Next Neighborhood - NoMa

The Next Neighborhood

NOMA - NORTH OF MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE

DC is among the most expensive cities in the country, which means the art of living in DC is the art of finding a great deal. The best place to start? Look in fast-growing neighborhoods like NoMa to snatch up a great real estate deal while the getting’s good.

Named for its location north of Massachusetts Avenue, NoMa is an emerging neighborhood with modern developments rising from old industrial lots. In its southern end, beaux-arts Union Station houses a shopping arcade. On the area’s eastern fringes, hip Union Market has stalls and shops selling everything from artisan cheese and Korean tacos to home decor, plus an adjacent distillery and pop-up indie movie theater.

It is best known as a transportation hub and the home of Union Market, a restored grocery and specialty food hall that’s at the epicenter of DC’s gourmet scene. It’s also home to Gallaudet University, the nation’s first college for deaf and hard-of-hearing students, and National Public Radio.

Union Market, located in a restored, midcentury food hall, caters to couples, kids, and chefs with its mix of restaurants, kitchen supply retailers, and gourmet shops selling spices, meat, and such. Creative businesses have popped up in the industrial zone surrounding the market, too, including an Angelika movie theater, Masseria, a Michelin-starred Italian restaurant from chef Nicholas Stefanelli, and La Cosecha, a contemporary Latin American marketplace.

For International Women’s Day in 2015, LA-based graffiti artist Mr. Brainwash created a heart-filled mural at Union Market that has quickly become one of the neighborhood’s most Instagramable images.

Shops and restaurants have continued to redevelop historic buildings and push northeast through the NoMa neighborhood and across the border into Ivy City which has itself become home to distilleries, acclaimed restaurants, and much more. The Uline Arena, a barrel-vaulted brick building that hosted the Beatles' first U.S. concert now holds a flagship REI store and Red Bear Brewing Co., the District’s only 100 percent gay-owned brewery. The second-busiest Amtrak hub in the nation, Union Station is situated along Massachusetts Avenue NE. With shopping, restaurants, and tours galore, Union Station is a good first stop on your trip to the NoMa neighborhood. You can also find Capital Bikeshare stations near NoMa, or hop on the eight-mile-long Metropolitan Branch Trail here, which goes all the way to Silver Spring, Md.