D.C. Development Official Expanded Bond Program

Michael Vincent Hodge, 62, who had a major role in economic development projects in the District as director of the D.C. government's industrial revenue bond program, died Sept. 19 of lung cancer at his home in the District.

From 1993 to early 2007, Mr. Hodge greatly expanded the city's program to issue bonds that help finance construction projects and other development efforts for nonprofit organizations and corporations.

Among the more than 100 projects he worked on, he said he was proudest of a complicated series of bond transactions worth more than $500 million that helped finance the construction of the Newseum, the museum that opened in 2008 devoted to the history of news and press freedom.

According to a 2007 article in the Bond Buyer, an industry publication, "The complex bond transactions tied to the project reflect the advent of a sophisticated economic development team in the city that District officials say Hodge is largely responsible for."

He issued billions of dollars in bonds that helped fund such projects as the Washington Nationals' stadium, the International Spy Museum, offices for the Smithsonian Institution, underground parking at the Kennedy Center, redevelopment at Gallery Place, museum expansions and other projects at universities, schools, hospitals, theaters, hotels and retail stores.

There was only one active revenue bond project in the works when Mr. Hodge took over the city's revenue bond program in 1993. He ran the office without any assistants for five years.

"It was dysfunctional and had been defunded by the District, probably for good reasons," he told The Washington Post in 2000.

Mr. Hodge, who was a lawyer, simplified the approval process for organizations applying for city-issued bonds. The process was enhanced by the 1997 D.C. Revitalization Act, which allowed for easier financing of urban revitalization efforts known as "empowerment zones" and "renewal communities" and expanded the program from nonprofits to private corporations.

From 1994 to 1999, Mr. Hodge expanded the revenue bond program from a single construction project valued at about $70 million to nearly 30 deals worth almost $900 million. After receiving the tax-exempt financing, nonprofit groups and corporations repaid the D.C. government with revenue from the new facilities and from agreements with sponsoring organizations.

Mr. Hodge also directed the Tax Increment Financing Program, a D.C. government program that promotes development in blighted parts of the District. In 2000, he was one of several people to receive the first-ever Awards for Distinguished D.C. Government Employees from the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation.

After leaving the D.C. government in 2007, Mr. Hodge worked on economic development projects for the law firm of Ballard Spahr.

Michael Vincent Hodge was born May 23, 1947, in Chicago and was an Army veteran of the Vietnam War. He entered a special advanced program at Rutgers University in New Jersey and, without a bachelor's degree, received a master's degree in education in 1974.

He worked on education reform projects and taught in a New Jersey prison before joining the National Urban Coalition, which brought him to Washington in the late 1970s as director of a school finance project.

He did research on education policy with the federal Department of Education before becoming associate director of Single Family Services of the D.C. Housing Finance Agency about 1982, directing various programs providing tax credits and low-interest loans to District home buyers.

After attending Georgetown University law school at night for several years, he received a law degree in 1990. He was on the board of directors of the KIPP DC charter schools, the D.C. Economic Partnership and the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority.

Mr. Hodge lived in the Petworth community and helped raise a child from his neighborhood, Ayanna Stevens.

Survivors include his partner, Linda Schakel of Washington; three brothers, Charles Hodge Jr. and William R. Hodge, both of Chicago, and Thaddeus P. Hodge of Washington; and a sister, Mary E. Hodge of Chicago.