HT to Shaw Rez for pointing this out on Redfin.
1530 9th St NW is for sale for a nice round $1 million dollars.
I occasionally listen to a podcast by an ADHD pastor of a dying California church. Recently on his podcast, he noted how dire the situation was (aging congregation, costs of operation, etc), went into some detail and said that some hard decisions had to be made. I thought of that when my aunt, a member of Shiloh Baptist, mentioned how things were there.
Shiloh’s 9th Street properties have been an albatross around their necks. Looking at some of my old photos, I came across one from 2018 advertising a concept Victory Village.
Well that didn’t work out. Going back to that podcast, in that situation the CA church had property that they ‘could’ develop themselves, but he pointed out they wouldn’t necessarily make good landlords. As a former landlady, landlording is a service that requires certain skills. Not everyone has those sets of skills. UHOP has those skills. Shiloh does not and has proven incapable over the past 30 years that I’ve been in the DC area.
Instead of leaning into what is going on in the neighborhood, Shiloh, for their own reasons, have pushed back. As a result, when the taxes become too much or too the property too burdensome scattered properties get sold. It was great when they sold properties to the National Park Service for the Carter G. Woodson house.
Shaw Rez pointed out that having the whole row of vacant properties would make a good development deal. The reasons why the church holds on to these vacant and crumbling properties would make such a deal unlikely.
Shiloh has to make some hard decisions as their congregation gets older and lives further away. Nobody likes hard decisions.