Big-Box Retail Eyed to Anchor Old Hecht Co. Site

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DURING RUSH-HOUR TRAFFIC REPORTS, the old Hecht Co. warehouse is still used as a reference point, usually followed by details of how slowly cars are passing by it on New York Avenue. But a Philadelphia developer is hoping that the Art Deco structure will soon be a destination as well as a landmark.

As The Post's Alejandro Lazo reports, the developer, Patriot Equities, hopes to attract a big-box retailer to a site next door to the historic distribution center at New York Avenue and Fenwick Street NE, which would be renovated "to accommodate additional shops or possibly light manufacturing or warehouse storage," The Post reports.

The New York Avenue corridor has been touted as the District's next big real estate opportunity, since it's already a main thoroughfare for commuters going in an out of the District. But the downturn in real estate prices is making any large new ventures more difficult. The other large project that's been planned for the corridor is Arbor Place, a mixed-use development at Bladensburg Road and New York Avenue, but its developer, Jim Abdo, tells The Post that finding investors "has been made more difficult by the current credit squeeze."

» "Developer Purchases Old Hecht's Warehouse" [WaPo]

Rendering courtesy Patriot Equities