Last week, we learned of plans for an ice skating rink on the Georgetown Waterfront. Though we might still bemoan the loss of the Pinball Museum, developers recently filed an application to create a bowling alley and restaurant on the bottom floor of the Georgetown Park Mall. It would include 12 lanes, five bocce courts, banquet rooms, and seating for 100 in the restaurant.

The plan has been submitted by the company Pinstripes (“Strikingly Good Food…and Fun!”) that operates other alleys in Minnesota and Illinois. Games at their other locations cost $5 with a $4 charge for shoes and entrees range in price from $17 to $27.

The developers are already expecting some push back from the neighbors. According the DCist, residents of the 100 condominiums on top of the mall are worried about the noise that the bowling alley could cause as well as any possible reverberations that could be felt throughout the building.

The alley could become a part of the larger renovations that the mall is currently undergoing. The majority of the stores located inside the mall closed in early September and construction on the interior will continue for at least another nine months. Other rumored additions besides the bowling alley are T.J. Maxx, Michael’s and Bloomingdales, which we’ve heard before a few years ago.

It’s the end of a very short era in Georgetown’s retro arcade scene—today, the National Pinball Museum closed its doors in the Shops at Georgetown Park. According to CBS Baltimore, founder David Silverman (pictured left) says that he is closing a lease on a space near Baltimore’s inner harbor, and could move his collection there by the end of the year.

Silverman, who has sunk $300,000 of his own money into renovating the Georgetown space into a pinball paradise, received an eviction notice from Vornado Realty Trust, which owns the Shops at Georgetown Park, in May, ordering him to vacate in July. He was then granted an extension allowing him to stay through Labor Day, when admission to the museum was free.

Vornado, which took ownership of Georgetown Park last year, has a reputation of being severe with their properties, and also manages Springfield Mall. In addition to the Pinball Museum, stores like The Dandelion Patch and Fornash have also reportedly received notices to vacate. There are rumors that Target or Bloomingdale’s could move into the mall, but Vornado will not confirm.

Silverman has over 800 machines in his collection, and his pieces span the history of the game. We at Vox wish Silverman the best, and hope that this pricey, unique collection will find a more suitable audience in Charm City.

h/t: CBS Baltimore, Georgetown Dish
photo: TBD

It must have been too good to last. Only a year after beginning construction and only five months after opening its doors, the National Pinball Museum is being kicked out by new owners of the Shops at Georgetown Park.

WTOP reported that museum owner David Silverman was sent a letter by Vornado Realty informing him that his lease will be terminated in mid-July. Although the museum’s contract ran through December, the new owners have exercised a clause allowing them to end his lease on 60 days notice. According to the Washington Post, Silverman was asked to leave in order to make way for renovations to the mall.

The Post story notes that Silverman spent about $300,000 of his own money to create the museum, which houses about 200 pinball machines. Silverman is currently in the process of trying to find a place to either temporarily house his collection or permanently move his museum once he is forced to leave Georgetown.

h/t: WTOP. Photo: HeyRocker

The Georgetown Current is reporting that retailers Target and Bloomingdale’s may be moving in to the Shops at Georgetown Park.

Both stores are looking to occupy large spaces in the mall according to sources involved with the negotiations.

If the deal goes through it would be significant progress in the previously stalled redevelopment of the mall. Target would likely be located in one of the lower floors of the mall that is less desired by smaller retailers.

In 2008, Bloomingdale’s made its first attempt to move in to Georgetown Park, but those plans were scrapped when the mall owner defaulted and lost ownership of the mall.

The Columbia Heights Target is currently the retailer’s only location in D.C.

Even if the companies decide to move in to Georgetown Park, it could be several years before the stores open for business.

While battle over the Shops at Georgetown Park heats up, at least there’s some hope for some fun on the horizon.

The National Pinball Museum is coming to the Shops, according to the Georgetown Metropolitan. David Silverman, its founder and curator, hopes to open the museum in September.

“I am building it as we speak,” Silverman wrote in an email.

