Slowly, but surely, retail has started opening along 4th Street at Waterfront Station. First came Safeway (with a Starbucks) in April, then CVS in July. Last week, Waterfront Cleaners opened its doors and tomorrow, Subway will be having its grand opening. Hours of operation for the sandwich shop will be Monday - Friday 6am to 9pm, Saturday 8am - 9pm, and Sunday 9am - 9pm. Next up will be Z-Burger and Station 4. I noticed that work started on both storefronts last week - both of these restaurants are supposed to open in 2011. There are rumors that TD Bank will be replacing Bank of America, but I haven't received confirmation yet from the developer. Excluding space for the bank, there are at least three retail spaces available.
Wallpaper gives the impression that the walls behind the counter are brick, but they're not.
The new 12,513 SF CVS at Waterfront Station opened for the first time today. This follows the opening of Safeway in April, so both anchors of Waterfront Station are now up and running. From now on, CVS will be open seven days a week from 7am to 10pm. I stopped by around 8am to see what the store looked like and snapped some photos. There weren't many people around while I was there, but then again, it was pretty early in the morning on a Sunday. They were giving out free samples of cookies and $2 off coupons (with a $10 purchase). Below are some exterior and interior photos of the new store.
(Left) There is a mural of the Capitol Building along the glass display area outside of the store.
(Right) Here is a look down one of the aisles. Throughout the store, there are kiosks where customers can scan their ExtraCare Card to see if there are any coupons available.
(Left) There is an expanded grocery section in this CVS. In addition to bread and frozen foods, customers can pick up a salad or a sandwich. Apparently, this store is one of the many stores that added this feature in 2010.
I noticed yesterday that demolition has begun on the old Safeway at Waterfront Station on the back side of the building. Chairs have been added to the tables installed in front of the new Safeway, which are always in use whenever I walk by the store. Two large urns with plants have been placed at both entrances to the access road that crosses 4th Street between the Safeway and the Metro entrance. In addition, workers have removed the window coverings inside the new CVS, so passersby can now see the build-out underway inside, which should be complete this summer. The Washington Business Journal reported last week that CVS expects to expand grocery aisles in about 43% of their stores in 2010, so our new 12,543 square foot store will most likely have more food options than the trailer/older store at the old Waterside Mall. Over the weekend, I also noticed some graffiti on the 1100 4th Street building. I haven’t walked along 4th Street since Saturday, so I don’t know if the graffiti has been removed yet. It’s been a busy couple of weeks for me, but I’ll have some updated photos of Waterfront Station and other neighborhood projects soon.
(Left) Chairs have been added to the tables set outside of Safeway.
(Right) Urns have beeen placed on the entryways to the access roads that have been built between the buildings at Waterfront Staion. This is a view looking east towardsd the Metro plaza.
As you walk in the store from the main entrance near the Metro plaza, this area has been dubbed the “food court”, where you can pick up ready-made meals and desserts, like sandwiches, soups, salads, sushi from the sushi bar, rotisserie items, cakes, and pizza (this will be the first Safeway on the East Coast where pizza will be made on the premises btw). The layout of the store is shaped like the letter “J” flipped 90 degrees counterclockwise, so the food court is the curvy part of the “J”. 
Janice said that the design of the entrance was made to feel more like an elegant restaurant than a grocery store, designed using earth tones, a stone-walled lounge area with a fireplace (another first for an East Coast Safeway), seating, and different styled flooring. Also in the food court is “Cheese World”, which will be attended and will include cheeses from (you guessed it) around the world. There will be three mini cash registers to serve the food court area, so shoppers won’t need to go into the heart of the store if they are just looking for a quick meal to take home. 
There are several seating areas in this part of the store, as well as a fenced off outdoor seating area to open next year (once the old Safeway is knocked down, which Craig says will be gone by the time the new store opens – I’ll believe it when I see it). A second entrance is located north of the main entrance, close to Starbucks, which also has seating off to the side of the counter for its patrons.
