Podcast - Unlocking the Potential of Washington's Waterfront District

Leila Batties: My name is Leila Batties. I'm a land use and zoning attorney in the Washington, D.C., office of Holland & Knight. I am pleased to host this episode of Real Estate Law Unlocked with Emeka Moneme, the president and CEO of the Navy Yard BID. So Emeka, for listeners who may not be familiar with the area, explain what exactly is the Navy Yard Business Improvement District, or BID, and what are the boundaries of the BID? 

Emeka Moneme: Great. And Leila, thank you for having me. Yeah, I'm happy to talk a little bit about the BID. So the BID is a neighborhood that is south of the National Mall and the U.S. Capitol complex. It's bounded by the freeway that is just below it, I-395 [and I-695], the Anacostia River to the south and South Capitol Street that comes directly from the U.S. Capitol to the Anacostia River. And then on the far eastern side, it's bounded by the 11th Street Bridge in the historic Boathouse Row community. It's a new-ish neighborhood, meaning that its development as people see it today is really new over the last 20 years. It's historically [an] old and important neighborhood because it was the home, the original home, of the Navy Yard in D.C., and it's just gone under major transformation over the last 25 years.

Leila Batties: And explain, before we get into more about the resources in the Navy Yard BID, explain what a Business Improvement District is.

Emeka Moneme: Yes, a Business Improvement District is a special taxing district. Basically, the way that it works is property owners within a defined area agree to tax themselves above and beyond the existing property taxes, and they provide those resources to a BID – to me – for the purposes of enhancing the investment they've made in that community, helping to foster a community for that place to be attractive and to market that community on behalf of those property owners. And so what that looks like in the real world, it means that we pick up trash, it means we market and communicate to people what's happening in the neighborhood, we put on events and we undertake small-scale improvements throughout the neighborhood. So tactical urbanism, to use a word that people are familiar with. We also lobby to the government and work closely with district agencies to make improvements to neighborhoods, whether those be infrastructure projects. Our BID is a little bit unique in that there are two D.C. Parks and Recreation parks in the neighborhood that we actually manage on a day-to-day basis, so we're mowing grass, we are planting trees and flowers, we're caring for water features, we're programming and renting out that space. So you could almost say it's almost like a mini government within the city that's responsible for that specific geography.

Leila Batties: Who creates the BID? Are you a function of or an arm of the district government? Are you specific to the business and property owners within your boundaries? How are BIDs created, like functionally, practically speaking, I guess?

Emeka Moneme: That's a great question. I think they're like a prototypical public-private partnership. So they are created as a function of the government in that they are chartered by the district government. So we went for our charter 18 years ago. And we go back to the government every five years to extend that charter, to continue doing the things we agreed to do and allowing that to go forward based upon the property owners agreeing, reaffirming the taxing going forward. And then my membership, I report to a board of directors. I'm not a city agency. I don't report to the mayor, I report to a board of directors. So it's made up of property owners in our neighborhood. We have two professional sports facilities. They're represented there. We have the federal government, makes up ex-official membership on my board of directors, so I work for them on behalf of the community. And so it's very much a public-private partnership. So you have an entity that thinks like both the public and private sector to make that part of the city come together, and I even say that the neighborhood itself is made up of a series — and we'll talk about this more — series of other public-private partnerships, and the BID, in some respects, is kind of the collective glue that holds all of those pieces together in this geography.

Leila Batties: So you mentioned two professional sports facilities, which are, tell us what they are.

Emeka Moneme: Yeah, we're really fortunate. We have Nationals Park, which is the home of the Washington Nationals, a Major League Baseball franchise. Came to the neighborhood in 2008 and really was the catalyst, I'd say, in many respects, for how this neighborhood's become well-known in the community and the region, drew investment to it, drew people who otherwise would not come to this part of the city. That was followed up a few years later with Audi Field. Audi Field is located just on the other side of South Capitol Street in a neighborhood, a sub-neighborhood called Buzzard Point. It's a 20,000-person stadium that is home to D.C. United, the multiple championship-winning team in D.C., as well as the Washington Spirit, our new-ish women's professional soccer team. We also have two other sports teams that use Audi Field, D.C. Defenders and the D.C. Power. We're really fortunate. We basically have something like 120 nights a year, there is a sports match happening in the neighborhood. And so that brings people from around the region, people from outside D.C., draws attention and vibrancy to our neighborhood. And so it's a core ingredient of what makes Navy Yard, Navy Yard.

