Some Anacostia businesses face new tax for new services

The BID would tax commercial and retail properties on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, Anacostia Drive, Shannon Place, and Howard and Good Hope roads.

Property owners on those streets would pay 21 cents for every $100 of the property’s assessed value to market the district and hire crews make the area a cleaner, more welcoming place to shop and do business.

The tax, presumably, would then get passed down from landlord to lessee.

“There’s no way I could handle an increase in taxes or rent,” said Dr. Lewis Levine, owner of the Anacostia Neck and Back Center, after being told about the BID by a reporter. Levine said his revenue fell by two-thirds in the past year, and a new tax would put him out of business.

The D.C. Council last week voted unanimously in favor of the measure, introduced by Marion Barry, D-Ward 8.

The Anacostia Economic Development Corporation worked with Barry on the effort, and the majority of property owners that lie within the BID’s proposed parameters supported the initiative.

It “will show [retailers] we want to do business and we’re serious about doing business,” said AEDC Vice President Michael Wallach.

But most of the local merchants that would be subject to a BID tax are lessees, not property owners. And none of the half-dozen business owners who spoke with The Examiner were aware of the proposed tax.

That didn’t mean they all opposed it, however. Fireside Restaurant owner Edward Lobbal saw potential in the plan.

“It’s worth it if it attracts people from outside of D.C.,” said Lobbal. He said he would be happy to pay the tax if the BID marketed Anacostia.

Butch Hopkins, who heads the AEDC, said that adding the elements of a business improvement district to development initiatives already in place would revitalize Anacostia. He hopes to have the improvement district formed by the new year.

The council will hold a final vote on the bill Oct. 6.

Andrew Harnik of The Examiner contributed to this report.