Fish Market Owners Sue $2 Billion Wharf Development

Owners of three Maine Avenue Fish Market businesses have sued the D.C. government and two developers of the $2 billion Wharf project, the largest mixed-use development project in the District, alleging that they are being forced out of business. In the complaint, the businesses say the government shut down Water Street SW, the primary access point to the Fish Market, preventing customer and delivery access, that construction crews have blocked their parking lots and that the developers have attempted to evict them illegally.

Since a meeting last year between the owners and representatives of the developers failed to resolve their differences, developers have tried to evict two of the businesses. The market owners asked the U.S. District Court for D.C. to prevent “further blocking, altering, or eliminating any entrances to or exits from Plaintiffs’ leased property including the Common Area.”

The CEO of one of the developers, Monty Hoffman, issued a statement recently that said, “With any large-scale project in a dense urban area, some temporary disruption is inevitable.”