Fenty, Brown Face Fight to Revamp Agencies

By Paul Schwartzman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 5, 2007

With great fanfare and lofty promises, District leaders in 2004 established an agency to restore the long-polluted waters and dilapidated banks of the Anacostia River.

The Anacostia Waterfront Corp. (AWC), as conceived by then-Mayor Anthony A. Williams and endorsed by the D.C. Council, would turn what had become a symbol of neglect into an urban paradise.

Now there's a new mayor, Adrian M. Fenty, who wants to do things differently. Fenty and the council agree that the Anacostia agency and a sister entity, the National Capitol Revitalization Corp.(NCRC), are ineffective and that the District needs a new engine to drive development.

But in what has shaped up as a tussle for control over millions of dollars in land deals, the mayor and council disagree on who or what that engine should be. The conflict could reach a conclusion today when the council votes on a proposal to create a quasi-independent agency, the Economic Development Authority.

The new agency would oversee an array of ambitious projects, including the Anacostia and Southwest waterfronts, the McMillan Reservoir and the massive redevelopment slated for the 67-acre parcel on the eastern edge of Capitol Hill.

But Fenty (D) sees no need for a new agency. He believes that his administration should oversee the projects, in the same way that he believes it should control the public school system.

"The people of the District of Columbia elected Adrian Fenty to lead this city," said Neil Albert, deputy mayor for planning and economic development, who, under Fenty's plan, would oversee the projects.

"They're going to hold him accountable for development, not an agency set up by the city council. We believe the mayor should have full control." Albert is now the CEO of the AWC.

But council member Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large) contends that an independent agency is needed to ensure "a single focus on our larger projects and make sure that those projects get done."

Under Brown's proposal, the agency would be managed by five board members and a chief executive officer, all appointed by the mayor but confirmed by the council. Brown believes he has the votes to create the agency, but he also has talked with mayoral aides and said that his proposal might be modified by the time the council votes.

Quasi-independent agencies, such as the one Brown proposes, are common in cities and states to promote real estate deals, streamline bureaucracy, and issue bonds. For years, the District agency charged with that responsibility was the Redevelopment Land Authority, until it was succeeded in 1999 by the NCRC.

The Anacostia corporation has been applauded for ensuring that projects meet environmental standards and include affordable housing.

The agency has begun to put its imprint on land deals, choosing PN Hoffman as the master developer for the Southwest waterfront. It also has helped facilitate projects underway around the new baseball stadium and the reconstruction of a Navy Yard Metro station.

NCRC, for its part, has closed on 20 real estate transactions since 2000, including Tivoli Square in Columbia Heights, which includes a historic theater, supermarket and condominiums. "Our record speaks for itself," said Therman A. Baker Jr., the agency's interim chief executive officer.

But both agencies have suffered from staff turnover -- NCRC is on its sixth executive director, and the AWC is on its third. And community leaders and lawmakers have criticized both for moving too slowly on deals.

The NCRC, in particular, has been chided for taking too long to redevelop Skyland Shopping Center in Southeast, a project that has entailed taking control of parcels owned by nearly two dozen owners. Vincent Spaulding, a Hillcrest civic leader, said that NCRC made Skyland a priority after community prodding. "Once they got moving, we were satisfied," he said.

The agencies were faulted for a protracted battle over a transfer of Southwest waterfront property from the NCRC to the AWC, a conflict that delayed for months the design process for a 47-acre project that will include a mix of housing, offices, retail, restaurants and a hotel.

Roderic Woodson, a lawyer whose firm, Holland and Knight, represents developers, said the District created "a built-in collision course" when it established two economic development agencies. "We had a certain euphoria around the Anacostia initiative," he said. "And we became distracted with the notion that the realization of that vision could only happen with another independent entity."

The District, he said, needs one agency "to simplify and narrow all of this."

His view is not universal. The Fenty administration hired the District-based International Economic Development Council to review the agencies and lay out options for reconfiguring them.

While the organization's report did not include a recommendation, Jeffrey Finkle, IEDC's president, said that enough land exists "that NCRC and AWC, if allowed to, could peacefully coexist and do good things."

Furthermore, Finkle said the agencies have not existed long enough to fully judge their performance.

"Like many organizations, they don't always operate perfectly, and either through a lack of good strategy, or a lack of good leadership, both stumbled," he said.

But expectations may be unrealistic because complex deals are time-consuming, he said. In his own view, Finkle said it may behoove District officials to maintain the two agencies, allowing them to "do what they need to do and get out of the way."

Marc Weiss, who helped manage the District's development strategy when the Financial Control Board managed the city, was a part of the government when the NCRC succeeded the Redevelopment Land Authority.

Such reorganizations are a "huge waste of time and effort," he said.

"It's a diversion from where the mayor and the council need to put their attention."