Former D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams will partner with a Washington-area investment firm to manage a new national real estate trust, which proposes to purchase municipal and nonprofit-owned properties in return for cashto be used on capital projects.
Arlington-based Public Properties Trust, with Williams as co-founder and chief executive officer, will provide governments an alternative funding source for neighborhood revitalization and other projects, the former mayor said. It is a good fit, Williams said. “I added value to my city and made it one of the top investment climates in the world.”
But Williams’ critics, who often challenged his support for the sale and lease of public property to private interests, immediately seized on the job as affirmation that he set up the city to unload its assets.
“I can only hope he keeps his hands off District of Columbia real estate,” said Alexander Padro, activist and Shaw advisory neighborhood commissioner. “I think it’s very appropriate that he would end up in a position to be repositioning public property nationwide since he did so much to try to divest the District of Columbia’s real estate portfolio.”
The trust, a subsidiary of the Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group Inc., will be initially underwritten by FBR, though there are future plans to raise public or private investment. Real estate transactions will be structured so the seller can lease or repurchase the properties.
“Needless to say in my time in government and as mayor, I’ve made a lot of contacts,” Williams said. “Certainly that’s going to help in developing partnerships for public property.”
The former mayor, who declined to discuss his salary, is not allowed to do business with the District government for two years.
The ability to harness the value of property was critical to the District’s financial turnaround, Williams said, rebuffing his critics.
“I think it’s clear to most of the people in the city, whether they agree that the economic renaissance went far enough, that we brought investment to the city,” Williams said. “You can’t pay for the whole range of things that our citizens expect unless you have a tax base.”
Over his 25-year public service career, Williams served as the District’s chief financial officer and as the CFO for the Department of Agriculture. He also directed community development organizations in St. Louis and Boston.
Anthony Williams’ colleagues at FBR
» Stephen D. Harlan, former vice chairman of the federal control board
» Margaret Kellems, former Williams deputy mayor for public safety and justice
» Peter Gallagher, former vice chairman of the D.C. Emergency Board of Education
