For the last 20 years or more, downtown Washington has been riding a wave of prosperity.

Decades of economic decline had been reversed by massive growth. About 225,000 people visited downtown each weekday, many reporting to high-paying jobs inside new, glassy office buildings. Dozens of pricey restaurants opened, employing thousands of workers. Millions flocked each year to conferences, sporting events, musicals and museums in neighborhoods like Penn Quarter, Mt. Vernon Square and Gallery Place.

But the COVID-19 pandemic has put a stop to that.

That evidence is found in a new economic report from the Downtown D.C. Business Improvement District, a nonprofit that provides services to downtown businesses, residents and property owners inside its boundaries. (The BID spans 138 square blocks, bounded by Massachusetts Avenue to the north, Constitution Avenue to the south, Louisiana Avenue to the east and 16th Street to the west.) The report sizes up just how bad the health crisis has been for business in a part of town that, until recently, was a humming economic engine for the city.

Just 5% of office employees worked from an office in the business improvement district in July, the report says. The daytime population — including local residents and commuters — sank 90% from February levels. About half of downtown’s hotel rooms were available in July, but only 14% were booked. Downtown restaurants — several of which have closed during the pandemic, including high-end destinations Momofuku and The Source — have yielded about 20% to 40% of their 2019 sales. Brick-and-mortar has been flagging across the country for a while now, but destination stores in downtown D.C. were ringing up just 30% to 50% of their 2019 sales in July.

Arts, sports and entertainment — so central to the resurgence of downtown D.C. after the 1968 riots — have been walloped by COVID-19. More than 1,000 performances were axed at downtown venues after the pandemic reared its thorny head in March. That’s a loss of 400,000 patrons for the year, the report says — an especially devastating blow to restaurants, parking garages and Metro.

The only exception to the downward spiral was housing, where apartment vacancies have risen in downtown D.C., but luxury rents were still fairly high as of June. Class A apartments (read: new and fancy) were renting at an average of $3.37 per square foot per month in June, or about $2,700 per month for an 800 square foot apartment. That’s up from an average of $2,640 per month for similar apartments at the end of last year.

Nonetheless, downtown economic activity in July was 12% what it was in 2019, the BID estimates.

These numbers add up to a grim reality for business owners, landlords and workers in the city’s central business district — not to mention D.C.’s budget. The District may have to slash an additional $500 million from its FY 2021 budget, based on a worst-case-scenario forecast from D.C.’s chief financial officer. The possible gutting of tax revenue will likely only intensify pressure on the D.C. Council and Mayor Muriel Bowser to cut spending. That could have long-term consequences for mayoral budget priorities like affordable housing, as well as city services needed to assist residents who have lost income during the pandemic.

In 2019, downtown D.C. contributed nearly 16% of D.C.’s local gross tax revenue, with a net fiscal impact of $870 million, according to the BID’s State of Downtown 2019 report.

The new analysis notes that federal unemployment benefits and the Paycheck Protection Program were “very helpful” to workers and businesses in downtown D.C. So was the $33 million microgrant program the city created to help businesses during the crisis, and other measures like sales and hotel property tax deferments and the District’s decision to allow commercial construction to continue as the virus spread.

But even these factors won’t be enough to fill the smoking crater in downtown D.C.’s economy. Federal unemployment benefits have dried up (apart from the White House’s stopgap program, which has received chilly reviews), the Paycheck Protection Program hasn’t worked that well for restaurants, microgrant applications are closed, taxes probably won’t be forgiven and new construction is likely to slide if the local economy enters a full-on recession.

And signs of a return to normal are faint to nonexistent, the report says.

“It is very likely that the [sic] DowntownDC will continue at a low level of economic activity for the next few months—until the office worker, the business traveler, the out-of-town tourist, the conventioneer, the sports fan, the museum-goer, the theatre lover and the live music fan and other entertainment patrons return,” it says.

When could that happen? The BID doesn’t venture a guess.