WASHINGTON, DC–The developers of the former Fannie Mae headquarters have scored a coup for their project: Wegmans has agreed to be the anchor tenant at 3900 Wisconsin Ave., NW.

This will be the first Wegmans in the District, following many months and years of wooing on the part of the city.

“We have been working with Wegmans, looking for suburban opportunities as well as on the bid for Walter Reed,” says Richard Lake, founding partner of Roadside Development, which co-owns the project in a JV with North America Sekisui House, or NASH. “The city had been trying to recruit Wegmans to come to DC and when the deal Wegmans was working on to locate at Walter Reed didn't go through I thought this would be perfect for them.”

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Perhaps somewhat to DC officials' chagrin, one phone call later Lake had the framework of a deal in place.

That phone call was to Ralph Uttaro, SVP of Real Estate at Wegmans.

Lake is quick to point out that this phone call was preceded by a lot of work done by the city and the Washington DC Economic Development Partnership Agency.

Path To A New Development

It was last December when Fannie Mae sold its chief property, the 228,000-square foot headquarters at 3900 Wisconsin Ave. and approximately 10 acres of surrounding land for $86 million. At the time, the JV had its own framework of a deal for the site — an urban infill mixed-use community consisting of residential, retail and office use that would be heavily influenced by the neighborhood's and community's thoughts and wishes, Lake told GlobeSt.com when the sale closed.

Today, Roadside and NASH and their development team, including Shalom Baranes Associates and Michael Vergason Landscape Architects, are working with the community and the city to create a development program that complements the neighborhood and will include retail, residential, cultural arts, hospitality and commercial uses. Wegmans will anchor it all.

The store agreeing to come to the District, Mayor Muriel Bowser says in a prepared statement, “is a decisive win for our city.”

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Wegmans To Open First DC Store At Former Fannie Mae Site

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