Mayor Adrian Fenty was joined by Department of Housing and Community
Development (DHCD) Director Leila Edmonds today at a vacant Columbia Heights townhome to announce an auction of District-owned "nuisance properties" tomorrow afternoon.
The auction will be held Friday, January, 30th at 2 PM at 441 Fourth Street, NW. The Mayor projects that the “more than 200 developers and investors” who turned up for last week’s pre-bid conference will be in attendance and the public has been encouraged to participate as well. Prospective bidders will be able to register on site, provided they can meet the city’s minimum price point of $10,000. Those who purchase property at the auction will be required to have their properties in fully operable condition within 18 months or face the prospect of ownership reverting to the District. Additionally, they will also have to meet a series of DCHD-dictated expectations in restoring the once neglected homes.
Development (DHCD) Director Leila Edmonds today at a vacant Columbia Heights townhome to announce an auction of District-owned "nuisance properties" tomorrow afternoon.
"These are neighborhood nuisances and they've been the site of numerous problems. What councilmember, what citizen activist, what great media person hasn't heard the tales of nuisance properties like one behind me [at 3004 13th Street, NW] causing problems with everything from rodent infestation to plain old visual blight?" said the Mayor.
In total, 31 properties located in the DC neighborhoods of Columbia Heights, Shaw, LeDroit Park, Trinidad and Deanwood will hit the auction block (all of which can be viewed here). All were acquired through eminent domain, foreclosure or “friendly” sale and represent just a fraction of the city’s inventory of derelict properties. According to Director Edmonds, funds raised from the auction will benefit the city’s affordable housing fund and, if successful, another round of sales open to the public could occur in the near future.
The auction will be held Friday, January, 30th at 2 PM at 441 Fourth Street, NW. The Mayor projects that the “more than 200 developers and investors” who turned up for last week’s pre-bid conference will be in attendance and the public has been encouraged to participate as well. Prospective bidders will be able to register on site, provided they can meet the city’s minimum price point of $10,000. Those who purchase property at the auction will be required to have their properties in fully operable condition within 18 months or face the prospect of ownership reverting to the District. Additionally, they will also have to meet a series of DCHD-dictated expectations in restoring the once neglected homes.
“Bidders and potential purchasers will be required to fulfill the certified business entity requirements within the District. So, not only will we get these properties back into productive use, but we will also be fulfilling the mandate and mission to get them to help people find job opportunities” said Edmonds.
Fenty and Edmonds also used the opportunity to unveil the DHCD’s new “interactive housing database,” dchousingsearch.org – a site that aggregates both “rental and homeownership opportunities throughout the city.”
“Until today there wasn’t one place that you could go and find affordable housing in the city,” said Fenty. “That changes with the great work of DHCD. Obviously, it’s impossible for us to mandate affordable housing providers to give us information, but I think there’s great incentive for them to do so. We already have 5,672 total units in the system…and we have to date 64 housing providers that are registered as active within the system.” More 600 of the site's listed units are currently available.
Washington DC real estate news
3 comments:
FANTASTIC information. I will make this a favorite. Would love to see the results of some of these auctions in a future post. Please stop by my daily blog and comment....love the backlinks!
Potomac Secret Agent
I wonder what these properties will sell for considering logistical problems and covenants.
They require that all drawing and permits be submitted within 90 days of purchase, or they will start taxing the property at the vacant rate. Every buyer is required to spend 35% of the budget with Certified Business Enterprise… (some sort of “disadvantaged” DC businesses) If this is not owner occupied, there is also requirement for 20% equity and 20% development participation with a Small, Local, and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise.
Of course AC auctions aren’t real auctions to begin with… Aside from Reserve prices that are unknown at completion time, and ultimate seller decision on whether they actually want to sell to the highest bidder, AC can and does bid against regular bidders if they want to.
http://newsroom.dc.gov/show.aspx?agency=dhcd§ion=2&release=16073&year=2009&file=file.aspx%2frelease%2f16073%2fDHCDPADDAuction%2520resultsFeb032009.pdf
the list of selling prices for these properties is here. You can also find it on DHCD's website.
The city made almost $5 million from the sale and claims that they will use the money for affordable housing. Let's hope this is true before Prince Fenty gets a hold of it to hand it out to his developer buddies.
Post a Comment
Commercial ads will be deleted, so don't even think about it.