Examiner Local Editorial: D.C. loses track of $28m

How do you lose track of $28.5 million? That’s what the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development wants to know. As Alan Blinder reported in The Washington Examiner’s Monday cover story, District taxpayers could be forced to reimburse HUD for that amount to cover grants the city received in 2005 that were intended to turn Ward Seven’s aging Skyland Shopping Center into a trendy new town center.

The project had been stalled for decades and almost died when then-Mayor Adrian Fenty closed down the National Capital Revitalization Corp., which had been offering 44 landowners large sums to relocate or evict 29 tenants on the 18-acre site.