Reply to Chevy Chase Community Center Redevelopment

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This does not bode well for downtown. Wonder how tightening credit may impact the CC project?

https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2023/12/07/dc-madison-highland-office-conversion-treasury.html
[/quote]

Not as much.  Because DC is retaining the land and entering into a 99-year ground lease with the developer, the developer will not have to pay the land acquisition costs for the Civic Core.  This provides more project flexibility.[/quote]

How is that better?  DC takes on the main risk + doesn't get any property tax revenue.[/quote]

It’s better for the developer.[/quote]

[b]Of course. The developer who is likely a heavy donor to the mayor, right? 
[/b]
Anyone see this? Does not bode all that well re: management of this project or the silly co-housing ideas. Bowser's agencies are administrative disasters.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/dc-sold-properties-for-affordable-housing-half-are-still-vacant/ar-AA1loOwz[/quote]

Any evidence that ground leases are better for the developer?  The article cited above says it is a better deal for the owner/city

Also any evidence that a hypothetical developer will be a heavy donor to the mayor?  I'm sincerely asking.  I did a little digging and found a scandal regarding a donor from 2017:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-council-report-bowser-administration-favored-top-donor-in-contracting/2017/06/14/5799a712-5134-11e7-b064-828ba60fbb98_story.html

But I don't see any other issues or anything in the past six years...[/quote]

[b]Whether or not it's a good deal for the city will entirely depend on the terms of the lease.  Both the amount of rent and any potential costs borne by the city.  
[/b]
The only thing that is certain is that it won't be anywhere near as rosy as the proponents proclaim.

The history of this mayor, this council and this ANC does not fill one with confidence.  There will be more shoes to drop.  [/quote]

The bolded is a fair point, but that also holds that it is not necessarily "better for the developer" right?
And as a general rule, as pointed out the in cited article, ground leases are popular because they are beneficial to the owner...[/quote]

That also depends on the terms.  Everything depends on the terms and the oversight.  The benefit is that ownership reverts, which can be valuable, and that there is oversight potential.  The cost is that everything becomes a rental, construction quality is lower, tax revenue is less and there will likely be associated costs.

The West End Library/Fire Station was a bad deal. If it wasn't for Columbia Women's giving control to the neighborhood and the neighborhood flexing that power then that would have been a disaster.  The neighborhood chose (and went out and got) a supermarket over a bigger library.

The devil is in the details and the oversight.  We already know that the City actively doesn't care about us.  We know that we have no representation on the Council because our votes got split, Frumin only cares about Wisconsin and West while JLG only cares about EOTP.  We know that there have been a lot of intentional bad faith claims made by non-local proponents of this projects.

There's a lot of faith required for this to turn out well and the vast majority of us have no faith in the City, the Council or the ANC.[/quote]

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