DOWNTOWN DC www.DCBIA.org
The State of Downtown: Holding Firm in Uncertain Times
Each year, the Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) issues a State of Downtown Report providing stakeholders with historical, current and projected data and shows how local trends relate to the larger DC, regional and national economies.

How did Washington, DC, and its Downtown measure up in 2008? There is good and not-so-good news from 2008 and the first quarter of 2009. Although many economic records were set in 2008, the year ended on a less than upbeat note due to the global financial and economic crisis. In the first quarter of 2009, the office sector, in particular, saw its performance decline significantly.

On the development front, 13 projects were completed in 2008, with a value of $700 million. A few more “pre-crash” projects will be completed this year.
Matthew J. Klein
President, Akridge

Chairman, Downtown Business Improvement District

Downtown, DC and the region are expected to see an upward tick in federal and private contractor job growth.

Furthermore, the Obama administration plans to make major investments in energy, environmental sustainability and healthcare. Already, the Federal Reserve
However, there no new projects have broken ground in the BID since the second quarter of 2008, and the immediate future looks bleak for starting new projects other than the headquarters hotel and CityCenter DC (the Old Convention Center site).

Many are forecasting that the recovery may get underway in early 2010, but the remainder 2009 promises to be a mixed bag across the board, with declines in some economic sectors and modest gains in others.

Still, there’s reason to remain cautiously optimistic. For one, the city is realizing the cumulative effect of more than 10 years of economic progress in Downtown.

Secondly, whatever the future brings, any decline will be less severe in Downtown than elsewhere in the city, region, nation and world because of the federal government’s presence and strategic investments by both the federal and municipal governments.

Until such time as the recovery begins, federal stimulus dollars will help the city and the region avoid the setbacks that the hardest hit areas in the country have experienced. In fact

  

Board and the U.S. Treasury have signed new leases for 305,000 square feet of office space.

Perhaps the most telling vote of confidence in DC has come from the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE), which has ranked DC as the top US and global city for investment in 2008. Also, the municipal bond rating agencies continue to rank DC government finances at the top single A credit status, with a stable outlook for the future.
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    PIPELINE MARCH 2009