The Shops at Wisconsin Place

The Shops at Wisconsin Place is an open-air shopping center in Chevy Chase, Maryland, United States. It forms the retail component of Wisconsin Place, a mixed-use development that also includes residential, office, parking, and community-recreation facilities. The center occupies a site historically associated with a major department-store presence: the former Woodward & Lothrop store was converted to a Hecht's location in 1995 and subsequently closed in 2005. The redevelopment replaced that earlier department-store format with a walkable, open-air retail environment integrated into a larger urban-style complex. The shopping center's principal anchors are Bloomingdale's and Whole Foods Market. Bloomingdale's, described as Maryland's second location for the department-store brand, opened at the center on September 27, 2007. Whole Foods Market opened on May 18, 2010, adding a full-service natural and specialty grocery component to the tenant mix. Together, these anchors support a combination of department-store shopping, grocery, food service, beauty, apparel, accessories, and lifestyle retail. Other reported tenants have included P.F. Chang's, Talbots, Cole Haan, Anthropologie, Eileen Fisher, BCBG, MAC, The Capital Grille, Sephora, J. Jill, Ilori, Adolfo Dominguez, Le Pain Quotidien, and Giggle. The mix reflects an upscale, convenience-oriented neighborhood shopping proposition rather than a traditional enclosed regional mall. Restaurants and specialty retailers complement the anchor stores and help position the property as a destination for both everyday errands and discretionary shopping. The Shops are supported by a three-story underground parking garage. Wisconsin Place also includes a county-run recreation and community center of approximately 20,000 square feet, reported as opening in late September 2009, along with a high-rise luxury apartment building and office space, part of which has been occupied by Microsoft. These non-retail uses provide the shopping center with a built-in population of residents, workers, and community users. Available reference material does not identify the property's current owner, operating company, founding entity, website, financial performance, or public-market listing. The center is best understood as a physical retail destination and mixed-use development component rather than a standalone consumer-goods brand.

The Shops at Wisconsin Place was developed on the site of a former Woodward & Lothrop department store in Chevy Chase, Maryland. That earlier retail location later became a Hecht's store in 1995, but the Hecht's operation closed in 2005. The closure created an opportunity to redevelop the property into Wisconsin Place, a mixed-use complex organized around open-air retail, residential accommodation, offices, parking, and community facilities. Rather than retaining the former department-store configuration, the redevelopment introduced The Shops at Wisconsin Place as an open-air shopping center. Its design and tenant strategy combined large-format anchors with smaller specialty stores and restaurants. This format connected the retail component to the surrounding mixed-use environment and created a more diversified destination than the previous single-department-store use. Bloomingdale's became the first major retail anchor identified in the available history. Its store opened on September 27, 2007, and was described as the second Bloomingdale's location in Maryland. The opening gave the new center a prominent upscale department-store tenant and established its fashion and lifestyle orientation. Wisconsin Place expanded beyond retail during the following years. A county-run recreation and community center measuring approximately 20,000 square feet opened in late September 2009. The complex also incorporated a high-rise luxury apartment building and office space, with some office occupancy associated with Microsoft. These components helped create regular foot traffic from residents, employees, and community users in addition to conventional shoppers. Whole Foods Market opened on May 18, 2010, adding a second major anchor and broadening the center's role from fashion-oriented shopping destination to mixed-use convenience hub. The reported specialty and dining tenant roster included P.F. Chang's, Talbots, Cole Haan, Anthropologie, Eileen Fisher, BCBG, MAC, The Capital Grille, Sephora, J. Jill, Ilori, Adolfo Dominguez, Le Pain Quotidien, and Giggle. The assortment covered apparel, footwear, beauty, home and lifestyle products, restaurants, cafés, and family-oriented services. A three-story underground parking garage was built beneath the shopping center, supporting access to both the retail uses and the wider Wisconsin Place development. The available reference material does not provide a complete chronology of tenant turnover, later renovations, ownership changes, management arrangements, or current operating performance. It also does not identify a separate corporate headquarters or publicly traded parent for The Shops at Wisconsin Place. Its documented history is therefore primarily the transformation of a former department-store site into an open-air retail element within a larger mixed-use project.

• 2010

  Whole Foods Market opens

  [1]The Shops at Wisconsin Placeen.wikipedia.org

  Whole Foods Market opened on May 18, 2010, adding a major grocery anchor to the retail complex.

• 2009

  County recreation and community center opens

  [1]The Shops at Wisconsin Placeen.wikipedia.org

  A county-run recreation and community center of approximately 20,000 square feet opened in Wisconsin Place in late September.

• 2007

  Bloomingdale's opens

  [1]The Shops at Wisconsin Placeen.wikipedia.org

  Bloomingdale's opened at The Shops on September 27, 2007, as the center's principal department-store anchor.

• 2005

  Hecht's location closes

  [1]The Shops at Wisconsin Placeen.wikipedia.org

  The Hecht's store on the site closed, preceding the property's mixed-use redevelopment.

• 1995

  Former Woodward & Lothrop site becomes a Hecht's store

  [1]The Shops at Wisconsin Placeen.wikipedia.org

  The department-store location that later became Wisconsin Place was converted from Woodward & Lothrop to Hecht's.

An upscale, open-air neighborhood shopping center integrated into a mixed-use residential, office, and community complex.

• Department store · 2007

  Bloomingdale's

  Bloomingdale's is the center's reported department-store anchor and was identified as Maryland's second location for the chain. The store contributes upscale fashion, accessories, beauty, and lifestyle merchandise to the tenant mix. It opened on September 27, 2007, helping establish The Shops at Wisconsin Place as a higher-end open-air retail destination.

• Grocery · 2010

  Whole Foods Market

  Whole Foods Market is the shopping center's reported grocery anchor. Its May 18, 2010 opening expanded Wisconsin Place's customer proposition beyond apparel and specialty retail by providing full-service grocery shopping, prepared foods, and natural and specialty food products. The store also supports routine visits from residents and nearby workers.

• Specialty retail and restaurants

  Specialty retail and dining collection

  The reported tenant collection includes apparel and accessories retailers such as Talbots, Cole Haan, Anthropologie, Eileen Fisher, BCBG, J. Jill, Ilori, and Adolfo Dominguez; beauty and cosmetics businesses including MAC and Sephora; and restaurants and cafés such as P.F. Chang's, The Capital Grille, Le Pain Quotidien, and Giggle. The mix is designed to complement the two large anchors with fashion, dining, personal-care, and lifestyle choices.

• Mixed-use development services

  Wisconsin Place community and parking facilities

  The retail center is supported by a three-story underground parking garage and sits within a broader complex containing a county-run recreation and community center, luxury apartments, and office space. These facilities are not retail products in the conventional sense, but they are important elements of the destination's operating environment and customer access proposition.

1. 1The Shops at Wisconsin Placeen.wikipedia.org