A high-profile mixed-use building at the center of Dupont Circle – home to celebrated Korean restaurant Anju and popular Neapolitan pizzeria Pupatella – has quietly been brought to market, according to a listing first noted by The Business Journals. The property combines heavily trafficked ground-floor restaurant space with upper-level residential and commercial components, and arrives at a time when investors are doubling down on D.C.’s most established urban neighborhoods. With Dupont Circle seeing a steady wave of new capital and reinvestment across both housing and retail, this sale is poised to be one of the most closely followed trades in the submarket.
Dupont Circle mixed-use asset with Anju and Pupatella hits the market as a flagship investment opportunity
In one of Washington, D.C.’s most sought-after corridors, a marquee mixed-use asset is now on the block, backed by two destination-dining powerhouses: Anju, a nationally recognized Korean concept, and Pupatella, a fast-expanding Neapolitan pizza brand. Situated just off the Dupont Circle hub, the property marries highly stabilized ground-floor restaurant tenancies with flexible upper-level space, currently used for office and creative purposes.
For investors looking for a balance of predictable income and strong brand visibility, the combination of recognizable operators, heavy foot traffic and a walkable, transit-rich setting positions the asset as a potential flagship hold. Brokerage teams note that, even as many office and retail assets face repricing, well-located, transit-connected mixed-use properties like this continue to attract deep buyer pools nationally.
- Location: Core Dupont Circle, within minutes of the Metro, major employment centers and dense residential
- Tenancy: Long-term leases with destination dining concepts boasting strong regional recognition
- Use Mix: High-visibility street-level restaurant space with upper floors configured for office or creative use
- Investor Profile: Targeted toward 1031 exchange buyers, family offices, private REITs and urban retail specialists
| Key Metric | Detail |
|---|---|
| Street Frontage | Prominent corner location with strong visibility in all directions |
| Tenant Credit | Seasoned regional restaurant brands with proven sales |
| Foot Traffic | Robust daytime population plus strong evening and weekend draw |
| Asset Type | Stabilized, infill urban mixed-use with restaurant anchors |
Investor appetite and pricing for D.C. neighborhood retail and residential amid higher borrowing costs
Rising interest rates have not shut off the capital spigot for Dupont Circle, but they have changed the definition of a “must-buy” asset. Instead of large, speculative plays, investors are concentrating on smaller to mid-sized mixed-use buildings in proven locations, with reliable cash flow and tenants anchored by destination concepts like Anju and Pupatella that pull visitors from across the region, not just from the immediate trade area.
In this environment, value-add strategies built on aggressive rent growth and rapid turnover have taken a back seat. Buyers are instead penciling in:
– More conservative assumptions for rent increases
– Longer anticipated hold periods
– A tilt toward defensive retail – food-and-beverage, specialty grocers and daily-needs services – supported by compact, efficiently laid-out residential units
Micro-location is increasingly driving pricing. Corner visibility, sidewalk activation, patio opportunities and adjacency to Metro or bus lines can move the needle dramatically on cap rates and the number of offers a property receives.
At the same time, the market is still defining its new normal. Owners have generally been slow to fully reset expectations to the current rate environment. Deals that are closing in core D.C. corridors often show moderate discounts compared to pre-rate-hike valuations, especially for stabilized mixed-use properties with seasoned tenants and low vacancy.
In this phase of the cycle, investors are carefully weighing:
- Debt structure: Locking in fixed-rate certainty versus maintaining flexibility through shorter-term or floating-rate loans.
- Tenant resilience: Historic and in-place sales figures, brand strength and the ability of ground-floor operators to weather economic shifts.
- Residential churn: Absorption pace, renewal rates and rent trends against a backdrop of elevated supply in the D.C. rental market.
- Capex exposure: Near- to mid-term needs for façade work, building systems upgrades, life-safety improvements and code compliance.
Recent transaction data in D.C.’s core neighborhoods suggests a repricing that aligns with national patterns: higher cap rates, more equity-heavy capital stacks and elongated marketing timelines.
| Metric | Pre-rate hikes | Current range |
|---|---|---|
| Core mixed-use cap rates | 4.0% – 4.5% | 5.0% – 5.75% |
| Typical LTV | 65% – 70% | 55% – 60% |
| Marketing time | 60 – 90 days | 120+ days |
How restaurant-anchored mixed-use projects are transforming Dupont Circle’s foot traffic and tenant mix
Destination restaurants such as Anju and Pupatella have shifted nearby blocks from simple pass-through corridors to vibrant, all-day activity nodes. Guests arriving early or lingering after meals naturally disperse along adjacent retail streets, browsing shops or stopping in at nearby services. Leasing professionals report that projects built around strong restaurant anchors now outperform conventional office and retail properties in both visitation and time-on-site.
