GAINSWave Therapy in Chevy Chase, MD

The Chevy Chase Arcade is a pretty space with a long history, but it’s not exactly known as a hub of hip shopping. Back in the 1930s, you could patronize a plumber, a barber shop, and a pharmacy, and that’s been the general small-town vibe ever since. It is not, to say the least, a place you would think to stop by to peruse the latest trove of avant-garde jazz or German minimal-techno records.

But starting today, that sleepy indoor corridor on Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase DC is home to one of the city’s most exciting new stores: art sound language. As the name implies, the small shop offers both records and books (including fiction and visual-art offerings). It’s a highly curated selection that focuses on the more-adventurous end of the spectrum. If record labels like Kompakt, Numero Group, and Awesome Tapes From Africa get your ears tingling, this is the place for you.

Releases from Chicago jazz label International Anthem are lined up along one wall, while another is occupied by a grid of paperbacks from New York Review of Books Classics. There are also less-esoteric rock options, like classics from the Velvet Underground and the Slits. Did you ever spend an entire paycheck during a single gape-mouthed binge at Other Music in New York? Then you get the idea.

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This eclectic mix emanates from the brain of an affable guy named PJ Brownlee, who you’ll almost certainly meet if you drop in. So what connects, say, a record by Brazilian great Tom Zé to the novel Cassandra at the Wedding? “It’s what I call ‘crafted juxtaposition,’ ” says Brownlee, who lives nearby in Chevy Chase, Maryland. “That’s the beauty of it. I’m really into juxtaposition for how it charges each thing, each category that you put together.”

If that sounds like something a gallery curator might say, that’s because Brownlee’s background is in the visual-art world. A Florida native, he got a PhD in American Studies at George Washington University, then ended up working as a curator for the Terra Foundation for American Art in Chicago. About a year and a half ago, he and his family moved back to this area, and Brownlee decided to forge ahead with his long-brewing idea for a record and book shop. He’s put a ton of thought into it, from the look of the logo (the very first thing he did was get an ink stamp made) to the design of the space (“It’s clean, but I don’t want it to be clinical; I want it to be welcoming”) to the whole underlying concept: “It might sound silly,” he says, “but I have thought about this as being an art project from start to finish.”

Though a lot of the inventory tilts toward the obscure, you don’t have to be a total nerd to explore the offerings at art sound language. “I don’t mind if people don’t know anything” about the music on the shelves, Brownlee says. “I’m trying to fill [the store] with the best stuff I feel like is out there—the most interesting. I want to bring out like-minded people, maybe turn some people on with some good stuff, to learn about new good stuff, and to make connections and meet people. It’s already paying off.”

art sound language is open Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. It’s located inside the Chevy Chase Arcade at 5520 Connecticut Ave., NW. An opening party will be held inside the arcade on February 18 from 3 to 6 p.m., featuring music from The Caribbean, Insect Factory, and Raven Bauer Durham.

Northwest D.C.’s Friendship Heights neighborhood is quirky — technically in the District but spilling in many ways across the D.C.-Maryland line into Montgomery County’s Chevy Chase, Maryland neighborhood, with both communities connected at the hip in a business and residential sense.

One of the Friendship Heights Metro entrances is actually in Chevy Chase.

Montgomery County and D.C. are forging plans for a joint Business Improvement District that could support the aging neighborhoods’ revitalization.

That stretch of Wisconsin Avenue has certainly not fallen on hard times, but its reputation as the Rodeo Drive of D.C. has faded. The once-tony Mazza Gallerie is now vacant, its last tenant closing in December. Developer Tishman Speyer acquired the mall and is redeveloping it as residential and new retail, one of several redevelopment projects afoot in the area.

Last week, the D.C. Zoning Commission approved developer Federal Realty’s redevelopment plan for 5333 Wisconsin Avenue as a residential and retail high rise.

D.C. Council member Matt Frumin last week introduced legislation to create D.C.’s 12th Business Improvement District in Friendship Heights. This week, Montgomery County Council member Andrew Friedson introduced similar legislation to create the county’s fourth Urban District.

Together, they would serve as two funding streams to support the nonprofit Friendship Heights Alliance, formed in 2021 to support revitalization of the neighborhood.

Creating a cross-jurisdictional organization as the one proposed is unusual and complicated. Only a handful of such organizations exist in cities in the U.S.

Landlords and developers are on board.

