Dupont Down Under May Live Again, City to Issue RFP
January 22, 2010 by jessebkaye
I just read a great article on the City Paper about Dupont Down Under – which apparently may come back to life.
This past month the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development said they’re considering reopening the space under dupont circle and will issue an RFP, or request for proposals, some time this month.
(See Dupont Circle Homes for Sale)
Earlier article…
Believe it. After a long conversation yesterday with a very enthusiastic homeowner, whom I’ll call JO, I promised todays Blog would be all about the 28,000 sq ft of retail space underneath the circle in Dupont. Well, here it goes.
From sources online:
It all started back in 1949 when the city was exploring new ways to avoid the traffic congestions with the once functional street cars. The intent was to avoid having the street cars ride through the circle, and the solution that was introduced was to have them run parallel to Connecticut ave on the left and right sides of the street under the circle.
(In the picture to the left, the red dots are the now boarded up entrances and there is a gap where Connecticut ave runs under the circle.)
At was first it was a wonderful option to what was once considered heavy traffic. Thats a joke! However after the demise of the streetcar in 1962, the entrances were blocked in with the plywood covers you see today, leaving Connecticut ave alone. In 1995 there was an attempt to redevelop a food court and was named Dupont Down Under and most recently, the lessee of the 20 year lease investigated possible uses without determining any significant use.
Now for the truth from my sources…
The man who ha
d the 20 year lease and opened the food court was somewhat successful but after several years of operation was shut down for illegal electicity and gas tapping underground by a close personal friend, whom I’ll call JD. Upon closing Dupont Down Under, the stairs were closed and it has not been opened since. What seems shocking is that the lessee was paying 25k to the city and reassigned the rights for 125k per year to the new tenant whom opened the food court. The other half was under city control and was never developed. In recent times, the owner of Kalorama Sports Management Associates, who is a partial owner of Washington Sports Clubs in Dupont, Paul London, had the intention of expanding his gym into the space below but never moved forward with the development.
d the 20 year lease and opened the food court was somewhat successful but after several years of operation was shut down for illegal electicity and gas tapping underground by a close personal friend, whom I’ll call JD. Upon closing Dupont Down Under, the stairs were closed and it has not been opened since. What seems shocking is that the lessee was paying 25k to the city and reassigned the rights for 125k per year to the new tenant whom opened the food court. The other half was under city control and was never developed. In recent times, the owner of Kalorama Sports Management Associates, who is a partial owner of Washington Sports Clubs in Dupont, Paul London, had the intention of expanding his gym into the space below but never moved forward with the development.Since that time, Paul has used 9 of his 15 year lease and still argues that his lease is still enforceable despite never having paid nor having been requested to pay. Additionally, it is my understanding that the property was just transferred from the Office of Property Management to NCRC and is unavailable for development at this time. I have tried. For questions, call Sam Young with NCRC.
Read my prior post on Dupont Circle Down Under
Suggestions I have sent to the Deputy Mayors Office on the developement of the Dupont Down Under
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I’m writing concerning the “Dupont Down Under” and what will become of this location in the future.
Approximately 2 months ago, I submitted to Paul Williams, Executive Director of “Historic Dupont Circle Mainstreet” who was compiling suggestion from local residents of Dupont Circle to deliver to your office, some well thought out suggestions of what I felt would be good use of the location making it a major in city attraction for years to come, while generating an opportunity for up & coming Artist, Crafters & Designers to take the next step to become established new business owners.
At that time, I referred Paul to a similar project in NYC named The Limelight MarketPlace, which is still underway, but due to hold the Grand Opening in late April. The LimeLight MarketPlace will be located in NYC’s Chelsea section. The LimeLight is a Huge Old Church that was in past years one of NYC’s hottest gay/straight nightclubs. It then closed and sat vacant for several years. It is now being converted into a Boutique Market Place – giving preference to up and coming Artist, Crafters & Fashion Designers at an affordable price. By affordable, I’ve been told that they have structured a POS System for all merchant vendors to tie into (required) and the merchant vendors would pay their lease fees based on their sales volume each month, making this an affordable venture for any up and coming start up Artist, Crafter & Designer. This is something that I believe would work very well in the Dupont Circle area, while giving an opportunity to up and coming Artist, Crafters & Designers in the DC area. I myself am a well established and still up and coming Handcraft Jewelry Designer. I’ve currently been looking for a location to open a store in this area and have become very frustrated with the over inflated leasing rates. Here’s a couple of links to the LimeLight MarketPlace websites if you would like to check it out.
