Corner of 19th St. and Dupont Circle NW: One of the closed-off entrances to the old underground trolley car facility. (Luis Gomez Photos)

From Tom Hay

There will be a public reception to hear details on the proposed redevelopment of the Dupont Underground this Wednesday, Oct. 20 from 7:00 to 8:30 pm at the Dupont Hotel, 1500 New Hampshire Ave. NW.

The meeting will allow The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) and members of the development team to present their ideas and also allow the public to ask questions about the project.

The Dupont Underground is the nearly 100,000 square foot former trolley space under Dupont Circle. This would be at least the second serious effort to reincarnate the space that was closed in the 1960s. In the mid-1990s, a developer tried to revitalize the space as a food court, calling it Dupont Down Under — that project failed quickly with the developer going bankrupt.

A non-profit, The Arts Coalition for Dupont Underground (ACDU), has formed to shepherd the project through the process of redevelopment. According to their website, ACDU  is “…proposing to the D.C. government a phased, multiyear program to progressively fund, renovate, promote, develop programming for and administer the space.”