Café Unido Takes Ground-Floor Space at Downtown D.C.’s 17xM Office Tower

Café Unido has signed a lease for 1,300 square feet at 17xM, a Skanska office building at 1700 M St. NW in downtown Washington, D.C., filling the building's entire ground-floor retail space. The café will be the chain's fourth location in the city, joining existing storefronts in Shaw, Union Market and the Stacks development at Buzzard Point. It joins Uchi on the ground floor. Skanska's 334,000-square-foot building, delivered in 2024, is anchored by Gibson Dunn and also houses Manatt Phelps & Phillips, with Corgan and the University of Michigan signing on late last year.

Elsewhere in the week's roundup, Torridon Law, founded by former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, is expanding from about 22,000 square feet to 36,000 square feet by moving to Sentinel Real Estate's 1201 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, taking over Bass Barry & Sims' sublease. In Georgetown, the designer pop-up 260 Sample Sale leased a 7,000-square-foot former Ikea storefront at 3307 M St. NW. Carr Properties bought a two-acre site in Old Town North, Alexandria, for $30 million to build a 373-unit apartment building, with construction expected to start in spring 2028. Developers topped out a 260-unit project called The Botanist in Fairfax, Virginia, and Affinius Capital provided a $97.9 million refinance for The Lydian, a 324-unit building in Mount Vernon.

For developers and lenders, the deals show continued leasing demand for amenity-rich ground-floor retail in new downtown offices and steady capital flowing to multifamily assets in the D.C. region.