“spring valley superfresh update?”

4330 48th Street, NW, Superfresh closed in 2011

“Dear PoPville,

Change of plans at Spring Valley Superfesh? A couple weeks ago fences went up limiting (but not restricting) access to the parking lot. Late last week the graffiti that had collected was painted over, and this weekend a “For Lease” sign went up on the building. There is also a “For Lease” sign on the space that used to house DeCarlo’s. Did the developers finally give up in light of neighborhood resistance and interest rates?”

Another reader writes:

“With the departure of the Wagshal’s side businesses from the basement of the former Spring Valley superfresh (they’ve moved to 1747 Pennsylvania Ave NW along with their new store location), the alley has temporary fencing/construction tape up. My understanding is that the original developer sold the property a little more than a year ago but I couldn’t find any press releases, permits, or other info about it. The new developer previously had a raze permit for part of the site last summer but never did anything with it.

The fencing and tape is new and suggests to me that something may finally be starting to happen there. I’m wondering what’s going on. Specifically, I don’t know if the new owner kept the original plans for the site or if they’re going to scale it back to something else given the massive community opposition. As a supporter of the original plan I’m hopeful that they’re still trying to put a retail anchor there and would be very disappointed if they got browbeaten into building some market rate townhouses and calling it a day.”