places are bad (Super Taco the exception) and aren’t that dine-in friendly.
My thought is a legit (semi-upscale) Mexican, Tex-Mex, New Mexican place. It would capitalize/play off of the thriving Latino-oriented business as you mentioned. A less cheesy, less chainy Uncle Julios. And I’d prefer it be New Mexican with Hatch Green Chile, sopapillas and breakfast burritos.
Largely agree, but as someone who lives a block away, I would be very sad to see Old City Cafe go.
10 dollars on a pharmacy. If there is already a CVS on the block then a rite aid and vice a versa. Or a Walgreens. Not hoping for this, mind you.
Brand new CVS half a block away. How bout at hardware store?
I would love an REI
Too small,and it would have direct competition for bike stuff from City Bikes across the street.
Would love to see an REI in DC though.
S Streeter,
Did you know there is Planet Pet just down the street? …on the corner of the corner of Florida and Champlain. Then Fur Get Me Not is literally across Florida. Check them out!
http://www.princeofpetworth.com/2010/10/dogs-by-day-and-green-pets-becomes-planet-pet-opens-at-1711-florida-ave-nw/
What goes in there will be largely dependent on the lease terms. Short-term leases aren’t good for inventory-intensive stores because you need time to stabilize your cash flow.
I’d love to see stable retail colonize Columbia up toward 16th and help anchor Mt. Pleasant Street – a 14th St to 18th St’s U. I realize that it isn’t going to happen, though.
Vietnamese. There are no good Vietnamese places in Ad Mo, and Saigonaise now closed was not very good.
There is Instant Noodles — not sure it constitutes good Vietnamese though (the Virginia suburbs seem to hold that claim).
Ooooh, how about a drop off indoor play place for kids so their parents can go out for brunch in peace?
Awwe, that’s where I bought my first pair of stilleto boots in 2005. Moved here “fresh from the farm” and needed a bit of fashioning up!