New Restaurants in Ballston are Worthy Addition to Neighborhood, says Josh Kurstin

Plenty of fanfare accompanies a new business opening in the community. This establishment will offer many things to residents, whether it’s new dining options, a shopping space or ratable that adds to the municipal tax base. The addition of a Hawaiian poke bowl restaurant to the Ballston section of Arlington County, Virginia proves that underutilized commercial space can always be put to better use. Josh Kurstin was among those involved in turning part of the Arlington Square building along N. Fairfax Drive into two new restaurants. While this is great for the neighborhood, it’s also a healthy economic indicator for the Washington, D.C. metro area because this is the second Poke it Up location to arrive in the region.

According to a 2019 report from WTOP.com, “the office space above was mostly vacated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2014.” Poke it Up’s arrival thus carved out 1,737 square feet within the Arlington Square building. The University of Phoenix had been the most-recent tenant to lease retail space there and Josh Kurstin represented the educational operation during the recent deal. He worked with representatives from H&R Retail, Brookfield Property Partners, Paraclete Realty and HUSB Commercial Real Estate Services. Commercial real estate experts would agree that there are a few take-aways from the scope of this deal. The first, according to Josh Kurstin, is that no deals are done independently. The large number of moving parts means that all parties must express their “wants” and “needs” in the agreement so all requirements are satisfied when signatures are inked. This was accomplished within the Poke it Up deal so it’s a project that Kurstin and all others involved can proudly point to.

The poke bowl restaurant — which is known for its raw fish preparation — was joined by “fast-casual soup and sandwich shop” Zoup! Together, the eateries were expected to grow into local favorites for either mid-day lunch for local workers during weekdays or something to swing by during weekend evenings. Knowing your customer base is crucial for a project like this to work and Zoup! as well as Poke it Up clearly did their homework. That’s not to say Josh Kurstin and those he worked with weren’t instrumental; it just took some due diligence on behalf of the eateries to determine if Ballston was the right neighborhood for them to move into. Time will tell if this was the case but we expect it will be.