Real Estate

New York’s Union Square Cafe Coming to DC’s Capitol Crossing

Renderings of 200 and 250 Massachusetts Ave., NW at Capitol Crossing. Courtesy of Property Group Partners.

Capitol Crossing—the massive project rising over I-395 between Capitol Hill and Chinatown—has signed its first tenant, said its developer during a phone call Wednesday.

Jeffrey Sussman, president of Property Group Partners, tells Washingtonian that Capitol Crossing has partnered with restauranteur Danny Meyer and his Union Square Hospitality Group. Meyer will open a location of his James Beard-winning Manhattan restaurant, Union Square Cafe, in the ground-floor retail space of 200 Massachusetts Ave., NW, when the building finishes next year. It will be the first Union Square Cafe to open outside New York. Meyer also operates Shake Shack.

The building was once rumored to be the future home of DC’s first Eataly. Though there is still some retail space available, Union Square has taken the majority of it, said Sussman. “That’s gonna be our anchor restaurant,” he said. A media spokeswoman for Capitol Crossing says full details about Danny Meyer’s concept for the space will be available in June.

Four other buildings are also planned for the Capitol Crossing site. They will contain a mix of offices, apartments, and retail. The entire project is slated to be done by 2022.

Senior Editor

Marisa M. Kashino joined Washingtonian in 2009 and was a senior editor until 2022.