View 14—located at the corner of 14th St. and Florida Ave. NW—earlier this year during construction.

When I interviewed View 14 developer David Franco last week, I figured that—-whatever I ended up writing—-some commenter would eventually bring up the $5.7 million tax abatement that the project received earlier this year. (And which I already wrote about.)

Right, I was!

This morning, I posted an item about the signal receiver tower next to View 14, which will soon be dismantled as part of an agreement with Comcast. Commenter #3 quickly chimed right in with a few critical lines.

What does Franco have to say about the abatement? Here’s his explanation:

“When we originally did pro forma for this project, there were certain assumptions—-certain assumptions on what the lease rates would be, what the retail was going to be. It was very clear when the economy turned south that we were not gonna be able to make those numbers and without any assistance, we would not be able to (a)  finish the building and (b) our lenders would conceivably foreclose on the building. So the tax abatement was critical for both completing the building and allowing us to keep the building. And the last thing anyone would want is an unfinished building.”

As I blogged before, the resolution states why View 14 is particularly worthy. The developers contributed $1 million to a nearby tenants’ association that wanted to purchase their building.  The partners also gave $40,000 collectively to several local groups: The Parent Association of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Washington, The Children’s Studio School at 13th and V Street N.W., the Meridian Hill Neighborhood Association,  and the Cardozo Shaw Neighborhood Association.