Leila Batties: And recently you and I met at The Garrett on I Street, which has a full indoor basketball court, great fitness center and outstanding amenity space. We've toured The Stacks together, also fantastic amenities and beautiful views of the city. Talk to me about the type of residential projects that are in Navy Yard and kind of the population group.

Emeka Moneme: Those are two really perfect examples of what we have to offer in the neighborhood. Because it's a new-ish neighborhood — I'd say "new-ish" meaning in the last 15 years or so — we've seen these developments come online, and I'd say there's two elements here. One, it was a time of rapid growth in the city and the need for multifamily housing was massive, and the large blocks that were available for development exist in this neighborhood, and so we were able to get really super modern residential units with some amazing amenities, which you listed before. The rooftop views here are some of the best in the city. The amenities within the buildings rival other major metropolitan areas in terms of that quality. And so we have a ton of that in clusters throughout the neighborhood, whether it be north of M Street, around the Ballpark District or even in Buzzard Point. Part of the way that they were able deliver those units is because we had the ability to up-zone these areas and get density bonuses to give us that scale of housing to attract the residential population, and a part of that density bonus was the provision of affordable housing units within those communities. So inclusionary zoning was embedded into this neighborhood when it was, I believe it was updated in the comprehensive plan of 2006. And so we've seen a combination of massive residential unit growth in the neighborhood, affordable housing growth in the neighborhood, and a neighborhood that was initially designed to be an office market has really become one of the best mixed-use communities we have in the city. And so we're really proud of that. We try our best to foster and protect that. And I think that's what makes us a little bit more special and just different. It feels like D.C. here, but just a little different because of that.

Leila Batties: So, you've been the president and CEO of the Navy Yard BID for the last three years. This past year, you changed the name of the BID from the Capital Riverfront BID to the Navy Yard BID. Why did you decide to rebrand?

Emeka Moneme: Good question. I've been asked to answer this question several times. The easy kind of, I'd say even more flippant response, is it's what's on the Metro station stop because that's what it says, the Navy Yard station. But there were three reasons why we decided to change it. One was authenticity. It is what everybody knows a neighborhood to be. It's the most visible landmark in the neighborhood, is the Navy Yard being located here. So we wanted to reflect what we heard people refer to this neighborhood as and build some connection with that. And so the second piece of it was connection. We wanted to make sure that both the people in the District and the people that lived here had a sense and a stake in what was happening, because the neighborhood has definitely changed over the last 20 years, and we didn't want both the longtime residents to feel like this wasn't a place where they could feel at home and feel like this was still their home, and we also wanted to use that as a way to connect those new residents to that past. And I think the last thing is it gave us just more reach. So the Navy Yard name is known by everybody throughout the region that comes to baseball games because they do literally walk off the Metro station and see that it's called the Navy Yard Ballpark Metro stop. And then two, it sells better when you try to get out of your market. It's shorter. The stuff the marketers told me, it's shorter, it's easier to remember, it hangs in your memory. And so it was just a way for us to kind of remind people of the really amazing things that we had here and just kind of make it easy to put it back in their memory, whether it was, I'm looking for a hotel to come visit, I want a long weekend getaway and maybe I want to do an urban experience, this is a new part of the city that I haven't tried out. We want to make it easy for them to recall it. And so we feel and we've heard that the rebrand has been successful. People love the way that it looks, the way that it's easy to remember, and they just tell us it feels right. So it's a good change for us.

Leila Batties: You've mentioned Audi [Field], [Nationals Park], the beautiful residential buildings that have emerged and restaurants. Can you just talk a little bit about how Navy Yard fits into the broader discussion about D.C. real estate and economic development in the city generally?

