Anacostia Waterfront Corporation
Encyclopedia
The Anacostia Waterfront Corporation (AWC) was a government-owned corporation
established by the government of Washington, D.C.
, to revitalize neighborhoods next to the Anacostia River
and to coordinate the environmental rehabilitation and use of the river. The corporation was intended to have a 20-year lifespan, during which it would oversee an $8 billion redevelopment plan covering the Anacostia River waterfront as well as numerous parcels of land in the city east of the river. However, a change in mayoral administrations and frustration with the slow pace of redevelopment led the corporation to be abolished after just three years.
proposed creating a government-owned corporation, the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation, to promote redevelopment of the neighborhoods, roads, parks, and other areas adjacent to the Anacostia River. The proposal was the culmination of a four-year effort by city and federal officials, developers
, private organizations, and citizens. The proposed corporation was modeled after the Battery Park City Authority
, which oversaw the redevelopment of Battery Park
and the residential Battery Park City neighborhood in New York City
. The AWC would be funded by $250 million in revenue bond
s, and implement a 20-year program which would raise $8 billion in public and private funds (including $1.5 billion for cleanup of the river). The plan called for 5,000 new residences (both new homes and apartments), new retail districts, office buildings, a riverwalk
, new bridges and roads, and a light rail
transportation line to be built in the area by 2011. The Council of the District of Columbia
approved the legislation on July 13, 2004, and Mayor Williams signed it into law on August 5, 2004.
The chairman of the AWC's board of directors was Stephen Goldsmith
, a former mayor of Indianapolis
, Indiana
, and its chief executive officer was Andrew Altman, Director of the Office of Planning for the District of Columbia.
stadium which would be the home field of the Washington Nationals
Major League Baseball
team. The stadium quickly became AWC's biggest redevelopment project, which the corporation called the "Baseball District." The AWC began negotiating in August 2005 to buy land near the ballpark in order to spur development and turn the area around the stadium into an attraction similar to area around the Verizon Center
in Chinatown
. A 40 acres (16.2 ha) site with hotels, office space, parks, residential housing, retail shops, and restaurants was envisioned. As part of its development effort, the AWC feuded publicly with the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, calling for underground rather than surface parking. The Washington Nationals' ownership demanded above-ground parking as well. A deal was struck in June 2006 to build both parking garages above-ground, but to surround them with high-rise condominium buildings so they would not be eyesores. But the deal collapsed three months later, forcing the AWC to attempt to buy the land for $1 million.
In December 2005, the AWC named two master planning teams to help oversee the design of the Baseball District. When the cost of building the stadium soared by 25 percent to $667 million, the AWC was asked to sell development rights on its land adjacent to a baseball stadium to cover the cost overruns. By June 2006, feuding over the development had gotten so bad that Mayor Williams created an Office of Baseball to oversee development of the Ballpark District. A draft master plan was released in late June 2006.
By June 2007, however, the AWC had yet to break ground on any redevelopment project.
The AWC's chief executive officer, Andrew Altman, abruptly quit the organization on October 6, 2005. He was replaced by a local developer, Adrian G. Washington, on November 11, 2005. A month after his appointment, Washington approved the creation of an advisory council to help oversee the AWC's redevelopment efforts.
AWC's initial development efforts were funded by several bond sales. Mayor Williams first proposed a $230 million "payment in lieu of taxes" (or PILOT
) bond financing plan in June 2006. The bond sale was expected to generate about $75 million for the AWC, which would use the money to make infrastructure improvements at Hill East, Poplar Point, and the Southwest waterfront. Another $140 million of the PILOT bonds would fund infrastructure improvements around the new United States Department of Transportation
headquarters (then being built at 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, near the Navy Yard – Ballpark Metro station) and Federal Center Southeast. In November 2006, the AWC said it would offer a second bond issue to raise $100 million to make infrastructure improvements at and remove trash from Hill East/Reservation 13 and Poplar Point. The AWC said it would receive a share of a September 2006 sale of $248 million in Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement bonds to build a $60 million medical office building complex at Hill East. The city sold $140 million in PILOT bonds to build a $40 million park along the Anacostia River between South Capitol Street and 2nd Street SE and to fund $75 million in miscellaneous AWC projects. Another $90 million in PILOT bonds went on sale in February 2007 to help pay for infrastructure improvements at Federal Center Southeast.
and GreenHOME (an organization which recommends environmentally safe products for residential homes).
