By Wafir Salih | wsalih@alextimes.com
The prospect of a Business Improvement District in Old Town is back in the spotlight as property owners have received new ballots that are expected to determine its future. Most ballots were mailed between July 22 and July 23, with about a dozen more sent later to those who did not receive them on the initial dates. Stakeholders have 60 days from the time they received their ballots to cast their votes.
The voting period comes after City Council unanimously decided to amend the guidelines in a May 28 legislative meeting. Council voted to send out ballots to all property owners once more.
This effort, which is the third attempt to establish a BID in Old Town, began early in 2023. The deadline for responses from last year’s mailing to business owners was repeatedly extended by the city, before being scrapped by Council in favor of the current mailing, the threshold of which is perceived as being easier to meet.
The prior mailing required 60% of property owners to vote in the affirmative. With this second mailing, property owners who don’t vote will be removed from the final tally, making it easier for the Old Town Business Association, the nonprofit group spearheading this effort, to reach the 60% threshold of “yes” votes required to establish a BID.
In addition, the City of Alexandria has paid Municap, a consultant group, $100,000 to spearhead the BID initiative, a Freedom of Information Act request revealed.
Once this 60-day period ends, the city plans to have Municap tally the votes as the impartial third party that Council required. This information was confirmed by Amy Rutherford, an OTBA board member and the owner of Red Barn Mercantile and Penny Post, in an email to the Times.
Some local business owners have decried Municap’s role in promoting the BID, and have complained that the company’s contract with the city should preclude it from tallying votes since it is not a neutral third party but instead has financially benefited from the BID initiative.
Wayne Fisher, owner of Wayne Fisher’s American Design, opposes the BID and said Municap should not be the third party in charge of tallying the votes.
“They certainly can’t be counting the votes, because we’ve seen enough inconsistency here now already, where people who are listed as supporters have to be the ones who say, ‘What am I doing on that list? I don’t support this.’ And that includes building owners, as well as tenants,” Fisher said.
Fisher suggested that those pushing for a BID should manage it as a private enterprise rather than rely on taxpayer funds. He said that if roles were reversed, he would receive a different reaction from the city.
“It’s like, if I came to the City of Alexandria and said: ‘I want you to fund me $50,000 so that I can market my shop on a national level.’ They would laugh in my face. They’d laugh me out of the zipcode with the sound of Lisa Simpson,” Fisher said.
If a BID is implemented, Old Town Business, currently a volunteer business association, would transition to an organization solely dedicated to managing the BID. A board of directors for the BID would be formed and they would be voting members. A proposed list of board members is available on the OTBA website. The final board, however, will be determined by Council if the BID is approved.
It is not clear what the exact process was for selecting this proposed list of board members for the BID, nor whether or how this process might change if the proposal is enacted. The group’s website states that members would be made up of “key stakeholders” with a mix of business owners and property owners located within the BID’s boundaries. The Times reached out to the leaders of Old Town Business for this story, but interview requests were declined.
Old Town Business, along with the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership, are also listed as clients of Spotted MP, a marketing local firm, whose proprietor, Maurisa Potts, has actively promoted the BID initiative to local media outlets and on social media.
The Times spoke with several additional business owners in the area that would be affected by the BID, and they expressed a range of views on the initiative.
Ally Kirkpatrick, owner of Old Town Books, said she’s in favor of the proposal because she’s seen how other BIDs have been beneficial elsewhere across the country.
“I’m a frequent visitor to other neighborhoods that have BIDs and I’ve seen how beneficial it’s been for them,” Kirkpatrick said. “Looking at Navy Yard or Georgetown, it’s just been wonderful for them. I’m looking forward to more structure in terms of programming that we do for small businesses and things like that.”
As a former Brooklyn, New York, resident, Kirkpatrick recalled how the Dumbo neighborhood – short for District Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass – was transformed for the better because of a BID.
“It became like a hot spot and I just remember thinking at the time: ‘Wow, they took this underutilized area and really made it a destination. … If you can do that for a spot that’s less appealing than Alexandria, what could you do if you had a budget and you had an organization to really focus on an already bustling area? It can only be better,’” Kirkpatrick said.
Kirkpatrick said she wants her independent bookstore to remain in the area long-term, and that can only happen if the neighborhood is taken care of.
“I’ve always thought of Old Town Books as my goal being that it’s here in 50 years and it’s like a cornerstone of the neighborhood. And for that to be a reality, the neighborhood needs to be here and thriving in 50 years … and I think that’s what the BID’s going to do,” Kirkpatrick said.
Adam Patterson, co-owner of Mount Purrnon Cat Café said he wasn’t familiar with the details of the proposal, but that he’s open to learning about how a BID could benefit the cafe.
“It would just depend on the specifics and, you know, what it would cost everyone and what it would provide,” Patterson said.
Patterson, a former Arlington resident, said he’s seen the change the Ballston area went through after the National Landing BID was implemented, and that it made sense there.
“I think it was useful there. … I think it needed something to make it a little more walk friendly, personally,” Patterson said.
Boyd Walker, who leads the opposition group, the Anti-BID Coalition, and is a property owner who owns multiple Airbnbs in the area, released a press release stating the lack of an economic survey is a red flag.
“There has been no economic survey done on the benefits of this BID – who is to say that the ‘benefits’ will outweigh the increased taxes on small businesses? How is a BID going to benefit the many properties that are either residential, office or a service business?” the release reads.
The last push to establish a BID in Old Town failed in 2017. The AEDP, with President Stephanie Landrum, led the charge to establish that BID. An exploratory committee had recommended to then-City Manager Mark Jinks to establish a BID in Old Town. When it became clear that there was not sufficient support for the BID among Old Town business owners, the initiative was dropped by the city.
Robert Ray, owner of Cavalier Antiques, said he attended a meeting in 2017 where Landrum and other members of AEDP presented the prospect of a BID to business owners. Ray described the event as “blatantly aggressive marketing, not exploratory or thoughtful.”
Ray recalled most business owners in attendance opposing the BID and that the crowd became hostile.
“We just couldn’t see any benefit to this and saw it as an additional tax that we have to pay,” Ray said.
Ray said he understood from an economic standpoint why Council was pushing for a BID.
“It’s reasonable for them to be concerned about the decline in the value of property values for commercial purposes,” Ray said.
The Times also reached out to the owners of Chadwicks and Landini Brothers for interviews, as both restaurants are within the proposed BID’s boundaries and Chadwick’s owner, Trae Lamond, is a nominee for the proposed board of directors. However, neither responded by the Times’ print deadline.
