Montgomery County is in the process of updating its Friendship Heights Sector Plan, an outline that serves as a blueprint for development in the area. The officials at the Montgomery County Planning department have said they are reworking some of the plan to account for the new space and possible sale of the former GEICO property.

According to the , the sector plan aims to provide more housing, more environmental design, walkways/bike paths, more green spaces, and even a public library.

In early 2025, GEICO announced it was moving its headquarters to Bethesda by early 2026.

Elza Hisel-McCoy, the West County Planning Division chief for Montgomery County Planning, said that GEICO’s move will bring a big change to Friendship Heights. Hisel-McCoy said the Planning Division did an urban design study Friendship Heights, which opened the conversation about GEICO’s site and how it fit in the neighborhood.

“We learned in the urban design study that on weekends neighborhood folks use the green space for recreation. Folks have learned how to drive in the parking lot. So, it’s definitely been a part of the community for a long time,” Hisel-McCoy said.

Hisel-McCoy said residents of Friendship Heights are excited about parks and some are concerned about potential redevelopment of the site, especially since it is 26 acres. Hisel-McCoy said the site likely will be developed through phases over a long period of time.

“The sector plan right now is in the visioning stage,” he said.

, a “property owner collaborative focused on the transformation of Friendship Heights,” said it helps to give voice to residents of Friendship Heights and makes residents aware of what is happening in their neighborhood.

Alliance Executive Director Natalie Avery in a statement said the group is sorry to see the headquarters move but the site presents the neighborhood with many opportunities.

“Transforming surface parking into housing, green space, and welcoming gathering places will create a more connected and vibrant urban environment. With better walkability, active public spaces, and new homes, the site can help strengthen social connections and support the long-term vitality of Friendship Heights,” Avery said.

Avery said GEICO was an important neighbor in the Friendship Heights neighborhood that brought thousands of jobs. She said the company supported the neighborhood for years.

Roberta Avila, a resident of Friendship Heights, said the neighborhood has a lot of older people. Avila said that, although she does not see many young people, there is still a lot of people in the neighborhood.

“I love being here, very safe, quiet, and we have wonderful neighbors, very polite,” Avila said about Friendship Heights.

According to the the last time sector plans were updated was 1998. The scope said the plan envisioned a “mixed-use” concept that had office buildings, residential development, and green spaces, although, nothing has been done to further the developments.

In a statement to 91����, GEICO said, “We continue to work closely with Montgomery County, Village of Friendship Heights and other relevant state and local officials regarding the future redevelopment of this property. We are also working closely with the Friendship Heights Alliance and local community members throughout this process.”

The parking lot outside the former headquarters was nearly deserted, showing the large-scale site that will be left behind. At the main entrance to former headquarters there is sign showing information on the plan and where to find more .

While there is nothing set in stone, Hisel-McCoy said he believes GEICO will sell the former headquarters property.

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Instead of merely viewing it as a disturbance, community leaders viewed it as an opportunity.��

This area could be a mecca for cyclists and public transportation users with just a little bit of foresight, planning and money. Visitors can see whispers of this potential in the brick-laid sidewalks designated for bikes, mostly empty bike racks near the Metro station and signage for cyclists to better navigate the area.��

“This is kind of an important opportunity to transition the space when nobody’s using it,” said Tom Quinn, the region’s representative on the Advisory Neighborhood Commission.��

The only, but a large missing piece: protected bike lanes. They’re strips of asphalt offset by concrete barriers blocking drivers from veering into the cyclists’ territory. Cyclists say they’re the only real way to incentivize cycling in urban areas.��

Two small protected lanes are coming to downtown Friendship Heights in the coming months after receiving the go-ahead from both the Advisory Neighborhood Commission and the District Department of Transportation this fall. A construction date has yet to be set but is anticipated in either the fall or spring, Quinn said.��

The lanes are planned for 44th Street NW between Harrison Street and Jenifer Street and for Jenifer Street between Western Avenue and 43rd. The completed design was published this month for the plan covering a third of a mile of road. DDOT officials did not disclose the price tag in time for publication.

