 On December 17, Mayor Muriel Bowser, Deputy Mayor Brian Kenner and Councilmember Charles Allen kicked off the second phase of construction at 555 E Street, SW, delivering additional senior affordable housing, a hotel, and retail space near the Southwest Waterfront neighborhood in Ward 6. In 2015, the Mayor cut the ribbon on the first phase of the project just one block away at 400 E Street, SW, another mixed-used development that included Engine Company 13 and the Hyatt Place hotel.
“We are proud to be a city that as we grow and prosper, we’re also staying very focused on how we look out for our seniors and ensure they have access to high-quality, affordable housing options,” said Mayor Bowser. “Going into the next four years, we will continue working to ensure neighborhoods across all eight wards of the District have access to the types of housing, amenities, and jobs that make Washington, DC such an attractive place to live and work.”
The new mixed-use development, which will consist of two towers atop 10,000 square feet of ground floor retail space and underground parking, is considered the District’s first mixed-age and mixed-income building. The first tower will have 194 residential apartments, including 136 market rate multifamily rental units and 58 units of deeply affordable housing for seniors ages 62 and older. The second tower will be the city’s first citizenM hotel, a European boutique hotel brand known for offering luxury experiences at affordable prices.
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 Mayor Muriel Bowser, Deputy Mayor Brian Kenner, Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, developers, and community members officially start construction on 555 E Street, SW
 On December 1, Deputy Mayor Brian Kenner participated in the groundbreaking for City Ridge, Roadside’s redevelopment of the former Fannie Mae headquarters site in Ward 3.
"Under Mayor Bowser’s leadership, we are laser focused on ensuring each development creates benefits our residents want. While this isn’t a city development, we know our residents wanted the Wegmans," said Deputy Mayor Kenner. "And housing is equally important. With the news of Amazon coming to the region, it’s critical that we are providing housing at all levels of income."
Roadside Development is transforming Fannie Mae’s former headquarters at 3900 Wisconsin Avenue into an “urban village” branded City Ridge. Along with its joint venture partner North America Sekisui House, the 10-acre site will include 700 residential units, 150 hotel rooms, 68,000 square feet of office space and 200,000 square feet of retail space.
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 On December 4, DMPED's Real Estate Director, Sarosh Olpadwala, gave opening remarks at the official opening ceremony for the Moxy DC hotel by Marriott downtown. With an emphasis on the young and the young at heart, the new Moxy DC boldly reinvents the lifestyle hotel industry in the nation's capital.
“The hospitality industry is one of D.C.’s strongest sectors, with tourism supporting more than 75,000 local jobs and more than $7.5 billion in spending," said Sarosh Olpadwala. "And with this project, we are continuing to meet our city’s hospitality needs."
We know more people are visiting DC than ever before…and when they come here, we have more to offer than ever before. We are a city that has something for everyone – from world-class museums to sports and theater to internationally-acclaimed restaurants and music. And for eight consecutive years, we’ve seen record breaking growth in tourism to our city.
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 On December 5, Deputy Mayor Brian Kenner gave remarks at Washington DC Economic Partnership’s 18th Annual Meeting and Economic Showcase centered on “Connecting Communities”, a WDCEP campaign to celebrate economic impact in the nation’s capital and how the effects of economic development across the city can create and enhance opportunities for businesses, entrepreneurs and residents to impact the city in neighborhoods.The event featured Ted Leonsis, Monumental Sports CEO, as the keynote speaker.
"We have so much talent in DC and our major driver is to keep the talent here. We want every student in DC, especially in Ward 8 to have the opportunity to go to college and then come back to the District to work and continue to build our community," said Ted Leonsis.
The Annual Meeting + ECON Showcase was an opportunity to learn about D.C.’s 2018 achievements and gain insight on the city’s vision for the future led annually by leaders, visionaries and stakeholders in Washington, D.C.’s economic industries, from retail, restaurant, tech – and beyond. DC businesses demonstrated their products and services for all attendees to see and learn. It was a great time connecting with DC entrepreneurs, makers & creatives, start-ups, and many more professions — who all make an impact on the DC region.
