District officials and D.C. United are scheduled to announce today a tentative plan that would result in the city’s 17-year-old professional soccer franchise finally having a stadium it can call its own. The $300 million arrangement, as reported by NBC 4 and The Washington Post, would result in a 20,000-seat stadium for United at Buzzard Point in Southwest D.C., a few blocks south of Nationals Park.
But the deal to give United an exclusive home the franchise and its fans have long desired faces several hurdles. According to what has been reported so far, D.C. would execute about $150 million in cash land swaps to acquire the nine-acre site for the stadium complex.
Two acres are owned by the development firm Akridge, which would swap its plot for one of three city buildings, most likely the Frank D. Reeves Municipal Center at 14th and U streets NW. The D.C. agencies in the Reeves Center would be relocated to the Anacostia Gateway complex on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE. Akridge would then get a plum parcel to redevelop at one of the most valuable intersections in town.
The remainder of the Buzzard Point land is owned by Pepco and the investor Mark Ein. Allen C. Lew, the city administrator who is one of several officials making today’s announcement, tells the Post deals with those owners are not yet made.
D.C. United, which would receive a 25- to 35-year lease, would put up the other $150 million to actually construct the stadium, with a a targeted opening date of 2016. The team would also get to develop land along Half Street SW with retail and hotels, along with a tax abatement worth more than $2 million in the first year.
The plan to get United out of 52-year-old RFK Stadium is still all very tentative, though. In addition to needing to finish deals with Pepco and Ein, Mayor Vince Gray must also convince the the D.C. Council to sign off on the various parts of the plan. Some members—including Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) and Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), who are also running for mayor—support building a D.C. United stadium at Buzzard Point. (Wells told DCist yesterday that he head heard city leaders had been meeting recently with team officials.)
Then there is D.C.’s history of constructing sports stadiums. It was not that long ago that the city shelled out nearly $700 million to construct Nationals Park. The United park would be built with team money, but not before the city figures out how to execute $150 million in land deals without busting through its statutory debt cap. That’s why the Reeves Center is on the table.
Representatives for Gray and Akridge did not return calls yesterday, while spokespeople for D.C. United and Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Victor Hoskins would not speak on the record. Gray, United co-owner Jason Levien, and other stakeholders are set to announce more today at 11 a.m. at Buzzard Point.
