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This morning, the DC Council Committee on Finance and Revenue, chaired by Jack Evans, held a hearing on the O Street Market Tax Increment Financing (TIF) package. This TIF would provide $35M of publicly backed bond financing to support the high infrastructure costs of the $320M CityMarket at O project. The hearing was well attended by Shaw residents and was strongly supported by almost everyone. Evans announced that he expects his committee to mark up the bill (B17-0800) in the near future and have it for a first vote before the full council on July 15, with final passage when the council comes back in session on September 16. Roadside Development said they don't expect to break ground on the project until the fall of 2009, with construction estimated to take three to three and a half years. The Giant, however, would be operational within two years, meaning the earliest we can hope to be shopping in the new O Street Market is the fall of 2011. [Great PDF outlining the O Street Market project is available from Roadside.]
A large number of witness spoke about the O Street project. I'll give you a brief rundown. Unfortunately, I didn't grab a copy of the official agenda, so my spelling of names is going to be horrible. I apologize in advance... (Thanks to Martin for a few corrections.)
Ralph G. Brahbham, Esq, is a Shaw homeowner and started off with themes that most witnesses would echo, voicing his strong support for the project and highlighting a number of things, including the affordable senior housing, restoration of the O Street Market, a new grocery store, underground parking & loading, and the restoration of 8th Street.
Leroy Thorpe, of Red Hats and the ECCA, said he was strongly supportive of the project.
Alex Padro, the ANC commissioner who represents the area that includes the O Street Market, spoke of the "overwhelming community support" for CityMarket at O.
Kevin Chapple, my ANC commissioner, also spoke of the strong community support and excitement about this project. [testimony available here in PDF]
Timothy Mack, chairman of Shaw Main Streets, spoke of his support and the importance of the market to the Shaw community.
Jenny Reed, a researcher with the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, was the only real critic of the TIF bill for this project. She said that we do not have enough details to know if the TIF really makes sense. She outlined three main concerns: 1. the District's CFO says it can't tell what the financing gap really is, 2. we don't know if the project will generate enough tax revenue to pay off the bonds, and 3. this brings DC close to its bond limit. (Evans responded to these concerns later.)
George Jones, executive director of Bread for the City, spoke in support of the project.
Charlie Whitaker, project coordinator for the Shaw Green Team, spoke in support of the project and about the funding that Roadside Development has provided to the Shaw Green Team.
Evans then responded to Reed's concerns about the TIF package by saying that the CFO would be speaking shortly on the gap analysis issue, that TIF funding is never a sure thing, but generally has been wildly successful in DC (he pointed to Gallery Place as an example), and mentioned that the Downtown TIF is a backstop to this TIF, which provides security to the project.
Rev. Joseph Williams, from Emmaeus Services for the Aging, spoke in favor of the project and highlighted the affordable housing for seniors that is being included, and mentioned that Roadside has worked to provide Peapod grocery delivery service to seniors during the two years that the new Giant will be under construction.
Martin Moulton, interim president of the Convention Center Community Association, had the best line of the hearing, saying that "the CityMarket project will finally bring us a grocery store worthy of the name 'Giant.'" [testimony available here in PDF]
Ibrahim Mumin, supported the TIF and talked about his participation in the development of the current Giant store in the 70's. The current Giant was the first grocery store built in the city after the '68 riots, and it wasn't built until the mid-70's.
The Roadside Development team then spoke and mentioned a few interesting tidbits. They have entered into a firm agreement with Giant and Giant is contributing $12.5M towards the development and their lease goes until 2051. Their research shows that the neighborhood could support four additional grocery stores. Roadside argued that the TIF was needed due to the high infrastructure costs associated with this project: restoration of a historic market, rebuilding 8th Street throught the middle of the project, and the underground loading/parking space. They estimate $42M in infrastructure costs, of which the TIF is covering $35M. Roadside is under contract to close the Giant store for a maximum of two years.
