DC leaders promote downtown investment plan to lure people back
WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — D.C. leaders who are seeking to bolster the struggling downtown revealed plans on Monday to revitalize the area – with a price tag of $401 million for the next five years that they say would erase years of tax-revenue losses.
The so-called Downtown Action Plan and the Downtown Public Realm Plan were presented at a news conference as a way to help the city grow its residents by 15,000 people as the city has lost $240 million since the start of the pandemic.
City officials estimate that the plans would generate annual revenue of $483 million and would create a mixed-use downtown that attracts people, businesses and visitors to the nation’s capital.
The leaders from the Golden Triangle and the DowntownDC business improvement districts say that the revitalization plans have to happen in order for downtown to survive.
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“This is an investment that will net a real return and the city has to do it,” said Gerren Price, the president and CEO of DowntownDC.
Price said the city is losing too much in downtown tax revenue and that District officials have to invest even if the owners of the Washington Capitals and Wizards end up leaving downtown for neighboring Virginia.
“We’re $240 million down in annual taxes and that number, if no intervention is made and no investments are made, it is going to continue to decline,” Gerren said.
The two plans are being offered as a way to make downtown more attractive. Under the action plan, five areas of the city are targeted: Penn West, Downtown West, the Historic Green Triangle, Penn Quarter Chinatown and the Penn West Equity, Innovation and University District.
There would also be significant improvements to the public realm plan for public community spaces, city officials said.
“These interventions we feel are necessary. We feel we brought forward a very good, comprehensive package,” said Leona Agouridis, the president and CEO of the Golden Triangle.
Mayor Muriel Bowser, who was on hand for the presentation, said the plans are critically important, especially when there’s been a struggle to get federal workers back downtown.
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“We don’t want to send the message that our downtown is a ghost town,” Bowser said.
Trey Perez, 24, who just moved to downtown D.C. eight months ago, said that downtown will be a ghost town if the Capitals and Wizards bolt for Virginia.
“I know a lot of the businesses have like released statements saying the potential of how much business they can lose if they don’t have the team,” he said. “I just don’t see really how you’re going to keep making that type of investment if the team’s not here.”
But city leaders say the plan is viable even if the professional hockey and basketball franchises leave.
“We have a plan that is actively underway now to think about what can the future of that site be without sports teams that still generates activity,” Gerren said.
City Council members would have to approve the investments, including a requested $39 million for the upcoming fiscal year to kick the projects off, city officials said.
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