Emeka Moneme: Yeah, Navy Yard's quite important. So we did a study in 2023 with the Southwest BID. This is the BID that's immediately adjacent to us that takes up a portion of the D.C. waterfront. So very similar positioning within the city. And together we hold 2 percent of the landmass of D.C. and generate 10 percent of city's tax base. And so we're punching at four times our weight in terms of what we provide back to the growth of the city, and so that's a function of one, primarily all this real estate development that put my investment in the ground in the city, then two, that investment brought people who pay taxes. And generally, if you look at the demographic makeup in terms of their wage earnings, those are high-earning young people, families in those units. And so, two points on that. Navy Yard is a place where lots of young people will try the city, right? Because it's close to the baseball stadium, some place that they've been before. We have lots of young people that work on the Hill that will make this their first place they live as they walk themselves up to the U.S. Capitol for work. And then even families before they need to expand themselves, they're able to find a few townhouses in the neighborhood. And so, we're a good entry point because I think as the cities got younger over the last decade or so, this is one of those neighborhoods that attracted that young demographic and provided them the things, the entertainment, the access to work, the Metro accessibility, the bike-ability, all the things that young people are looking for, we do have them here in spades. We're also offering some of our older residents the opportunity to be able to live in these walkable neighborhoods with tons of amenities and access to transit as well. So I think that especially while parts of the city are kind of remaking themselves, like we did 15 years ago, while they're remaking ourselves, we have the opportunity to kind of fill in that really important space of being an engine of growth for the city.

Leila Batties: Just kind of looking ahead, I don't think it's a secret that development is slower in the city than it usually has been over the last decade or so. I mean, what do you see as opportunities in Navy Yard, what are you telling potential investors? You've talked about all the great resources you have in Navy Yard in terms of facilities and demographics and what have you. What do you tell investors that are looking at Navy Yard as a potential place to develop [and] engage, and what excites you the most? And just kind of as a follow-up to that, what excites you most about the opportunities in Navy Yard?

Emeka Moneme: You know, what I tell them is we're 72 percent built out, right? So we're not done growing, there's still more to come. And then if you go back in the past, what you'll see is that our growth was a function of infrastructure investment in that community. The stadia being one of that type of investment, transportation infrastructure investment being another part of it. And what I think matches up in my mind between the 72 percent built out is we still have some infrastructure projects left to develop. So South Capitol Street still needs to be rebuilt as an urban boulevard. I believe that's going to unlock a ton of development activity, lots of residential unit growth, connecting southeast and southwest, making the Capitol feel even closer to the waterfront than it does today. So I think that that is teed up, and it's going to be another kind of accelerant for growth. Two, you know this in the real estate industry, there is momentum to development where either corridors or adjacent and continuous areas develop along the way. And so I think we have these really excellent engines of growth in southeast and southwest. And the momentum is for them to get closer together and to make everything south of the freeway feel like one knit-together, walkable waterfront community. And then that leads me to the third one, which is what I'm excited about, is that D.C. is a city that sits on the water, but D.C. is not yet a waterfront city. And I think that's the exciting opportunity for the future for us, is to really fully embrace, activate the waterfront that we have here. I think of cities like Chicago with the Riverwalk, I think about your hometown San Francisco, cities that have a waterfront embrace it, engage in it, it changes the way it feels. And I that, that's what's next for us, is really making the waterfront not just a thing that's beautiful to look at, but a place for us to live in, be on, activate. And I think that's what's actually going to connect us to east of the river. So I think we're in the line to kind of lift up the rest of city, and so that's what I think is in the future for us.

Leila Batties: Thank you for the discussion, Emeka. I learned about the Navy Yard BID, including its potential to unlock further economic development in the city. Any last words before we close out this episode?

Emeka Moneme: Well, first of all, thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure to connect with you and talk about the neighborhood that I probably spend way more time than I should being in. One, lots of people come to visit Navy Yard. They come for a game, but I encourage people the best way to really know the neighborhood is to come and experience it like a resident. Come down for a Thursday for a movie on one of our parks. Come for a concert on a Friday night. Wake up for yoga at the waterfront with us. Come for our farmers market on a Saturday or come to one of our many festivals. It's really a different type of D.C. neighborhood. You will feel D.C. when you're here. It would just feel a little bit different than the monumental core that we're all used to knowing. And we still have a lot of more growing to do. The work is not done here. As I said before, only 72 percent built out. And I think some of the most exciting parts are to come. So, look forward to that future.