D.C. plots a future beyond federal jobs
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Deputy Mayor Nina Albert is interviewed by Axios D.C. reporter Cuneyt Dil at the What's Next D.C. Local Reception. Photo: Gabriel Espinal for Axios
D.C.'s leaders are thinking about how to grow the city if federal jobs ship out over President Trump's next four years.
Why it matters: D.C. wants to repurpose federal buildings that may be offloaded to create new neighborhoods, lean on sports and entertainment for the economy, and identify emerging sectors to replace federal jobs, transit and planning officials said at this week's Axios What's Next DC event.
"We gotta be eyes wide open," Metro general manager Randy Clarke said in an interview at the summit.
- Federal job cuts could throw a wrench in getting Metrorail ridership back on par with pre-pandemic levels. "There is a regional conversation about if all of these federal agencies left D.C., we're going to have a different region," he said.
Zoom in: Nina Albert, D.C.'s deputy mayor in charge of economic development, said the city is looking closely at the Trump administration's proposal to offload a cluster of federal buildings in Southwest.
- "We'd be talking about redeveloping everything basically between Independence Avenue down to I-395," she said in an interview. "Can you imagine walking out of your door and going to the Air and Space Museum to have breakfast at their cafe? And then at the end of the day, you go to the Wharf, all in walking distance."
- It could take a decade-plus to build that out, but she compared it to how the city partnered with the feds to redevelop Navy Yard over the last two decades.
Meanwhile, Trump could derail D.C.'s plan to free up the square block of land near the FBI headquarters, which was poised to move to Greenbelt, Maryland.
- Trump wants it to stay downtown.
- Albert said the city is open to the current site or another Metro-accessible location.
Due to federal job cuts, D.C.'s chief financial officer recently said the city is expected to enter a "mild recession" in the next fiscal year, before economic conditions improve again.
- Albert said it would take "the next three to four years" to "figure out how to get back up and out."
What's next: Albert's staff is in talks with the Washington Commanders to build a new football stadium and mixed-use development at the RFK site.
- Mayor Muriel Bowser's budget proposal is expected to come out next week. It will likely include details about the proposed redevelopment, which Bowser's administration hopes will contribute to economic growth.
Stadiums and concert arenas are "almost recession-proof" — in that "they'll continue to produce stadium ticket taxes, sales taxes, hotel tax," Albert said, adding: "That's why we believe in a sports investment."