Monday, November 06, 2017

Dean & DeLuca Bethesda store opening delayed - for two years

The eagerly-awaited 4th Quarter 2017 opening of Dean & DeLuca on Bethesda Avenue won't happen after all, according to a spokesperson for the store's landlord, JBG Smith. A lack of construction activity inside the two-level retail building, part of JBG Smith's future 4747 Bethesda Avenue office/retail project, has raised eyebrows among commercial real estate observers in recent months. JBG Smith has now confirmed no construction is taking place inside the Dean & DeLuca space. 
Construction of the office tower at
4747 Bethesda Avenue is underway
So what is going on? A real estate source has told me the Dean & DeLuca deal is off at this property, and the store will not open. Ever. JBG Smith tells me this is not the case. Instead, they say, Dean & DeLuca wants to make changes to the design of the store, and the new opening date is expected to be in the 3rd Quarter of 2019, when the adjoining office tower opens. Dean & DeLuca declined to comment for this story.


43 comments:

Anonymous said...

D&D would be wise to open here. Although, where will people conveniently park? Yes, there are lots all around. But especially for gettin groceries, you want parking right there in the building at least.

Anonymous said...

Trader Joe's, Harris teeter, Giant, Safeway (twice)- I'd be surprised if D&D every opens there. At least at present, the location is a bit of a dead zone if the goal is to have a large number of customers walk there.

Bethesda is getting older and I'm not seeing a demographic that will see the value of a D&D over Harris Teeter.

Anonymous said...

Harris Teeter is the same as Giant or Safeway.

Anonymous said...

Any updates on the work going on at Pizza Di Marco this morning? I was unable to gather what exactly was going on.

Anna said...

The Teet is much preferred by millennials. I think I'm in 5:13AM's camp. Not seeing the demographic either.

Anonymous said...

Bethesda Row is going the way of White Flint and Montgomery Mall.

Anonymous said...

Have we reached the out of control development tipping point? Now Bethesda will be a sea of empty condos, empty storefronts, and half finished construction projects.

Robert Dyer said...

5:31: Work as in repairs/construction/utilities?

Anonymous said...

It looked like there was repairs being done, but not necessarily on the restaurant. They had a big tube that they were pumping something in or out of the restaurant.

Anonymous said...

That’s a shame. Hopefully this doesn’t delay improvements to the “park” area.

Anonymous said...

No, they're all full. Wrong.

Anonymous said...

6:22: It looked to me like the grease interceptor was being emptied.

Anonymous said...

no mention of water main breakage today on Woodmont Triangle?

Anonymous said...

7:27 AM translates as:
but...but...but

Anonymous said...

7:47 AM but...but...but

Anna said...

You know if you called them, they'd probably tell you what it is that's going on.

Just a thought.

Meanwhile, I'll vote for cleaning the grease trap.

Anonymous said...

Good scoop and article.

More of this please and less of the Riemer/"cartel" bashing.

Anonymous said...

Is Dean & DeLuca like Balducci's? They seem to be doing well.

Robert Dyer said...

8:12: That's a pretty common occurrence at restaurants. But not a particularly compelling news story compared to 3 big ones I've posted this morning.

Anonymous said...

"Bethesda is getting older and I'm not seeing a demographic that will see the value of a D&D over Harris Teeter."

If there is one urban area that has an even older high-income demographic than Bethesda it's Georgetown, and they have a D&D.

Anonymous said...

How is Harris Teeter better than the Safeway or Giant? It's great for folks in the Woodmont Triangle, on Battery Lane, etc. to have a grocery store, but is it actually better than Safeway?

Anonymous said...

The Safeway on Old Georgetown Road seems to have no more than two cashiers, even at peak periods, and has no self-checkout.

Anonymous said...

I’m guessing if you took away the surface lot parking for Balducci’s and replaced it with underground garage parking across the street, they wouldn’t do so well. Their demographic likes their surface parking lots.

Anonymous said...

Multiple Xbox One S reports though are definitely compelling news stories for your hyperlocal bethesda demographic!

Robert Dyer said...

