In 2010, the District of Columbia, through the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development ("DMPED"), issued a Request for Proposals ("RFP") inviting qualified development teams ("Offerors") to propose their vision and plan for redeveloping the historic Dupont Trolley Station located underneath the Dupont Circle ("Project"). The District sought a creative, yet sustainable use that would turn this vacant, 75,000-square-foot former trolley station into a destination for District residents.

In November 2014, the District signed a 66-month lease with the nonprofit Arts Coalition for the Dupont Underground (ACDU) to redevelop 23,000 square feet of the site. ACDU plans to activate the space through art and design events, public performances and temporary commercial uses.

The tunnels, built along with the Connecticut Avenue underpass, opened in 1949 and closed in 1963, when the city’s streetcar system was shut down. Other than designation as a fallout shelter in the late 1960s and hosting a short-lived food court on the west platform in the mid-1990s, the space — which the group calls the Dupont Underground — has remained empty.