Good Hope Marketplace, Washington, D.C. Good Hope Marketplace, a retail shopping center anchored by a Safeway supermarket, is located in the Hillcrest neighborhood of Washington D.C. A local CDC, the Anacostia Economic Development Corporation (AEDC), owns and operates the development, which covers eight acres and includes approximately 90,000 square feet of retail space. In 2003, after six years of operating the shopping center, the CDC plans to make ten percent of the project's stock available for purchase by neighborhood residents.
The idea for the development originated in 1994 when Safeway acquired an option to purchase a large, vacant site in the Hillcrest neighborhood and Anacostia EDC initiated a dialogue with the supermarket chain regarding the site's future. The parties negotiated an agreement whereby Safeway would develop the site and secure tenants and the CDC would purchase the development once it was complete. The agreement included a provision giving the CDC veto power over leasing decisions while Safeway still owned the site. In 1997, Anacostia EDC secured financing of some $13 million from diverse sources and acquired the shopping center.
The total area served by the CDC, which includes the Hillcrest neighborhood and several others, is home to about 120,000 people. Most are low-income renters, although homeownership is increasing. Ninety percent of residents are African American. While the years of disinvestment have caused residents to suffer from a lack of retail services, both commercial and residential interest in the area are rising. A number of new homes have been built and sold and a CDC-planned landscape/streetscape improvement program is being financed.
"One of our key goals with Good Home Marketplace has been to keep the profits from ownership in the community" -Albert "Butch" Hopkins
Good Hope Marketplace delivers essential retail services to area residents. With a grocery store, two banks, a dry cleaner and discount shoe store, a video store, clothing store, and US post office—residents are finding that the retail center offers services they need within their neighborhood for the first time in decades. As of 2001, Good Hope—fully occupied and turning a profit—is enhanced by the patronage of community residents, as well as commuters who cross the neighborhood on their way to and from work.
The CDC aims to offer stock to area residents in 2003. It has established the Anacostia Community Investment Corporation (ACIC), which currently owns 0.1% of Good Hope Marketplace. ACIC will acquire a total of 10 percent of the shopping center stock to sell to residents. The resident stockholders will elect a board of directors to run the company. Once the board has formed, the CDC will offer ACIC appropriate training and administrative support.
Albert "Butch" Hopkins, CDC President, projects a share price of $25-50 per share. The exact figure will depend on the cost of preparing the stock offering and will reflect the base value of the stock from when the shopping center was acquired in 1997. According to Hopkins, the important thing is "to give residents a stake in the shopping center, so they can reap some of the rewards of the development."
