AYT Auto Service, Institute Leaving 14th Street at Year’s End
AYT Auto Service at 1630 14th Street NW is leaving at the end of 2011. The company has five other locations. The company’s Institute is also leaving, likely for Northeast DC. Next door to the south is Miss Pixie’s Furnishings and Whatnot. (Luis Gomez Photos)
The general manager for AYT’s six auto repair shops confirmed Friday that the company will close its location at 1630 14th Street NW on December 31. In addition, the AYT Training Institute, which trains mechanics and technicians, will move to a new location, according to Jim Harris, who managers the company’s six shops.
“We are still looking for a new location. The institute should be moving to Northeast DC, but that is not locked in,” said Harris. He said the company had tired to find a new space in the general vicinity in Northwest DC to replace the Auto Service Center closing on 14th Street, but was unsuccessful.
Adjacent to the AYT location is the future site of The Aston, a 31-unit condo building that will have first-floor retail; the lot at the southwest corner of 14th and R Streets was once a parking lot for both AYT and Zipcar.
What’s in store for the two-story building that also encompasses Miss Pixie’s Furnishings & Whatnot? Pixie Windsor said in August that she was searching for a new lease after her current one runs out at the end of March 2012. and The space above Windsor’s store was formerly home to Mid City Caffe, wwhich closed in October. Mimilah Modern Vintage opened last weekend in the former Caffe space “for a few months.”
Will the building be renovated? Could the current owners add additional floors to it, or would a tear-down be another scenario?
AYT’s closing is part of a trend on the 14th Street corridor that has accelerated this year as general retail and service stores depart — often with restaurants and upscale furnishing stores replacing them.
