Trader Joe’s in Foggy Bottom. Photo by Jess J.

You know times are really troubled when even a public-private partnership dedicated to drawing businesses to the District is threatening to shut down due to a cut in support from the D.C. government.

The Washington Business Journal’s Mike Neibauer reports that Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) fired off a letter last week to Mayor Vince Gray and other senior officials warning that without $1.2 million in city assistance, the Washington, D.C. Economic Partnership would be forced to cease operations.

The organization is a public-private partnership which was created by Evans and former mayor Anthony Williams to better attract retailers, supermarkets and other businesses to the District and help existing businesses better navigate the city’s dense bureaucracy. The partnership spearheads the District’s presence at the annual International Conference of Shopping Centers, where D.C. officials regularly sell the city to national retailers.

According to Evans, the partnership has helped attract Walgreens, Safeway, Harris Teeter, North Face, Carmines, Godiva, CB2, Marshall’s, Sears, Best Buy, ACE, Trader Joe’s and others to the District. But without the $1.2 million from the city, the partnership will shut down on October 1. (The full letter is below.)

Gray administration officials have said that like everyone else — the Martin Luther King, Kr. Memorial Library, for one — the partnership will have to do more with less. They’ve also said that they’re willing to take on some of the partnership’s responsibilities.

2011-09-15 VG Re Economic Partnership