Paul Brown, from CPDC--a non-profit affordable housing developer, is the part of the development team working the seniors housing. They will be developing 80-100 units of affordable senior housing, at 60% of Area Median Income (AMI) or less, in 1 or 2 bedroom configurations.
Raul Horton (??) is a managing partner of Blue Sky Housing, who are working with CPDC on the senior housing.
Dennis Conto & Ben Soto are developing the hotel piece of the project. LSDB will own 51% of the hotel, and Roadside will own 49%. They expect to have a 200 room hotel, which will be located on the southwest corner of the development.
Finally, the city government witnesses came to the table. Valerie Young, the COO for Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Neil Albert, spoke about the TIF package proposed. The site is a 150,000 sq ft lot that will have 400 apts, 150 condos and 87,000 sq ft of retail (Giant occupies about 70,000 of that). The legislation seeks issuance of bonds not to exceed $46.5M. $35M will go toward construction costs and $11.5M will go toward financing the costs of the bonds. Cost overruns will be born by the developer. The District's investment is about 15% of the project, similar to other projects the District has supported. 90% of any construction savings will go back to the District.
John Ross, senior advisor to the Chief Financial Officer of DC was the last witness. He said that they had provided a financial impact statement to the Council. The CFO does not expect a budget impact until 2012, at which point it will be in the $3-5M range. This debt service may be needed for an additional 3 years, as they don't expect the taxes from the site to pay for the TIF until 2015 or 2016. He also said that no gap analysis is possible until the developer reorganizes their financing. Lastly, he noted that a signed hotel development deal is important for the whole project, as 44% of the taxes for the TIF will be coming from the hotel.
That's a lot, but will hopefully give folks a full picture of the hearing...
The DC City Council has a website from 1997. I'm not joking. Maybe Chairman Vincent Gray hasn't heard of the internet, but at least some of the other members should care about having a good website. The Council is supposed to be the representative branch of the DC government, but their website certainly doesn't make it easy for us ordinary citizens to learn much about the council. Whoever wins in the various council races for this fall, someone ought to make that website at least usable. Please!
Here's a quote from the main page of the website, just to give you a clue as to how bad it is:
Welcome to the Official World Wide Web site of the Council of the District of Columbia. Our Web site is another way to keep you informed of Council actions and public meetings, invite your participation, and solicit your views. You can see our weekly schedule, read proposed legislation, and e-mail your comments directly to Members.
The website is copyrighted in 1997 and uses frames. What more need I say? Perhaps some kind-hearted web design firm here in town would redesign their website on a pro bono basis. It certainly would be a service to the public...
Next Thursday there will be a meeting regarding the Shaw Neighborhood Investment Fund (NIF) at Shaw Junior High. Kevin Chapple kindly pointed this meeting out, and I would love to attend, but will be out of town. I hope others from the neighborhood go to this meeting. From the Shaw NIF website:
One of the requirements of the enabling legislation, the Neighborhood Investment Act of 2004, is for the Mayor to develop NIF Investment Plans for each of the target area using input from community stakeholders including the Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners, residents, business owners, faith community, not for profit organizations, among other groups. The purpose of the Investment Plan is to set community priorities for how the NIF funds should be utilized in the target area over a five year period.
What could we do with a couple million dollars in devlopment funding? I'll start working on a list. I suppose speed bumps for Marion Street and bike racks at the south entrance to the Shaw metro would come from other sources of funding...
Many of you have probably already seen this, but one of the neighborhood listserves pointed out this article in the City Paper about gang violence in Shaw. The author does a good job of showing the connections between the violence--for the most part, these incidents are not random, one act of violence leads to another. That chain of violence has to be broken, but how? It seems like the work of the non-profits is not bearing much fruit, but can we really expect much from them? And what can a white gentrifier like me, who lives in and cares about Shaw, really do to help the situation?