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 On December 12, Deputy Mayor Kenner gave remarks at the 1776 Demo Day, the culminating event for its Accelerator Fall 2018 program. For 12 weeks, 10 startups different industries, backgrounds, and experiences worked together to further build and grow their companies to become investor-ready.
Demo Day gave a first-hand look at some of the more promising startups in the DC ecosystem.
"DC government was one of the first to invest in 1776," said Deputy Mayor Brian Kenner. "We saw the promise to strengthen our tech ecosystem by creating a network for entrepreneurs to collaborate and advance innovative ideas."
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 Deputy Mayor giving remarks at 1776’s Demo Day, a pitch event for the 10 startups participating in the incubator’s accelerator program.
 On December 11, DMPED’s Business Development and Strategy Director Karima Woods gave remarks at Comcast’s fiber network expansion announcement. The expansion of Comcast’s best-in-class services contributes to The District’s attractiveness to new and existing businesses.
The DC Hyperbuild launch event included a Meet and Greet with Olympic gold medalist, Scott Hamilton.
"Because of your 27 million dollar investment towards the expansion of the Comcast’s fiber optic network in Downtown DC, businesses can now more than ever, feel confident that The District is a city that can not only facilitate the wonderful and innovative work they’re doing, but a city that continues to elevate to meet the rising standards of tech hubs around the world," said Karima Woods.
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 On December 18, Deputy Mayor Kenner and Deputy Mayor for Education Paul Kihn sat down with representatives from Howard University, Trinity Washington University, University of the District of Columbia, Gallaudet University, American University, Georgetown University and George Washington University to discuss collaboration and creating career pathways for District residents to Amazon.
"Amazon’s move to Crystal City presents a chance to create new opportunities for education, career pathways and innovation," said Deputy Mayor Brian Kenner. “I look forward to partnering with our Deputy Mayor for Education and the universities leaders in our city to develop strategies for connecting our residents to these amazing opportunities.
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On December 20, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the first major investment in preserving affordable housing for District residents from her newly-created, public-private Preservation Fund. LISC-DC, one of two District-approved managers of disbursements, will draw $11 million from the $40 million fund to assist with acquisition and predevelopment financing, preserving over 80 units of affordable housing in amenity-rich neighborhoods in Wards 1 and 4.
Preservation Fund dollars are helping tenants who invoked their rights under the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) to acquire three poorly-maintained properties with the goal of renovating them into safe and affordable housing.
“A lot of the residents in the building are single mothers, I also am a single mother. So I just kept telling people, ‘Don’t be scared. We can do this.’ I will be the president. But we will have to be united and not be scared.’ And we were able to do it. We have the building now,” said Maria Alvarez, a resident who was featured in a WUSA 9 article about the preservation fund.
“Just as the creation of affordable housing is critical to the future of our city, so is the preservation of existing units,” said Mayor Bowser. “That is why our Preservation Fund is pivotal in helping us retain affordable housing across the District, allowing us to move preservation projects along more quickly and leverage private investments in order to maximize our resources and reach more Washingtonians.”
Mayor Bowser provided $10 million in seed money, which in combination with other private and philanthropic investments has grown the fund to approximately $40 million. These monies will help quickly provide short-term bridge acquisition and predevelopment financing to eligible borrowers. LISC-DC and Capital Impact Partners (CIP) are the fund managers and LISC-DC closed on the three projects announced in December; in early 2019, CIP is expected to close on nearly $20 million in financing for three properties representing over 850 units in Ward 8.
The properties receiving $10.7 million in Preservation Fund monies from LISC-DC are as follows:
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1460 Euclid Street NW. Over $1.7 million in acquisition financing to Jubilee Housing for the purchase of a 30-unit building in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Ward 1.
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410 Cedar Street NW. Joseph Development, Inc. (JDI) is receiving $5.70 million in acquisition and predevelopment financing for a 30-unit, three-building apartment complex — consisting of large one and two bedrooms — in the Takoma neighborhood of Ward 4.
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5912 14th Street NW. The 5912 Missouri Tenants Association is receiving $3.38 million in acquisition financing for their 22-unit building in the Brightwood Park neighborhood of Ward 4.
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