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Behind the Bustle: How the Georgetown Waterfront Powers a Consumer Ecosystem

Edited by Maya Crowden

What draws consumers to spaces? What do businesses owe their surroundings?

People watching is enjoyable and helps power the businesses along the Georgetown Waterfront. While the ability to “people watch” is not an easily-quantifiable element of space, identifying and capitalizing on these kinds of intangible neighborhood elements are key in creating vibrant environments for local businesses.

In a time when CoStar is making troubling assessments about DC’s rising retail vacancies and slowing rent growth, understanding what makes an area special to visitors helps decision-makers create vibrant, experiential offerings that make visitors come back again and again.

The Georgetown Waterfront is one of the most well-known areas in DC that draws locals and tourists to a mix of experiential offerings and a blend of restaurants, bars, and shopping. With CoStar’s insights in mind, the team at Basil Labs decided to take a look at consumer experience along the Waterfront, analyzing the national park and a selection of businesses. What we wanted to know is: Why do people come back here again and again? What makes the Georgetown Waterfront and its businesses such familiar, comfortable choices for so many people?

At First Glance

Our analysis was powered by BasilCX, our in-house engine that aggregates and transforms millions of online, geolocated reviews and social media posts into concise analytics through AI. We focused on:

  • Georgetown Waterfront Park, a national park along the Potomac River
  • The Washington Harbour, a mixed-use development housing a number of restaurants, river cruises, an ice rink, and summer concerts
  • AMC Georgetown Theater
  • Starbucks, along K Street
  • Fiola Mare, Nick’s Riverside Grill, and Tony and Joe’s Seafood Place, all restaurants with outdoor seating along the waterfront

The Georgetown Waterfront Park

One of my favorite places in DC to people watch is at the Georgetown Waterfront; I just never realized how many other people share this simple joy as well.

The Georgetown Waterfront Park is the staple of the area, drawing in people from all walks of life to exercise, spend time with family and friends and relax by the water. After analyzing the top narratives mentioned by park visitors, we found the quality of the scenery was the topic with the most mentions and the highest average sentiment score, shown with dark blues on the bar chart above (darker orange reflects negative sentiment). Following “scenic,” the next most positive topics were “bars and restaurants around” and “relax and lounge,” a topic in which visitors describe the relaxed vibe of the park and the ability to people watch or sit and read a book and tune out the bustle of the city.

As one individual stated about the Waterfront Park, “I always love going there. So relaxing to people watch, watch boats going by, couples posing for engagement photos, etc.”

Another person commented, “Perfect place to take a river side walk and enjoy the sun. Perfect place to run or for a casual romantic walk. People watching. Bird and nature watching. Good food options. Lively place.”

These intangible aspects of an area, its ability to serve as a perfect place to run or a casual romantic walk, is rooted in the area’s design, ample seating, viewpoints, accessibility, and offerings.

Neighboring Businesses — Here’s Where It Gets Interesting

What do businesses owe their environments? How and to whom do they act on this debt?

The question our team wanted to answer was: What elements make visitors and consumers return again and again? From our brief overview of consumer experience at the Georgetown Waterfront Park, we began to realize the importance of an area’s holistic “vibe” and atmosphere for a visitor’s experience. We discovered that utilitarian factors such as available outdoor space only accounted for a fraction of consumer experience.

The bar charts for both the waterside restaurants and the Georgetown AMC theater reflect topic distributions one might expect for their industries. However, the frequency at which the topic “nearby places,” a topic reflecting the availability of shopping and general locations nearby, and “bar and restaurants around,” a topic specifically regarding the availability of bars and restaurants, are mentioned demonstrate the ecosystem benefits that businesses in the Georgetown area benefit from one another.

“By the water,” “park,” and “scenic” are also topics mentioned frequently and positively across both the restaurants and the theater. In our analyses of other areas in the Greater Washington Metropolitan region, we have not encountered this level of overlap between a location and its environment, particularly for a business like a movie theater where attendants tend to focus on elements inside the movie theater rather than outside.

Implications of the Ecosystem

These businesses benefit from their location and proximity to the national park. The park benefits from surrounding businesses and the events and offerings the businesses provide. Yet, the park was only completed in 2011 and was the result of many years of advocacy and fundraising. If these businesses are undoubtedly benefiting from their location, specifically the proximity to the national park, what conceivable obligations do these businesses owe the park and to one other? How can these consumer narratives such as “nearby stores,” “outdoor seating,” “with family and friends,” or relax and lounge” be fostered through formal private-public partnerships and mutual responsibilities to ensure a consistent experience for visitors?

In the DC Office of Planning’s 2010 Retail Action Roadmap, the Office details many of the opportunities and challenges facing Washington, DC as a whole as well as neighborhood by neighborhood. The report strongly focused on direct retail elements that need to be strengthened, such as fostering entrepreneurship in DC retail. However, the report’s neighborhood sections did not explicitly address public spaces nor the intangible value these spaces offer surrounding retailers.

These elements are often not formally included in roadmaps and analyses because it is difficult to quantify what is traditionally analyzed through qualitative means. Nevertheless, these qualitative aspects of a neighborhood are what make visitors come back again and again.

Qualitative narratives like “scenic” or “relax and lounge” were some of the highest performing narratives across the locations and topics we analyzed. Both received positive average sentiment scores alongside four or five-star reviews, suggesting visitors who interact with these elements of the Waterfront have more positive impressions of the area overall.

However, maintaining the Waterfront area may be an increasingly costly endeavor. In April 2011, flood waters cost the Waterfront Harbor development $20 million in damages. While areas like The Wharf were planned with future sea-level rise in mind, organizations such as Climate Central have estimated that rising sea levels may impact an estimated $5 billion worth of DC property.

Nevertheless, areas along the Potomac continue to enjoy high consumer traffic. A recent article by The Washington Post covered the rapidly-changing Navy Yard. Residents can look forward to F&B locations including Union Kitchen Grocery, Cold Stone Creamery, Compass Coffee, and Atlas Brew Works, and Buzzard Point will feature a restaurant from the owner of Georgetown’s Tony and Joe’s and a seafood-centric restaurant from the team behind Ivy City Smokehouse.

If there is one takeaway from our analysis of the Georgetown Waterfront, it is that businesses alone cannot force a vibrant space. A collection of businesses can contribute to a retail ecosystem that consumers value, like the offerings in the Navy Yard that The Washington Post article describes. However, to truly foster the intangible elements of a space to make people come back again and again, neighborhood elements must exponentially contribute to one another. Neighborhood elements must bring together public spaces with retail, supporting events, and activities while also creating quiet nooks and viewpoints for people to enjoy with family and friends or sit back alone and people watch.

Take A Deeper Look

We’ve just scratched the surface on what’s possible. If you’re interested in taking a closer look at our analysis or want to learn more about how consumers experience your area, connect with us at basillabs.org.

Photos from washington.org, DC Eater, Inspirock, Flicker: BrownPau

Consumer Behavior
Washington DC
Georgetown
Data Science
Real Estate
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