January 25, 2008
Radio One Deal Finalized
Mayor Adrian Fenty announced the signing of a deal yesterday that will bring Radio One, the largest African American radio broadcaster, back to D.C. ten years after it moved to Lanham, Maryland.
The city has agreed to put up $22 million in grants and incentives to build the new Radio One headquarters, to be called Broadcast Center One, above the Shaw-Howard University Metro stop at 7th and S Street NW. The total cost of the project, which will also include retail and affordable housing units, is estimated at $144 million. Construction is expected to break ground in April and be completed by late 2010. Radio One founder Cathy Hughes is pictured at right.
Opposition to the deal, which has been several years in the making, initially centered around the amount of city funding and objections from historic preservationists in the Shaw neighborhood. Eventually the company was able to come to agreements with the city to make the new development a source of renewal for Shaw, by providing reduced rents for small businesses, scholarships to Howard University students and help in funding the restoration of the historic Howard Theater, which is next door.
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And where is this $22 million coming from? It had better be from a "tax on businesses with gross receipts of $3 million or more." Will all the anti-stadium people be out there protesting and bitching about this? Somehow, I doubt it.
Is this going into the abandoned Wonderbread Factory* next to the metro stop?
* - a 2008 DCist Exposed winning shot of a really fascinating and random DC building.
Money comes from TIF financing and tax breaks. Hope is that it will produce revenues for the city in the future.
Money comes from TIF financing and tax breaks. Hope is that it will produce revenues for the city in the future.
No money comes from tax breaks, as the property is in the Gallery Place TIF district, meaning that any tax breaks would break previous bond covenants.
Meanwhile DCRTV is reporting that "Radio One is having difficulty raising cash" and trying to sell off it's LA station. I'm so glad we can help out by giving them $22 millon in grants.
Of course, all those new DC jobs will make it worthwhile. The people who hold them now live all the way out in Lanham; no way they're going to pick up stakes and move all the way to DC.
Agree with Mike on the low likelihood of jobs for DC residents and on the hard times Radio One is facing.
It seemed that the biggest reason for the Radio One deal was that they are the biggest black radio company that's returning to its roots, and therefore worthy of DC tax help.
I never got that argument and think the city would get more long-term benefit from attracting tech companies here, rather than a radio broadcaster.
That $22M doesn't go to Radio One, it goes to the project. Radio One is a tenant.