Weekend evenings, once dominated by bar traffic, are now rivaling or exceeding weekday lunch periods in some parts of Dupont Circle. This broader, more balanced activity pattern is pulling in a new wave of tenants:
- Later peak hours that support dessert shops, cocktail bars, wine stores and late-night cafés
- Steady weekday demand from hybrid office users, remote professionals working from home and students
- Enhanced visibility for upper-floor offices and studios that benefit from exposure to busy sidewalks and patio spaces
The shift is evident in the evolving tenant base within blocks anchored by well-known restaurants:
| Tenant Type | Before Anchors | After Anchors |
|---|---|---|
| Full-service restaurants | 1-2 per block | 3-4 clustered, complementary dining concepts |
| Service retail | Traditional neighborhood services (dry cleaners, basic salons) | Boutique fitness, wellness, grooming and experiential concepts |
| Office users | Back-office users, small nonprofits, administrative functions | Creative agencies, consulting firms, tech start-ups and design studios |
Property owners are rethinking how they curate their lineups in response. Merchandising strategies are now built around uses that capitalize on restaurant wait times and reservation windows. Marketing materials for available space increasingly foreground:
– Venting and kitchen infrastructure
– Patio or rooftop activation potential
– Visibility to diners and pedestrians
– Connectivity and flexible layouts for small tenants
This restaurant-first approach is generating a denser, more intentional tenant mix. Culinary traffic helps support not only ground-floor shops but also upper-level office and studio occupancy, while giving smaller retailers access to built-in customer flows. The model is reshaping the template for urban infill mixed-use in Dupont Circle and other mature D.C. neighborhoods.
Key considerations for prospective buyers: leases, risk profile and redevelopment options
For investors evaluating the Anju- and Pupatella-anchored property, the headline restaurant brands are only the starting point. While those tenants provide meaningful near-term cash flow stability, long-term performance depends on the structure and flexibility of the leases, as well as how the property’s mix aligns with evolving market conditions.
Buyers should carefully analyze:
- Lease duration & rollover risk – Whether multiple leases expire in the same window, potentially creating a simultaneous vacancy challenge.
- Rent escalations, renewal options & percentage rent – The balance between fixed annual bumps, participation in sales upside and tenant-friendly renewal clauses.
- Use restrictions & venting rights – Critical for food-focused spaces; restrictions can limit future concepts, while venting and exhaust capacity are major value drivers.
- Capital expenditure responsibilities РAllocation of costs for structural items, mechanical systems, fa̤ade work, tenant improvements and code updates.
- Zoning & density – The potential to add height, units or new use types under current regulations, and the feasibility of re-entitlement.
- Historic or design overlays – Any review requirements that could extend timelines or limit changes to the building’s exterior or massing.
From a strategic standpoint, buyers must decide whether to treat the asset primarily as a long-term income vehicle or as a platform for future repositioning or redevelopment.
| Key Factor | Current-Use Focus | Redevelopment Lens |
|---|---|---|
| Cash Flow Profile | Predictable revenue stream anchored by established restaurants | Shorter lease terms or upcoming expirations can free space for higher-rent users |
| Physical Plant | Existing kitchen build-outs, grease traps, exhaust systems and dining layouts in place | Ability to reconfigure interiors for boutique office, creative studios or additional residential |
| Regulatory Context | Operating under current certificates of occupancy with known parameters | Potential to unlock more density or new uses, balanced against entitlement, design review and community risk |
Those leaning toward a redevelopment or heavy repositioning thesis will need to underwrite:
– Entitlement and permitting timelines in the District
– Potential pushback from neighborhood groups in a historic, well-organized community
– Shifting patterns in retail demand along the Connecticut Avenue and Dupont Circle corridors
– Evolving office utilization and how much new or upgraded office product the market will support
Yield-focused buyers, in contrast, are likely to concentrate on the health of existing operators, labor and food-cost pressures within the restaurant industry, and how resilient foot traffic will be as tourism, office attendance and event-driven visitation continue to normalize across the city.
Conclusion: A test case for D.C.’s restaurant-anchored mixed-use market
The decision to bring this Dupont Circle mixed-use property to market underscores the sustained appeal of stabilized, restaurant-anchored assets in established urban neighborhoods. As investors reassess D.C.’s retail and multifamily fundamentals in a higher-rate world, the outcome of this sale will be closely scrutinized.
Whether the Anju- and Pupatella-anchored complex ultimately sells to an institutional buyer, a local operator or a new-to-market capital source could set an important reference point for pricing and sentiment. In the near term, the transaction is likely to serve as a bellwether for how investors view D.C.’s core retail corridors, and how much they are willing to pay for well-located, amenitized mixed-use properties at this stage of the recovery.
