D.C.'s First Lidl Opens At Skyland, Bringing A Supermarket To Ward 7

[mahatmakanejeeves]

SEP 28, 8:38 AM

D.C.’s First Lidl Opens At Skyland, Bringing A Supermarket To Ward 7

Martin Austermuhle | https://twitter.com/maustermuhle



There are only four full-service grocery stores in wards 7 and 8, which are home to almost 160,000 residents.
Martin Austermuhle / DCist/WAMU

It only took ten seconds to cut the ribbon on a project that was more than 10 years in the making.

To great fanfare and excitement, D.C. officials and residents gathered Tuesday afternoon in Ward 7 to welcome the city’s first Lidl grocery store, which officially opens its doors to the public on Wednesday morning.

The moment was as heavy with history and symbolism as it was with celebration: the Lidl is the first full-service grocery story to be built east of the Anacostia River in more than a decade, and only the fourth grocery store that will now serve the almost 160,000 residents of wards 7 and 8. It was built at the 18.5-acre Skyland Town Center, a mixed-use development that had for years bedeviled city officials looking to land anchor tenants.

“Five mayors have worked with this community on this project. But I will be the last one,” said Mayor Muriel Bowser at the ribbon-cutting, recounting the ups and downs of the long-promised project — from the city’s decision to take the site via eminent domain to a legal battle with Safeway against a covenant that would have barred the construction of any supermarket at the site to Walmart’s surprise decision in 2016 to cancel plans for a store there.

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[Phoenix61]

1. Sounds like a good grocery store. nt

[elleng]

2. GOOD news.

Too much old bad news: 'a legal battle with Safeway against a covenant that would have barred the construction of any supermarket at the site to Walmart’s surprise decision in 2016 to cancel plans for a store there.' Heck with Safeway and Walmart.