One of the AWC's final projects was the funding of a worker training center. Since its inception, the corporation had required that 51 percent of each developer's workforce come from the District of Columbia, and that at least 10 percent of the workforce be residents of the city's impoverished Ward 8. But developers complained that few D.C. residents were prepared or trained for the jobs offered. The AWC established an employment organization to help screen D.C. residents who applied for jobs, better match residents to positions that they qualified for, and improve residents' job skills to better prepare them for the workplace. The organization would also help promote awareness of AWC redevelopment projects and job opportunities at those projects among Ward 7 and Ward 8 residents. This organization, known as the Business Resource Center, opened at 2311 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE on April 11, 2007.
D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams declined to seek re-election in 2006, and Adrian Fenty
was elected as the new mayor. As part of the key initiatives he would pursue in his first 100 days in office, Mayor Fenty announced the formation of a task force to examine whether the AWC and NCRC should be restructured or abolished. Days later, D.C. Council member Jack Evans
, who had originally helped pass the bill which created the AWC, introduced legislation to abolish both corporations and transfer their authority and duties to the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. Councilmember Kwame R. Brown
, chair of the Council's Committee on Economic Development, held hearings on the bill in late January during which the AWC received both praise and criticism.
The AWC's chief executive officer, Adrian Washington, resigned suddenly on February 12, 2007. Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Neil O. Albert was appointed interim CEO in his place.
Hearings on the Evans legislation continued in March 2007. Increasingly, the hearings focused on the lengthy delays in transferring land between the NCRC and AWC. Albert suggested five alternatives (ranging from keeping the status quo to merging the two organizations to disbanding both companies) for the City Council to consider, but his proposals were not well-received. Some neighborhood groups supported the AWC and NCRC, arguing that the two corporations needed improving but did not warrant disbandment. AWC supporters also noted that the agency was confronted with a patchwork of zoning laws, few assets, and strict requirements for affordable housing that made progress difficult and slow, and that the corporation should not be blamed for these problems. Councilmember Kwame Brown subsequently proposed creating a new "D.C. Economic Development Authority" to take over the duties of the two corporations, which would save $2.4 million in salaries alone. Fenty and Albert opposed Brown's proposal, arguing that the mayor's office should have full control of redevelopment projects and that creating another bureaucracy was unnecessary. On May 15, the City Council attached the Brown bill to another piece of legislation and unanimously passed it in a parliamentary maneuver. But after Brown met with Mayor Fenty several times over the next three weeks, Brown relented and the City Council unanimously passed the Evans version of the legislation on June 5, 2007. Mayor Fenty signed the legislation into law on July 19, 2007. The final legislation required the city to assume all assets and debt the two companies had, and that the agencies must be consolidated with the Deputy Mayor's office by October 1, 2007.
On September 23, the city said consolidation of the AWC and NCRC with the Deputy Major's office would save the city $5.6 million annually in salaries and administrative costs alone. The city offered jobs to only 20 of the AWC's 31 employees.
The merger was complete by the legislative deadline.
At least one major development shift occurred immediately after the dissolution of the AWC. On July 23, 2007, just four days after the legislation disbanding the corporation was signed into law, the Deputy Mayor's office issued a plan for the redevelopment of Poplar Point which did not include a new soccer stadium—an apparent rejection of the AWC's proposals.
However, on January 16, 2008, the Deputy Mayor's office announced it was moving ahead with plans to build the Southwest waterfront. About 18 percent of the $1.1 billion project would be funded by the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. The city estimated that it would collect $32 million in tax revenue annually from the project (an increase of $22 million from the 2006 level), and 2,880 jobs would be created.
