A historic downtown federal office building built in 1940 for the Federal Loan Agency and Reconstruction Finance Corp. — two engines of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s economic initiatives — will be gutted and overhauled as the federal government’s need for space becomes acute.
The project could disrupt another Washington landmark, Loeb’s Perfect New York Deli Restaurant in McPherson Square, which has served traditional New York-style deli fare for nearly 50 years.
The National Capital Planning Commission earlier this month approved preliminary plans for a complete renovation of the Lafayette Building, best known today as the Export-Import Bank of the United States. The 560,000-square-foot facility, at 811 Vermont Ave., straddles H and I streets, 15th Street and Vermont. Lafayette was the original headquarters of the Federal Loan Agency, the Reconstruction Finance Corp. and its chairman, Jesse Holman Jones. It has never been substantially reconditioned, though plans have been on the table for at least 10 years.
The two-phase, $118 million project is slated to run from 2008 through 2012, and the General Services Administration says it expects to have the money in next year’s budget. The renovation will force the relocation of 1,380 employees as masonry is repaired, storefronts are restored, security is upgraded and offices are reconfigured to “preserve the historic fabric but at the same time make them more efficient and modern,” a GSA spokesman said.
But during the project’s second phase, the spokesman said, Loeb’s New York Deli and a handful of other Lafayette businesses would have to close, perhaps for as long as two years, as their side of the building undergoes a “complete mechanical upgrade.”
If they choose not to return, their leased space along 15th Street could be redesigned as offices, the spokesman said.
“It’s not clear if they’re going to want to come back or not,” he said.
Marlene Loeb, a co-owner of the lunchtime favorite, said the GSA provided “misinformation.” Loeb’s has a lease through 2009, she said, as do most of the business owners on the Lafayette strip.
“It’s not true,” Loeb said. “All of the storefronts have signed leases. We’re good.”
In its written decision, the Planning Commission recommended that GSA protect and retain the existing retail, as its loss “would have a significant effect on the existing character of the building and the vitality of the adjacent streetscape.”
The Lafayette Building
» A National Historic Landmark
» Has classic high ceilings and wide hallways that are not ideal for federal offices
» Original office and conference room of Jesse Holman Jones will be restored
