Downtown DC is a storefront ghost

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The tax situation in DC is going to become dire. CRE is the foundation of the services we have come to expect.

Good. Tax revenue is regularly pissed away in DC on nonsense. All that money spent on programs only to still have out of control crime and delinquent youths.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Out: storefronts and bricks and mortar stores

In: high density urban living and restaurants / eateries

Yes! They need to turn this vacant office space into housing ASAP. People would gladly live downtown and then some of the shops/restaurants/life will come back.

I think you are severely overestimating the number of people who want to live "downtown." There is housing available and being built there. But there aren't lines of people waiting. Even people who want to live in the city mostly don't want to live "downtown." The rowhouse neighborhoods are far more desirable than downtown, which is mostly an ugly, charmless, gray, wasteland.

[Anonymous]

Mango the famous Barcelona clothing store is opening a flagship store in the old J Crew space on F Street. Downtown is on the cusp of a rebound. Especially now that Monumental Sports is staying and the increased safety measures downtown.

[Anonymous]

Maybe now’s not the right time to upzone the NW residential neighborhoods?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Out: storefronts and bricks and mortar stores

In: high density urban living and restaurants / eateries

Out: high density urban living where the last pandemic spread like crazy and the next one will too.

In: living exurban or rural on a big piece of property and working from home.

Big gardens with raspberries growing on the back fence, a few laying hens pecking around and a big patch of lawn for flag football with the kids.
Heaven.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Out: storefronts and bricks and mortar stores

In: high density urban living and restaurants / eateries

Yes! They need to turn this vacant office space into housing ASAP. People would gladly live downtown and then some of the shops/restaurants/life will come back.

There is no "ASAP" with what you propose. Any meaningful residential conversions will take decades. In the case of most office buildings, it would be more cost-effective to tear them down and build residential in its place. You can't just snap your fingers and convert an office building into apartments.

This one at 20th & L seems to have taken under two years:

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/first-large-scale-office-to-residential-conversion-in-dcs-downtown-nears-completion-302085578.html

[Anonymous]

Why is it surprising? People can’t even afford groceries anymore. Who has money to shop these days.

[Anonymous]

I have been going into the office in the "Golden Triangle" pretty steadily for the last three years. There was a big wave of closures a year in (including the Starbucks-pocalypse) then there were some stragglers that finally threw in the towel in the past year. Paul, Daily Grill, some of the Sprint/Verizon wireless stores, a bunch of CVS's. That stretch between 18th and Connecticut is a graveyard. Just GNC and Starbucks survive.

But while some leases are continuing to run out, the area generally seems better in terms of foot traffic. The 19th street Wawa strip is still hopping. There's a new sushi place on 17th. And a new coffee shop FINALLY opened above Farragut North where the old insane Starbucks used to be.

City's tax situation is dire but it is less depressing that it has been.

[Anonymous]

Stretch on **L Street** between 18th and Connecticut

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Out: storefronts and bricks and mortar stores

In: high density urban living and restaurants / eateries

Yes! They need to turn this vacant office space into housing ASAP. People would gladly live downtown and then some of the shops/restaurants/life will come back.

There is no "ASAP" with what you propose. Any meaningful residential conversions will take decades. In the case of most office buildings, it would be more cost-effective to tear them down and build residential in its place. You can't just snap your fingers and convert an office building into apartments.

not only is there no ASAP, there is no "they". Just WHO is "they" and what are they to do? Tell us precisely and legally what "they" shoulf do. Ignorant PPs who make these naive, sweeping statements have no idea the complexity of such a situation. are the builfings privately owned? Then "they" can do nothing.What is the property zoned at? etc etc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've never understood why landlords do this; presumably there is benefit they get from letting these storefronts sit empty than from lowering the rent to at least get something, but I'm not sure what it is (maybe a tax loss thing?). Seems like something the city should take action to combat.

Commercial real estate is valued at some multiple of annual rent. I forgot the exact figure since I'm not in this space. But that is unlike how residential real estate is valued

So a landlord could value a property at X based on current rent. However if he lowers the rent he will immediately lower the value of the property. The mortgages on these properties are also for much shorter terms than the 30 year for residential. So you can see how lowering rents could quickly escalate to them losing the property

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm glad I own a modest row house in DC because I need to know that I'll always be able to afford the property taxes. I think a decade from now the people who own the Milion+ homes are going to feel the pain of property taxes like NY and NJ.

Property taxes are truly the last tax frontier in DC that has not been breached. Watching the latest city budget shenanigans, it’s only a matter of time before they raise that too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never understood why landlords do this; presumably there is benefit they get from letting these storefronts sit empty than from lowering the rent to at least get something, but I'm not sure what it is (maybe a tax loss thing?). Seems like something the city should take action to combat.

Commercial real estate is valued at some multiple of annual rent. I forgot the exact figure since I'm not in this space. But that is unlike how residential real estate is valued

So a landlord could value a property at X based on current rent. However if he lowers the rent he will immediately lower the value of the property. The mortgages on these properties are also for much shorter terms than the 30 year for residential. So you can see how lowering rents could quickly escalate to them losing the property

There is also the issue that as an illiquid asset, lowering the rent would require the owners to mark to market the new value that they has ripple effects for investment value and returns.

[Anonymous]

Crime and homelessness are why

[Anonymous]

This is all republicans fault. If they had just run the place....oh....wait.