Agency's Move Seen as One Step in Anacostia's Renewal

District officials announced plans yesterday to move 170 employees in the city's housing and community development agency to a new headquarters in Anacostia as part of a strategy to spur economic development in the long-neglected neighborhood.

The agency has been working from leased office space near Union Station. By August, its employees will be relocated to a new building at Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Good Hope Road SE, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) said.

That building had been constructed to house the national headquarters of the NAACP, which had considered relocating from Baltimore to the District last summer, city officials said.

That proposal fell through, and the city decided it would become the anchor tenant, mayoral aides said.

Fenty called the move a boon to Anacostia. The Ward 8 community has been seeking for years to redevelop MLK Jr. Avenue, where empty storefronts sit between churches and small businesses.

"Downtown has been built out in many ways, and new neighborhoods are emerging," Fenty said at a news conference atop the building, which offers sweeping views of the Anacostia River and the new Nationals baseball stadium on the opposite banks.

Leila Edmonds, the director of the Department of Housing and Community Development, called the move an opportunity for her office "to not just do the work, but to participate in the transformation."

The building is within a few blocks of Poplar Point, a 110-acre parcel of parkland that the District is planning to develop into a regional entertainment hub, with housing, offices, shops and, possibly, a soccer stadium for D.C. United.

Fenty has been criticized by some Ward 8 leaders, including D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D), for not moving fast enough on developing Poplar Point. Fenty recently announced that the city has named Clark Realty as the master developer of that site.

The mayor and council have privately discussed a stadium financing plan, which would include up to $190 million in public money and land, but nothing is settled.

Charles E. Wilson, founder of the Historic Anacostia Block Association, is ambivalent about the stadium. But he hailed yesterday's announcement.

"It's exciting," he said. "We'll finally get some foot traffic on these streets and hopefully get some restaurants and cafes. It shows the city is committed to bringing development east of the river."