Economic News

Downtown Business Improvement District  2008 Economic Brief  (EconomicBrief_web.pdf – 214KB)

The Downtown BID has assembled statistics for a year-end review of 2008, released as the 2008 Economic Brief, to provide a bit of good news amid current financial and economic woes locally, nationally and internationally. This new report piggybacks on the leadership paper, DC’s Response to the Global Financial and Economic Crisis, released in December 2008, which focuses on concrete steps to minimize losses and maximize recovery once conditions improve.

The 2008 Economic Brief clearly states that Downtown and DC’s economies are not immune to bad financial and economic conditions, but the fundamentals of each are sound, if not strong, resulting in mixed performance for 2008.

Using data from the BID’s 2007 State of Downtown report as well as information for 2008, the paper also highlights major trends in the Downtown BID area for the year, including record office market rents, destination restaurant growth, record hotel revenues and increased weekday and weekend Metrorail ridership. Despite the fact that unemployment in DC has risen to 8.8%, and could rise above 10%, both Downtown and the city stand to benefit from the economic financial crisis and stimulus plan, which will create more local and regional jobs.

To read other highlights and factors that bode well for DC, click here to download the 2008 Economic Brief.