Mayor Muriel Bowser is doubling down on revitalization, launching the District’s Housing in Downtown Program, a forward-thinking initiative aimed at transforming D.C.'s urban core into a buzzing residential area. The program, announced after Bowser's tour of the nearly-complete Elle apartments, is the city's latest move to inject new life into downtown by converting old offices into trendy homes and offering a juicy 20-year tax abatement as the cherry on top.
The first major office-to-residential conversion in D.C.'s Golden Triangle Business Improvement District (BID), the Elle apartments are just a taste of what's to come. With the Preliminary Request for Application (RFA) for the program now active on the DMPED website, developers are smelling the opportunity, and despite a competitive edge thanks to, program caps, the city's dishing out $41 million to make urban living dreams a reality. The application period kicks off March 22 and will keep rolling as long as there are dollars to dispense.
At the heart of Downtown D.C., the Elle - sprouting on the former grounds of the Peace Corps HQ - is a testament to the city's ambition to lead the nation in office-to-residential conversions. The Willco-led project boasts 163 units complete with all the trimmings: a community room, fitness center, dog park, and a rooftop pool to beat the D.C. heat according to Gary Cohen, Chairman, and President of Willco.
It's just one part of the grand Downtown Action Plan cooked up by the Golden Triangle and DowntownDC BIDs. The blueprint doesn't just call for more downtown dwellers, it's a craftsman's dream with blueprints for cultural corridors, a bolstered university presence, and casting a wide net to catch a big tech fish. With five office-to-residential projects underway and another eleven waiting in the wings, D.C. is staking its claim as the national champion of clever city living transformations.
This housing hustle is no shot in the dark – it's a calculated play, part of Bowser's Comeback Plan unwrapped in January 2023, plotting a five-year economic comeback story for D.C. One of the six punchy ambitions? Adding 15,000 new residents downtown by the time 2028 rolls around, giving the city's core not just a facelift but a full-on heart transplant for a vibrant future.
