Mayor
Williams Announces H&M Clothier to Open Downtown
Mayor Williams announced that the H&M clothing chain
(Washington DC) will open two stores in the District
of Columbia in 2003 and four others in the region. The
District stores will be located at the former Woodward
& Lothrop Building downtown and at the Shops at
Georgetown Park. The Woodies location will be nearly
as twice as big as the other stores and considered the
flagship store in the region.
The announcement was made during the Downtown DC Business
Improvement District’s (Downtown BID) fourth
annual winter festival of lights celebration to promote
the revitalization of retail downtown. Mayor Williams
was joined by the owner of the Woodward & Lothrop
Building, developer Doug Jemal for the announcement.
“The opening of H&M downtown gives us the
chance to recreate F Street as it once was,”
said Mayor Williams. “There is much to celebrate
this holiday season—and we look forward to more
positive energy in this neighborhood as other retailers
follow H&M downtown.”
“The city is negotiating a financing package
that will allow H&M to use a percentage of future
sales taxes to reconfigure the Woodies space to fit
its needs,” said Eric Price, Deputy Mayor for
Planning and Economic Development. “H&M
has promised to target District residents for the
100 jobs the two District stores will create. The
DC Department of Employment Services is currently
working with H&M to train unemployed residents
for those jobs,” he added.
After the announcement, the Downtown BID unveiled
six animated holiday windows at the historic Woodies
building and lit over 15,000 lights across F Street.
Fifteen students from the Duke Ellington School of
the Arts were recognized for painting murals at the
Woodies building construction site.
