Voices from April 30, 2011 Adams Morgan ANC community meeting in Kalorama Park
ANC Chair Wilson Reynolds assists developer Brian Friedman with his plans for a hotel tower in Adams Morgan
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Brian Friedman is a developer in his early thirties looking to make a name for himself. Friedman’s attempt to build a ten-story hotel tower in the Reed-Cooke neighborhood in Adams Morgan is audacious. Fortunately for him, he has financial backing (from his family).
Friedman was able to secure major taxpayer subsidies from the cash-strapped District government for the luxury boutique hotel. Last December, the D.C. Council approved a $46 million tax abatement for the project, which Friedman viewed as perfectly natural. “It’s like any other hotel built in this city… There’s always a subsidy,” Friedman told the Washington Business Journal .
The $127 million, 90-plus foot luxury boutique hotel may not be a good fit for the mixed income neighborhood, according to the zoning regulation.
The District of Columbia Municipal Regulations (DCMR) states, “The maximum height permitted in the [Reed-Cooke] Overlay District shall not exceed forty feet (40 ft.) plus roof structure.” Greater heights are allowed, but only if strict requirements are met and the project “advance[s] the stated purposes of the… Overlay District.”
According to the D.C. Municipal Regulations, “The purposes of the [Reed-Cooke] Overlay District shall be to… (1) Protect current housing in the area and provide for the development of new housing; (2) Maintain heights and densities at appropriate levels; and (3) Encourage small-scale business development that will not adversely affect the residential community.”
“The Reed-Cooke overlay was designed to prevent exactly what is being proposed here,” said Adam Eidinger, a local business owner, at a community meeting in Kalorama Park in April.
The Overlay District can be overridden with a successful filing of a Planned Unit Development (PUD) with the city, but this hasn’t happened. Intowner reporter Anthony Harvey reported on a recent Kalorama Citizens Association meeting: “[Office of Planning Director] Harriet Tregoning, asserted that no PUD application from the developer has been filed with the Office of Planning, and that such a 90-foot hotel tower proposal in the Reed-Cooke overlay district would not comport with the District’s comprehensive plan, the underlying zoning of that site, and the restrictions of the current Reed-Cooke zoning overlay.” Friedman says he will file a PUD by July 29.
Former ANC 1C Commissioner Chris Otten, who voted against the tax abatement, is concerned about the impact the hotel will have on the community. “Where are the studies to show how this will effect property rents and taxes for the surrounding neighbors?” asked Otten, who was on the losing side of the Dec. 16 ANC vote.
Among those who voted in favor of the project was the ANC 1C chair, but some question whether he should have voted at all. “I have two hats,” said Wilson Reynolds. “I work for [Ward 1 Councilmember] Jim Graham. And this comes up periodically that I also serve on the ANC. And I don’t have a hard answer for that.”
Reynolds’ boss pushed hard for the tax subsidy, even when it was set at $61 million. The ANC 1C vote on the abatement took place as Graham and Friedman looked down on the commissioners from the dais in the community room at Mary’s Center.
“There’s a pretty good firewall between what I do on the ANC side and what I do in [Graham’s] office [with] constituent services. I’m not involved in legislative things at all,” said Reynolds, who oversaw the ANC vote on the massive tax abatement just days before the Council voted on it.
“I can understand tax abatements being given when you’re trying to encourage development in parts of the city that are not developed, where growth is badly needed,” said Keshini Ladduwahetty, an activist with DC for Democracy, at the April meeting. “But I’m trying to understand why a Marriott project in a high density area… requires a tax abatement of about $2 million a year over a 20-year period.”
“What’s the rationale in your opinion?” Luddawehetty asked Friedman.
Related Stories:
- Tax Breaks for a Tower: The Story Behind the Proposed Adams Morgan Hotel
- The Adams Morgan Hotel and the “Sucker’s List”
- $46 Million in Tax Abatements for “A Damn Near Skyscraper” in Adams Morgan
Related Sites:
http://admohotel.com/