Only eight blocks separate the artsy Sidamo cafe from the hip beer joints that have collected along the eastern edge of H Street in Northeast during the past year.

But on those blocks, a large number of shuttered storefronts appears to be choking the area’s vitality, making local business owners nervous that the neighborhood’s transformation will continue.

Some believe the problem is speculators who have bought vacant buildings and don’t want to invest capital into them until they can be flipped for a profit. But the result has been a catch-22 in which the high number of empty buildings has suppressed property values.

“The question is, what’s going to connect us and what’s going to happen?” asked Tony Tomelden, who opened The Pug bar on the eastern end of the street in February.

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Now, a task force created earlier this summer is attempting to put pressure on those speculators to either sell or develop the properties, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Alan Kimber said.

The group, composed of local economic development officials and residents from the surrounding community, sent letters to about 160 owners on Aug. 1 inquiring about their plans for the properties. It prepared another mailing on Wednesday, Kimber said.

The group’s intent is to help those owners who respond favorably with plans to either open for business or to sell, Kinder said. The group will check to be sure that speculators are paying the appropriate taxes, Kimber said.

“There’s all these vacant-property owners that aren’t being taxed at the higher rate,” Kimber said.

Joe Englert, who owns four bars along the corridor and plans to open another one featuring an indoor/outdoor miniature golf course, and Kente Bellay, who opened Sidamo in December, said they don’t think the spectators have hurt business, but they haven’t helped, either.

“I just think people are inherently greedy and traditionally misguided,” Englert said Tuesday. “[Spectators] all think they have million-dollar properties when they’re worth $250,000.”

cmabeus@dcexaminer.com