Developers ask for Office-to-Anything eligibility change; Chinatown residents warn of displacement

A dispute over eligibility for the city's Office-to-Anything-style tax abatement surfaced when Chinatown project sponsors requested an amendment that would change program rules and potentially make their boutique hotel eligible for tax relief.

Refali Capital's Barakat Selassie and partner Stephen Roediger told the Committee the Chinatown Marriott Tribute Hotel is a shovel-ready, $75 million project that repurposes contiguous row homes and would rely on a tax abatement to close a financing gap. "We are ready to begin construction... We just need language changes to make our project eligible for the program," Roediger testified.

Developers asked the Committee to advance the Central Washington Activation Program Amendment Act of 2025, which would, among other changes discussed in testimony, remove the requirement that buildings must currently be designated as office use and allow smaller projects (under 50,000 square feet) to qualify if they expand after repositioning.

But community witnesses said the same project is displacing long-serving Chinatown businesses and that the proposed hotel would reduce ground-floor retail spaces that serve the neighborhood's residents. "They've given official orders to vacate by July 1," said a neighborhood advocate, describing storefronts recently told to leave to make room for construction.

Multiple speakers warned that tax abatements targeted to downtown office conversions can accelerate displacement of neighborhood-serving retail unless the Committee and agencies build strong protections and community benefits into any program expansion. Critics also pressed for clear assurances that any conversion incentives would preserve affordable ground-floor spaces and not preempt tenant protections.

Committee staff acknowledged the competing claims and asked developers and agency staff for documentation and written follow-up, with the goal of reconciling eligibility questions and neighborhood impacts before any statutory changes are adopted.