Comments on: Retail Horse’s Ass Award Nominee – Bemmi Hardware

By: Mike Oxlong

Mike Oxlong — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:00:34 +0000

That is the best thing to do. There’s no excuse for this.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:21:58 +0000

yes.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:51:25 +0000

wow. amazing. displace someone because you don’t like the way it looks or that a starbucks isn’t inside… really nice.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:49:07 +0000

you don’t know the financial situation of the owner, so don’t assume they can turn a profit.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:43:58 +0000

+1. we have no idea what the circumstances are… perhaps the owner lives upstairs and for whatever reason, the hardware store is inoperable…. just because it looks a bit downtrodden doesn’t mean it should be up for grabs…

By: orderedchaos

orderedchaos — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:24:27 +0000

Thank you for posting this list! Of particular interest are the final 11 pages of “Blighted Properties”. In some cases the vacant properties are just awaiting sale — for example, there’s one on this list that sold a few months ago, and it was just vacant during the refurb. But the blighted ones are a different story entirely.

By: Moose

Moose — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:08:46 +0000

Thanks. Appreciate the follow-up.

By: Helder Gil

Helder Gil — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:49:32 +0000

Thanks for this posting.

We will be sending out a vacant property inspector tomorrow to the property to determine whether the property is entirely vacant. Under the D.C. vacant property tax law, the entire building must be vacant in order for it to be subject to either the Class 3 or Class 4 property tax rates.

We encourage residents to let us know about vacant properties by emailing us at: vacantproperty@dc.gov

You can also see the most recent list of vacant properties here: http://1.usa.gov/rnlge3

Thanks and happy holidays!

Helder Gil
@dcra

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:44:23 +0000

If I had to guess, I’d say that the store’s occupants are elderly, have owned the building for decades, and therefore have no real motivation for maintaining regular hours.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:30:52 +0000

There’s no way you can tell if they can turn a profit! You don’t know what they paid!

The owners could be underwater. Maybe they took out loans against the property to send their kid to school, and the bank won’t negotiate a short sale. Maybe there’s joint ownership, or a divorce, or a lien holder passed away, even if they want to sell. And the legal process of finding clear title may be eating away at those profits. There could be a lot of different factors making it hard to sell.