Wegmans exec: Walter Reed "might be interesting to us at some point"

More on the discussions between Mayor Gray and Wegmans execs at the RECon conference in Las Vegas:

The meetings show that the chain has interest in the District, but it isn’t easy for Wegmans to enter D.C. because the chain wants at least 120,000 square feet and at least 800 parking spaces, which is hard to find in the city. It could potentially be had, however, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where the city is set to acquire property that includes around 1,200 existing underground parking spaces that front along Georgia Avenue NW.

D.C. does not have control of Walter Reed yet, and Gray has not announced a plan for how to pay for millions of dollars of infrastructure improvements there, so the Wegmans idea, like a lot of those at ICSC, is about something that is at least years away. But Ralph A. Uttaro, Wegmans senior vice president of retail development, walking into the meeting with Gray, said Walter Reed, “looks like something that might be interesting to us at some point.”

And the realities of the potential Wegmans deal start to set in

After my initial rush of excitement upon hearing about the potential of Wegmans at the Walter Reed site, some uncomfortable realities started to set in. The Washington Post's Jonathan O'Connell is in Las Vegas for the next few days covering the RECon commercial real estate convention, where the meetings between Wegmans execs and DC pols (Mayor Gray is there, along with Harry Thomas Jr., Vincent Orange, and Michael A. Brown) will take place. O'Connell Tweeted yesterday that Wegmans "needs at least 120k square feet and mucho parking". We're not yet sure if Wegmans will be amenable to underground "mucho parking" rather than surface parking; if they're sticklers for surface parking then, as stated by the Post's Mike DeBonis, "Harriet (Tregoning) not gonna like". And then of course we still have the traffic issues on Georgia Avenue to contend with.

Mayor Gray, build that streetcar. Faster.

As far as I know, this is Wegmans' first entry inside an urban border, and though I can't believe I'm holding Walmart up as an example of anything good, I'll say that Wegmans might want to take a lesson from Walmart and its "urban format" models if it is to enter into urban markets successfully.

Gray's meeting with Wegmans execs is today at 11:30 PST. Those of you who want to keep up with the latest developments might be interested in following Jonathan O'Connell on Twitter.

Wegmans considering Walter Reed site for its first store in the District

Last month, when I first heard that Mayor Gray was meeting with Wegmans to discuss possible DC locations, I wondered if the Walter Reed site would factor into the conversation. Freeman Klopott and Liz Farmer at the Examiner report that it is indeed under serious consideration. From the piece:

D.C. officials are hoping that the massive Walter Reed Army Medical Center's planned redevelopment in Northwest will finally give them the bait they need to lure the District's first Wegmans grocery store.

The highly sought-after grocer has two scheduled meetings this week with Mayor Vincent Gray and council members at a retail development conference in Las Vegas that historically has been the breeding ground for major real estate deals in the District.

Keith Sellars, senior vice president of development and retail for the Washington DC Economic Partnership, said city officials have been courting Wegmans "for years" but never had a site large enough.

Wegmans' senior vice president is scheduled to meet with the mayor while Councilmen Harry Thomas Jr., Vincent Orange and Michael Brown are meeting separately with the retailer. Analyst David Livingston of DJL Research said scheduling two meetings is significant, noting the grocer typically spends years researching a location before it commits.

Thomas, chairman of the council's Economic Development Committee, said, "Wegmans is absolutely a real prospect."