The small strip mall on West Virginia Avenue NE has been freshly renovated and painted and boasts a new gas station. It is fully leased, with about a dozen minority small-business owners trying to make a go of it in an economically depressed neighborhood.
It is exactly the type of economic development that Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) and the D.C. Council say they want to bring to the city's neighborhoods.
Lulu Egezabher, who runs a gas station and a store at a nearby strip mall, says, "If [the DMV station] doesn't open, this whole mall goes down."
(Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)
|
|
But this happy picture is being spoiled by a painful fact: The business owners are going bankrupt. And they blame the District government.
The city is rebuilding the long-closed Department of Motor Vehicles inspection station next door to the strip mall, at 1927 West Virginia Ave. NE. The station, which was expected to reduce lines at the city's only inspection station at 1001 Half Street SW, was scheduled to open by the summer of 2003. But it remains half-built because of legal wrangling with its contractor.
"All these people signed leases anticipating the opening of the inspection station," said Bekri Nuru, a Northwest resident who leases space for a chicken restaurant. He has invested more than $45,000 in restaurant equipment -- including $10,000 for bulletproof glass -- and utility upgrades.
Until the inspection station opens and brings its estimated 1,000 to 1,500 cars a day, Nuru said, it doesn't make economic sense to open for business. So his store remains closed, his jobs unfilled. He writes a $2,500 rent check every month.
"That's the only reason we came here and signed leases," Nuru said. "We paid a year for nothing."
Business owners in the strip say they have not gotten a straight answer from city officials about why the station is not being finished or a timeline for when work will restart.
"If [the station] doesn't open, this whole mall goes down," said Lulu Egezabher, who runs a convenience store and the gas station. He is getting a rent break from his landlord, but he doesn't know how long he can hold out.
A DMV spokeswoman said her department knows little about the status of the inspection station. "Once they build it, we will run it," said Janis Hazel. "But until there is a station built, we have nothing to do with it."
She referred questions to the city department that oversees the construction of government buildings.
"The Office of Contracting and Procurement will not be able to make a comment on the Northeast inspection station at this time," said spokeswoman Janis Bolt.
The West Virginia Avenue inspection station was closed for renovation in April 1999 because of asbestos, rats and raw sewage problems. City officials had expected the remodeled five-bay station to reopen within 18 months.
In 2003, the city fired its construction contractor, HRGM Corp., complaining of delays in completing the project. The contractor filed a counterclaim with the city's Contract Appeals Board, blaming the city for much of the delay.
Traci L. Hughes, a spokeswoman for the city attorney general's office, said last week that the contractor wants the opportunity to finish the job. She said her office is preparing to go to trial this June before the city's contract appeals board, an administrative body that settles contract disputes.
"We're just kind of in limbo until then, unless there is an agreement," Hughes said.
An attorney listed on the docket as representing HRGM Corp. did not return a call Tuesday seeking comment.
Council member Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5), who represents the neighborhood, said everyone is waiting for the judge to sort it out.
"A lot of this is the cost of doing business; you take a risk," Orange said. "I think eventually the station will open. They want it, and we want it as a government. There was a lot of time and money put into this."
Council member Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large) said the city must do more to help its small and minority-owned businesses. On Tuesday, he introduced legislation that would create a new government department to encourage small-business creation and help ensure that local businesses share in the city's economic renaissance.
