D.C. NEIGHBORHOODS
Church to Redevelop, Sell Shaw Properties
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Thursday, July 30, 2009
A prominent Baptist church in Shaw will put two of its vacant buildings on the market and hopes to use the proceeds to redevelop its remaining properties, neighborhood officials said Wednesday.
Last week's decision by members of Shiloh Baptist Church, at Ninth and P streets NW, could remove a stumbling block to the rebirth of the blighted neighborhood around the Washington Convention Center. Neighbors have complained for years that seven crumbling buildings that the church owns along Eighth and Ninth streets were attracting drug users and adding to a sense of decay in the area.
Church officials had maintained that they wanted to turn the boarded-up properties into affordable housing rather than allow developers to build luxury condominiums and drive up real estate prices. But the properties remained eyesores as newcomers moved into Shaw and fixed up homes, gentrification that has slowed in the past year with the downturn in the real estate market.
The city condemned the properties two years ago, forcing the church to make repairs.
It's unclear what prompted the decision to sell the two buildings, which sit diagonally across from each other on Eighth Street, especially in a down market. A spokesman for the church declined to comment.
Alex Padro, an advisory neighborhood commissioner, said plans for the church's Ninth Street properties include a senior citizens center and a community center for young people.
"This is a good thing if it finally allows two long-vacant properties to be put to productive use," Padro said. "The church has talked about their plans for these properties for a very long time."
Shiloh, which has maintained a congregation in Shaw since 1924, has played a powerful role in the neighborhood. The church has provided counseling to drug addicts, fed the homeless and offered day care for children. At the height of the crack epidemic in the 1980s and early 1990s, the church was credited with providing stability in a neighborhood that residents were leaving.