“Friendship Heights is on the cusp of significant change, and we know that ensuring the neighborhood thrives in today’s competitive environment is going to take cross-jurisdictional collaboration, careful planning, and extensive stakeholder engagement,” said Jad Donohoe of the Donohoe Companies, who also chairs the Friendship Heights Alliance board.

Property owners in the area, including Donohoe, are investing more than $1 billion in various projects to redevelop and re-tenant properties in the area.

In addition to promoting development, place management organizations, such as BIDs and Urban Districts, typically supplement services provided by local governments with business support and promotion, cleaning and maintenance of public areas and streetscape improvements. They are funded by local property owners.

“As a small business owner, this collective investment in marketing and revitalizing Friendship Heights makes business and community sense,” Nolan Rodman, an owner of Rodman’s Discount Gourmet, said. “Forming a BID will help ensure these efforts will be sustained as the neighborhood grows and changes.”

Chevy Chase Land Company, one of the largest landlords in the area, has signed several new tenants for its The Collection at Chevy Chase development recently, including restaurants The Hunter’s Hound, Junction and an outpost of Michelin-starred Latin American restaurant Imperfecto called Joy. An Amazon Fresh store opened there in 2021.

“Over the past year, this organization has proven its value in spades, showcasing the impact of collaboration; improving stakeholder coordination for the entire neighborhood, enhancing the public environment and promoting the existing businesses,” said John Ziegenhein, president and CEO of Chevy Chase Land Company, who also serves as the Alliance’s vice chairman.

Longtime tenants at The Collection include Clyde’s, Saks Fifth Avenue and Tiffany & Co.

Both Chevy Chase and Friendship Heights have a rich history, as chronicled in a 2010 Bethesda Magazine article.

The newest Amazon Fresh high-tech grocery store features frictionless shopping.

Amazon is opening its 42^nd Amazon Fresh store, in Chevy Chase, Md. This marks the second Amazon Fresh location in Chevy Chase, and the first there to be equipped with Just Walk Out” cashierless shopping technology.

Amazon Fresh stores are designed from the ground up to offer a seamless shopping experience, with extra features for members of the Amazon Prime paid loyalty program.

[Read more: First Look: Amazon debuts new high-tech grocery store]

The approximately 46,000-sq.-ft. store is also the second Amazon Fresh location in the state of Maryland. Including this newest location, Amazon has opened at least 12 Amazon Fresh stores in 2022, including August openings in Federal Way, Wash. and Thousand Oaks, Calif., and the July launch of new Amazon Fresh stores in Paramus, N.J., and Encino, Calif.

The newest Amazon Fresh site offers Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” frictionless, cashierless shopping technology. Customers who opt for Just Walk Out shopping can enter the store by scanning the in-store QR code in their Amazon app, using the Amazon One proprietary palm payment solution, or inserting a credit or debit card linked to their Amazon account to open the Just Walk Out gates.

Just Walk Out leverages a combination of computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning that enables shoppers to shop the store, pick out what they want and skip the checkout when they’re done. Anyone shopping at the new Amazon Fresh store can utilize the cashierless technology, which connects to their Amazon account or credit card.

Once inside the store, customers can shop like normal. Anything they take off the shelf is automatically added to their virtual cart, and anything they put back on the shelf comes out of their virtual cart. At the end of their trip, customers scan their QR code or insert their payment card again to exit. Traditional shopping and checkout are also available.

Originally available only in Amazon Go convenience and small-format grocery stores, Amazon then began rolling out Just Walk Out to select Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods locations, and also licenses the technology to third-party retailers.

In addition to five Amazon Fresh locations in Washington state (including one designed to be zero net carbon), Amazon operates 17 of the high-tech grocery stores in California, nine in Illinois, five in Virginia, and two each in Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.

The company is also opening its latest high-tech Amazon Fresh location with Just Walk Out shopping roughly two months after introducing a new Amazon Fresh store in Arlington, Va. (the site where Amazon is currently constructing its “HQ2” second headquarters complex), and a few months after opening one in Fairfax, Va., and after opening a Just Walk Out-enabled Amazon Fresh store in Naperville, Ill.

So far in 2022, Amazon has also provided Just Walk Out at newly opened Amazon Fresh stores in Moorpark, Calif., North Riverside, Ill., and Lorton and Manassas, Va., as well as launching the autonomous checkout experience in its Whole Foods Market division at stores in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. The company plans to additionally open a “Just Walk Out”-enabled Whole Foods store in Sherman Oaks, Calif., during 2022.

