Warehouse Next Door, Bar and Cafe to Close July 30

In April, I reported that, faced with skyrocketing commercial property-tax assessments, Molly and Paul Ruppert, the owners of the Warehouse on 7th Street NW, were considering closing the arts complex. At the time, the mother and son said they would keep operations running through July’s Fringe Festival while appealing their property-tax assessments and scouting new spaces.

Now the Rupperts have announced that, beginning July 30, they will be closing their music venue, the Warehouse Next Door. When the Warehouse reopens after an August vacation, it will hold theater performances and art openings only, not the punk, post-punk, noise, and avant-garde acts that came to call Warehouse Next Door home. The Rupperts will also be closing the Warehouse Bar and Cafe. “It is with much regret that we announce these changes. We have had a great run on 7th Street, stretching back to that first Art Romp 13 years ago,” Paul Ruppert writes.

But the Rupperts aren’t ready to give up on the music. According to Ruppert's e-mail, they will continue searching for new spaces in Columbia Heights, 9th & U, Bloomingdale/Eckington, NOMA, and H Street NE. They will also keep meeting with potential investors and investigate changing the Warehouse from a for-profit entity to a nonprofit, he adds.