9:06: That is basically every Safeway. At least they have self-checkout at Arlington Road (although it is worse than the Giant self-checkouts). The Washington Post has recently been utilized by Jeff Bezos to go after Safeway (an Amazon.com grocery competitor), and they tried to say Safeway was discriminating against black people in the District by having only one or two checkouts operating. LOL - That's every damn Safeway, even in 20814 and 20816! Sorry, Jeff.

Anonymous said...

9:09 AM Dyer likely has a younger audience that the local legacy media.

Anna said...

Let's be real, neither has the younger audience.

As far as Harris Teeter being favored? I have no idea why. But that's all I hear. "I'm stopping at the Teet, need anything?" "If you go to the Teet, they have that brand." Asking why they go there usually gets a shrug. Probably the age-old just trying to be different from their parents.

Anonymous said...

I cannot buy produce at Safeway or Giant. Particularly the much beloved Giant at Westbard. It's pitiful. The Teet has lovely produce. And don't even get me started on seafood at either Safeway of Giant. I"ll take the extra drive to underground parking lot at The Teet over the sloped, tiny parking spaces surface lot at Westbard any day.

Anonymous said...

@11:16 I find the produce at Giant (Arlington Road and Westbard) is fine. It's Safeway where I always strike out, especially the one on Sangaamore.

Anonymous said...

There may be a cross section in the demographic of HT shoppers and internet savvy users who would comment on a hyper local blog that may be excluding some Safeway or Giant shoppers.

Anonymous said...

As 9:06 mentioned as well, I find the Safeway rarely has any employees around, especially cashiers. Harris Teeter is really easy to get help from anyone and customer service. Tons of employees in the store.

Anonymous said...

"he Washington Post has recently been utilized by Jeff Bezos to go after Safeway (an Amazon.com grocery competitor), and they tried to say Safeway was discriminating against black people in the District by having only one or two checkouts operating."

Robert Dyer's capacity to turn the slightest issue into an insane conspiracy theory never ceases to amaze.

Baloney Concrete said...

“The Washington Post has recently been utilized by Jeff Bezos to go after Safeway”

More of the usual conspiracy theories from Mr. Dyer.

Council member Gray is the one who went after Safeway. You really think Jeff Bezos is worried about grocery store wait times in Ward 7? We should be so fortunate!

Anonymous said...

I concur.

Robert Dyer said...

5:07: You're denying that Amazon/Whole Foods is a direct competitor of Safeway? You're also denying that the Post, owned by the owner of Amazon/Whole Foods, made claims about one Safeway store without fact-checking to find the same issues are present in Safeways in white neighborhoods, too?

No one is taking you seriously right now, old sport.

Anonymous said...

Glad to see Bethesda Beat credited you with the Dean and Deluca post....The new timeline for the store’s opening was first reported by local blogger Robert Dyer.

Robert Dyer said...

7:27: They did, but did not hyperlink to the story, as required by Journalism 101. The citation should also have been closer to the top of the story, as it is entirely based on the 10 days of reporting I did to get this scoop. There was no press release. It's my story and my work, being appropriated in a matter of minutes, without full citation. That's veering into plagiarism.

Anonymous said...

"did not hyperlink to the story, as required by Journalism 101"

You have been guilty of this countless times. Then you ignore or delete comments asking for links to source material.

Anonymous said...

Dyer, if Bethesda Beat is profiting off of your work and constantly plagiarizing like you attest, why don't you just sue them?

Boyce Bowles said...

I just read the Bethesda Magazine version of Robert's scoop.

The way the first graphs are written, you'd think Bethesda Magazine received a press release or notice about the store delay and Dyer happened to have reported it first.

Let's be clear: Robert Dyer didn't just report it first, he worked the story with sources over a period of time as he says above. There was no sign or other notice.

And, no link to Robert's original report?

Sour grapes, totally childish and bad journalism. This is the web- it is standard practice to link back.

Anonymous said...

2:03 PM Agreed! I wonder why no link back to the source material?

Anonymous said...


"Boyce Bowles" comment might have at least a speck of authority if it wasn't written by a fictional character, who has no knowledge of journalism, or any inside knowledge of how the other site is run. He also seems to know a lot about how Dyer worked with his sources. Peculiar.

Anna said...

^^^that was me.