Douglas Picks Up Another Penn Quarter Site

Douglas Development has picked up another building, this time a club in the making. After letting many of its DC-area properties slide toward tax sale for lack of tax payments, Douglas has picked up the Equitable Building at 915 F Street, NW, a building that had been previously pushed as the Museum of Arts and Sciences (MoA&S), a place where nothing was as it seemed.

Douglas' plans for the building are unclear. Owners of the building, who paid $10m in a recent sale, gave in to Douglas' negotiating ability for a sale price of $5m. The building was planned for the MoA&S, which in fact would have been a large, 3-floor dance club serving alcohol late into the night.

Peter Andrulis, through The Equitable Place LLC, bought the property for $10 million in June of 2009, hoping to turn it into a hot spot for receptions, fund-raising events, and art shows (read: partying) in the Penn Quarter neighborhood.

There had been serious concern from residents that the business operating under the moniker "Museum" and purporting to act as an "educational" event space for curated art events, live performances, poetry readings, and the like, was a guise for a nightclub like Platinum to be reincarnated. The MoS&A was shut down after only a couple soft openings in late 2010, and prior to its planned 2011 New Year's Eve grand opening.

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News