Winery for Dupont Underground?

• October 21st 2010

by Mark Wellborn

Last night, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development presented plans for what will become of the Dupont Underground. It appears that, among other things, there might be a winery under Dupont Circle.

The eight-block long, 100,000 square-foot space that runs under Dupont Circle has been abandoned for decades, except for a brief experiment to turn the space into a food court in the mid-1990s that failed miserably.

According to DCmud, the plans that DCMPED has decided to move forward with are from the Arts Coalition for Dupont Underground (ACDU), which has partnered with developer J.M. Zell. Here is how DCmud described what is in store for the underground:

Phase one will consist of 20,000 s.f. of gallery space and 20,000 s.f. of concession space (potentially a restaurant, wine-bar, and cafe). Developers expect that pending leases with a high-end restaurateur and winery of some sort will enable a loan covering three-fourth of phase one construction costs. Phase two will consist of an additional 60,000 s.f. of cultural space, its construction wholly dependent on the financial success of phase one and the growth of the endowment.

Yes, you read that right. There could be a winery under Dupont Circle. And while many folks likely hear the word winery (where wind is produced) and immediately think vineyard (where the grapes are grown), the two are in fact different as Greater Greater Washington’s David Alpert points out in the comments section of this post.

Developers have a completion timeline of between two and three years for the first phase. So, by sometime in 2013, you could be sipping on a Dupont Pinot Noir.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/winery_for_dupont_underground/2595.