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[[File:National Place, Washington DC.jpg|thumb|The Shops at National Place, interior view, ground level, {{circa|2012}}]]

[[File:National Place, Washington DC.jpg|thumb|The Shops at National Place, interior view, ground level, {{circa|2012}}]]

===Pre-construction and development===

===Pre-construction and development===

Planning of The Shops at National Place started in July 1980 as part of a major $28 million redevelopment project of the adjacent National Press Building by the National Press Building Corporation. The project would involve restoring the National Express Building (completed in 1927), as well as adding 80,000 square feet of retail and office space, including a 14-story atrium. The redevelopment project aimed to revitalize downtown Washington, D.C.

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Planning of The Shops at National Place started in July 1980 as part of a major $28 million redevelopment project of the adjacent National Press Building by the National Press Building Corporation. The project would involve restoring the National Express Building (completed in 1927), as well as adding 80,000 square feet of retail and office space, including a 14-story atrium. The redevelopment project aimed to revitalize downtown Washington, D.C.

The Shops at National Place opened in two phases during 1984 and 1985. It was designed as a central piece in revitalizing downtown Washington, D.C.’s traditional downtown shopping core along F Street, NW, west of the Woodward & Lothrop flagship. The mall replaced the former flagship stores of Raleigh’s and Joseph R. Harris Co.

The first phase of 53 stores opened on May 14, 1984, and was developed by The Rouse Company. The 71,000-square-foot (6,600 m²) retail complex was hailed as “part of a very important renaissance of downtown Washington.” The Shops opened concurrently with a new 774-room JW Marriott Hotel (the first in that chain), and refurbished National Theater and National Press Building.^[1][2]
Melart Jewelers and Sight and Sound Electronics were part of the first phase located in the JW Marriott lobby.

The 40-store phase two of The Shops opened April 25, 1985. It included August Max, Record Town, and Brooks Fashions among the original tenants. The complex featured a 15-story atrium for the refurbished National Press Building and 450 spaces of underground parking. At the opening ceremony, then-mayor Marion Barry proclaimed “Downtown is coming alive…!”^[3][4]

The Shops at National Place’s struggles began in the late 1980s. It had a poor design that was isolated from the street, making it hard to access, with the majority of its tenants being “tucked in.” It was seen as a miscalculation by The Rouse Company, as the company built the mall inside of a historical 15-story office building, even though the company was optimistic that it would be highly successful. James W. Rouse himself later admitted that the mall was inefficiently designed, leading to parking problems and high maintenance costs.^[5]

During development, Rouse was unable to secure anchor retailers, leading to The Shops to resort to big-box tenants, such as Filene’s Basement.^[6]

The Shops at National Place, along with the rest of Rouse’s portfolio, was sold to General Growth Properties (GGP) in November 2004 following a $12.6 billion acquisition of the company.^[7] Following the mall’s struggles, GGP closed a portion of The Shops to redevelop it into a food court called Eat at National Place (stylized as eat at National Place) which opened in 2005. It was a last-ditch effort to revitalize the mall, and the food court housed both local and national food vendors, including Five Guys and Moe’s Southwest Grill.^[8]

Despite the attempts of revitalization by adding a food court, in 2008, due to many vacancies in the mall, competition from Union Station and struggles from the Great Recession, The Shops at National Place officially closed its doors, except for the food court, and the passageway to the JW Marriott. Following the mall’s struggles, GGP spun-off 30 underperforming properties, including The Shops, to Rouse Properties in January 2012.^[9] Brookfield Properties, which acquired Rouse Properties and GGP in 2016 and 2018 respectively, later sold its interests to local developer Quadrangle Development Corporation around the 2010s because the property was no longer profitable.

Eat at National Place closed permanently in May 2020 following challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. It ceased operations on May 26, 2020, with a notice posted on the entrance doors and its website thanking patrons, office workers, tour groups and visitors for “helping patronize our Food Hall for the past 15 years”, and all signage—including the hanging “Eat at National Place Food Hall” signs on the arches—were removed. Since Verizon was located inside of the food court, it had to be relocated to 1318 F St NW after the food court closed to remain accessible to customers.^[10][8] The food court’s closure proved that Eat at National Place acted as a “band-aid” rather than genuine redevelopment; it helped office workers and generated lunch traffic, but it did not solve actual reasons for why the mall failed, such as architecture.

As of 2026, the former mall space has been repurposed for office and street-level retail and dining, such as District Taco, Corner Bakery Cafe, and a Verizon store. In 2016, part of the defunct mall was occupied by Wells Fargo Bank, but that eventually closed.^[11] The defunct Eat at National Place space remains vacant, though there is a Starbucks adjacent to it.