The District has agreed to purchase empty land behind the Howard Theatre for nearly twice its assessed value and 12 times what the current owner paid for it, spurring a threatened rejection of the deal from the D.C. Council.
The contract, which was submitted to the council the day members were scheduled to leave for summer recess, calls for the city to pay $2.01 million for a vacant lot at 1830 Wiltberger St. NW immediately behind the historic Shaw theater. District assessors value the property at $1.23 million, and thecurrent owner, Himat Allen Gulajan of Centreville, bought the land in August 2002 for $169,000.
The 4,224-square-foot Wiltberger lot is needed for the installation of loading docks behind the shuttered theater, which is undergoing major renovation, according to a summary of the contract. Council Chairman Vincent Gray and council members Carol Schwartz and Kwame Brown introduced disapproval resolutions Thursday, which give the council 45 extra days to review the deal.
“Maybe it’s important and maybe it’s needed and all of that, but I certainly think we have to be looking into this issue,” Schwartz said.
Sean Madigan, spokesman for the deputy mayor for planning and economic development, said the District agreed to pay top dollar “because we needed the property for the larger project, and it isn’t uncommon to pay a premium in circumstances like this.” Madigan said the market rate appraisal was $1.75 million.
The focal point of the jazz movement in the days of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, the Howard Theatre at 620 T St. NW was shuttered after the 1968 riots and left to rot. The District, which owns the building, reached an agreement in 2006 with developer Chip Ellis to restore the facility as an arts and entertainment destination. D.C. is providing up to $8 million in grants for the project.
The Howard is expected to reopen in October 2010 for its 100th anniversary.
The Wiltberger deal is one of several negotiated in the last year by the Fenty administration to earn extra scrutiny for high price tags, though none has been rejected. Last September, for example, the city agreed to pay a convicted felon and his partners $2.7 million for a Southeast apartment complex that had changed hands less than a year earlier for $1.8 million.
