Trafalgar Flats
March 7, 2017, Update July 2020
Neighborhood Center: Barcroft
Located at 4704 Columbia Pike
All apartments have been sold but at the moment none of the retail space has been rented. One of the new bus stations is installed in front of the building.
At the West Columbia Pike Coalition meeting last week (january 2019) Marwin Shahin announced that Trafalgar Flats is almost complete (it has since been completed) and is expected to be to have some occupancy by March. At the moment 49 units, priced in the mid $200s - low $500s have already been sold, mostly to Millennials.
It has 78 units which includes 1 and 2 bedroom apartments and studios, a Gym and Lounge, 78 parking spaces for tenants, 17 parking spaces for retail customers, a 3,572 square foot private courtyard, 8,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, indoor bike storage.
New Complex
78 residential units,
87 underground parking spaces
3,572 square foot private courtyard.
8,000 square feet of ground-floor retail,
10 shared (visitor/customer) parking spaces
28 reserved bicycle spaces within secure storage facility
Rear and east alley for access to parking and loading
History
From Roy Rodgers to El Tutumaso
There have been a number of resturants at this location. For many years there was a Roy Rodgers. A second Bob and Edith's Diner was also here for a while but was not as sucessful as the B&E to the east on the Pike. Then for a short time it was the Sausca Resturant which had closed by 2012. El Tutumaso came next and was the last restaurant to occupy this building. Also there was at least one busy food truck in the parking lot most of the time.Feedback
I got a number of comments and feedback from Barcroft residents. Some to corrected me on the chronology of the restaurants at this location. Based on the feedback a correction has been made above.
Others remembered that there had been a Hotshoppes Jr and also a Pappy Parker's Fried Chicken before there was a Roy Rodgers. Others wrote to say that Bob and Ediths had been very busy whenever they were there including:
Gary Mason
The Bob & Edith's II restaurant was indeed popular with patrons from the surrounding neighborhoods, including from Barcroft.
According to B&E II's manager at the time its demise was due to the loss of a key facet of its financial mainstay the very late night/early morning customers from the apartments along South Four Mile Run Drive, especially the very large Virginia Gardens Apartments (VGA) complex between South George Mason Drive and South Walter Reed Drive. When the VGA closed, going into an extended period of major renovations, it displaced a sizable portion of the restaurants clientele out of the area. So much so that the restaurant was only occasionally able to break even with reduced hours. Following the VGA renovations the new tenants differed significantly from their predecessors, culturally and economically. But whether they would have been drawn to BE II in sufficient numbers to restore it to profitability is unknown since the restaurant did not survive the loss of patronage brought on by the earlier renovations.
