The beleaguered Pakistan Embassy building in Washington D.C. is back in the news again—this time over a mysterious “blighted property” notice, which disappeared less than 48 hours after it was put up. This is the very same building on R Street NW that the embassy has been attempting to offload since last year.
The notice first appeared on Friday— it was pasted on the front door, but by Sunday it had vanished. While investigating this mystery, the Pakistan national daily Dawn reported that it had contacted officials at the embassy in Pakistan. But the response the paper got was “since we never saw the notice, we cannot say when or why it was removed”.
According to a Geo News report, the status of the historic building, which once housed the defence section of the country’s embassy, had been downgraded by D.C. authorities because of its deteriorating condition.
The notice stated that the Building Enforcement Unit of the Department of Buildings (BOD), Washington “has inspected your property and deemed it to be blighted”. As per the rules, the embassy has to “complete and submit a blighted building response form, within 30 days”. Failure to do so will mean that property will be reclassified. The notice also warned that a fine of $500 would be levied if the notice was taken down, and asked for a response within 30 days.
No confirmation on the issue has been put out by the Pakistani Embassy.
The blighted property notice will reduce the value of the building, and hinder Pakistan Embassy’s chances of offloading it at a good price. In December last year, an Indian realtor and a Jewish group were among the three bidders.
The Jewish group, which wants to convert it into a synagogue, offered the highest bid at $6.8 million, followed by an Indian realtor at $5million. The third offer was from a Pakistani realtor for $4 million. There are concerns that the blighted property notice will further reduce the value of the massive property.
The bidding process was later canceled by the Pakistani authorities, after getting the backlash from a section of Pakistanis. The building has remained unoccupied for over a decade, and its diplomatic status was removed in 2018, which made the Pakistani embassy liable to pay taxes to the local government.
Badly maintained and blighted properties owned in DC, especially in the area where the building is located, are proving to be a bane for local authorities. And many are owned by foreign countries. Dawn in its report noted that in 2008, such properties included a building owned by the United Arab Emirates and a “hip-high grass and missing front door knob of a building owned by the Pakistani government”.
When a building is classified as vacant or blighted, its owners have to pay a higher property tax. And Pakistan, which has to pay off a debt of $ 77.5 billion to external creditors, can ill afford another bill.
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had made promises to curb the debt while blaming his predecessors for throwing the country into the crisis.”