A land swap agreement that was set to pave the way for a new U.S. Navy museum and a nearby 15-acre mixed-use development on D.C.’s waterfront is reportedly dead.

The chairman of the foundation overseeing the planned National Museum of the United States Navy said at a conference this month that Navy Secretary John Phelan had “withdrawn” from the land swap agreement that would enable the museum’s construction, according to the U.S. Naval Institute’s Tuesday Tidings newsletter published last week.

The newsletter says Navy Museum Development Foundation Chairman Kenneth Braithwaite has put fundraising efforts “on hold until a new site can be identified.”

The office of the assistant secretary of the Navy and the Navy Museum Development Foundation didn’t respond to Bisnow‘s requests for comment.

In addition to throwing the future of the museum into question, the statement also casts new doubt on the other piece of the land swap agreement: the nearby 15-acre site that Redbrick LMD plans to develop into a mixed-use district.

The D.C.-based developer inked a 99-year ground lease in June 2024 for the site, owned by the U.S. Navy and known as the O Parcels. It has planned to develop a mix of housing and retail in a combination of new buildings and rehabbed naval buildings. The National Capital Planning Commission approved the master plan, submitted by the Navy, a month earlier.