Soaring rent tied to skyrocketing property taxes could force the owner of a D.C. jazz institution to close his doors permanently.
Harry Schnipper, owner of Blues Alley in Georgetown, said 2007 could be the last year for his 150-seat venue, the oldest continuing jazz supper club in the United States and one of the few remaining jazz scenes in Washington.
“If my landlord didn’t charge me so much and the District didn’t try to sock it to me in taxes, then I wouldn’t have such a problem,” said Schnipper, a Capitol Hill resident. “The greed and expectation are going to crush the landmarks in Washington.”
Small businesses across the city say they face a similar dilemma, as commercial property taxes, a key source of revenue for the District, continue to escalate, with no cap to keep the levy in check.
Property tax increases pushing 90 percent in a single year are “seriously threatening the viability of retailers throughout the city,” forcing some to close or relocate, Billy Martin, president of the Georgetown Business Association and proprietor of Martin’s Tavern, recently told a D.C. Council committee.
A bill under consideration by the council would limit property tax increases on commercial buildings to 10 percent a year. But the legislation is unlikely to pass given the fiscal impact — more than $230 million a year.
Ward 2 Council Member Jack Evans, who introduced the bill, said he is working on a revised version that specifically targets small businesses, rather than the corporate owners of large commercial office buildings.
Opened in 1965, Blues Alley is located in a 1-1/2 story carriage house in an alley off Wisconsin Avenue. The venue, patterned after jazz clubs of the 1920s and ’30s, has showcased the nation’s top jazz artists, from Dizzy Gillespie to Allen Toussaint.
But Schnipper appears ready to close, or at least take his business elsewhere. He’s paying about $150,000 in rent a year — $60 per square foot — and hasn’t come to an agreement with his landlord, Snyder Properties, for a long-term lease. Without a deal in the next 90 days, he said, he will have no choice but to move on.
The chief problem, Schnipper said, is the property tax, a bill that’s passed down to him.
“It’s really got to start with the D.C. government,” he said. “They’ve got to wake up to the reality that in five years they’re going to have immense surpluses but people will have no reason to come here.”
The office manager at Snyder Properties refused to even forward a call on to his superiors aboutthe Blues Alley issue.
The loss of Blues Alley would be a crushing blow to the District’s jazz scene, said Louis Scherr, creator of DCJazz.com. The club is nationally renowned, he said, not only among jazz fans but also musicians who still consider it a prestigious venue.
