D.C. Council leaders will not hold up the District’s proposed $2.7 million purchase of a dilapidated apartment complex in Southeast, despite what they acknowledge is an unfavorable deal with unsavory people.
Negotiated by Mayor Adrian Fenty’s administration, the agreement with a limited liability corporation managed by a convicted real estate cheat and his son will go forward, notwithstanding the concerns of Council Chairman Vincent Gray and Ward 6 Council Member Tommy Wells.
The two introduced a resolution in late August to delay the sale, but it has since been lifted.
The 28-unit apartment complex on 12th Street in Congress Heights is slated to house homeless families, including some transferred from the decrepit D.C. Village shelter. In addition to the $2.7 million purchase price — $900,000 more than the sellers paid for it only 10 months ago — the District will also spend another $1.5 million for renovations and $100,000 more for exterior upgrades.
That brings the total price to more than $4 million for a building assessed by the city at $1.3 million.
“I’m not happy with the deal,” Gray said Monday. “I’m not happy with it at all.”
But the agreement, he continued, is still better than paying $85,000 per year per family for the “horrific conditions” at D.C. Village.
“Given more time and a more exhaustive look at the city, I think we could have gotten a better deal,” Gray said.
Among the LLC’s managers is Jack Spicer, a real estate investor and broker who in 1989 admitted to defrauding the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The company’s other managers include Spicer’s wife and son.
The $2.7 million price tag was a “reasonable market price,” Fenty said in a letter to Gray. The District negotiated primarily with Jack Spicer’s son, the mayor said, and the attorney general’s office was represented in every meeting.
“Yeah, these are bad people, but it seemed to be a fair market price,” said Wells, chair of the human services committee. “We’re not excited about it, but we’re really under the gun to find housing for the residents of D.C. Village.”
