Conservation easements to preserve commercial use

In "Scheele’s Market Building for Sale," Georgetown Metropolitan has called our attention to the possible displacement of Scheele's Market, a neighborhood corner market in Georgetown, because the building (which has housing above) is being marketed for sale as a building fully convertible to residential use. That capability is reflected in the asking price.

Photo from Georgetown Metropolitan.

The solution, if a group is willing to buy the building, is to put a "conservation easement" on the building, reserving in perpetuity the ground floor use as commercial retail.

Conservation easements are a tax credit tool that have faced a great deal of critical evaluation by Congress (the Post ran a good series on the topic a few years ago, see "Group Ends Pitches for Home Easements" -- the article has links to the full series) because of misuse. In DC, generally, protection of facades of buildings in historic districts comes via the historic preservation laws and an easement doesn't add additional protection, therefore, ordinarily a tax credit isn't justifiable.

Preserving a commercial retail use on a ground floor building, where demand for housing in a prestigious area is great, would trigger a loss in value of the building, justifying a tax credit in return for the easement guaranteeing continuation of the retail use.