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DC ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MUSEUM OWNER OWES BACK TAXES, HITS DELAYS
Asbarez
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
WASHINGTON (Washington Business Journal)-The organization planning an
Armenian Genocide museum two blocks from the White House owes more
than $350,000 in back property taxes and is mired in litigation,
delaying the project by at least two years.
The Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial Inc., owner of the
long-vacant Federal American National Bank building at 14th and G
Streets NW, on Tuesday asked for, and received, a two-year extension
from the Board of Zoning Adjustments on zoning variances that it had
also received from the same panel in 2008. The bid for an opening
"before 2011," as the museum's website continues to promise, is
clearly not in the cards.
As it struggles to break ground on the 50,000-square-foot museum
complex - a memorial to 1.5 million Armenians killed in the final
days of the Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago - the nonprofit is
racking up a massive tax bill. The building, listed on the National
Register of Historic Places, has an assessed value of $8 million and
is subject to the District's vacant property tax.
The museum owes $298,819 in real estate taxes - $217,280 in 2009 and
$81,539 in 2010 - as well as $57,998 in public space taxes and $4,876
in Business Improvement District taxes, according to D.C. tax records.
The organization collected $2.76 million in grants, contributions and
interest income in 2007, but only $742,474 in 2008, according to its
Form 990 filed with the Internal Revenue Service. The museum ended
tax year 2008 with $22.4 million in net assets.
Shane Dettman, vice chairman of the city's zoning board, said the
Armenian museum has presented "substantial evidence" to justify
the extension. The issue, Dettman said, is an "inability to obtain
project financing partly because of the economic climate but also
due to some pending litigation that the applicant is tending to and
a reluctance by major financial donors to support the project while
that litigation is pending."
Rouben Adalian, the project's coordinator and director of the Armenian
National Institute, did not return calls for comment. In an affidavit
filed with the BZA, Van Krikorian, a museum trustee and chairman
of its Building and Operations Committee, wrote that the "prolonged
litigation" involves a donor who sought a return of prior contributions
with profit. That donor placed a lien on the bank building, and major
donors are "holding off until the litigation is resolved."
When, and if, the project gets going, it will have to navigate touchy
diplomatic waters given its proximity to a White House fearful of
damaging U.S.-Turkey relations.
The Turkish government in March briefly recalled its ambassador
from the District to protest a U.S. House committee vote condemning
the Armenian mass killings as genocide. President Barack Obama, who
supported a similar resolution when he served in the U.S. Senate,
has ceased using the word "genocide" in statements on the issue,
spurring condemnation from the Armenian National Committee of America.
The bank building is an example of an "elevated bank," according to
the Historic Preservation Review Board, which backed the museum's
concept design in 2008. The banking hall, unique in D.C., is raised
up to the second floor to allow retail space at the street level.
The historically-protected Neoclassical exterior is clad in limestone
with two-story arched windows opening to the banking hall. The museum
proposes to use the hall and the fourth floor as exhibition spaces
and to construct a contemporary limestone and glass addition to the
rear of the building. The addition required a zoning variance, which
the museum obtained in 2008 but was set to expire this year.
Charles Reed, chairman of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission with
jurisdiction over 14th and G Streets, said the "beautiful" bank is
a blight on the high-profile block as long as it remains vacant.
"[Adalian is] missing the income that building should be producing,"
Reed said. "You wonder what's the matter with him."
Read more: D.C.'s Armenian Genocide museum owner owes back taxes,
hits delays - Washington Business Journal
From: A. Papazian
Asbarez
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
WASHINGTON (Washington Business Journal)-The organization planning an
Armenian Genocide museum two blocks from the White House owes more
than $350,000 in back property taxes and is mired in litigation,
delaying the project by at least two years.
The Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial Inc., owner of the
long-vacant Federal American National Bank building at 14th and G
Streets NW, on Tuesday asked for, and received, a two-year extension
from the Board of Zoning Adjustments on zoning variances that it had
also received from the same panel in 2008. The bid for an opening
"before 2011," as the museum's website continues to promise, is
clearly not in the cards.
As it struggles to break ground on the 50,000-square-foot museum
complex - a memorial to 1.5 million Armenians killed in the final
days of the Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago - the nonprofit is
racking up a massive tax bill. The building, listed on the National
Register of Historic Places, has an assessed value of $8 million and
is subject to the District's vacant property tax.
The museum owes $298,819 in real estate taxes - $217,280 in 2009 and
$81,539 in 2010 - as well as $57,998 in public space taxes and $4,876
in Business Improvement District taxes, according to D.C. tax records.
The organization collected $2.76 million in grants, contributions and
interest income in 2007, but only $742,474 in 2008, according to its
Form 990 filed with the Internal Revenue Service. The museum ended
tax year 2008 with $22.4 million in net assets.
Shane Dettman, vice chairman of the city's zoning board, said the
Armenian museum has presented "substantial evidence" to justify
the extension. The issue, Dettman said, is an "inability to obtain
project financing partly because of the economic climate but also
due to some pending litigation that the applicant is tending to and
a reluctance by major financial donors to support the project while
that litigation is pending."
Rouben Adalian, the project's coordinator and director of the Armenian
National Institute, did not return calls for comment. In an affidavit
filed with the BZA, Van Krikorian, a museum trustee and chairman
of its Building and Operations Committee, wrote that the "prolonged
litigation" involves a donor who sought a return of prior contributions
with profit. That donor placed a lien on the bank building, and major
donors are "holding off until the litigation is resolved."
When, and if, the project gets going, it will have to navigate touchy
diplomatic waters given its proximity to a White House fearful of
damaging U.S.-Turkey relations.
The Turkish government in March briefly recalled its ambassador
from the District to protest a U.S. House committee vote condemning
the Armenian mass killings as genocide. President Barack Obama, who
supported a similar resolution when he served in the U.S. Senate,
has ceased using the word "genocide" in statements on the issue,
spurring condemnation from the Armenian National Committee of America.
The bank building is an example of an "elevated bank," according to
the Historic Preservation Review Board, which backed the museum's
concept design in 2008. The banking hall, unique in D.C., is raised
up to the second floor to allow retail space at the street level.
The historically-protected Neoclassical exterior is clad in limestone
with two-story arched windows opening to the banking hall. The museum
proposes to use the hall and the fourth floor as exhibition spaces
and to construct a contemporary limestone and glass addition to the
rear of the building. The addition required a zoning variance, which
the museum obtained in 2008 but was set to expire this year.
Charles Reed, chairman of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission with
jurisdiction over 14th and G Streets, said the "beautiful" bank is
a blight on the high-profile block as long as it remains vacant.
"[Adalian is] missing the income that building should be producing,"
Reed said. "You wonder what's the matter with him."
Read more: D.C.'s Armenian Genocide museum owner owes back taxes,
hits delays - Washington Business Journal
From: A. Papazian