Remember that exciting new concept coming to the old shirt laundry building on 14th and Q NW? The would-be restauranteur, Whisk Group, has finally given up the fight after pouring more than $50,000 into preparation—only to decide that foundation upgrades, soil remediation, and renovation would cost more than he’d bargained for.

“At this point, we’re backing out,” says Whisk Group owner Mark Weiss. “I’d like to think that if it’s meant to be, maybe things will change. We just have to be careful.”

Also hitting Weiss in the pocketbook: A lawsuit over unpaid fees from architect CORE Group, which claimed in late February that Whisk owed them more than $125,000 for consulting on six projects, five of which are in the District. Besides Shirt Laundry, CORE billed tens of thousands of dollars on two prospective K Street projects that never saw the light of day, as well as $16,896 for services related to the ill-fated Diamond District Seafood.

Despite the extensive terms and conditions listed in their contract, Weiss says he disagreed with CORE’s calculation of what he owes, and the two firms will settle for a sum less than $125,000, which he declined to specify.

“In the end of the day, we came to an agreement of what was fair,” Weiss says. “When you go into projects together, and no real architecture has been done yet, or renderings, there’s a certain amount of money that should be associated with it.”