Meanwhile, the curtain appears to be falling on the Bethesda Lane drama known as Redwood. To be frank, I was told by a source last September that Redwood would be closing in October. A second source said January 1 would be the end. Clearly, they lasted until January 1. Then they closed, citing a burst pipe. But burst pipes don't take two months to reopen from.
Wet-dry vacs gave way to floors being torn up. Finally, the walls and roof were being torn apart, and over the weekend, the windows were blacked out, and apology-reopening-soon signs ripped down. It doesn't look like Redwood is coming back, from all indications at this point, but there is still no official announcement from the restaurant. It's unclear why a closed business would need to continue the charade beyond the closure date, but perhaps one of our readers in the business can shed light on the strategy.
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| Calypso St. Barth |
16 comments:
The lease probably says they have to pay a penalty for leaving early, so it's cheaper to just pay the rent until the lease runs out & pretend they're fixing stuff. Same thing happened with Community and whatever-that-fill-in-place was called.
"The retailer has posted a modest "Coming Soon" flyer in the window of the vacant bookstore, where Bethesdians were unable to charge their gadgets during the latest Pepco weather debacle."
why would we be able to charge our gadgets during the power outage?
Also pepco sucks but how are they going to prevent powerful winds from uprooting trees and knocking over power lines? We can criticize the speed of the response not the actual power outage IMO
"it's cheaper to just pay the rent until the lease runs out"
It sounds like they haven't been paying the rent for some time.
Did anyone notice that all four escalators have been removed from the former Barnes & Noble and the walls where they attached to the atrium have been covered over with drywall. Seems odd that a three level Anthropologie & Company would not want to keep the escalators to connect all levels of their bo-ho department store. Maybe the escalators would need to be refurbished, but it seems odd to delete them entirely, with no sign of replacement. I would think this would be a high value item that they could reuse from B&N, especially for a department store to access all levels. As I recall, only a small elevator was located in the NW corner.
Redwood = Deadwood
Emblematic of the economic state of MoCo.
"The retailer has posted a modest 'Coming Soon' flyer in the window of the vacant bookstore"
I believe you mean "sign", not "flyer". A flyer is "a small printed advertisement or other notice distributed by hand." You can't distribute a notice that is taped on the inside of the window of a closed building.
"the walls and roof were being torn apart"
I believe you mean "ceiling", not "roof".
Regarding B&N escalators they were only one person wide. I've never been to Anthropologie, but maybe they wanted wider escalators or even a shopping cart escalator also?
For Redwood, maybe they really did plan to proceed and just gave up when their lease renewal came up for negotiation -- just like Lebanese Taverna.
Shame if the Redwood space was dead all spring and summer, with the wonderful outdoor seating that was popular.
Since Redwood was going to close, they are likely using the pipe burst for an insurance claim to go out of business and take less of a loss.
That's what I'd do.
Bob we missed you at the DC special olympics this past week!!! You are being honored as the MVR (Most Valuable Retard) we at the office of Hans Reimer were going to present you with the award Tardo!!! Can I get a Quesaaaaaaa dillllluuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
Escalators cost about $250,000 per pair. I would find it hard to believe they would tear out the narrow ones to put in wide ones. They completely patched the connecting points for the escalators, so I doubt that newer ones are going in. I don’t think a place like Anthropolgy & Co. would use carts, at least looking at other stores selling wedding dresses, shoes, women’s clothes, furniture, gardening supplies and the Terain Cafe proposed for the main floor near Woodmont Avenue, with outside dining.
I suspect they may install a large glass elevator and a monumental staircase like at the new two story LL Bean at Pike and Rose.
They do seem to be working in earnest, so I guess we will see very soon.
Looks to me like the second floor of the old B&N space is for lease now.
http://www.cityfeet.com/cont/listing/retail-space-for-lease/4809-bethesda-ave-bethesda-md-20814/cs4116673
Ruh roh.
4809 Bethesda Avenue is the old Kinko's, later Make Meaning space. Combining that and the 2nd floor of what used to be Barnes & Noble would make sense. Use 4809 as the entrance for that, and use a smaller escalator between the 1st floor and basement of the former Barnes & Noble for Anthropologie.
The old White Flint Mall glass elevator is available for work.
"Unable to charge their gadgets..."
I see what you did there. Well played Dyer, well played.
Looks like Robin Ficker thinks that the Montrose Parkway East is a huge waste of money.
Et tu, Robin?
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