Parking is the KING of development

From the article "D.C. Council votes to expand tax relief for small biz," in the Washington Business Journal:

The D.C. Council also passed bills that would accelerate a number of real estate deals, including a boost for the planned Constitution Square development, in the North of Massachusetts (NoMa) area. The council passed a bill that would provide $7 million in funding to build underground parking for the project, which would enable Stonebridge Development to attract a 50,000 square-foot grocery store.

CONSTITUTION SQUARE IS IMMEDIATELY NEXT TO THE NEW YORK AVENUE METRO STATION.

After spending $120 million on creating the NY Avenue Metro Station, of which $40 million was money from DC Government (the other $80MM was split between property owners through a tax increment thing, and the federal government), the city leverages its investment in the transit system by subsidizing parking at the subway station?!

Similarly, tens of millions of dollars of city-controlled funds were "invested" in building parking facilities immediately adjacent to the Columbia Heights Metro Station at DC/USA and Tivoli Square.

See the website for the Constitution Square project, this testimony from the Office of the Chief Financial Officer about the economic impacts of the subsidies (presumably some aspects of the bill were changed afterwards), "B17-344, "Constitution Square Economic Development Act of 2007," and this Business Journal article about the sale of the property to the current ownership group, "NoMa's Constitution Square property sells for $122M."