Not content to open restaurants in the District’s most booming neighborhoods, 14th Street and Capitol Hill among them, Ari Gejdenson of Mindful Restaurants is headed for Ivy City in Northeast.

Gejdenson, who owns Acqua al 2 on Capitol Hill, Ghibellina on 14th Street and the soon-to-open Denson’s Liquor Bar in Chinatown, has signed a lease at the corner of Fenwick and Okie streets NE in the Hecht’s warehouse project.

He intends to divide the 7,000 square-foot space into three separate concepts, one an Italian restaurant and two others which are to be determined, he said Tuesday.

“We’re throwing out some ideas, but we’ve got two openings in the next two months, so after that, we’re going to get focused on the next ones,” said Gejdenson, who is also opening Sotto, a restaurant and bar with live music and a communal table underneath Ghibellina.

Gejdenson grew up on Capitol Hill before departing to Italy to play professional soccer, and he’s always had a thing for the Hecht’s warehouse building, he said.

“I’ve always liked the east side of the city in general,” he said. “It was just one of those things… if people like me, who really love the neighborhood and really see where it can go, don’t do it, who’s going to do it? So I said let’s go.”

Douglas Development is expected to deliver the Hecht’s warehouse project, which will include 333 residential units at the New York Avenue NE property, in early 2015, and Gejdenson estimates his restaurants could open by the end of that year.

The restaurants will join a Mom’s Organic Market and a Petco, as we have previously reported.