Ledo building is swiss cheese

There was some recent buzz at PQLiving of a possible late spring opening of Ledo Pizza at 433 Mass Ave. A few Triangle residents had serious doubts regarding this heresay. Ledo Pizza has no posted permits or signs of construction activity.

I've dug around a little deeper to learn details about the building's condition. The Mass Ave fronting facade appears to be in reasonable condition (for a vacant) to passers-by. However the rear exterior of the building is missing entire walls leaving the structure open to the elements and basically little more than a shell. Any future build out would not simply be to customize the interior to suit the business use. Substantial construction work is also needed to make the structure complete and the building inhabitable. Difficult to accomplish when financing has dried up.



With the amount of equity and effort that would need to be invested to turn this shell into a Ledo Pizza it is easy to wonder why the owner did not sell. Also questionable is the choice of business. Pizza franchises need delivery service to be viable. Where would Ledo's delivery drivers park? Restaurants produce lots of waste however the rear of the building is only accessible by a roughly 3 foot wide walk way. The plan seems doomed to failure. Unfortunately demolition by neglect may be a more likely outcome than the signature Ledo square pizza pies...

Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!

Okay, the exclamations points really weren't warranted. The new pizza vendors coming to the Triangle are merely national chains. I don't even like Papa Johns. However it is promising to begin to see some additional retail will arrive to the Triangle soon. Where do we think these delivery drivers are going to park? It's especially puzzling for Ledo Pizza. Let's hope it's their solution isn't double parking on Mass Ave.

PQLiving broke the news on the new Papa Johns coming to 311 H St NW a few weeks back. The tarp has since come down and the signage has gone up. I've also peered into the storefront and have seen that the front counter would seem to be <= 8 feet from the front door. Seems likely this location will be strictly carryout and delivery.


I've also previously written about the future Ledo Pizza at 433 Mass Ave NW.

Ledo property to be demolished?

In February of this year I learned that 433 Mass Ave, which is commonly referred to as the Ledo Pizza property, was an unsecured shell. An entire rear wall was missing leaving the interior exposed to the elements and vagrants. Additionally the neglectful owners had left a dumpster and chain link fence protruding over 20ft into the public sidewalk space.

Photo of Ledo property from Feb 2009

At that time Councilmember Tommy Wells office, MPD and other DC agencies were contacted about this unsafe and blighted property. The issue has recently come to a head. Rumors I've heard is that the District government has notified the property owner that they will demolish the building.

The owner has in turn finally scrambled into action to get the property up to code. The chain link fence and the dumpster have been removed and sod grass has been laid down in the public space. As the most egregious structural defects were never visible from street (i.e. the missing rear wall) I'm not sure if they've been remedied yet. Should be interesting to see how this unfolds.

$2Million declined for a 200,000 property

The blog For the Love of Growth (DC That is) wrote an interesting post about the rowhouse at 433 Mass Ave that The Dumont and Penzance Building had to build around. Apparently the owner of the property turned down 2 to 3 million dollars for a property assessed at just shy of $200K. One source suggested he wanted $17 million. He has reportedly taken out a 650K loan to open a Ledo Pizza. He'll have to sell alot of pizza pies to earn 2 million. =)

The WashingtonPost has more on owner Austin Spriggs and his decision (part1 | part2).