Business

Lidl Grocery Comes to Ward 7

THE AFRO — It looks like Ward 7 will get a another grocery option as Mayor Muriel Bowser announced plans to bring Lidl Grocery to the Skyland Town Center.

Published

6 years ago

June 2, 2019

Oakland Post

By George Kevin Jordan

It looks like Ward 7 will get a another grocery option as Mayor Muriel Bowser announced plans to bring Lidl Grocery to the Skyland Town Center.

“Lidl is a fantastic grocery store – a grocery store that we are proud to be bringing to the residents of Ward 7,” said Mayor Bowser in a press conference. “Lidl knows what we know: Every corner of Washington, D.C. is a great place to do business. As we continue working to make our city’s prosperity more inclusive, this partnership is a reflection of the work we are doing to bring high-quality resources and amenities to every part of our city – amenities that will set our families and neighborhoods up for long-term success.”

Bowser along with Rappaport Development and WC Smith made the announcement this week during RECon, the yearly gathering of International Council of Shopping Centers, held in Las Vegas, NV. The Skyland Town Center is a sprawling 18-acre project located at the intersection of Good Hope Road, Alabama Avenue and Naylor Road, Southeast.

Lidl US, which is an international company, started in Ludwigshafen (25 miles south of Frankfurt) in 1973, according to the site. By the 1990s the store increased its imprint across Europe making its way to the US in 2017.

Today the company operates, 10,500 stores across 29 countries. They have 65 stores in nine states along the east coast. Lidl will utilize 29,089 square feet of the Skyland space. CVS will also make its home in the town center.

“We are committed to opening stores in the most convenient location for our customers,” said Johannes Fieber, CEO of Lidl US in a statement. “We selected Skyland Town Center because it offers District residents an easily accessible, convenient and visible site. Understanding the history of the site and the tremendous anticipation from the community, we look forward to building a store customized for the shoppers of Skyland Town Center.”

Landing Lidl was a collaborative effort between Rappaport and WC Smith, who spearheaded the retail and residential leasing, along with District Government, and others like Skyland D.C. and the Washington East Foundation, who have been on the Skyland redevelopment for 15 years.

“Lidl’s decision to locate at Skyland Town Center means that our future residents will have a top-quality supermarket at their doorstep,” says WC Smith CEO, Chris Smith. “WC Smith has long been active in this part of Southeast, Washington, as we manage 4,300 apartments in Wards 7 and 8. Having Lidl so conveniently located will provide a significant boost to the neighborhood and a much-needed service to the people who live there.”

The road to bringing an anchor store to Skyland has been a long one with many people grateful for this week’s news. Councilmember Vincent Gray (Ward-7) said in a press statement:

“I am pleased that Lidl U.S. will open one of its full-service grocery stores in Ward 7 at the Skyland Town Center. We have worked long and hard to bring a solid anchor to Skyland,” Gray wrote.

“This is a significant step toward providing more food options and helping to ensure the future of the East End as a desired location for retail and hospitality opportunities.

Since my return to the Council, I have introduced three East End bills focused on ending food deserts in Wards 7 and 8 by incentivizing greater economic development and bringing needed amenities to the East End. One of these bills targets nine development sites in Wards 7 and 8, including Skyland, for retail, restaurants and full-service grocery stores. Securing an anchor for Skyland after Walmart reneged on its commitment to open a store at Skyland is an incredible feat.”

Skyland Town Center will offer over 135,000 square feet of retail space and 450 to 500 residential apartments. About 263 apartments will open in 2020. Construction on the project started in 2015.

This article originally appeared in The Afro.

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Oakland Post: Week of May 7 – 13, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 7 – 13, 2025

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The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 30 – May 6, 2025

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California Rideshare Drivers and Supporters Step Up Push to Unionize

Today in California, over 600,000 rideshare drivers want the ability to form or join unions for the sole purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid and protection. It’s a right, and recently at the State Capitol, a large number of people, including some rideshare drivers and others working in the gig economy, reaffirmed that they want to exercise it.

Published

3 weeks ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

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By Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌
California‌ ‌Black‌ ‌Media‌

On July 5, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into federal law the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Also known as the “Wagner Act,” the law paved the way for employees to have “the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations,” and “to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, according to the legislation’s language.

On April 8, the rideshare drivers held a rally with lawmakers to garner support for Assembly Bill (AB) 1340, the “Transportation Network Company Drivers (TNC) Labor Relations Act.”

Authored by Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), AB 1340 would allow drivers to create a union and negotiate contracts with industry leaders like Uber and Lyft.

“All work has dignity, and every worker deserves a voice — especially in these uncertain times,” Wicks said at the rally. “AB 1340 empowers drivers with the choice to join a union and negotiate for better wages, benefits, and protections. When workers stand together, they are one of the most powerful forces for justice in California.”

Wicks and Berman were joined by three members of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC): Assemblymembers Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood), Sade Elhawary (D-Los Angeles), and Isaac Bryan (D-Ladera Heights).

Yvonne Wheeler, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor; April Verrett, President of Service Employees International Union (SEIU); Tia Orr, Executive Director of SEIU; and a host of others participated in the demonstration on the grounds of the state capitol.

“This is not a gig. This is your life. This is your job,” Bryan said at the rally. “When we organize and fight for our collective needs, it pulls from the people who have so much that they don’t know what to do with it and puts it in the hands of people who are struggling every single day.”

Existing law, the “Protect App-Based Drivers and Services Act,” created by Proposition (Prop) 22, a ballot initiative, categorizes app-based drivers for companies such as Uber and Lyft as independent contractors.

Prop 22 was approved by voters in the November 2020 statewide general election. Since then, Prop 22 has been in court facing challenges from groups trying to overturn it.

However, last July, Prop 22 was upheld by the California Supreme Court last July.

In a 2024, statement after the ruling, Lyft stated that 80% of the rideshare drivers they surveyed acknowledged that Prop 22 “was good for them” and “median hourly earnings of drivers on the Lyft platform in California were 22% higher in 2023 than in 2019.”

Wicks and Berman crafted AB 1340 to circumvent Prop 22.

“With AB 1340, we are putting power in the hands of hundreds of thousands of workers to raise the bar in their industry and create a model for an equitable and innovative partnership in the tech sector,” Berman said.