Government-owned corporation
A government-owned corporation, state-owned company, state-owned entity, state enterprise, publicly owned corporation, government business enterprise, or parastatal is a legal entity created by a government to undertake commercial activities on behalf of an owner government...
established by the government of Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, to revitalize neighborhoods next to the Anacostia River
Anacostia River
The Anacostia River is a river in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States. It flows from Prince George's County in Maryland into Washington, D.C., where it joins with the Washington Channel to empty into the Potomac River at Buzzard Point. It is approximately long...
and to coordinate the environmental rehabilitation and use of the river. The corporation was intended to have a 20-year lifespan, during which it would oversee an $8 billion redevelopment plan covering the Anacostia River waterfront as well as numerous parcels of land in the city east of the river. However, a change in mayoral administrations and frustration with the slow pace of redevelopment led the corporation to be abolished after just three years.
Formation
In December 2003, D.C. Mayor Anthony A. WilliamsAnthony A. Williams
Anthony Allen "Tony" Williams is an American politician who served as the fifth mayor of the District of Columbia for two terms, from 1999 to 2007. He had previously served as chief financial officer for the District, managing to balance the budget and achieve a surplus within two years of...
proposed creating a government-owned corporation, the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation, to promote redevelopment of the neighborhoods, roads, parks, and other areas adjacent to the Anacostia River. The proposal was the culmination of a four-year effort by city and federal officials, developers
Real estate development
Real estate development, or Property Development, is a multifaceted business, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of improved land or parcels to others...
, private organizations, and citizens. The proposed corporation was modeled after the Battery Park City Authority
Battery Park City Authority
The Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority is a Class A New York State public benefit corporation. Its mission is "to plan, create, co-ordinate and maintain a balanced community of commercial, residential, retail, and park space within its designated 92-acre site on the lower west side of...
, which oversaw the redevelopment of Battery Park
Battery Park
Battery Park is a 25-acre public park located at the Battery, the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City, facing New York Harbor. The Battery is named for artillery batteries that were positioned there in the city's early years in order to protect the settlement behind them...
and the residential Battery Park City neighborhood in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The AWC would be funded by $250 million in revenue bond
Revenue bond
A revenue bond is a special type of municipal bond distinguished by its guarantee of repayment solely from revenues generated by a specified revenue-generating entity associated with the purpose of the bonds, rather than from a tax...
s, and implement a 20-year program which would raise $8 billion in public and private funds (including $1.5 billion for cleanup of the river). The plan called for 5,000 new residences (both new homes and apartments), new retail districts, office buildings, a riverwalk
Riverwalk
Riverwalk is a name often given to a foreshoreway or pedestrian zone adjacent to a river.Some famous examples of riverwalks are:-In the United States:* Riverwalk in Fort Lauderdale, Florida* Tampa Riverwalk in Tampa, Florida...
, new bridges and roads, and a light rail
Light rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
transportation line to be built in the area by 2011. The Council of the District of Columbia
Council of the District of Columbia
The Council of the District of Columbia is the legislative branch of the local government of the District of Columbia. As permitted in the United States Constitution, the District is not part of any U.S. state and is instead overseen directly by the federal government...
approved the legislation on July 13, 2004, and Mayor Williams signed it into law on August 5, 2004.
The chairman of the AWC's board of directors was Stephen Goldsmith
Stephen Goldsmith
Stephen "Steve" Goldsmith is the former mayor of Indianapolis and most recently served as the Deputy Mayor of New York City for Operations, stepping down effective August 4, 2011 after a domestic violence arrest. He is also the Daniel Paul Professor of Government at the John F...
, a former mayor of Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, and its chief executive officer was Andrew Altman, Director of the Office of Planning for the District of Columbia.
The Baseball District
The AWC was a proponent of building Nationals Park, a new baseballBaseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
stadium which would be the home field of the Washington Nationals
Washington Nationals
The Washington Nationals are a professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C. The Nationals are a member of the Eastern Division of the National League of Major League Baseball . The team moved into the newly built Nationals Park in 2008, after playing their first three seasons in RFK Stadium...
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
team. The stadium quickly became AWC's biggest redevelopment project, which the corporation called the "Baseball District." The AWC began negotiating in August 2005 to buy land near the ballpark in order to spur development and turn the area around the stadium into an attraction similar to area around the Verizon Center
Verizon Center
Verizon Center is a sports and entertainment arena in Washington, D.C., USA, named after telecommunications sponsor Verizon Communications, and has been nicknamed the "Phone Booth" because of its association with telecommunications companies...
in Chinatown
Chinatown, Washington, D.C.