Past the food court is a hearth oven, where European breads will be baked (the old store doesn’t have a bakery). Craig guaranteed that warm bread will be available every day, even after 5pm. For those of you who are picky about how wide you want your loaves cut, a fancy bread slicer (Bizerba) uses lasers to cut the bread up to four different sizes at once right after leaving the oven without crushing the bread.
Cash registers and the customer service desk are located where the “J” bends towards the stem (still follow me?). There are seven full-serve registers and six self-check-out lanes. This area is also where the entrance to the parking garage is located, with two elevators and a staircase leading to 165 parking spaces for Safeway patrons. With an $8 minimum purchase, parking is free for up to 90 minutes.
Next to the check-out lines is the produce department – its placement next to the cash registers is also a first for an East Coast Safeway store. The new store also has a pharmacy, which the other store didn’t have and is located near the produce section. We will now have two pharmacies on the same block, with CVS moving two doors down from Safeway in a couple of months.
Now, the stem part of the “J” shaped store is where you’ll find your typical grocery aisles. There are two aisles in the corner dedicated to wine and beer – also not found in the old store. The larger store format will allow Safeway to provide an expanded amount of products on their shelves, including more international cuisine. 
At the back of the store is the meat and seafood section, with a service counter. One interesting feature about the service counter is the butcher will marinate your meat or seafood for free using either a dry rub or liquid marinade. The shish kabobs are supposedly very good too.
This afternoon, I took a stroll down the soon-to-be opened 4th Street and despite the cloudy skies, I took some photos. The roadway has not received the final layer of asphalt yet, so when DCRA opens their office space at Waterfront Station tomorrow, the road will only be open to tenants and guests. Once the sun decides to come back out next week, I'll take some more of the area, but in the meantime, these cloudy images will have to do. Above is a photo of the 4th Street corridor looking south towards M Street and the Waterfront-SEU Metro station.
Workers were busy working inside the new Safeway at the base floor of 1100 4th Street and a quick peek inside shows the neon glow of the Starbucks sign at one of the store entrances.
This is the entrance to Safeway that's closest to the Waterfront-SEU Metro entrance. The shared wall between the new and old Safeway stores is visible.
At tonight's ANC 6D's monthly business meeting, several details were revealed about what's going on at Waterfront Station. For one, 4th Street may open for pedestrians by next week, as well as vehicle access for employees of the office buildings at the development, who will start moving in their space on Friday. There are some final details that need to be taken care of before the road can open to the general public, which will most likely happen by the end of March. At that time, there will be about 900 employees working in their buildings and by the end of April or early May, there will be about 1,500 employees. Work is well underway on the Metro plaza, which will be over 30,000 square feet and will have benches, trees, fountains, and lighting. Above is a photo of the Metro plaza under construction.
The old Safeway will close on April 6th and the new 55,000 square foot store will open on April 16th. From March 23rd until April 6th, all items in the old store will be 30% off. On April 15th - a day before the grand opening, there will be a preview party at the new Safeway from 4-8pm. Parking will be validated at the new Safeway for 90 minutes in the parking garage beneath the store with a minimum purchase of $8 (note the Mount Vernon Triangle store has a minimum purchase of only $5). A new store manager has been brought in and 22 out of 45 employees that have been hired so far live in the 20024 ZIP code. Once the old Safeway is closed, the year-long demolition process will begin. Above is a photo of the facade of the new Safeway along 4th Street, along with a construction worker's jacket.
