Business Journal Debuts Power 250 List of Influential Leaders

If it were 2019, Josh Feldman would have pitched his clients’ property on U Street to developers building multifamily apartments. The half-acre lot at the corner of 15th and U streets NW, home to a gas station for several decades, was already zoned for a high-rise, mixed-use apartment development.

But in 2026, as investors and developers flee D.C. to markets with more job growth and more business-friendly legislatures, Feldman knew the most efficient way to sell the property was to bring it to gas station operators. And he was right — Petroleum Marketing Group bought it for $7 million, saddling the neighborhood with a concrete slab in lieu of new apartments.

It’s a trend playing out across the city: Developments even in some of the hottest D.C. neighborhoods are being abandoned, sold, scaled down or deferred as investment money dries up. Permits to build housing last year were the lowest they’d been in 15 years, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Groundbreakings across all sectors plunged 27% year over year, according to the Washington D.C. Economic Partnership’s annual development report.

In 2011, D.C. was rated No. 1 in the Urban Land Institute’s “markets to watch,” which rates cities for investment and development prospects. This year, it was ranked 49th.

Jair Lynch, a D.C. native who for decades rooted his real estate projects in the city, has drastically reduced his development projects in the District.

“In 2019, the majority of our development activity under construction was in the District,” he said. “By 2024, the total volume of our activity dropped by 80%.”

Some of the pressures are not unique to the District: Interest rates remain high, and inflation is driving up material costs. But D.C. also has a unique rap sheet that scares investors away, industry experts said. The District's high rent delinquency rate, weakened labor force, bureaucratic bottlenecks and unpredictable zoning processes make it hard for investors to see how or when they’ll make their money back.

“D.C. used to be viewed as one of the best markets in the country, and generally it floated above the fray,” said Feldman, the co-founder and managing principal of Feldman Ruel, a commercial real estate services firm. “It’s been one thing after another, and while this is an extremely resilient market, everything has a breaking point.”

Meanwhile, the city is gearing up for a new mayor who distanced herself from the business community during her primary campaign. Still, presumptive mayor Janeese Lewis George touted an ambitious housing production goal of building 72,000 new housing units within five years. But developers warn that without any meaningful policy changes, Lewis George will have a tough time reaching that objective.

In a social media post this week, Lewis George acknowledged that D.C. is “facing real economic challenges” and said she’d remove zoning rules that make it harder to build and would “address rent nonpayment while protecting tenants.” She also has a unique opportunity to make sweeping zoning changes as the city works through its latest draft of the Comprehensive Plan, a roadmap for how the city can and should develop.

Stunted Growth

The Power 250 has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

As America celebrated its semiquincentennial earlier this year, I had an idea: The Business Journal should expand our Power 100 list of influential business leaders to 250. If we were ever going to grow the list, this would be the year to do so, after all.

When we launched our Power 100 in 2012, Greater Washington was a very different place. Up to that point, we had never tried to quantify the power and influence of the region's business community. When we gathered the honorees that year, we were genuinely shocked at how many didn't know each other.

Now, more than a decade later, the region has evolved, and it's gotten harder and harder to cut off the region's power players at 100.

Although the number has grown, our mission remains the same: to highlight the names and faces of people who get things done and move the region forward in a positive way.

One thing that hasn’t changed: We only highlight business and nonprofit leaders. Elected officials are not eligible. And as always, we make all selections without considering commercial interests with the Business Journal.

We’ll be gathering our newly minted Power 250 for an opening reception later this year, and watch for expanded digital and print sections in the new year. And, thanks to our Power 250 sponsors, PwC and Bank of America, we’ll be hosting events next year involving the esteemed group.

Here’s the list, in alphabetical order.