Development · Mixed-use

Maryland

After a brief post-demolition pause to secure building permits, construction of the $50 million Crescent @ Chevy Chase, a 111-unit multifamily in Chevy Chase, Md., is underway.

Located at 3929 Landmark Court, the site, formerly Newdale Mews Apartments, was acquired by members of the Bindeman family in 1976. Rob Bindeman, president of Landmark Realty, is now the principal developer.

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“The garden apartments, built in the mid-1950s, had outlived their useful life,” Bindeman told Commercial Observer. “A well-timed sector plan revision for the area enabled us to lobby for new zoning and building entitlements through Montgomery County. The project was approved in December 2018. Demolition of Newdale took place in early 2022, and excavation is currently underway.”

Crescent @ Chevy Chase will be across from the new Chevy Chase Lake mixed-use neighborhood, which development partners Bozzuto and The Chevy Chase Land Company are currently developing. Chevy Chase Lake will have approximately 500 multifamily units and 100,000 square feet of retail.

The redevelopment’s zoning was tied to the construction of Metro’s Purple Line, which will connect Bethesda to College Park. A new Purple Line station is adjacent to the Crescent site.

“Every apartment has something unique to offer,” Bindeman said. “First-floor walk-up entrances from the street in the front, semi-private backyards on the first floor in the back, balconies throughout, and great views of Columbia Country Club’s golf course.”

Amenities will include keyless unit entry, a club room, a pet spa, conference rooms and a roof deck. Crescent will also provide bicycles for use on the nearby Crescent Trail, and an elevated rear patio for resident gatherings.

Jeff Parana of Potomac Development Group serves as project development manager. Jon Eisen is the architect on the project, Jennifer Ferris of Bandura Design is designing the interiors, and Jay Eichberg of Eichberg Construction is serving as general contractor. Eagle Bank provided the financing, though no loan terms were disclosed.

Crescent @ Chevy Chase is expected to open in late 2023.

Keith Loria can be reached at Kloria@commercialobserver.com.

The partners behind Seven Reasons, D.C.’s pricey Latin standout full of artfully plated dishes that Esquire rated as the No. 1 new restaurant in the country in 2019, will add a casual offshoot up in Chevy Chase in October.

Venezuelan chef Enrique Limardo and co-owner Ezequiel Vázquez-Ger are calling the Maryland edition Joy by Seven Reasons. The 150-seat restaurant will sit in snazzy outdoor shopping center The Collection (5471 Wisconsin Avenue, Chevy Chase, Md.).

“It’s going to be more family oriented — more of everyday dining with some Seven Reasons touches,” Vázquez-Ger tells Eater.

The team just picked up a Michelin star for its luxe, Mediterranean-leaning Imperfecto — specifically, its “Chef’s Table” — where Limardo prepares elaborate tasting menus in the West End. Its scene-y D.C. predecessor Seven Reasons debuted on 14th Street NW in 2019 and recently welcomed the likes of U2 frontman Bono.

Joy by Seven Reasons is an “a la carte spinoff but more affordable and more family style with some of the more traditional dishes from South America,” says Limardo, adding the idea for the playful offshoot was born during the pandemic.

The D.C. location offers an a la carte menu in addition to a chef’s tasting menu for $135 per person with courses like cauliflower tempura and halibut filet with green papaya-mango salad, banana green curry, and citrus Thai dressing.

Two or three hit dishes from Seven Reasons that phased out in D.C. will make a comeback up in Chevy Chase, says Limardo.

Like the original, look for a big focus on cocktails that loop in spirits from all over the world (think sake, pisco, and rum). The bar will be splashed in bright red tiles, joined the same live wall elements that welcome diners at the leafy D.C. hotspot.

Maryland isn’t new territory for Limardo. When he helmed Alma Cocina Latina in Baltimore, his cooking there caught the eye of Washington Post critic Tom Sietsema and led to a business partnership with then-regular Vázquez-Ger.

The fast-growing group will also expand to Virginia next year with the opening of Surreal, a new indoor-outdoor bistro with ice cream, tacos, burgers, and pizza in a private Arlington park that allows drinking. Two more to-be-announced restaurants from the team are slated to pop in 2022 and 2023.