The project is a bit of a gamble. It assumes there’s a demand for this kind of infrastructure. But if they’re not built, the community will never know what type of cycling potential the neighborhood could have and, in turn, the potential to reduce greenhouse gases, car accidents and pedestrian deaths.

“You don’t decide whether or not to build a bridge based on how many people are swimming across the river,” Quinn said. “People just don’t use something if it’s not there.”

However, evidence throughout the city and common sense suggest that protected bike lanes could draw cyclists to what’s currently “a pretty unpleasant intersection” to bike through, said Josh Rising, an active cyclist in the area.��

“They really give bikers that confidence that this is a place that’s safer. They really do a lot to encourage people to get on a bicycle who otherwise might be hesitant because they’re so worried that they might be struck by a car,” Rising said.

Rising co-founded Ward 3 Bicycle Advocates to organize the effort to better lobby for local cycling infrastructure. The fact the group has several hundred email subscribers may hint at the more widespread demand for this kind of work in the area.

And where better to start than near the Metro, Quinn added.

“You got to start building a network, he said. “We think this is a really important place to do it.”

The Friendship Heights neighborhood abuts Montgomery County, which has a more robust biking network. Quinn said the new lanes will allow cyclists to more seamlessly traverse between the two areas.��

As a cyclist, Rising has observed cars blocking bike lanes. It forces cyclists to make a snap decision about navigating around them.��

“As somebody who’s on a bike, you then have to decide, ‘Do I need to pull around this vehicle and into where the traffic is?” he said.��

These lanes are just the beginning for a planned larger protected bike lane network for the shopping center region, Quinn said, adding that lanes are planned next summer for Western Avenue, a larger thoroughfare dividing Maryland and D.C.

Friendship Heights is an ideal place to invest in this work, Rising said, partly because there are numerous schools around. Protected lanes could get kids out of school buses and onto the roads cycling to class.

“Kids 40, 50 years ago, the vast majority biked to school,” Rising said.��

To revert back to that, the city has to work through and around the built environment, which has thrown many literal and metaphorical roadblocks in the way of safely getting around the neighborhood on bike and foot. Namely spotty support from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and city administration officials, he said, who removed Connecticut Avenue from a bike lane project earlier this year.

“D.C. has set out so many goals for what it wants to achieve as a city – Vision Zero goals [reducing pedestrian deaths], climate change goals … the question is how do we actually reach these goals,” Rising said. “In so many of the cases cases, it’s making it easier and safer for people to bike.”

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It’s the location at which a medical cannabis store is slated to open later this year in D.C.’s Tenleytown neighborhood.

The shop will be named C’est Moi, according to its owner Colen Jones. In French, the phrase means “it’s me.” It’s an expression he felt well represented the atmosphere he wants to nurture in the store – one that celebrates individuality.��

“It’s like, ‘Hey, if I choose to go this route and I like marijuana … it’s me. It’s who I am,” Jones said.��

According to the city’s Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration, Tenleytown currently has no other licensed medical retailers while the city’s third ward, which includes much of D.C.’s northwest quadrant, only has one other.

The store, which will occupy the space of a former scuba shop at 4932 Wisconsin Avenue, is scheduled to open in the next two to three months, Jones said. Jones, who comes from a military family, said the store will offer a 15% discount for veterans.��

While Jones has operated dispensaries before, this will be his first location in his hometown. Providing cannabis to the residents of Tenleytown and the surrounding area is not a role he takes lightly, he said. Everything about the operation will be designed toward convenience and privacy for the shoppers.

“I hope [the store] adds more safety and peace and comfortability,” said Jones, who’s from D.C.’s Northwest neighborhood.��

Some shoppers may not want passersby to know they are buying cannabis. That’s why the front of the store will be designed like a waiting room with a sitting area and drinks available. Shoppers will then get buzzed into the display area and their identification will be checked twice, Jones said – once in the front of the store and again when the customer makes the purchase.

Jones, who said he’s been working on this project for two years, liked the character of the Tenleytown neighborhood and said it aligned with the kind of facility he wanted to create.

“I feel like that’s what they were missing, like an upscale dispensary,” he said.