Chinatown in Washington, D.C., is a small, historic neighborhood east of downtown consisting of about 20 ethnic Chinese and other Asian restaurants and small businesses along H and I Streets between 5th and 8th Streets, Northwest. It is known for its annual Chinese New Year festival and parade and...
. A 40 acres (16.2 ha) site with hotels, office space, parks, residential housing, retail shops, and restaurants was envisioned. As part of its development effort, the AWC feuded publicly with the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, calling for underground rather than surface parking. The Washington Nationals' ownership demanded above-ground parking as well. A deal was struck in June 2006 to build both parking garages above-ground, but to surround them with high-rise condominium buildings so they would not be eyesores. But the deal collapsed three months later, forcing the AWC to attempt to buy the land for $1 million.
In December 2005, the AWC named two master planning teams to help oversee the design of the Baseball District. When the cost of building the stadium soared by 25 percent to $667 million, the AWC was asked to sell development rights on its land adjacent to a baseball stadium to cover the cost overruns. By June 2006, feuding over the development had gotten so bad that Mayor Williams created an Office of Baseball to oversee development of the Ballpark District. A draft master plan was released in late June 2006.
Southwest waterfront
A second major initiative was the Southwest waterfront development — a mile-long section of land bordered by between the 12th Street SW, M Street SW, Maine Avenue SW, and the Anacostia River. The proposed development was the first revitalization effort in the area since the mid-1960s. But the property was controlled by the National Capital Revitalization Corporation (NCRC), another quasi-government corporation established by the D.C. government. In February 2006, the NCRC agreed to give the waterfront property to the AWC in exchange for $25 million, $24.5 million in city-owned land, and the right to develop three other large city-owned parcels of land. The AWC asked for proposals that included "cultural space" (such as a museum, musical performance space, or theatre), a hotel, office space, parking, residential housing, and retail space. Seventeen companies responded with proposals. Five were chosen by the AWC to submit more detailed proposals in June 2006, and two selected to submit final proposals two months later. PN Hoffman/Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse was chosen to be the lead developer in September 2006. But the development proposals were stalled because, two years after AWC and NRCR agreed to the land swap, the transaction had still not been formalized. The D.C. City Council attempted to pass legislation in November 2006 to force the land swap through, and the AWC offered to buy out leaseholders for $20 million to encourage NCRC to turn over the land. The transfer finally occurred in mid-February 2007.Other projects
Other AWC development projects consisted of:- Anacostia Metro Station — The AWC proposed in August 2005 to build its corporate headquarters at the Anacostia Metro stationAnacostia (Washington Metro)Anacostia is a Washington Metro station in Washington, D.C. on the Green Line. The station is located in the Anacostia neighborhood of Southeast Washington, with entrances at Shannon Place and Howard Road near Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE . The station serves as a hub for Metrobus routes in...
to promote development in the blightedUrban decayUrban decay is the process whereby a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude...
neighborhood of Anacostia. No further action was taken until November 2006, when the AWC asked Metro'sWashington MetroThe Washington Metro, commonly called Metro, and unofficially Metrorail, is the rapid transit system in Washington, D.C., United States, and its surrounding suburbs. It is administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority , which also operates Metrobus service under the Metro name...
Board of Directors to move the transit agency's headquarters from downtown D.C. to a new, $65 million building to be constructed on top of the Anacostia Metro station. - Barry Farm and Lincoln Heights — The AWC also held title to two parcels of land, one in the impoverished Barry FarmBarry Farm, Washington, D.C.Barry Farm is a small neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C., adjacent to St. Elizabeths Hospital. Possibly the oldest African American neighborhood in Washington, it is today almost entirely occupied by public housing projects and has a reputation for violent crime, poverty, and neglect...
neighborhood near Poplar Point and the other in Lincoln HeightsLincoln Heights, Washington, D.C.Lincoln Heights is a residential neighborhood in Northeast Washington, D.C. It is bounded by Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue to the north, Blaine Sreet to the south, Division Avenue to the west, and 49th Street NE to the east....
