DC apartment buildings to join Downtown Business Improvement District

Dive Brief:

The Council of the District of Columbia has given the green light to legislation that will pave the way for condo associations and apartment building owners to become members of the Downtown DC Business Improvement District, according to the Washington Business Journal.
Under the bill passed this week, apartment buildings will be counted as commercial properties and automatically assessed by the BID, while condominium boards can opt in to join. The BID expects to raise $250,000 to $300,000 annually from the new fees.
The move comes in response to recent population growth in the city’s downtown — from 1,200 residents when the BID formed in 1997 to almost 10,000 residents and 6,500 residential units today.

Dive Insight:

The nation’s capital is in the grips of a residential construction boom, driven in large part by young professionals moving to the Mid-Atlantic job center. More than 14,800 units were under construction or large-scale renovation as of August, up from 13,294 units a year earlier, according to a recent report by the Washington, DC Economic Partnership and CBRE.

While residential construction in the city’s downtown is thriving, other districts are experiencing even more pronounced gains. Slightly less than half of the new units cited in the DC Economic Partnership/CBRE report are in three DC neighborhoods: Capitol Riverfront, NoMa (North of Massachusetts Avenue)/Union Market and Southwest.

NoMa, on the city’s northeast side, continues to see rapid growth and investment in residential construction. Toll Brothers’ multifamily business unit and the AECOM Capital investment fund announced this week that they have bagged a $130 million construction loan to build a 525-unit luxury apartment in the area.

In October, Skanska started work on its 12-story, $112 million Resa apartment building in NoMa that is part of the three-building Tyber Place development. The 326-unit building will feature amenities including a pet spa, rooftop pool and lounge, and an outdoor grilling area.

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