Residents he spoke to noted they sometimes have to drive a significant distance or visit neighborhoods they don’t feel safe in to get cannabis.

Though C’est Moi will be the only licensed facility in the neighborhood, once it passes various city assessments, the corridor on which it will be located has numerous smoke shops, some of which have been known to illicitly distribute cannabis to minors, said Jonathan Bender, the region’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission chair.

“I’ve been trying for a long time to get rid of the illegal places,” Bender said, adding that they tend to also be “robbery magnets.”

Problem locations in the neighborhood include Smoke Island and Smokes and Vapes, the latter of which recently closed, Bender said. A different Smoke Island location on Wisconsin Avenue, farther south in the city, was served a cease and desist letter in July for selling cannabis illegally.

Possessing cannabis became legal in D.C. in 2015. In 2022, the district expanded its access to medical cannabis, allowing anyone 21 or over to self-certify for it. This helped give way to a rise in stores selling other products for an upcharge and “gifting” cannabis alongside it. It’s a practice the city council passed a law to better combat earlier this year.

The Tenleytown neighborhood and surrounding area house multiple public schools as well as American University, making the region a potential hotbed of sales to those below the age of 21.��

Only 11 licensed facilities are currently operating in the district, according to the city’s Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration. However, demand for the products is high. In August, the city had 26,204 unique medical cannabis patients producing more than $2.8 million in sales for dispensaries, according to an administration report. Across each month of 2024, cannabis sales generated between around $2.5 million and nearly $2.9 million.

Having C’est Moi on the block will hopefully offer residents a safe, legal avenue through which to purchase cannabis, Bender said. He’s confident Jones will follow all necessary procedures based on how compliant he’s been so far, he said, explaining Jones “was willing to do pretty much whatever we asked.”

The store is scheduled to open Dec. 1 at the latest and operate from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Sunday.

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Today, though, during the first weeks of December, the shops and streets are much quieter. Stores like World Market and Old Navy that may have once been popular destinations for buying gifts have since abandoned the now nearly empty��Chevy Chase Pavilion mall on the corner of Wisconsin Ave. and Western Ave. ��

In a latest attempt to revive the area, the local leaders have turned to developers to add more residential spaces and bring more neighbors to Friendship Heights. Leading the way along the neighborhood’s main corridor of Wisconsin Ave. is a mixed-use project by Federal Realty Investment Trust. After almost a year and a half of planning and debate, commissioners approved the project proposal in a 3 to 1 vote during a special meeting last Thursday.��

“We have an obsolete building that we would like to revitalize,” Geoff Sharpe, vice president of development for Federal Realty, said at the meeting. “I’m speaking personally as someone who lives across the line in Maryland, who shops in Friendship Heights every week: It’s the right thing to do to revitalize the neighborhood.”��

The existing building, Friendship Center, is a collection of storefronts: Maggiano’s, Marshalls, Sheyla Vie and DSW. Rebuilding on this space, the new multi-story project will include approximately 350 apartment units along with 10,500 to 14,000 square feet of retail space. ��

The project will bring the largest addition of affordable housing to the northwest area so far, Sharpe said. These units, in particular, will hopefully attract younger residents, said Richard Bradley, executive director of Friendship Heights Alliance, an organization concerned with economic development in the neighborhood.��

“There’s a joke that goes around that says that if you want to visit your parents, you go to Bethesda; if you want to visit your grandparents you go to Friendship Heights,” Bradley said. “It’s an active but it’s an aging community, so obviously, we want to shift that.”��

The project’s emphasis on residential space was a point of contention for commissioners and residents alike. Ali Gianinno, the one “nay” vote, said she was conflicted about what she felt was still missing from the project; her biggest concern is too little retail space.��

“[Friendship Heights] is supposed to be a hub for jobs, retail, transit and housing. And I think that this project doesn’t do enough to meet a lot of those pieces,” Gianinno said. “It’s going in the right direction, and I don’t want to slow progress. But I also know that I feel very strongly that we have to focus on the fact that Friendship Heights is a regional center.”��

Multiple residents, including Ryan Keefe, spoke at the meeting in favor of the project, specifically the additional housing.��

“We should set a precedent in [the area] that would say yes to development, yes to neighbors and frankly yes to a lot of affordable housing,” Keefe said.��

Tracy Hadden Loh, who lives next door to the redevelopment, said she hopes this will be the first step in bringing new neighbors to the area.��

“This is a really good thing for my immediate community,” she said. “People are telling on themselves super loud if they’re thinking something otherwise.” ��

“I have spent my life advocating for housing reform in this city. It is something I care about so much,” Loh added.��

Bradley said there are plans to bring more development projects like this to Friendship Heights, including a redevelopment where the Mazza Gallerie mall is currently, adding around 400 new apartment units.��

“It’s all part of a both immediate change and a longer range change that sees Friendship Heights transitioning into a more affordable, inclusive, but still vibrant and interesting area of the city,” Bradley said.��

The post New project seeks to bring life back to Friendship Heights first appeared on 91����.

The pharmacy and convenience store closed its location at 5335 Wisconsin Ave. at the end of August. It’s just the latest retailer in a string of vacancies over the past few years that have left the mall with more empty storefronts than active businesses.��

Retail across Friendship Heights, an area reputed for decades as a high-end shopping hub, has been impacted by a consumer shift away from indoor malls and department stores, said Richard Bradley, executive director of Friendship Heights Alliance, an organization helping to revitalize business in the area. Customers of Chevy Chase Pavilion have lamented the decline of retail via social media, tweeting about the closures of major��chain anchors like ��and at the end of 2020 and departure in January of this year.��

Business at the Pavilion was struggling even before the pandemic though, Bradley said. The effects of COVID-19 and the increased popularity of online shopping accelerated the shopping center’s deterioration. ��

“It was really the last five years that it sort of imploded,” Bradley said. “People today want the retail to be outside.”��

The few signs of life in the Pavilion are at a T-Mobile store, Cheesecake Factory and the Ward 3 COVID-19 Center, as well as an Embassy Suites hotel in the mall’s upper floors.��

Alex, 22, stayed at the hotel when visiting Washington, D.C. last weekend and said the “completely dead” center is a letdown to tourists like herself.��

“The whole reason you want to come is because you think s—’s going to be here,” said Alex, who declined to give her last name for job security reasons. “It’s been a huge disappointment.”��

Aaron Davis, the night manager at the Embassy Suites there, said while hotel business and occupancy have not been greatly impacted, guests may feel that marketing on the internet has misrepresented the area.��

“Some of the pictures that are still online do still have the mall as up in full swing,” Davis said. “When they do get here, they are a bit disappointed by the fact that everything’s closed.”��

Davis said he had not heard word of new businesses coming to occupy the empty spaces.����

“Even though the Pavilion is advertising space, they are renting spaces, we just haven’t had any sort of business come back up again yet,” Davis said.��

The mall hosted a pop-up art gallery this summer in partnership with Lost Origins Gallery and Friendship Heights Alliance. A Spirit Halloween is currently in the process of opening on the ground floor, a mall security officer confirmed.��

A ��last year found that “The American mall isn’t dead” but needs to be “reimagined” as more of a community gathering place. Across the country, the consulting group found that mall vacancies were accelerated by COVID-19, up to just over 11% at the start of 2021. ,��a national real estate group and property management for Chevy Chase Pavilion, was more optimistic — they reported in 2022 that U.S. shopping center vacancies had fallen to almost 6% after having peaked in 2021 at just under 7.5%.��

Bradley said he believes Chevy Chase Pavilion and other retail spaces in Friendship Heights will evolve to better serve the neighborhood with new kinds of businesses, such as restaurants or entertainment.��

“My sense is over the next four or five years, it will reemerge as a different kind of dynamic place,” Bradley said. ��

Building management did not respond to multiple requests for comment.��

The post Friendship Heights’ mall down another retailer first appeared on 91����.

In that area, one of the District’s most northwestern wards, two deadly shootings have been recorded in the past month, with at least one nonfatal shooting also recorded.

“The District, like other large cities across the country, has witnessed an increase in gun-related violence,” Interim Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Roger Mitchell told 91���� in a statement. “Over the coming weeks, we look forward to presenting a comprehensive plan to meet this challenge head-on with a network of resources and services to our most vulnerable communities impacted by gun violence.”

