On October 28, 2025, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted in The Washington Post:
“That project was not an easy thing to undertake to begin with,” said Yesim Sayin, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center. “Now, it became an impossibility, clearly.”
Sayin, with the D.C. Policy Center, said the developer’s challenges are legitimate. New construction has plummeted, and the impact of the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal workforce has left the city with less capital to subsidize housing projects. Developers have fled in favor ofrapidly growing cities such as Nashville and Atlanta, she added. And some city policies are unfriendly to development, including the zoning appeals process, she said.
Plus, Sayin said, limited transit and pedestrian access makes this section of New York Avenue particularly challenging. Other developers had tried and abandoned projects there before Douglas.
“To me it feels like the options aren’t housing versus warehouse,” said Sayin. “It’s warehouse or nothing.”
Read More: D.C. residents outraged after housing-retail plan flips to industrial
Additional reading: TOPA’s Promise and Pitfalls: Balancing tenant rights, affordability, and housing investment in Washington, D.C.