Game Over for National Pinball Museum

In a far corner of the Shops at Georgetown Park, past Victoria’s Secret and Clyde’s, visitors will find a large display of mannequins and antique pinball machines, unmistakably the National Pinball Museum. The museum, however, will soon be closing.

Last Thursday, museum founder David Silverman received a letter from Vornado Realty, Georgetown Park’s new owners, according to WTOP.

“In that letter it basically says we’re taking your lease … and we’re throwing you out in 60 days,” Silverman says.

Silverman signed a lease that allows mall owners to void it at any time, “I’m like in a state of panic, because it took me six months to build this place, $300,000 to do it. I don’t have a penny.”

The space, which features nine-foot pinball flippers and a custom dinosaur mural, is over 17,000 square feet and contains hundreds of pinball machines, according to a Washington Post article about the museum.

A source to the Northwest Current predicted this style of business from Vornado.

“The source also predicted that the ‘very aggressive company culture’ at Vornado Realty Trust would alienate retailers and Georgetowners and that the company would terminate leases soon in anticipation of pushing a redevelopment plan quickly through Georgetown’s multi-layered design-review process.”