D.C. Garage Project Parked in Familiar Spot

Time, Money Spent Raise Officials' Ire

Ask a construction honcho how long it takes to build a four-story parking garage -- the kind found outside ballparks, shopping malls and train stations -- and the answer is invariably the same.

About 12 months.

How long has it taken the District government to put one up?

Try three years. And they're not yet done.

In a city once famous for its bureaucratic dysfunction, the work in progress is déjà vu all over again, resurrecting memories of the days when garbage went uncollected and potholes unfilled.

The District's inability to complete what began as a $15 million project in Northeast Washington has caused hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing among District officials who grouse about their own bureaucracy and worry that the delays could stall a developer's vision of hundreds of apartments next door.

"This project represents the absolute worst in government," said Neil Albert, deputy mayor for planning and economic development, before reciting a litany of sins that include "missed timelines, escalating budgets, inattention by project managers, poor communications between government agencies and a lack of a single point of accountability."

"Certainly we're not building the Taj Mahal here," he said. "It's a parking garage."

Lest anyone think the deputy mayor is directing the brunt of his ire at his own team, think again. The project started during the tenure of Mayor Anthony A. Williams, for whom Albert worked as director of the parks department.

The District's Office of Property Management, an agency that has had four directors in the past six years, is responsible for the project at the Minnesota Avenue Metro station, and its missteps include flawed designs and a failure to follow construction guidelines required by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Agency, which will manage the garage when it's completed.

And there's an extra charge to taxpayers. By the time it opens, the garage will have cost about $3 million more than originally planned.

The 470-space garage is part of a broader District effort to catalyze development around the long-bedraggled intersection of Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road NE. In addition to the garage, the District is constructing a government office building, and a developer is slated to build 400 apartments.