Negotiations between developer Donatelli & Klein and a grocer unexpectedly fell through the first week of October and developers were forced to redraw their plans and make them strictly residential. The new plans call for 160 residential townhouse condominiums with an underground 128-space parking garage.

The revised development plan got unanimous approval from the commission but not without a heated discussion. Commissioners expressed frustration at having to approve another set of plans after already having approved plans that included retail space. Commissioner Glenn Melcher said he was very disappointed Donatelli & Klein could not bring a grocery store into the neighborhood, but he voted to support a strictly residential development on the site.

Donatelli & Klein now face a hearing Oct. 28 before the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development to get final approval for the $20 million project.

The three-year effort to bring a grocery story to the old Children’s Hospital site became public last fall when a group of Dupont East residents found out that Texas-based Whole Foods Inc., which owns two Fresh Fields stores in the District, was negotiating with Donatelli & Klein to move into the 13th and V site. They proposed an alternate site in the 1400 block of P Street NW and waged a community campaign, including handing out mail-in flyers, to convince Fresh Fields to move there. Whole Foods then opened negotiations with Jon Gerstenfeld, who owns the P Street site.

The negotiations took a political turn when Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans wrote a letter to the president of Whole Foods pushing the P Street site, which lies in Ward 2. Ward 1 Councilman Frank Smith got into the fray when he promised to use new tax increment financing legislation to help finance the construction of a building for Fresh Fields at 13th and V, which is in his ward.

Chris Hitt, president of Fresh Fields, said negotiations with Donatelli & Klein ended when the CEO of Whole Foods toured the P Street site and decided that was the location his company wanted.

"The Dupont Circle area is at the center of one of the demographic cores we were looking at," Hitt said. "The 13th and V site is on the edge of that demographic core."

Hitt said he personally was in favor of the Children’s Hospital site.

Chris Donatelli, vice president of Donatelli & Klein, said his company sought another grocer to move into the Children’s Hospital site after Fresh Fields pulled out of negotiations early this year.

"We called every thinkable grocery store," Donatelli said. He said they contacted every chain in the region and several independent grocers in an effort to bring a grocer to the development.

"When they (Fresh Fields) left, it kind of took the wind out of our sails," he said.

Donatelli said he felt other grocery stores were nervous about moving into a site that Fresh Fields chose not to move into.

Hitt, meanwhile, said negotiations continue with Gerstenfeld to move into the 15th and P location. Gerstenfeld would not comment on the specifics of the negotiations, but Hitt said he believes an agreement could be signed as early as next month.

Copyright 1998, The Common Denominator