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       As downtown D.C. organizations and retailers say they are recovering from the pandemic’s effects, leaders of arts and cultural groups say a Metro construction project is threatening to drive people away from the city’s core during the busy holiday season.

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       Metro is shutting down part of the Red Line in downtown D.C., affecting five stations — including the closure of two stations — during parts of the last two weeks of December.

       The project aims to repair and upgrade tracks and tunnels that haven’t seen significant renovations in five decades, but the timing has sent a wave of frustration through the city’s cultural organizations. The service interruption comes as downtown shops, restaurants and arts centers have been battered by the pandemic and office vacancies, while Metro says the low number of commuters over the holiday period will bring the least disruption.

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       Cultural leaders say said the project was sprung on them last month and Metro hasn’t been responsive to their concerns or requests to postpone it to January. They said the timing undermines the efforts of District leaders to get people back downtown.

       “We’re sitting here with the mayor screaming about downtown needing to come back, and we have all this investment in downtown,” said Paul R. Tetreault, director of Ford’s Theatre, which is about two blocks from the Metro Center station. “We’re hanging by our fingernails out here, and they’re cutting us off at the knees at a time of the year when we actually have to make a little money to carry us through the dark times.”

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       Metrorail won’t operate between the Dupont Circle and Gallery Place stations between Dec. 18 and Dec. 30, closing the Farragut North station, the upper level of Metro Center and both of its entrances on G Street NW. The station’s two entrances on 12th Street NW will remain open. Blue, Orange and Silver line service at Metro Center won’t be affected.

       The work area will extend to Union Station from Dec. 22 through Christmas Eve. The Judiciary Square station and the Gallery Place entrance at Ninth and G streets NW also will close, with no Red Line service between Dupont Circle and Union Station.

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       The disruption will occur during Ford’s Theatre’s production of “A Christmas Carol,” an annual tradition that runs from mid-November to New Year’s Eve. Theater officials say the shutdown could affect 18 performances, 10,000 audience members and nearly 100 employees each show. The performance brings in about $1 million each year, Tetreault said, more than 7 percent of the theater’s annual budget.

       At the Washington Ballet, its annual run of “The Nutcracker” begins Dec. 2 and stretches to Dec. 30 at the Warner Theatre. Karen Shepherd, interim managing director of the Ballet, said ticket sales for the performances generate $3.8 million, with most coming in the final two weeks of production — the same time as Metro’s project.

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       Tetreault and Shepherd said in addition to attendees, they are worried about workers involved in the production, including 50 staff members and dancers at the Ballet and 378 students from across D.C. who are part of the performances. Many of them use Metro and are accompanied by at least one parent, Shepherd said.

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       “The economic impact of no Red Line Metro service at key stations on the Washington Ballet’s highest-grossing production of the season — ‘The Nutcracker’ — is potentially devastating to a company still recovering from pandemic losses,” Shepherd said in a statement.

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       The shutdown has also brought concerns to Monumental Sports and Entertainment, promoter of several events at the Capital One Arena, including Madonna’s Celebration Tour on Dec. 18. The company said in a statement it plans to remind attendees to budget extra time if they are taking Metro.

       “While we wish the repair work didn’t need to happen, we understand these repairs to be necessary and focused on rider safety,” the company said.

       Shepherd and Tetreault said Metro offered to set up a “webinar” to explain its reasoning and share the mitigations the transit agency is taking, such as adding free shuttle buses at every affected station to connect passengers to the rail system at each stop.

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       Transit officials say they scheduled the work based on when ridership is at its lowest point during the year, a move they say will affect the fewest number of commuters. The transit agency doesn’t want to move the work to January, as suggested by arts organizations, because D.C. schools will be back in session.

       “Metro is undertaking this critical work during a period when ridership is typically reduced by about 40 percent due to schools and offices closing for the holidays,” Metro spokesman Ian Jannetta said in a statement. “Shifting the schedule to January would negatively impact those children who rely on Metro to get to and from school as well as other places in the region.”

       Metro braces for closed stations, layoffs, reduced service without funding hike

       Metro also doesn’t want to delay the work because of its urgency. Workers plan to install nearly 40,000 feet of fiber-optic cables, replace concrete grout pads that stabilize tracks, repair leaks and deteriorating concrete ceilings, install platform edge lighting, replace rail fasteners and install insulators that provide a barrier between the electrified third rail and the ground.

       The dispute has drawn in D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D), who said he reached out unsuccessfully to Metro on behalf of downtown businesses and arts centers, urging the transit agency to move construction to the first two weeks of January, when rail demand is still low.

       “The difference is that in January, you’ve got students who I think are more likely to transfer to shuttle buses than shoppers who will just go somewhere else,” he said.

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       Businesses, some of which say they are only now finding out about the project, said they also depend on the holiday season for a big portion of their revenue. Those who come downtown for a play or ballet performance often linger in the area to shop or attend the Downtown Holiday Market in Penn Quarter.

       Business owners said residents have plenty of holiday events to choose from across the region, and a Red Line transfer between trains and shuttle buses could be enough to sway them to spend time elsewhere.

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       Robert Laurence, owner of Robert Laurence Jewelers, a downtown fixture since 1957, said the final two weeks of December are possibly the most important of the year for downtown D.C. He said the number of customers seeking service on rings is still down about 30 percent because of the loss of office workers downtown.

       “I don’t know what I’m going to do with Metro closed for two weeks,” Laurence said. “We just keep struggling.”

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