From the Washington Post : O Street Market: Symbol of violence becomes a marker for D.C.’s resurgence.

In a city where gun violence had become so widespread that the police had a special unit called Redrum devoted just to drug dealers killing drug dealers, the O Street Market shootings hit hard.
“There were just bodies falling everywhere,” a man at the deli counter said afterward.
For the next two decades, the market in Northwest Washington was a symbol of urban decay and dysfunction. The vendors bailed out. The roof collapsed. The shell of the historic structure, built in 1881, was vandalized.
And then, in 2001, three developers who believed that Shaw would find its way back bought the symbol of the drug wars and waited for the right moment, which they believe begins this week.