near the far eastern corner of the District of Columbia. The District of Columbia agreed in December 2006 to issue $350 million in municipal bondMunicipal bondA municipal bond is a bond issued by a city or other local government, or their agencies. Potential issuers of municipal bonds includes cities, counties, redevelopment agencies, special-purpose districts, school districts, public utility districts, publicly owned airports and seaports, and any...
s to help build 1,400 residential housing units in both areas on AWC-controlled land. - Hill East/Reservation 13 waterfront — The AWC considered several projects for the area known as Hill East/Reservation 13, a section of the city bounded by the Anacostia River, 17th Street SE, and Potomac Avenue SE. The corporation made 14 cash grants to community groups which utilized the river to encourage them to provide greater use of this section of the waterfront. In June 2006, the AWC released plans to extend Massachusetts Avenue SE into Hill East, build 2,000 units of residential housing and 1000000 square feet (92,903 m²) of office space across the river in the KenilworthKenilworth, Washington, D.C.Kenilworth is a residential neighborhood in Northeast Washington, D.C., located on the eastern bank of the Anacostia River and just inside the D.C.-Maryland border. A large public housing complex, Kenilworth Courts, dominates the area...
neighborhood, and construct a pedestrian bridge across Kenilworth Avenue to the Deanwood Metro stationDeanwood (Washington Metro)Deanwood is an island platformed Washington Metro station in the Deanwood neighborhood of Northeast Washington, D.C., United States. The station was opened on November 20, 1978, and is operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority . Providing service for the Orange Line, the...
(to connect the residential development to the subway). A year after President George W. BushGeorge W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
proposed transferring the land to the AWC, the corporation had done little to effect the land transfer. The AWC began a push for federal legislation to transfer the site in mid-2006, but the federal government refused to hand over the land until the city found a site for a congressionalUnited States CongressThe United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
mailMailMail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...
-sorting facility located at Hill East. Despite the lack of title to the land, the AWC hired two engineering teams to plan for infrastructure improvements and to begin laying out a medical office complex, a mixed-useMixed-use developmentMixed-use development is the use of a building, set of buildings, or neighborhood for more than one purpose. Since the 1920s, zoning in some countries has required uses to be separated. However, when jobs, housing, and commercial activities are located close together, a community's transportation...
residential development, an office park, and a replacement for the D.C. Jail. In March 2007, the AWC unveiled six draft designs for the Kenilworth Avenue pedestrian bridge. - Kingman and Heritage Islands — Mayor Williams also proposed transferring Kingman IslandBurnham BarrierKingman Island and Heritage Island are islands in Northeast and Southeast Washington, D.C., in the Anacostia River. Both islands are man-made, built from material dredged from the Anacostia River and completed in 1916. Kingman Island is bordered on the east by the Anacostia River, and on the west...
and nearby Heritage Island in the Anacostia River to the AWC for development as parks and for the construction of bird and wildlife education centers. - Poplar Point — This 110 acres (44.5 ha) parcel of land is bordered by the Anacostia River, South Capitol Street, Interstate 295Interstate 295 (District of Columbia)Interstate 295 in the U.S. state of Maryland and in Washington, D.C. is a spur route connecting I-95/I-495 and Maryland Route 210 on the Potomac River to Interstate 695 in downtown Washington.-Route description:Although I-295 technically begins at the Capital Beltway , a pair of mainline...
(also known as the Anacostia Freeway), and the 11th Street Bridges11th Street BridgesThe 11th Street Bridges are a pair of one-way bridges across the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C., U.S.A. The southbound structure is officially named the Officer Kevin J. Welsh Memorial Bridge, while the northbound structure is officially named the 11th Street Bridge. The bridges convey...
, and is part of Anacostia ParkAnacostia ParkAnacostia Park is operated by the United States National Park Service. It is one of Washington, D.C.'s largest and most important recreation areas, with over 1200 acres at multiple sites. Included in Anacostia Park is Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens and Kenilworth Marsh...
