Courtesy of the Angels

Three retailers (L-R: Stephanie Fornash, Heidi Kallet and Kassie Rempel) are determined to bring traffic back to the Shops at Georgetown, one cute accessory at a time.

Rebirth of Shops at Georgetown Park

There’s a blonde, a brunette and a redhead, and while their weapons of choice are shoes and handbags versus swords and nunchucks—these angels aren’t too far from the Charlie’s Angels we know and love.

Meet the Georgetown Angels, three friends and retail owners in the Shops at Georgetown Park (3222 M St., NW). Kassie Rempel is the owner of SimplySoles, Heidi Kallet (The Dandelion Patch) just came on the scene—her newest branch opened in the mall last October—and Stephanie Fornash Kennedy has been a tenant in the Shops (Fornash Designs) for eight years.

Their mission is big, but simple:

“We want to breathe life into this mall again,” Rempel says. Sitting at a table within Kallet’s store with the three angels, two things are clear. One, these gals are tight-knit—they teasingly rib one another in between answering questions—and two, they’re passionate about their craft, and the mall.

Kallet emphatically rattles off statistics she learned at a show in New York, “You know them, right?” she says. “A dollar spent in a national chain, 43 cents stays local, while a dollar spent in a local store, 67 cents stays local. If you buy online, then no dollars stay local.”

Out of the 50-plus stores in the mall, the majority of them—such as the three the Angels own—are local D.C. retailers amid the larger chain stores on bustling M Street and off of Wisconsin Avenue.

With a bright logo (right) plastered on the front window of each store and a joint mailing to introduce the newly branded “Georgetown Angels,” the women hope to usher in foot traffic to their second home.

“We would love to have events in the mall that are inclusive of other tenants,” Kallet says. “We’re trying to pitch ideas to management to see what they’ll allow, but I’d love to do something like a flash mob dance scene in the mall, charity events or a mother’s day tea.”

The other plan is to put the Shops at Georgetown Park on the map—literally. The Angels are working with a local PR firm to develop a sponsored map specifically noting all the boutiques in Georgetown.

“All of the stores will have them to promote one another, and hopefully that will bring people who might usually just shop on Book Hill,” Kennedy says. “Over the years, it’s just gotten really quiet here.”

The women agree that it’s lack of marketing that deters tourists and locals from stepping foot inside the mall, which is why they’ve taken matters into their own hands. The Angels plan on being advocates for improvements to the mall in addition to making it a social destination—“a united voice”—Rempel says.

Some of the “missions” the Angels have to take on include the lack of lighting in the mall, getting back parking validation for the garage and pushing for a reconstruction to make the mall more accessible and noticeable from M Street.

True, the women have a lot on their plate, something that will take more than the Lilybees from SimplySoles, a smart agenda from the Dandelion Patch and accessories from Fornash Designs, but the determination is clear.

“Failure is not an option for me,” Kallet says.

To find out more and get in touch with the Georgetown Angels, visit the Facebook page here.