A rendering of the proposed Skyland property. (Photo/skylandtowncenter.com)
District government officials and the Skyland Town Center developer told frustrated Southeast residents Jan. 21 they will continue to search for a retailer to replace Walmart after the company announced it will not be building a store in Ward 7.
Gary Rappaport, CEO of Rappaport Companies, the development company handling the Skyland Town Center, told residents during an Advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting that his company has been talking with other big box retailers, but he was unwilling to discuss which companies.
“There’s not a retailer that is in Washington, D.C., or ever wants to be in Washington, D.C., that doesn’t know about Skyland, because we’ve been working on this project for 15 years,” Rappaport said. “It’s not going to happen in a couple of weeks, but at least everyone knows the project.”
Rappaport said his company does have a signed lease with Walmart as of December 2014, but said it can’t force Walmart to open. “You could look at the liabilities, and we can go down that road, with the District’s help, but at the same time, we can’t wait,” he said. “So, what we do is we list every kind of retail tenant that could possibly fit in this space. We have put together that list and we have started calling that list.”
The city and developers learned Jan. 15 that Walmart was pulling out of a project to build two superstores in Ward 7 east of the Anacostia River, citing disappointing performances at the three stores it has opened in the District since 2013. See story on AFRO.com
The Skyland Town Center is a property that was sold to Rappaport in Dec. 2014, a decade after the city seized it. Sitting at the intersection of Good Hope Road, Naylor Road and Alabama Avenue in southeast D.C., the 18.5 acres of land is to be home to 340,000 square feet of retail space and 480 residential units. The retail space was to be anchored by Walmart. As of early December, Skyland Town Center was still under construction.
Rappaport said Walmart’s decision has made it unclear whether construction for the Skyland property will continue. CVS will be moving into the temporary trailers in the parking lot of the property in the first week of February. They will continue to operate there until Skyland is built.
Brian Kenner, deputy mayor of economic development, said the city had what he described as a “pledge” from Walmart to build in neighborhoods throughout the city, but no official contract. But at the meeting some residents said they were frustrated that the city never had a written contract with Walmart that required it to build in Southeast.
Tiffany Brown, an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for Ward 7, said that many residents were under the impression that there was a signed agreement between Walmart and the District. “I just wonder who does business like that,” Brown said. “ dealing with people’s lives and livelihoods. There’s no place to shop. There’s no place to work. There’s no place to eat. There’s no place to live.”
Gary Butler, another Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for Ward 7, said he thinks the city should open their scope for the town center. “We really need to stop dealing with big developers and start trying to nurture some of small midsize developers that actually serve the city,” he said.
