Developer, Lawyer Bob Elliott Dies at 80 

Robert Raymond Elliott, a real estate developer and lawyer — best known in Georgetown for his mixed-use complex, Georgetown Court, home to businesses like Cafe Milano, Peacock Cafe, Cafe Liberte and Sid and Ann Mashburn — died Sept. 20 at his Washington home. He was 80.  

Elliott was born on Feb. 26, 1941, in Depew, New York, outside Buffalo. He graduated from Harvard University in 1963 and from Harvard Law School in 1966. In Chile, he met Maria Gloria Romero, whom he married in 1968. Because of his wife (they later divorced), he become close with Chileans in D.C., helping refugees during the Pinochet regime. He called a theater in his Georgetown complex the Letelier Theatre in honor of Orlando Letelier, who was killed, along with Ronni Moffitt, in a car-bomb attack at Sheridan Circle in 1976. 

In the mid 1970s, Elliott was general counsel of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and worked on fair housing issues there and throughout his life. In the mid 1990s, he worked for a group that opposed the Disney Company’s proposal for a huge U.S. history theme park near Haymarket, Virginia.  

The usually quiet and private Elliott was known as practical and creative in his dealings in Georgetown, where he looked after his building complex which borders on Prospect and N Streets — with an address of 3251 Prospect St. NW — and for ways to improve the state of restaurants and retail. 

He was a friend to The Georgetowner, setting up the Georgetown Visitors Center in his courtyard in 1991 along with space for newspaper offices. His daughter Andrea — now a New York Times journalist and Pulitzer-Prize winner — interned at The Georgetowner, Elliott liked to recall. 

Andrea Elliott told the Washington Post that the cause of her father’s death was an apparent heart attack. 

At the time of his death, Elliott was finishing a condo project, adjacent to Georgetown Court and his Madelon condominiums — a four-story building with four units, replacing the former Domino’s site, at 3255 Prospect St. NW. It is called, appropriately, the Elliott. 

Survivors include his daughter, of New York City, and two sons, Pablo Elliott of Manchester, Vermont, and Thomas Elliott of Livingston, Montana — along with two brothers and five grandchildren. A virtual memorial service was held Sept. 26. 

tagsbusiness developmentCafe MilanoDepartment of Housing and Urban DevelopmentGeorgetown CourtMadelonPeacock CaferestaurantsretailRobert Elliott