DC Mayor Muriel Bowser Announces "Vacant to Vibrant DC"

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, Mayor Bowser launched "Vacant to Vibrant DC," a new five-point plan to transform vacant spaces into approximately 70 units of workforce housing, community green spaces, and economic development opportunities for small businesses throughout the city. The plan will reduce the District's vacant property inventory by reactivating up to 50 sites from the Department of Housing and Community Development's Property Acquisition and Disposition Division.

"Through Vacant to Vibrant DC we are making good on our commitment to get more Washingtonians on pathways to the middle class," said Mayor Bowser. "This effort is about so much more than just taking a vacant space and transforming it into something new – it's about building more homes for our residents, creating new green spaces, and spurring economic growth in every corner of our city."

The bulk of the sites will be made available through three key disposition processes:

• More than 30 sites will be auctioned to produce approximately 50 workforce housing units. An online auction will be conducted by Alex Cooper Auctioneers in mid-January.
• Up to eight sites will be offered through an invitation for bid to participants in the District's Certified Business Enterprise (CBE) program to transform the sites into workforce housing units.
• Two sites will be made available through the DC Housing Finance Agency's Housing Investment Platform to produce 10 workforce housing units.

One site will be used as a demonstration project on tiny home construction, and the remaining sites will be made available for the expansion and preservation of outdoor green spaces.

"In 2015, the Bowser Administration inherited over 90 vacant and blighted sites—and we heard loud and clear that residents wanted us to find creative and productive solutions for the sites," said Department of Housing and Community Development Director Polly Donaldson. "Since then, we made significant progress, with over half of those sites being in some form of disposition. Vacant to Vibrant DC will clear out the balance of our inventory, and fulfills a promise I made to Mayor Bowser and District residents last spring to move all remaining sites into some form of productive use."

CONTACT:
LaToya Foster (EOM) – (202) 727-5011; [email protected]   
Gwendolyn Cofield (DHCD) – (202) 657-8489; [email protected]

SOURCE DC Department of Housing and Community Development

Related Links

http://www.dhcd.dc.gov