When the owners of Mott’s Market, an establishment in Southeast Washington, D.C., that has served as a gathering place and symbol of community for more than a century, put the building on sale last month, a band of local residents knew they had to do something.
A last-ditch effort to preserve their neighborhood’s history is underway after years of local businesses closing down and boarding up their doors due to unanticipated struggles from the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation.
“We have over [100] individuals from the neighborhood and even folks that don’t live in the neighborhood that have noticed that small corner markets used to be a staple in Washington, D.C.,” said Jordan LaCrosse, one of the leaders of a neighborhood coalition seeking to save Mott’s Market. “They recognized, especially in the pandemic, that these markets were basically the ones that were always open … and they are just part of the neighborhood community.”
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The market, experiencing financial hardship due to the pandemic and increased supply prices, put the 106-year-old building up for sale in March for $1.25 million.
Days before the offer deadline Friday, LaCrosse and a ragtag group of local residents banded together, setting out to call potential investors to build up a competitive offer to purchase the lot — all the while knowing they were up against several developers who reportedly planned to renovate the building into a residential space.
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Compass Real Estate, which handled the sale, said it had set an initial deadline for 10 a.m. Friday, but the group of neighbors failed to submit a signed offer on time.
“We received three completed and signed offers for the property at the deadline time, and we received nothing from the agent representing the neighborhood group, so we contacted him to see if he was sending an offer,” Compass said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “At 1:03 p.m., we received one unsigned letter of intent from the agent representing the neighborhood group. The sellers decided that they would move forward with the offer that was best for them.”
However, Lacrosse said the group had submitted an initial offer Friday morning before discovering they needed a bit more funding to match the top bid. She said the group was granted a few extra hours to scrounge up one final offer, but hours before the final deadline, they learned the real estate company sold it to another bidder.
Although the group was surprised and expressed frustration with how the deal went through, LaCrosse said it isn’t the end for their movement.
“In less than a week, we organized over 100 of our neighbors that are passionate about saving the market,” she said. “Within just the last 24 hours, we had another 15 people sign up to want to get involved. And then once the news broke that we didn’t get the market, more people who are even more passionate [asked], ‘OK, what are the next steps?’ I believe that the community is not giving up.”
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Spokespeople with Compass told the Washington Examiner the building was bought by someone who lives in the neighborhood and plans to convert the space into a single-family home. LaCrosse said the group will seek out the buyer, whose identity has not been made public, to begin conversations on preserving the market space.
“We would love to start a dialogue with the developer in a polite and simple manner,” she said. “But we also want the developer to know that we are serious about this and that we will take whatever steps necessary to make sure that our opinions and our feelings about this market and that space are heard.”