One interesting paragraph from the article, that I'd love to hear others thoughts on:
The resulting gunfire breaks out at random moments on Shaw’s streets. And gang warfare is not supposed to happen in a long-since-gentrified neighborhood, right next to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center and wedged in between the U Street corridor and the Gallery Place-Chinatown area, the epicenter of new D.C.: corporate development and condos galore, loaded with residents who can’t believe their shiny new buildings still haven’t driven out the crack dealers below their windows. Here, four blocks from the Verizon Center, crime landmarks dot a neighborhood with $800,000 homes, chic new eateries, and boutiques that sell purses for $200. The Shaw of yesteryear has disappeared, and yet its crew history is still evolving.
Ok, back to work...
It's been a busy month at work, so I haven't posted anything here. A few notable things have happened. First, a bike lane magically appeared on Q Street, which caused much rejoicing:
In other news, every time I walk into TG Cigar (on 9th St between L and M) I have a good experience. The folks who run that place are helpful and friendly. I highly recommend them.
More to come soon...
A couple photos from a rainy Saturday in April.
I meant to post about this earlier, but Walking Town DC, Spring 2008 is this weekend. On Saturday and Sunday, dozens of walking tours will be going on, all over the city. According to the website, there are 80 free walking tours in 18 neighborhoods across our city. A few that interest me are obviously the Shaw tours, led by our own Alex Padro, and tours of the Florida Ave market and alley dwellings on Capitol Hill and in southern Shaw. The current weather forecast calls for rain showers, but don't let that stop you! Also, for those of you who are artistically inclined, DCist is holding a photo contest in connection with the walking tours. Go walk this weekend!
A few weeks ago I wrote three posts on the 1968 riots in Washington, DC: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. I had more information that I wanted to include, but as happens all to often, I didn't have time to do all that I had hoped. In lieu of actually writing all those posts, I did want to wrap up the series by uploading the scanned in images and damage maps from the other two main riot corridors. All of these images can be found in my Flickr set 1968 Washinton, DC Riots.
First up are the 14th Street NW images:
Unless otherwise noted, all images and maps in this series of posts came from "Civil Disturbances in Washington DC - A Preliminary Damage Report" which was put together by the National Capital Planning Commission in May, 1968. I got the report from the library and believe it to be in the public domain.
Posts in this series:
40 Years Later: The DC Riots
40 Years Later: The Damage
DC Riots 40 Years Later: 7th Street
What interests me the most about the history of the 1968 DC riots is how much it impacted my neighborhood directly. 7th Street, as I mentioned yesterday, had the largest chunk of buildings damaged in the riots, and when you know where to look, you can still see the scars today. Part of the problem was that blocks that were damaged in the '68 riots were rebuilt in the 70's, which was just a bad era for public buildings. A perfect example of this is the timeless photo that has been reproduced a lot this week via the Library of Congress. Here it is again, in small form, followed by a closeup:
While this building may meet needs in terms of housing, it is a scar in the neighborhood--it completely disrupts the flow of the city--mostly three stories buildings suddenly meet this ugly thing. Unfortunately, the other sections on 7th that were damaged have been replaced with equally hideous buildings--structures that look like they should have been in the suburbs, not in a major city. Excluding the convention center, look at the blocks between Q St and L St on 7th--numerous buildings that are painful to look at (if only Jane Jacobs had been advising the redevelopment efforts). Not only that, but there are also numerous empty lots, that as far as I can tell, have been empty since the riots. Below are damage maps and pictures of the 7th St corridor.
These images are hard to get much out of without looking at very closely. I decided to focus on the corner of 7th & P Streets NW. I took pictures of the intersection today and compared them to what I found in the images contained within this report. The first images are of the SW corner of 7th & P, i.e. the 1400 block of 7th street. You'll note the O Street Market on the left.
(All the damage photos & maps come from the National Capital Planning Commission report referenced yesterday, unless otherwise noted.)
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