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Articles
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| Commission in tiff over H Street development funding |
VOICE writes, "by Arthur Delaney
Northeast Capitol Hill advisory neighborhood commissioner Bill Schultheiss recalls at-large D.C. Council member Kwame Brown, chair of the D.C/ Council’s Committee on Economic Development, telling commissioners at their January meeting that $25 million in tax-increment financing would be available for businesses on H Street. The funding would be part of a $95 million package designed to subsidize mixed-use and retail development on "Great Streets" corridors throughout the city.
"He [Brown] said, 'This is to benefit the H Street corridor and businesses along H Street,’" commissioner Bill Schultheiss said at last week’s commission meeting. Schultheiss and the rest of the commission thought it sounded like a swell idea.
The city's tax-increment financing program allows the District to sell bonds backed by a development's future taxes. The proceeds of the bond sale go to the developer, who can use them to pay for things like construction.
But the commissioners were disappointed when the city put out its request for proposals Jan. 29, and it turned out only businesses with at least 10,000 square feet would be allowed to apply for the funding. "
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"It's completely anti-small-business," Schultheiss said at the commission's meeting this month.
Only a handful of large lots, such as the H Street Connection and the BP AutoZone, would be eligible, the commissioners noted. They voted to send a letter to the D.C. Council asking the council to withdraw the request for proposals for the money and reformulate the standards to allow smaller businesses to apply.
In the letter, the commission wrote: "The foundation of H Street is based in the diversity of small businesses. Our community needs a TIF program that strives to preserve small business diversity and not large-scale uniform homogenization and consolidation."
Sean Madigan, spokesperson for the Office for the Deputy Mayor of Planning and Economic Development, said it is simply not feasible to offer the funding to lots of small businesses.
"The reason we didn't do it for projects smaller than 10,000 feet is because when you do the bond transactions, there's a lot of fees involved," Madigan said. "Basically, the numbers aren't big enough to support the amount of transactions" there would be if lots smaller businesses were eligible.
Madigan pointed to $500,000 in city grant money that is currently available to H Street businesses. Derrick Woody, coordinator of the Great Streets Initiative, also pointed out the grant money in a letter to the commission offering more details about how the TIF program works.
Schultheiss, whose single-member district includes much of H Street, remains skeptical. He said it appears the city wants to bring in a big development, as it did with the new Target store on 14th Street NW, to serve as an anchor for continued revitalization. Schultheiss and others consider the strategy inappropriate for H Street NE.
"This is the thinking behind the Verizon Center and the Nationals ball park. They are anchors that spur development in an area that otherwise would sit underutilized for decades or worse," Schultheiss wrote in an e-mail to the Voice.
"My opinion is that we already have anchors," such as the Atlas Theater and popular new bars like the Rock and Roll Hotel.
Brown's office declined to comment on the issue.
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Posted on Mar 27, 2008 20:51pm.
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