Thurs. November 15, 2012
WASHINGTON, DC –The DowntownDC Business Improvement District (BID) officially turns 15 tomorrow, and the milestone, along with Downtown’s incredible transformation, was celebrated at a special lunch and program attended by about 150 well-wishers, founders, partners, members, elected officials and other government representatives at the International Spy Museum yesterday.
The event showcased the BID’s many accomplishments and the DowntownDC BID area’s steady metamorphosis from “dull, dirty and dangerous” to a “vibrant, inviting and smart” urban enclave flourishing with an impressive roster of first-rate office buildings, restaurants, hotels and cultural and entertainment venues.
“On November 17, 1997, the DowntownDC BID launched in front of what is now the International Spy Museum with an initial and immediate goal to make Downtown Washington clean, safe and friendly,” said Richard H. Bradley, executive director of the DowntownDC BID. “Since then, both the organization and the DowntownDC BID area have come a long way, and we are now focusing more attention on managing public space and assets as well as Downtown’s many uses to ensure a continued remarkable urban experience is enjoyed by all.”
When the BID was created 15 years ago, more than 100 surface parking lots, vacant lots and empty and abandoned buildings dotted the DowntownDC BID area landscape. Strong public-private partnerships invested billions of dollars in the area, reducing the number of redevelopment sites to 16 today and adding 62,000 new jobs to the economy. Also, in 1997, there were very few sidewalk cafes in the BID; 147 now help animate streets in Downtown.
Chris Leinberger, a senior fellow of the Brookings Institution, is quoted as saying D.C. has “the best downtown redevelopment in the country.” Downtown is ranked as the second-most valuable area in the country behind New York. Thus, all the investments in Downtown have paid off as the city is now one of the most desirable cities for foreign investors. Globally, D.C. has shared the top spot with only London and New York for the past 10 years.
Two special guests joined Bradley and Steven Jumper, chairman of the DowntownDC BID Board of Directors and director of corporate policy for WGL Holdings, at the podium during the celebratory salute to Downtown’s transformation and the BID’s anniversary. Both Dr. Charlene Drew Jarvis, the former D.C. Councilmember and one of the architects of legislation creating business improvement districts in the city, and Milton Maltz, founder of the International Spy Museum, shared memories of the BID area’s early days.
“Riots had really decimated the city. Businesses fled. People fled. The city experienced huge vacancies in the Downtown in particular,” said Dr. Jarvis. “When Richard Bradley came to me with a vision, I understood the vision. I could see the potential impact of building a BID in Downtown.”
The DowntownDC BID is the first of what are now eight BIDs in Washington, D.C.—others include Adams Morgan, Capitol Hill, Capitol Riverfront, Georgetown, Golden Triangle, NoMa and the Mount Vernon Triangle CID—and a handful in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. In a BID, property owners pay above and beyond their normal property taxes in return for the ability to govern how that money is spent to improve their area. “Our eight D.C. BIDs will raise more than $22 million in FY 2013 to help make our city a better place,” noted Bradley, also chairman of the DC BID Council.
D.C. law requires that BIDs be reauthorized by property owners and the D.C. government every five years. The DowntownDC BID, reauthorized in 2002, 2007 and this year, has received more than 95 percent of the required vote of property owners, as well as the enthusiastic approval of the city, in each of its three reauthorizations. The DowntownDC BID has provided consistent services through the administrations of four mayors.
For his part, Maltz opened the Spy Museum in 2002. Since then, it has become a major Downtown attraction, with more than six million visitors. “We considered opening the museum either in Las Vegas, New Orleans, Chicago or New York,” he said. Despite what he called Downtown’s “downtrodden” state back then, the Spy Museum opened after receiving $6.9 million in tax increment financing (TIF) from the city to develop the $40 million project. The TIF note has been paid off, and much faster than originally projected.
Thanks to Madame Tussauds, a wax figure of a Downtown Safety/Hospitality and Maintenance (SAM) employee was unveiled at the celebration. The SAMs are the BID’s corps of uniformed personnel and the visible face of the organization. They hit Downtown streets immediately after the BID was formed to attend to the many details of making guests in Downtown feel safer, invited and welcome. The wax replica of the roving concierges, law enforcement aides and goodwill ambassadors will make appearances throughout the BID area over the next year.
Five businesses sponsored the 15th Anniversary Celebration: CityCenterDC, Carmine’s, Capital Business, the International Spy Museum and Madame Tussauds.
To keep up with special 15th anniversary events, follow us on Facebook and Twitter @downtowndcbid, and visit our website at www.downtowndc.org.
Other BID events coming up within the next year include the Downtown Holiday Market, from Friday, November 30th to Sunday, December 23rd in front of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery on F Street between 7th and 9th streets; the Downtown Momentum Awards on Wednesday, December 12th at Carnegie Library; the 2013 Building Energy Summit on Tuesday, March 26 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center; and the State of Downtown on Friday, April 26 at the Newseum. The National Cherry Blossom Festival, a BID affiliate organization, will hold its 2013 festival beginning on Wednesday, March 20th through Sunday, April 14th.