. Although only the federal government held title to Poplar Point, the AWC assumed it would eventually gain control of the area and issued a request for design proposals that would include parks, memorialMemorialA memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something, usually a person or an event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or art objects such as sculptures, statues or fountains, and even entire parks....
s, and residential housing while maintaining at least part of the area's wetlands. A master planning exercise began in June 2006. A year after President George W. BushGeorge W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
proposed transferring the land to the AWC, the corporation had done little to effect the land transfer, and AWC officials had still not come to agreement on redevelopment plans. In November 2006, the AWC said it was delaying development of Poplar Point until the federal government replaced the Frederick Douglass Memorial BridgeFrederick Douglass Memorial BridgeThe Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, otherwise known as the South Capitol Street Bridge, carries South Capitol Street over the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. It was constructed in 1950 and named after abolitionist Frederick Douglass...
. Nonetheless, the AWC released a master plan for Poplar Point in January 2007 that included a 27,000-seat soccer stadium, a hotel, a conference center, 2,000 residential housing units, and a park. - Washington Canal Park - AWC planned to create a park-like area along 2nd Street SE between M and I Streets SE which would provide space for the construction of residential housing, office and retail space, and public parks. The AWC hoped to break ground on Washington Canal park in early 2007.
By June 2007, however, the AWC had yet to break ground on any redevelopment project.
The AWC's chief executive officer, Andrew Altman, abruptly quit the organization on October 6, 2005. He was replaced by a local developer, Adrian G. Washington, on November 11, 2005. A month after his appointment, Washington approved the creation of an advisory council to help oversee the AWC's redevelopment efforts.
Bond sales
PILOT (finance)
A PILOT is a payment in lieu of taxes , made to compensate a local government for some or all of the tax revenue that it loses because of the nature of the ownership or use of a particular piece of real property...
) bond financing plan in June 2006. The bond sale was expected to generate about $75 million for the AWC, which would use the money to make infrastructure improvements at Hill East, Poplar Point, and the Southwest waterfront. Another $140 million of the PILOT bonds would fund infrastructure improvements around the new United States Department of Transportation
United States Department of Transportation
The United States Department of Transportation is a federal Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with transportation. It was established by an act of Congress on October 15, 1966, and began operation on April 1, 1967...
headquarters (then being built at 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, near the Navy Yard – Ballpark Metro station) and Federal Center Southeast. In November 2006, the AWC said it would offer a second bond issue to raise $100 million to make infrastructure improvements at and remove trash from Hill East/Reservation 13 and Poplar Point. The AWC said it would receive a share of a September 2006 sale of $248 million in Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement bonds to build a $60 million medical office building complex at Hill East. The city sold $140 million in PILOT bonds to build a $40 million park along the Anacostia River between South Capitol Street and 2nd Street SE and to fund $75 million in miscellaneous AWC projects. Another $90 million in PILOT bonds went on sale in February 2007 to help pay for infrastructure improvements at Federal Center Southeast.
Anacostia River clean-up and training efforts
The AWC also focused some effort on cleaning up the Anacostia River. In November 2006, the corporation made river clean-up a priority for the organization. The corporation announced strict environmental standards for its developers in February 2007 in order to help reduce wastewater runoff into the river. The AWC's efforts won awards from the National Capital Section of the American Society of Civil EngineersAmerican Society of Civil Engineers
The American Society of Civil Engineers is a professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. It is the oldest national engineering society in the United States. ASCE's vision is to have engineers positioned as global leaders who strive toward...
and GreenHOME (an organization which recommends environmentally safe products for residential homes).
One of the AWC's final projects was the funding of a worker training center. Since its inception, the corporation had required that 51 percent of each developer's workforce come from the District of Columbia, and that at least 10 percent of the workforce be residents of the city's impoverished Ward 8. But developers complained that few D.C. residents were prepared or trained for the jobs offered. The AWC established an employment organization to help screen D.C. residents who applied for jobs, better match residents to positions that they qualified for, and improve residents' job skills to better prepare them for the workplace. The organization would also help promote awareness of AWC redevelopment projects and job opportunities at those projects among Ward 7 and Ward 8 residents. This organization, known as the Business Resource Center, opened at 2311 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE on April 11, 2007.
