Walk into a former bank building on 4th Street NE right now and you will find a vault. Not a museum piece. A working relic, its walls painted neon green and cobalt blue, sitting inside a former 1950s PNC branch that now sells racks of late-1980s denim and vintage glassware. The shop is called Vintage Vintage Vintage, and it moved into that building in August 2025, more than a year ago. It is still getting written up. A Hoodline feature on the shop ran just this month, tracing owner's path from an Etsy disco-ball business she started in 2020 to a full storefront with an intact vault.
That staying power is the tell. Union Market has spent a decade being described as a food hall with extras. The last twelve months of leasing activity says the extras are the point now.
The lineup that isn't food
Look at what has signed on to open around 5th Street NE this year and next, and the pattern breaks from what you'd expect. Le Labo, the design-forward fragrance brand, is slated for 1260 4th Street NE this quarter. Solidcore, the reformer-based fitness studio, is set for 1326 5th Street in the fourth quarter. LaserAway, a national med spa chain, is targeting the same quarter at 1324 5th Street. The Forum, an expanded design showroom serving office landlords and tenants, is aiming for a fall opening at 1328 5th Street. Howl to the Chief, a local pet boutique with grooming and boarding, has already opened in Retail Suite D at 1325 5th Street.
None of that is food. A neighborhood that built its identity on 60-plus food and beverage vendors is now filling its newest storefronts with scent, sweat, skin, and design consultation. That is not a coincidence of leasing timing. It is what happens when a district has proven it can pull people in for lunch and now wants to prove it can pull them in for everything else too.
Meanwhile, the kitchens keep turning over
The food side of Union Market has not gone quiet. It has just stopped being the only story. Inside La Cosecha, the market's Latin American marketplace, Donísima Donuts opened in late May 2026 in the space that used to be Café Unido, backed by MITA chef Miguel Guerra. Frío Frío, a Latin and Caribbean dessert concept, opened in the same building around the same time. Sambar and Spice, a fast-casual Indian comfort food spot from the owners of Indigo, opened inside The Market that same May. Unido itself did not disappear. It relocated within La Cosecha to a larger space with a new all-day format. Greco, the Greek street food counter, is also now open at 1285 4th Street.
That is five food openings or relocations in a single season, which tells you the food hall is not shrinking. It is just no longer the whole conversation. The interesting leasing news this year is happening one category over.
What was already holding the block together
None of this works without the parts of Union Market that were already there and are not going anywhere. FRESHFARM runs a farmers market on-site, a partnership with EDENS, the company that developed and operates the district, offering fresh produce, pastured meats, small-batch coffee, and rotating specialty items like DC-distilled liquor. Hi-Lawn, the rooftop bar and green space atop The Market, has been drawing people up for picnic tables and skyline views since it opened in 2020. La Cosecha itself launched in 2019 with 14 vendors and has grown into a fuller marketplace with a philanthropic tie to Latin American business education. Songbyrd Music House and its sister record shop Byrdland Records anchor the live music and vinyl side of the neighborhood, alongside an Angelika Pop-Up theater.
The interior spine of the district earned historic designation back in 2016, which is part of why so much of the new activity is happening inside adaptive reuse buildings rather than ground-up construction. That bank vault did not get gutted and modernized into something generic. It got repainted and stocked with vintage denim, which is a very Union Market way of solving a real estate problem.
The block party as a signal, not just an event
Union Market's own social channels have started teasing a 5th Street takeover, described as a day of shopping, food, activations, and music with more details still to come. Read on its own, that is just marketing. Read against the leasing pattern of fragrance, fitness, and design retail moving in alongside the food vendors, it looks like a district trying to physically demonstrate that it is bigger than lunch. You do not throw a street takeover to promote a food hall. You throw one to promote a neighborhood.
What this actually looks like on a Saturday
If you already live around Union Market, NoMa, or Eckington, the practical shift shows up in how you can structure a weekend without leaving a six-block radius.
- Morning: FRESHFARM for produce and coffee, then a stop at Byrdland Records if new vinyl is in
- Midday: lunch at Greco or one of the newer stalls inside The Market, followed by a stretch class once solidcore opens later this year
- Afternoon: browse Vintage Vintage Vintage or duck into Le Labo once it opens, something that was not a Union Market errand two years ago
- Evening: dessert at Frío Frío, then Hi-Lawn or Songbyrd depending on whether you want a rooftop or a show
That is a day built around a neighborhood, not a meal. It did not require the district to add a single new food stall this year. It required the district to stop being only a food stall.
Why this matters if you're paying attention to the area at all
None of this is a pitch to move here. It is a note for people who already treat Union Market as their backyard: the character of the place is shifting from a destination you visit for a specific meal to a district you route errands through, the way you would with any established commercial corridor. That shift tends to show up first in leasing mix long before it shows up in any headline statistic, and this year it showed up in fragrance counters and reformer studios instead of another taco stand.
If you're weighing what that means for the broader Northeast DC market, or you're watching Union Market from Bethesda, Chevy Chase, or Rockville and wondering how a neighborhood's retail identity connects to its housing demand, that is exactly the kind of read-between-the-comps question Stacy Berman spends her days on. Contact Stacy.
