By Ashleigh Fields
Special to the AFRO
D.C. leaders are focused on regaining economic stability in the District of Columbia after the COVID-19 pandemic.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser launched the “Office to Anything” program on Jan. 16 to incentivize the revitalization of the District’s empty office spaces for new commercial, hotel, entertainment, retail and other non-residential purposes. Bowser is offering a 15-year temporary property tax freeze.
“We know that having a balanced mix of uses helps make our neighborhoods– including our Downtown [area]– more dynamic,” Mayor Bowser said in a press release.
The program is expected to support the conversion of nearly 2.5 million square feet of office space, with the total tax abatements available subject to a cap of $5 million for 2027, $6 million for 2028 and $8 million for 2029, with 4 percent growth each year after.
“Through ‘Office to Anything,’ we will transform vacant and underutilized offices into new, productive uses that increase foot traffic, generate economic activity and tax revenue, and bring new vibrancy to DC’s commercial core,” Bowser said.
The decision was announced almost a year after the mayor launched the Downtown Action Plan to bolster businesses and visitor attractions in the city’s commercial core.
City officials have raised concerns with federal work-from-home options, citing a decrease in the city’s vibrancy.
“Most federal workers should be in the office most of the time,” Bowser said during a December testimony before Congress’s House Appropriations Committee subcommittee. “We don’t think individual agencies making one-off decisions about what the telework policy is, is the most efficient. We need an efficient policy, and we need a productive American workforce.”
Councilmembers have long argued that the decision would increase public transportation ridership therefore improving District funds.
“When (federal workers) don’t come into work, there are fewer riders on Metro, which is why Metro right now has a funding crunch,” Chairman Phil Mendelson said to the House Appropriations Committee subcommittee.
And other enterprises are suffering as well, he added. “It means these office buildings are vacant. Many of them now, the leases are being turned back.”
Employees of the D.C. government have been required to work in person for at least four days out of the week since June.
The 47th president of the United States signed an executive order on his first day in office, Jan. 20, declaring that all federal agencies “take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis.”
The post Office to Anything’ program launches ahead of new federal workforce requirements appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.
