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With all the talk about bringing more retail to the District's neighborhoods, city officials have some success stories they can turn to for inspiration.
When Hechinger Mall opened in 1981, there was very little retail in the Northeast urban neighborhood. But John Hechinger Sr., who was devoted to bringing the center to fruition, pressed on.
"There was a lot of head banging going on," says Jim Garibaldi at JBG Rosenfeld, which now manages the center. "It took him something like 10 years to finally pull the whole thing together. That's a lot of time, which is totally ridiculous. It shouldn't take that long."
Perhaps it won't anymore.
It is, in fact, getting easier.
National Wholesale Liquidators recently opened at the center, filling space left vacant when Hechinger closed in late 1999. Hechinger Mall also has Modell's, Foot Locker and Ashley Stewart, a national chain that caters to women sized 14 to 26.
It is also anchored by a Safeway - at more than 58,000 square feet, the largest in the District - that is about to undergo a multimillion-dollar remodeling.
As the suburbs become saturated and adequate space becomes harder to find, retailers are realizing they need urban markets to fuel their growth.
"Clearly the inner-city markets are the ones that were overlooked," says Geoffrey Booth, director of retail development at the Urban Land Institute (www.uli.org). "It doesn't matter what income range you're in; you still have to eat and clothe yourself.