District Municipal Fish Market Tenants File for Preliminary Injunction in Lawsuit Against Developers and the District of Columbia

WASHINGTON ― The Wharf, Captain White’s Seafood City, and Salt Water Seafood, all current tenants of the District’s Municipal Fish Market, today filed a motion for a preliminary injunction with the US District Court for the District of Columbia to halt the destruction of their businesses by the District’s developer partners in the $2 billion redevelopment of the District’s Southwest Waterfront.

On July 23, a formal complaint (case #1:15-cv-01198) was filed with the court by the tenants, represented by Wendell Taylor and Jonathan Lasken, a partner and senior associate respectively at the law firm of Hunton & Williams LLP. The dispute is the result of violations of the Fifth Amendment by the District of Columbia and breaches of the tenants’ leases by the developers, along with a number of other legal claims that have allegedly resulted from the redevelopment. The complaint details how the developers have allegedly sought to run the tenants off the site by damaging their property, blocking entrances and exits, constructing permanent structures in violation of their leases, closing/restricting the customer parking lot, and by attempting to unlawfully evict the tenants.

The District’s Municipal Fish Market, which first opened for business in 1805, is the nation’s oldest open-air fish market. The tenants’ original landlord was the District, but in 2014 the District assigned its rights to the developers, Hoffman-Madison Waterfront, LLC and Wharf Horizontal REIT Leaseholder LLC.

Comments on the case:

Wendell Taylor, Partner, Hunton & Williams:

“Our clients’ businesses have been trampled upon by the redevelopment project. The Municipal Fish Market is a DC institution and we are fighting for the viability of the market itself.”

“We believe that the District has abandoned its commitments to our clients, which is particularly ironic given its history of failed urban development in this very area, which displaced local businesses that had historic ties to the community exactly like our clients do.”

Sunny White, Owner, Captain White’s Seafood City:

“The Fish Market is a DC institution. We’ve been here for more than 40 years and built our businesses here from nothing. Now, the redevelopment is trying to take it all away and throw us out onto the street. It isn’t right.”

More than 2,200 people have signed a petition demanding that the developers stop their harassment against their Fish Market tenants.