In huge pre-inauguration news, tech titan Elon Musk is slated to be the highest bidder on D.C.’s trendy Line hotel. The recently inducted member of President-elect Donald Trump’s billionaire boys club plans to turn the desirable Northwest digs with 220 rooms into a “private social club” of sorts, according to multiple sources familiar with the deal.
A previously announced public auction for the former church-turned-posh property (1770 Euclid Street NW) is scheduled for Thursday, January 23 — just three days after Musk’s BFF reassumes power in the same city. Musk is slated to lead the newly coined Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) once Trump moves back into the White House.
The high-profile CEO is behind behemoth brands like rocket-blasting SpaceX, e-car company Tesla, and the social media platform formerly known as Twitter (X), so it would only make sense that he wants to try the hospitality industry on for size next.
Hip LA-born brand Line, which also has locations in San Francisco and Austin, quickly cemented its status as one of D.C.’s hottest dining destinations after making its anticipated debut in late 2017.
The collection of opening restaurants included Rake’s Progress — James Beard Award-winning chef Spike Gjerde’s mid-Atlantic marvel fueled on wood-burning flames — and two lobby-level spots from acclaimed D.C. restaurateur Erik Bruner-Yang: all-day Brothers and Sisters and Spoken English. None of them resurfaced post-pandemic.
No Goodbyes entered the fold in 2021 and remains the Line’s only restaurant. The lobby-wide establishment is fully open from morning to night, with an excellent cocktail program by D.C. bar vet Lukas Smith. It’s unclear what the standalone building’s future food-and-beverage chapter holds under the potential takeover.
The timing is interesting, considering a competing player in D.C.’s private membership space is days away from its long-awaited arrival right across from the White House; Ned’s Club Washington D.C., the pricey newcomer with Soho House status and a dream hospitality team in place, is slated to open on January 31.
The Line’s California-based lender Acore Capital brought the under-performing property up for auction in December and tapped brokerage firm JLL to shop it around town. The foreclosure auction is scheduled to take place in front of a NY courthouse and broadcasted live.
Developer Sydell Group’s adaptive reuse of the old First Christ of Scientist Church got an $80-million loan in 2016 from Deutsche Bank, and was refinanced in 2019 with an $86-million loan from Acore Capital. Investor Affinius Capital did not respond to Eater’s request for comment on Musk’s potential move.
Musk is reportedly scheduled to speak at Trump’s pre-inauguration rally on Sunday at Capital One Arena, and Eater is told that all of its luxe suites are sold out.
