Walk south down Wisconsin Avenue on a Tuesday morning and the block between Jenifer and Western reads differently than it did two summers ago. The old Mazza Gallerie signage is gone. In its place: a seven-story building with a rippling masonry facade, a Wisconsin Avenue frontage lit up by a food hall that opened in March, and a TJ Maxx that quietly reopened last August in the space it always occupied. If you live in Chevy Chase or Friendship Heights, you have probably already integrated one or two of these into your week without thinking of them as new.
They are new. And there are more coming. This is a plain-language field guide to what has changed on the corridor in the last twelve months, what to do this week, and what to watch for before the leaves turn.
This week on the block
National Night Out lands on Tuesday, August 4, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the plaza at Wisconsin Place, hosted by the Village of Friendship Heights and the Friendship Heights Alliance with free giveaways, food, music, and community partners on hand. It is a short walk from most of the co-ops on Willard, from the single-family blocks east of Wisconsin, and from anywhere along Somerset Terrace. If you have been meaning to meet the neighbors who moved into Residences at Mazza this spring, this is the low-effort way to do it.
What actually opened, in order
The corridor has been reshuffling on a real schedule. If you want the timeline in one glance:
- August 28, 2025 — TJ Maxx returns. The longtime staple reopened in its 41,165-square-foot Wisconsin Avenue space, back in the same corner it occupied when the mall was still called Mazza Gallerie.
- Fall 2025 — Total Wine & More opens. The 29,135-square-foot store took the lower level, with wine, beer, spirits, mixers, and gourmet snacks under one roof.
- March 12, 2026 — Wonder food hall opens at 5300 Wisconsin Avenue NW. A ribbon-cutting at 4:30 p.m. was followed by a grand-opening celebration at 5:00 with samples from Wonder's restaurant partners and giveaways for the first hundred guests, including desserts from Caroline Ta of SweetsbyCaroline and live music from jazz artist Elijah Jamal Balbed. Hours run daily from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.
- 2026, still to come. Inspire Nail Bar is slated for the former Mazza Gallerie space, and a fast-casual salad concept with grain bowls and smoothies is coming to the corridor.
That is a lot of dated activity for a stretch of Wisconsin Avenue that residents had, fairly, written off during the long dark of the mall's decline.
The food hall that stayed, and the one that didn't
Worth understanding, because it explains the whole rhythm of the block: Friendship Heights had two food halls competing for weeknight dinner and Saturday-afternoon lunch traffic, and only one survived.
The Heights Food Hall above Whole Foods closed in August 2025 after a two-year run. Around the same time, Wonder signed its lease at the base of Residences at Mazza. The two concepts were different. The Heights leaned on a single executive chef running a lineup of stalls. Wonder Friendship Heights lets diners choose from dishes inspired by celebrated chefs such as Bobby Flay, Marcus Samuelsson, and Michael Symon, alongside Wonder restaurants like Royal Greens and Alanza, plus favorites including Tejas Barbecue and Magnolia Bakery. Spanning 3,252 square feet, it features Wonder's signature green palette, warm wood finishes, and digital kiosks for ordering.
Practically, this means the neighborhood's default "we can't decide what to eat" answer has moved from the second floor above Whole Foods to the ground floor across from Trader Joe's future storefront. If you were a regular at The Heights, you already know what has happened to your Wednesday routine.
What is coming next along Wisconsin
The block is not done. Four projects, in various stages of planning and construction, will shape what the corridor looks like by the time next spring's cherry blossoms hit:
- Trader Joe's, across the street. Residents already benefit from close proximity to Trader Joe's coming soon across the street, along with Whole Foods, Rodman's, Starbucks, Bloomingdale's, and Sephora.
- The former Brooks Brothers site at 5500 Wisconsin. Donohoe is bringing a new development just across the Maryland border with housing, retail, and a pedestrian walkway.
- The former Fox 5 building. Donohoe is also heading up a project there with apartments and a ground-floor cafe with outdoor seating.
- Friendship Center. Federal Realty is set to redevelop the center, home to Maggiano's and DSW, into new retail and housing.
Read those together and the pattern is clear. Every remaining piece of surface parking, single-story retail, and dark office box along this stretch of Wisconsin is on someone's redevelopment map. The corridor is being knit back together, block by block, into something denser and more walkable than what most current residents moved next to.
The building doing the heavy lifting
If you have wondered what the wavy new facade is about, it belongs to Residences at Mazza. The seven-story apartment building at 5300 Wisconsin Avenue NW blends refined architecture and resort-style amenities with walkability and transit access, and its undulating sculptural facade, designed by Danish firm 3XN with architect of record Eric Colbert Associates, creates dynamic angles that maximize natural light across all 321 residences. At street level, a 70,000-square-foot retail concourse activates the sidewalk with everyday conveniences for both residents and neighbors.
For long-time neighbors, the "so what" is not the amenity list. It is the 321 new households on the block, spending money at the same coffee counters, sidewalks, and Metro entrance you already use. Friendship Heights is experiencing a resurgence, and Residences at Mazza is the area's first new residential community to open in more than fifteen years. Fifteen years is a long time to go without new neighbors. The demographic weight of a full building shifts what stays open past nine and what shows up on weekend brunch menus.
A resident's late-summer rotation
If you have not yet worked the new pieces into your week, here is a practical way to try them without rearranging your life:
- Tuesday, August 4: Walk over to the Wisconsin Place plaza for National Night Out. Two hours, no reservation.
- A weeknight you would normally cook: Order across three cuisines at Wonder, eat at the counter, walk home. It is designed for indecision.
- Weekend errand loop: Trader Joe's future storefront is worth scoping now so you know the crossing. Pair TJ Maxx with Total Wine on the way home and skip the second parking stop.
- A cultural detour: The Friendship Heights Alliance has been steadily programming public space in the corridor. Check its calendar before you assume there is nothing on this weekend.
Why this matters for anyone who owns here
Real estate is a long game, and the corridor's transformation is what economists call a slow variable. It does not move a comp overnight. Over a few years, though, three things tend to follow a shift like this. Ground-floor retail vacancy drops, which changes the feel of the walk to the Metro. Restaurant density crosses a threshold where the neighborhood becomes a destination for people from other zip codes, which changes weekend foot traffic. And new-construction apartments give buyers a reference point for what "new" costs, which quietly resets expectations for the older single-family stock a few blocks east.
You do not have to sell to benefit from any of that. You do have to notice it, because the next time an out-of-town friend asks what has changed in Chevy Chase, the honest answer is: the corner. Specifically. And on a schedule.
If you are weighing a move within the neighborhood, a sale in the next twelve to twenty-four months, or a purchase that hinges on how the corridor evolves, Haleh Troy advises Chevy Chase and Friendship Heights owners through exactly these decisions. Let's Connect.
