New details on the District’s expanded tax incentive program were recently announced at the Washington DC Economic Partnership’s Fall Retail Summit, as developers and commercial Realtors there expressed confidence in small-business development in the District.
Neil Albert, deputy mayor for planning and economic development, unveiled some of the new locations to be covered by an expanded neighborhood tax incentive program. Under the program, known as Tax Increment Financing, the government funds the development of a project and uses future tax revenues from the business to pay back the costs.
Areas to be covered will likely include Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Nannies Helen Boroughs, 7th Street and Georgia Avenue, and H Street NE neighborhoods. Specificsare not yet finalized, and a complete announcement is expected this fall, according to Albert’s communications director, Sean Madigan.
More can always be done to improve the retail environment, said WDCEP’s manager of business development, Natalie Cofield, who added that an estimated $1.2 billion in retail sales are lost to surrounding suburban areas annually.
And the market conditions are strong for business development, Cofield said.
The commercial real estate market is “booming” and seems to be largely unaffected by the slowing residential housing market, Cofield said. Other retail real estate agents and developers at the summit echoed this sentiment.
Aspiring entrepreneurs took bus tours of emerging neighborhoods, including many in the new TIF program, and saw properties that were available or under construction. The prospective owners also listened to others who have already opened up shop in the District.
The owners of dry cleaning franchise OXXO Care Cleaners opened two stores in Barracks Row and Columbia Heights at the beginning of this year, partner Ulrich Reumann told the audience. They are already thinking of expanding into developed areas like Dupont Circle, into emerging neighborhoods near the new baseball stadium and into areas such as H Street NE and Mount Vernon Triangle.
