From one trendy New York City export to another, Georgetown’s old Dean & DeLuca space is set to be reincarnated as an artisan market.

Artists & Fleas will take over the space with a permanent cast of about 15 “artists, designers, collectors, creators,” a food and beverage component, and a space with room for events and a marketplace with rotating vendors, according to co-founder Ronen Glimer. They aim to open in March, with weekend hours at first.

Dean & DeLuca closed its Georgetown shop August after 25 years amid a series of financial woes. But in its heyday, the market chain was a trailblazer, helping to popularize gourmet grocery items, minimalist kitchen decor, and splurge-level pricing.

In some ways, Artists & Fleas is a modern incarnation, having gussied up the flea market long before maker markets and artisanal food halls were a glimmer in most real estate developers’ eyes. It launched in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 2003—pre-Etsy, pre-smartphone days.

“It was really born out of a desire to create a place where creators could kind of come together and support one another and and get their product out in front of people to touch and feel and sell,” Glimer says.

Artists & Fleas has since expanded to locations in Soho, Chelsea, and Los Angeles.

Glimer says they don’t have personal connections to the District, though he and co-founder Amy Abrams have gotten to know many local makers through a circuit of artisans who have moved around throughout the East Coast.

But it was the building itself that really drew them in. A few years ago, the duo toured Georgetown Park—the landlord was the same as their Chelsea location at the time—and loved the Dean & DeLuca space. If it ever became available, they said, they’d be interested.

Artists & Fleas will riff on the 150-year-old building’s past life as the home of the first public market in D.C. (It is still required by covenant to include a public market component.) But, he says, “we’re not going to have like the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker—but a cheekier and fresher take on all of that. We want to be relevant to the different people who frequent the neighborhood, who live there, who visit there,”Glimer says.

They aren’t the first New Yorkers to bring a popular Brooklyn-based marketplace to the District—and not always successfully.

Brooklyn Flea put tents up in the parking lot that pre-dated Atlantic Plumbing back in 2013, but District Flea lasted just two seasons. The same owners tried again, bringing their Smorgasburg concept to Navy Yard last summer. But the open-air food market has also struggled, shutting down for the month of August.

But Glimer says they don’t necessarily see themselves as New Yorkers coming to other cities, so much as a concept populated with local creators. He pledges Artists & Fleas will feature makers from the D.C. area.

Among the permanent vendors, expect to find apparel, vintage goods, records, and a couple of food options. “We’re in the process of talking and curating and not being too heavy-handed,” Glimer says, “and trying to think about what what really will be both whimsical and delightful.”

If those aren’t the first words that come to mind when one thinks about Georgetown (“there’s certainly an opportunity for irony,” Glimer says), some have predicted that the neighborhood is overdue for a resurgence—especially as once-indie areas like 14th Street NW grow chain-heavy. In addition to a number of more approachable restaurants, Shop Made in DC has also, er, set up shop with entirely locally made goods.

“One of the things that has excited us about this opportunity, but D.C. in general, is just sort of how it’s a city that kinds of pushing the boundaries, geographically and then across so many other dynamics and elements—the food space and various programming. We’re going in with the notion of fun, of experimentation, and of community-building and creating something memorable in that space, Glimer says. “It’s an amazing neighborhood and an amazing structure.”