The dilapidated Pakistan Embassy building in Washington, D.C., became more puzzling when a notice detailing its poor condition was removed from its front door a few days after being posted.
The Pakistan Embassy in Washington could not provide any information about the notice’s removal, as they were unaware of it.
The Building Enforcement Unit of the Washington Department of Buildings (BOD) had posted a “Blighted Property” notice on the building, deeming it blighted.
The notice requested that the property’s owners, the Pakistan Embassy, submit a blighted building response form within 30 days to avoid having the property designated as blighted and reclassified. Reclassification would lower the building’s market value and increase its taxes based on assessed value. The notice also warned that unauthorized removal of the notice could result in a $500 fine.
Read: Pakistan decides to sell former embassy building in US
The building, which used to be a chancery, has been on sale for the past few months but has received bids considerably below the average price in the area. Pakistani authorities canceled the bidding process due to pressure from the Pakistani-American community. Community members claimed they were willing to offer more than $6.8 million for the property in the heart of the city. Prior media reports estimated the building’s pre-auction ‘as is’ value to be $4.5 million.
The building has been vacant for over a decade, and its diplomatic status was revoked in 2018, making it subject to local taxes.
In 2008, a Washington Post report highlighted the poor condition of this building and others owned by foreign governments. In 2017, the U.S. State Department stated that it was prepared to “aggressively engage” with foreign countries with abandoned properties in Washington, D.C. and that diplomatic protections had been removed from properties belonging to Pakistan and Argentina, among others
