Office buildings dominate DC’s Downtown. However, the shift in office habits prompted by the coronavirus pandemic has caused Downtown to be emptier than it was previously. The corresponding decline in the value of office buildings downtown also has affected the economic engine the downtown once was. As a result, much attention is being given to revitalizing downtown DC.
In the 2017 Zoning Rewrite, the Office of Planning and the Zoning Commission tripled the size of the area zoned as downtown, extending it up into the area north of Massachusetts Avenue (NoMa), down into Southeast and Southwest and across the Anacostia River up to St. Elizabeth’s. This has resulted in a flurry of development in the new areas and the traditional downtown has experienced significant vacancy rates due to overdevelopment of new office space and the Covid pandemic that has led to more working from home. A Downtown Action Plan and significant investment by the city government is seeking to redevelop the “old” downtown with a much larger residential population and more varied occupants of commercial/mixed use space (e.g., educational institutions, arts groups, tech companies, etc.).