Other tenants at phase one of Waterfront Station include CVS, which will open a 12,500 square foot store on the northern corner of the East Tower in late May or early June. A sandwich shop signed a lease today (my guess is it's a Subway), a burger place is close to signing a lease, as well as a 4,000 square foot sit-down restaurant and a dry cleaners. These retailers will be located in the West Tower (the restaurant will locate in a prime spot on the south side of the building with plenty of outdoor space) and should open by late summer or early fall. Bank of America will not be moving to Waterfront Station and will vacate their trailer when their lease expires in December 2012, if not sooner, if they find another location in the area before that time. Waterfront Associates is looking for another bank to take Bank of America's place in the development. The parcels that will be a part of phase two of development will be graded and grassed over until financing is available to build. Above is a photo of the northwest portion of the site where a residential building is planned in a future phase of development. 
Curbs, sidewalks, asphalt, trees, display panels...all of these are signs of what's to come along 4th Street at Waterfront Station. The office buildings are about 90% complete, according to Gordon Fraley of Vornado/Charles E. Smith, who gave the community an update on their project at Monday's SWNA meeting. The tenants (DC Government agencies) will start moving into their new space in March and April of 2010. Since most of the building construction is complete, some of the final touches are being put in place. This afternoon, I took some photos of the progress being made at the project. Above is a photo of the view along 4th Street looking north from M Street. Asphalt is now down on the street and curbs & gutters are visible. On the West Tower (left building), trees have been planted on the south-facing side of the building. Within the next month, the pathway to the Waterfront-SEU Metro entrance will be temporarily shifted from its current location next to Safeway over to 4th Street, so work can begin on the Metro plaza, which was designed by Oculus. 4th Street is now scheduled to reopen in the last two weeks of March. Below are a couple close-up photos of the project.
CVS is now open at The Portals, the large mixed-use development project along Maryland Avenue. The store actually opened a week ago, but I noticed the Grand Opening signs yesterday when I drove by the site. Back in the Spring, we reported that CVS was slated to open at the Portals, after Madison Retail Group signed the tenant to a 10,000 square foot space. I'm sure the workers in the office buildings and the neighboring Mandarin Oriental Hotel are happy to see the opening of CVS, the largest retailer to open to date at The Portals. CVS is located in the 3rd phase building, as seen in the above photo. Other retailers at The Portals include Starbucks, Potbelly's, and a pay-by-the-pound food provider, as well as the restaurants at the Mandarin. Here are the hours of operation for CVS:Monday - Friday: 7am - 9pmSaturday - Sunday: 9am - 9pm
Retail broker Madison Retail Group recently signed a deal with CVS to occupy 10,000 square feet of space at phase three of The Portals complex, which was developed by Republic Properties. CVS will join current retailers Starbucks, Potbelly's, and a pay-by-the-pound food provider once the pharmacy opens this summer. Jennifer Price from Madison tells Southwest...TLQTC that there remains over 20,000 SF of retail space available in the first three phases of The Portals. Included in that total is 10,000 SF of space that was once slated for the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. That theater subsequently decided to locate to Penn Quarter. Price is targeting a sit-down restaurant, a smaller-scale food provider, and eventually a performing arts venue like an Improv for the vacant retail space. Once phase IV and V are built, those office buildings will have an additional 14,000 square feet of ground floor retail. There is a dearth of sit-down restaurants in Southwest, so hopefully Madison can bring one soon to The Portals. Above is a photo of The Portals complex taken from across the Tidal Basin in October 2008 - on the left is the phase III building and the Mandarin Oriental hotel is on the right. Maryland Avenue bisects the site. 
Thanks to reader Andrew for pointing out to me that the new Waterfront Station website has been updated with new information. The old website, however, is still active as of this posting. The new Waterfront Station website shows a map with the location of the new buildings in this multi-phased project (see above). Buildings in blue are office space, yellow buildings are residential, and ground floor retail space is shown in red. Phase one, which is currently under construction, comprises the two office buildings in the middle of the map, as well as ground-level retail in those buildings. The new urban concept Safeway and CVS will be in the East tower, which should be ready for occupancy by the second quarter of 2010. The Safeway will be closer to the Waterfront-SEU Metro station entrance, while CVS will be a little further north along the reopened 4th Street.
