The Shops at National Place
The Shops at National Place was a three-level, indoor shopping mall located in downtown Washington, D.C. in the 16-story National Place Building, opening in 1984 and 1985 as a festival marketplace. It is located on the block bounded by Pennsylvania Avenue, F Street, between 13th and 14th Streets NW, the former site of the Munsey Trust Building. It was located near the Metro Center station of the Washington Metro system.
In 2015, owner Quadrangle Development Corporation intended to demolish the mall and replace it with a, 13-story building. However, due to historical reasons, that plan was abandoned.
Since 2005, a small food court with 10+ vendors, branded Eat at National Place, operated in a portion of the space, but the court closed permanently in May 2020. While The Shops is defunct as a shopping mall and food court, a few retail shops and casual restaurants face the street.
History
Pre-construction and development
Planning of The Shops at National Place started in July 1980 as part of a major $28 million redevelopment project of the adjacent National Press Building by the National Press Building Corporation. The project would involve restoration of the 1927 structure, as well as adding 80,000 square feet of retail and office space, including a 14-story atrium. The redevelopment project aimed to revitalize downtown Washington, D.C., with the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation supporting private investment in the area through tax credits and other incentives for historic preservation. Architect HTB, Inc. of Oklahoma City was selected to design the work, ensuring to not disturb any existing amenities during construction.Construction began in February 1982, and a ceremonial groundbreaking held on January 31 projected for an estimated completion in around 1983 or 1984. The project included connecting the National Press Building to nearby properties through an enclosed multistory atrium to form the concourse of stores and restaurants.
The National Press Building Corporation selected The Rouse Company of Columbia, Maryland, to develop the retail portion of the project. Founder James W. Rouse and CEO Mathias J. DeVito cited that they were willing to help with development, following their successful festival marketplace model used previously on Harborplace in Baltimore and Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston. The Washington Post famously described Rouse's intention for the project as "gambling", as it attempted to squeeze in its Baltimore/Boston model in a building where doing such was risky. However, since the retail was going to be in the building, Rouse could not rely on its usual architectural firm for developing festival marketplaces, being Benjamin Thompson & Associates, Inc., making this the company's first festival marketplace in a large city without Thompson involved. Not only that, due to D.C. preservation rules, invasive structural reinforcements were prohibited, meaning the company could not build a "Pratt/Light Street Pavilion"-like structure on the site. Additionally, Thompson was in the process of designing the competing Old Post Office Pavilion, which further made choosing him and his firm unavailable.
As a result, after negotiations due to those rules, Rouse decided to develop The Shops as an underground and atrium-linked shopping space beneath and attached to the National Press Club headquarters.
Grand opening
By late 1983, the project was almost complete, and The Shops at National Place opened its first phase on May 14, 1984. It was designed as a central piece in revitalizing downtown Washington, D.C.'s traditional downtown shopping core along F Street, NW, west of the Woodward & Lothrop flagship. The mall replaced the former flagship stores of Raleigh's and Joseph R. Harris Co.The first phase included 53 stores, and was developed by The Rouse Company. The retail complex was hailed as "part of a very important renaissance of downtown Washington." The Shops opened concurrently with a new 774-room JW Marriott Hotel, and refurbished National Theater and National Press Building.
Melart Jewelers and Sight and Sound Electronics were part of the first phase located in the JW Marriott lobby.
The 40-store phase two of The Shops opened April 25, 1985. It included August Max, Record Town, and Brooks Fashions among the original tenants. The complex featured a 15-story atrium for the refurbished National Press Building and 450 spaces of underground parking. At the opening ceremony, then-mayor Marion Barry proclaimed "Downtown is coming alive!"
Decline and closure
The Shops at National Place's struggles began in the late 1980s. It had a poor design that was isolated from the street, making it hard to access, with the majority of its tenants being "tucked in." It was seen as a miscalculation by The Rouse Company, as the company built the mall inside of a historical 15-story office building, even though the company was optimistic that it would be highly successful. James Rouse himself later admitted that the mall was inefficiently designed, leading to parking problems and high maintenance costs.During development, Rouse was unable to secure anchor retailers, leading to The Shops to resort to big-box tenants, such as Filene's Basement.
The Shops at National Place, along with the rest of Rouse's portfolio, was sold to General Growth Properties in November 2004 following a $12.6 billion acquisition of the company. Following the mall's struggles, GGP closed a portion of The Shops to redevelop it into a food court called Eat at National Place which opened in 2005. It was a last-ditch effort to revitalize the mall, and the food court housed both local and national food vendors, including Five Guys and Moe's Southwest Grill.
Despite the attempts of revitalization by adding a food court, in 2008, due to many vacancies in the mall, competition from Union Station and struggles from the Great Recession, The Shops at National Place officially closed its doors, except for the food court, and the passageway to the JW Marriott. The structure was renovated in the 2010s to modernize it. Following the mall's struggles, GGP spun-off 30 underperforming properties, including The Shops, to Rouse Properties in January 2012. Rouse Properties later sold the mall to Quadrangle Development Corporation because it was no longer profitable.
Eat at National Place closed permanently in May 2020 following challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. It ceased operations on May 26, 2020, with a notice posted on the entrance doors and its website thanking patrons, office workers, tour groups and visitors for "helping patronize our Food Hall for the past 15 years", and all signage—including the hanging "Eat at National Place Food Hall" signs on the arches—were removed. Since Verizon Wireless was located inside of the food court, it had to be relocated to 1318 F St NW after the food court closed to remain accessible to customers. The new store was rebranded as just Verizon. The food court's closure proved that Eat at National Place acted as a "band-aid" rather than genuine redevelopment; it helped office workers and generated lunch traffic, but it did not solve actual reasons for why the mall failed, such as architecture.