Tues. March 20, 2012
WASHINGTON, DC– The Board of Directors and membership of the Downtown Business Improvement District Corporation (the DowntownDC BID) voted this month to extend the organization’s status as a registered BID beginning October 1, 2012, through September 30, 2017, and approve a new public realm investment plan to dramatically enhance Downtown’s public infrastructure and sense of place.
The five-year business plan includes an increase in the assessment rate to 16 cents per square foot for commercial properties and $82 per room for hotels. Both the plan and the rates were approved unanimously by a two-thirds majority of the BID’s Board of Directors and ratified unanimously by the membership, thus beginning a major step in the organization’s renewal process. Since its inception in 1997, the BID has been reauthorized twice by the mayor. The DC Council has jurisdiction over rate increases.
“The DowntownDC BID is faced with challenges from many directions,” said Steven Jumper, the BID’s chairman and the director of corporate public policy for WGL Holdings, Inc. “But the commitment we have made to invest approximately $60 million to improve Downtown over the next five years will enable us to morph and change as the Downtown itself grows and changes.”
Recognizing that much of the Washington, DC region, learning from the BID’s success, has begun to create more livable and walkable urban commercial centers that are transit oriented, the BID has identified 47 goals and proposed 100 project initiatives for its seven major program areas—Safety/Hospitality; Maintenance & Beautification; Public Space Management; Homeless Services; Marketing, Communications & Special Events; Infrastructure & Sustainability; and Economic Development—for FY13 through FY17.
The goals are multifaceted and include reducing Downtown crime; shifting maintenance deployment levels as the nighttime economy evolves; establishing new surveillance system standards for buildings and public space; addressing homeless shelter inadequacies; improving communication with, and among, BID members, particularly property owners; enhancing the experience and ease of parking; reducing energy use and costs; and maintaining and attracting new Downtown tenants.
These public realm improvements will require a total investment of $258 million over the next five years, with transportation and infrastructure accounting for the vast majority of the expense, which could be financed using tax increment financing (TIF), parking revenues, private sources and partnerships, special assessments, the city’s general fund, and federal contributions.
“We are staying close to the core of basic services which were adopted 15 years ago, but we are continuing to meet present-day demands and competitive pressures to keep Downtown both relevant and successful,” said Richard H. Bradley, executive director of the Downtown DC BID. “This is what renewing the promise means to us and the entire Downtown DC community.”