[WaPo] D.C. sees neighborhood revival in Trump plan to downsize federal footprint

link will work for everyone

D.C. sees neighborhood revival in Trump plan to downsize federal footprint
Local and Trump officials are looking to work together to turn obsolete federal buildings into a new neighborhood in Southwest D.C.

https://wapo.st/3PY34w6

excerpt:

The Trump administration and leaders in overwhelmingly Democratic D.C. may not seem like natural allies, but they see a golden opportunity to work together in one area: transforming the obsolete, underutilized federal buildings near the National Mall into something else.

Administration officials are eager to save the millions of dollars it costs to maintain those buildings, which include the Department of Energy’s massive James V. Forrestal complex, the Sidney Yates and Bureau of Engraving and Printing buildings, and the two-block-long Department of Agriculture South building.

D.C. leaders, meanwhile, welcome the chance to bring valuable real estate onto the tax rolls and breathe new life into federal enclaves that are dead zones outside business hours.

Where an imposing fortress of federal government bureaucracy now stands, District officials see an opportunity to create a neighborhood of new homes, retail businesses, parks and plazas.

“This is truly an unprecedented opportunity to save taxpayer dollars, to improve the federal government’s mission and to greatly improve the economic prospects of the District of Columbia,” Dan Mathews, who oversaw the federal government’s real estate during Donald Trump’s first presidential term, said during a Tuesday meeting of the Public Buildings Reform Board, which is drawing up recommendations to the administration for drastically cutting federal real estate.

Michael Peters, Trump’s appointee to oversee government real estate as commissioner of the Public Buildings Service, told the reform board that an initial review shows that the administration can reduce the federal government’s footprint in the area by as much as 50 percent.

“We’ve got to downsize the portfolio,” he said during the same Tuesday meeting.

Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), an ardent Trump critic during his first presidency, flew to Florida to meet with him at his Mar-a-Lago residence a month after the November election.

When Trump ordered federal workers back to the office, Bowser supported the idea, saying in a statement: “Today, I am optimistic that by focusing on our shared priorities with President Trump — whether it is keeping DC safe and clean or bringing workers back to our Downtown — we will continue to deliver for DC and the American public.”
​

fairly long article.

More at the link with several artists' renderings of potential development projects

​