Photo by Number7Cloud.

An ice slide set up at St. Elizabeths East Gateway Pavilion didn’t bring in any money this winter, but the city says that wasn’t the point.

From January until mid-February, the ice slide at the Southeast D.C. campus was free to people under 18 with a $5 fee in place for adults. The total cost for the slide was $220,000, and 3,152 people used it. Chanda Washington, a spokesperson for the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, said in an email “no fees [were] collected from the ice slide as all of the adults riding the slide rode with their children and were not charged.”

Washington said “the purpose of the slide was not to generate revenue but rather to open the campus to the public.” Indeed, DMPED Deputy Mayor Victor Hoskins told the Washington Business Journal the slide was meant to “activate the site in the winter.”

“The Gateway Pavilion is envisioned as a destination for those who live in the community, District residents, and Coast Guard employees,” a solicitation for the project said. “Success is most critical here as the communities surrounding St. Elizabeths are among the most economically distressed in the District. Redevelopment offers the opportunity to provide amenities for local communities and the 3,700 Coast Guard employees that started to arrive in August 2013, while creating a new center for innovation which will serve to further diversify the District’s economy.

“The community winter slide will serve as a community amenity that attracts people to the St. Elizabeths campus.”

As Elevation D.C. reported, more than 700 people visited the slide over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

G8Way DC also hosts yoga and fitness classes.