Anyone Know Who Took Over the ZZ Pizza Space? Construction Started

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by Prince Of Petworth June 22, 2016 at 4:00 pm 6 Comments

zz pizza demo
North Capitol and P Street, NW

A reader reports:

“looks like the old ZZ’s Pizza at the above corner – which has been up for lease for about a month – is suddenly under construction. Might be interesting to folks. Wonder if anyone knows what’s up?”

TruxtonGuy

There were Douglas Development signs in the window last week before they started demo.
- Anon
  
  They own this building, hence the signs. That doesn’t give much of a clue as to who might be moving in. My guess is that Douglas may not want to sign a long-term lease just in case they decide to build something with much higher density in the near future.
  - Anon
    
    …which would largely preclude something of high quality moving in.
  - Truxtoner
    
    And considering how long they have sat on the empty lot at New York and North Cap, who knows when they’ll bother to build anything here.
    
    Do we know if they just own that corner building, or do they own the neighboring townhomes as well (most of which appear to be empty when I walk by)? Do they also own the empty lot across P Street that is still fenced in as well?
    
    The city really should think of some innovative ways to encourage development and more retail along that stretch of North Cap between NY and Florida. Uncle Chips and Wicked Bloom seem to be holding steady but there are so many empty storefronts along those blocks. With NOMA across the street and Bloomingdale and Shaw both nearby, I just can’t understand why nothing seems to be happening there.
    - Anon
      
      Catania Bakery owns a number of those empty storefronts along NCap, Douglas owns a bunch of others. I’d guess that Douglas desperately wants Catania’s buildings to raze and build-up, but they’re not currently budging.
      .
      Douglas also owns the large empty lots across the street. They are notorious for having very little cash on hand, so I’d guess that they simply can’t afford to develop there on their own, without someone else footing the construction bill. Those are very large lots that could house something very large, but again, they’d need a cash-holding suitor. Interestingly, Douglas tried to court the Lerners/DC to build the Nats stadium there 10 or so years ago, but that obviously never panned out.
      .
      Another interesting tidbit: the People’s Building just started demo/construction on a 300+ capacity parking garage. Given the large availability of parking on the Douglas lots, it would be silly to build a large garage when you can just rent parking for cheap from Douglas. Perhaps Douglas is indeed planning to do something with those lots in the near future, causing the People’s Building owner to plan ahead for a parking shortage by building the garage?
      - Truxtoner
        
        I hope you are right about Douglas putting the moves on that corner lot, but I guess that kills my dream of some developer coming in and taking The People’s Building and that lot and converting it into a big housing/retail development. It’s such a dead zone there at night. I hate walking that way from the NOMA Metro to get over to Truxton and the walk across North Cap at New York is no better. I hadn’t noticed the garage movement there – did that like just happen? Why do they need a garage? I feel like their lot isn’t really ever full?
        
        I wonder if most of the people parking on North Cap between P and New York (on the southbound side) work there and will now have ample parking on site. I really wish the city would do something to relieve the traffic congestion at New York and North Cap. It pushes so much street traffic into Truxton Circle with people trying to avoid the turn onto New York.

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