The spate of shootings has rocked the area, and MPD 2nd District Commander Duncan Bedlion has spoken at two community meetings in recent weeks to assure Ward Three residents that MPD detectives, who Bedlion says have a 68% homicide case closure rate, are actively investigating the cases.

“Hopefully, we will be able to piece this together and be able to announce something soon to the public,” Bedlion said at an Oct. 15 ANC3E meeting. “What’s very disturbing about these particular crimes is they appear to be sudden, and they were ruthless.”

“There are promising leads,” Bedlion said, “but in terms of video, there is nothing that we can share with the public at this time.” An MPD spokesperson declined to comment on the specifics of the shootings or investigations, citing their ongoing nature.

According to Sarah Bever, the vice-chair of the local police district’s community advisory council, the increased deadly shootings in Ward Three have unnerved local residents.

“People do seem alarmed by the recent violent crime because that’s not usual for this neighborhood,” Bever said.

ANC3E chair Jon Bender told 91���� that the recent murders in Ward Three are “of great concern.” But, he said, “it’s a concern that goes well beyond our neighborhood. And although we need to take any reasonable steps to protect our neighborhood, in a way, we’re doing better than lots of parts of this town and lots of parts of the country.”

It’s been an especially deadly 2020 for the District and . There have been 141 fatal shootings across the district this year — more than last year’s final tally of 129 such shootings.

The rise in deadly shootings in the District comes amid a nationwide reckoning over racism and police brutality. In the District, lawmakers are currently whether to make permanent a sweeping package of police reforms. And Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, has come in recent months by local activists seeking to defund MPD in the wake of George Floyd’s killing and related protests.

At the ANC3F meeting last week, Bedlion, the police commander, encouraged residents to report suspicious behavior to the police.

That didn’t sit well with James Tandaric, a local teacher.

“On a personal note, as a person of color, when he was saying how ‘if you see something suspicious, call the police’ … to me that that’s very racially loaded,” Tandaric told 91����.

Tandaric said that the four or five people who wrote in the meeting’s Zoom chat that they agreed with him was “huge progress.”

“If this was like, a year or two ago, there might not be any” agreement over Tandaric’s statement, he admitted. “I think like when I made that comment, people were like, ‘okay, oh yeah, that’s true. I’m learning that right now.’”

The post ‘Sudden’ and ‘ruthless’ murders roil Tenleytown, Friendship Heights first appeared on 91����.

District police responded to the area, at Western Ave. and 45th Ave. NW, just after 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.

A Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) spokesman told 91���� that a second victim is in the hospital. That injured man was found just across the District’s border with Maryland, according to District police.

An MPD helicopter circled the residential neighborhood dozens of times as police searched the area with flashlights and K-9 units. Local residents walking outside stopped and stared at the commotion, which cut through the restive neighborhood.

Nearby homes were lit by the glow of flashing police vehicles, which lined up outside along Western and 45th.

The helicopter flew over the area for about half an hour, departing at around 8:35 p.m., according to .

In neighboring Montgomery County, Md., police blocked off part of Harrison Street, which is about a quarter of a mile from D.C.’s initial homicide scene. A K-9 unit from Montgomery County was also present.

Much of 45th Avenue was blocked off by police tape as police investigated.

“It’s been many years since I can recall a shooting [in the neighborhood],” ANC 3E Chairman Jon Bender told The��Wash. He later added, “I should have qualified my remark about the shooting to specify it has been many years since there was a non-domestic shooting. Sadly, a husband in the midst of a contentious divorce shot his wife and himself within the last year or two.”

Police have not yet located a suspect in the shootings, but used social media to alert residents to be on the lookout for a man in his 20s or 30s.

Washington police are a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

Alert: Shooting Investigation in the 4500 block Western Avenue N.W.. Lookout for Black, Male wearing all black, 20'3-30's.
Have info? Call (202) 727-9099/text 50411

— DC Police Department (@DCPoliceDept)

This article was updated on September 25.

The post One man dead, one injured after shooting in Friendship Heights first appeared on 91����.