Silverman’s grand plan for the museum includes pinball-themed eateries, exhibits on the history of pinball, and workshops on the construction of pinball machines. However, because he plans to build another museum on yet-to-be purchased land, some of these features might not be coming to Georgetown.

The Pinball Museum currently contains 50 pinball machines and is housed in a building behind Silverman’s Silver Spring home. With the move to Georgetown, he says, the museum can exhibit more of his collection. Silverman owns over 850 pinball machines, including a pinball machine precursor from the 1920s.

The large collection should get plenty of use; the museum will not only have exhibits, but also pinball machines for visitors to play.

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Ever wondered why the Shops at Georgetown Park, which sits on some of the best land in the best-trafficked shopping district in D.C., is nearly half-empty? Dueling kings of real estate, that’s why. And the situation may come to a head, the Washington Post is reporting, when the behemoth structure is sold at auction next month.

The Shops at Georgetown Park is going under foreclosure after its owners defaulted on a $70 million loan. But the owners of the Shops have actually been in litigation for years, nearly since Herbert S. Miller and his company, Western Development, bought the Shops in 2006 for $84 million. Anthony Lanier, a Georgetown developer who owns like, half of M Street and Wisconsin Avenue, commenced suing Miller, saying they had agreed to buy the Shops together.

The litigation made tenants nervous and they began to bail on the Shops, and Miller’s company lost the deal with Bloomingdale, which was supposed to anchor the Shops at Georgetown Park. Now, “56 percent of the property, or 168,000 of the 300,000 square feet, sits empty,” writes the Post. And attorneys for Western Development are very clear about who’s to blame.

“He’s destroyed that property,” [Western attorney Scott Morrison] told the Post about Lanier. “He’s driven down the value on that property by probably $30 million.”

So look for a brawl at the upcoming auction, where Lanier could attempt to buy the structure. Morrison, Miller and Western Development’s attorney, said Miller will probably retain ownership, but then there’s the $50 million lawsuit with Lanier to deal with—which would still leave the Shops at Georgetown Park half-empty.

Carol Joynt, the former Nathan’s owner who’s ever watchful for Georgetown businesses that are opening or folding, is reporting on her blog that Benetton and Aldo are both doing suspicious “remodeling” that indicates that they’re pulling out of Georgetown. If they indeed close for good, they’ll join a long list of big names that have left Georgetown in the last few months, including Up Against the Wall, Commander Salamander, and American Eagle.

Carol Joynt, who’s well-connected in the Georgetown rumor mill, has also heard that Ristorante Piccolo, a date-night favorite that was finally going to be reopened this year after being routed by a three-alarm fire in 2008, may not reopen after all. They’ve undergone nearly complete rennovations, but they are reported to be having trouble with their insurers. Finally, Joynt reports that a Bloomingdale’s is not completely out of the question for the Shops at Georgetown Park—it’s just on the back burner.

Sigh. At least we’ll have an Apple Store soon…

On Saturday evening, a female salesperson at the H&M in Georgetown was beaten and sprayed with pepper spray. The woman who assaulted her was one of four women the victim had recognized as shoplifters and had been following as they walked around the store.

Unusually, the report about the incident from the Metropolitan Police Department does not list the store where the incident took place, only that it took place on the second floor of the shop. The victim of the crime, however, confirmed for Vox that she was an employee at the Georgetown H&M.

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Last year, the Voice got excited by the prospect of Bloomingdale’s setting up shop in the Shops at Georgetown Park on M Street, but now it looks like it’s not to be: the department store has pulled out of the project, according to a recent article in the Georgetown Current [PDF].

According to the Current, Bloomingdale’s—which was going to be the main attraction in a revamped Georgetown Park complex—backed out because of on-going litigation over the ownership of the development:

A Bloomingdale’s spokesperson declined to comment on the change, but an attorney for Western Development, which owns the retail-residential complex, confirmed the news.

“It is our understanding that given this litigation, Bloomingdale’s will not be proceeding as the anchor tenant,” said attorney Scott Morrison.