WHICH SUITS the new Washington Ave better: sidewalk-fronting buildings or strip centers? If ever there were a project that illustrated that fundamental choice, it’s this one. New exterior renderings from developer NewQuest show the block of Washington between Leverkuhn and Jackson Hill St., just west of Five Guys’s strip center spot, redone as Washington Central — a shopping center with one building set back from the street and the other left out on the curb.
The 9,040-sq.-ft. planned strip center building shown fronting the parking lot in the renderings above provides some company for the existing brick building east of it. Planted on the corner of Washington and Leverkuhn since 1930, the 2-story structure has been empty since Guadalajara Bakery shuttered in it nearly 6 years ago.
New large windows open the bakery building — shown below with some legalese on its face — onto the street:
An awninged main entrance leads out to small seating area west of the building. A view from the planned parking lot that joins the 2 buildings shows a bike rack behind the old bakery, next to a portion of the lot that wraps around its south side:
NewQuest’s leasing flyer calls out plans to whitewash the brick facade. Here’s what the building’s exterior looks like now, viewed from the south end of the block near Lillian St.:
That pile of metal lying close to Washington is left over from the after-party at the La Roux nightclub, during which demolition crews trashed the venue built around and behind the Guadalajara building in 2016. The club closed after an entity connected to Zadok Jewelers bought it — along with the rest of the 39,000-sq.-ft. block — last year.
La Roux’s entrance was on Leverkuhn, next to the old bakery’s south side:
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