Disbandment
Dissatisfaction with the AWC had been reported in August 2006. At that time, community activists called for the AWC to seek greater community input on its redevelopment plans, and one member of the D.C. City Council began drafting a bill to require the AWC to be more transparent in its decision-making and operations.D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams declined to seek re-election in 2006, and Adrian Fenty
Adrian Fenty
Adrian Malik Fenty was the sixth, and at age 36, the youngest, mayor of the District of Columbia. He served one term—from 2007 to 2011—losing his bid for reelection at the primary level to Democrat Vincent C. Gray...
was elected as the new mayor. As part of the key initiatives he would pursue in his first 100 days in office, Mayor Fenty announced the formation of a task force to examine whether the AWC and NCRC should be restructured or abolished. Days later, D.C. Council member Jack Evans
Jack Evans (D.C. Council)
Jack Evans is a Democratic politician from Washington, D.C. He currently represents Ward 2 on the Council of the District of Columbia and serves as its chairperson pro tempore....
, who had originally helped pass the bill which created the AWC, introduced legislation to abolish both corporations and transfer their authority and duties to the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. Councilmember Kwame R. Brown
Kwame R. Brown
Kwame Rashaan Brown is an American politician in Washington, D.C., who is currently chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia and was an at-large member of the council from 2005 to 2011...
, chair of the Council's Committee on Economic Development, held hearings on the bill in late January during which the AWC received both praise and criticism.
The AWC's chief executive officer, Adrian Washington, resigned suddenly on February 12, 2007. Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Neil O. Albert was appointed interim CEO in his place.
Hearings on the Evans legislation continued in March 2007. Increasingly, the hearings focused on the lengthy delays in transferring land between the NCRC and AWC. Albert suggested five alternatives (ranging from keeping the status quo to merging the two organizations to disbanding both companies) for the City Council to consider, but his proposals were not well-received. Some neighborhood groups supported the AWC and NCRC, arguing that the two corporations needed improving but did not warrant disbandment. AWC supporters also noted that the agency was confronted with a patchwork of zoning laws, few assets, and strict requirements for affordable housing that made progress difficult and slow, and that the corporation should not be blamed for these problems. Councilmember Kwame Brown subsequently proposed creating a new "D.C. Economic Development Authority" to take over the duties of the two corporations, which would save $2.4 million in salaries alone. Fenty and Albert opposed Brown's proposal, arguing that the mayor's office should have full control of redevelopment projects and that creating another bureaucracy was unnecessary. On May 15, the City Council attached the Brown bill to another piece of legislation and unanimously passed it in a parliamentary maneuver. But after Brown met with Mayor Fenty several times over the next three weeks, Brown relented and the City Council unanimously passed the Evans version of the legislation on June 5, 2007. Mayor Fenty signed the legislation into law on July 19, 2007. The final legislation required the city to assume all assets and debt the two companies had, and that the agencies must be consolidated with the Deputy Mayor's office by October 1, 2007.
Later developments
Some council members were concerned that the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development would be unable to effectively implement a $10 billion redevelopment program. Others were concerned that the AWC may not have fully accounted for all its assets and debts, so Councilmember Kwame Brown asked the D.C. inspector general's office to conduct an audit of the company prior to the October 1 deadline. By early December 2007, City Council members were demanding greatly expanded oversight over the Deputy Mayor's office, and Albert was strongly resisting such efforts. By April 2008, the City Council was imposing audits on the Deputy Mayor's office and the redevelopment projects it was overseeing.On September 23, the city said consolidation of the AWC and NCRC with the Deputy Major's office would save the city $5.6 million annually in salaries and administrative costs alone. The city offered jobs to only 20 of the AWC's 31 employees.
The merger was complete by the legislative deadline.
At least one major development shift occurred immediately after the dissolution of the AWC. On July 23, 2007, just four days after the legislation disbanding the corporation was signed into law, the Deputy Mayor's office issued a plan for the redevelopment of Poplar Point which did not include a new soccer stadium—an apparent rejection of the AWC's proposals.
However, on January 16, 2008, the Deputy Mayor's office announced it was moving ahead with plans to build the Southwest waterfront. About 18 percent of the $1.1 billion project would be funded by the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. The city estimated that it would collect $32 million in tax revenue annually from the project (an increase of $22 million from the 2006 level), and 2,880 jobs would be created.