http://www.limelightmarketplace.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/New-York-NY/Limelight-Marketplace/123977387675
Additionally, a friend and well known local Belt & T-Shirt Designer, Jon Wye, who started out at Eastern Market several years ago…has signed a lease at the LimeLight MarketPlace in NYC and is in the process of preparing for his store opening late in April. He actually has some pictures of his proposed store build out on his website that might interest you, since it’s a similar project as to what I’m suggesting for the Dupont Down Under. Pictures are on the Home Page of his website….just page down. Exciting times for a local DC Designer that ended up opening his first store in NYC and not in DC due to the high lease rates and little opportunity for up and coming business owners to find affordable opportunities to get started here in the District of Columbia.
http://www.jonwye.com/
As far as leasing requirements for the “Dupont Down Under” Project, I would suggest that there would be strict leasing guidelines that would need to be established & met to ensure that NO national & commercial chains be permitted to lease space in this venue. Additionally, I would suggest that a jury committee be tasks with reviewing & interviewing each lease candidate for quality and proper balance & fit for this venue. This would ensure continuity throughout this project…such as not too many vendors in any specific category, giving an even balance of categories throughout the Artist, Crafter, Designer Market Place.
I would also make these permanent lease agreements, perhaps in 1-year contracts, making it easier for start up vendors. The space would not be your usual large store spaces, but smaller spaces to afford more variety for shoppers throughout this market place like setting. The LimeLight Market Place was able to get 80 smaller store spaces out of their location. There is a floor plan on their website.
I would definitely not make this a place where the vendors rotate weekly or anything like that. We have plenty of open-air markets throughout the DC Metro area for those types of vendors. This venue would be an opportunity for those vendors that would like to take the next step towards becoming an established new business owner.
OK, I’ve covered the Artist, Crafter & Designer Market Place Portion, but I understand that there are several sections to the “Dupont Down Under” and my suggestions for the remaining sections are as follows. Make a quaint, up scale, eclectic Jazz, Blues, Martini Lounge section…not nightclubs or just bars. This is something that would definitely be a draw to the area. Other things to consider for other sections would be…..NY Style Deli’s, Wine & Cheese Market’s and places like that. Also, I understand that a one time back when the old “Dupont Down Under” was being proposed, there was a Gym that was interested in the East Section and I think that this might also be something to consider.
Now, here’s probably the most important part of all this. Once the decisions have been made and all starts to move forward, there must be established 1 and only 1 Grand Opening date for all sections of the entire “Dupont Down Under” with a heavy hitting advertising campaign, which is heavily endorsed by not only the city, but by the Arts community and other related sponsors. This is a must to ensure the total success of this type of project for years to come. It must be something that is advertised as the place that everyone wants to be and the place to go in DC for years to come. It needs to make news in order to be successful. Also, all 9 entrances need to be open for access to all areas of the Down Under and these entrances should all be designed for maximum exposure to the “Dupont Down Under” so that people see these coming from any direction in a way so that even someone driving by will notice and ask….”What’s the “Dupont Down Under”. MAXIMUM EXPOSURE!
As a patron, I know I would frequent a place like this. Actually, I thought that the original attempt of the Dupont Down Under was suppose to be more like this….so, you can imagine my disappointment the first time I went there upon opening several years ago….only to find mostly fast food chains…UGH. We have plenty of them around already. Let’s not make that same mistake again.
OK, I know this was long, but I’ve live in DC for many years and feel pretty strongly about this particular project. I’ve seen this city make so many mistakes with various projects over the years and I’d like to see this one become something that will revive the Dupont Area and keep giving people another reason to come here to Dupont for years to come, while supporting the Arts, Crafts & Designers & up and coming start up businesses at establishing themselves.
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