I now have a copy of the term sheet for the proposed Washington Commanders stadium, so we can answer some of the remaining questions from yesterday’s preliminary estimate of the costs and benefits of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s plan. As you’ll recall, the total public cost stood then at around $1.5 billion, with no idea of what if anything D.C. taxpayers would get in return.
Now we have more details, and hoo boy:
- First off, the $500 million in city money for “horizontal construction, meaning roads, sidewalks, etc. around the stadium” turns out to actually mean a whole lot of other things as well: “pedestrian circulation, open space, plazas, stairs, ramps, landscaping, sidewalks, curbs, gutter, roadways, and other site improvements,” plus “foundations, slabs on grade, piles, pile caps, concrete, stairs, excavation, below grade mechanical, electrical and plumbing materials and equipment, below-grade elevators, and horizontal surfaces and finishes that are below the average site ground level” and other stuff. This is being described by the plan’s proponents as tax money going to pay for “infrastructure,” but items like “foundations” and “stairs” sound like straight-up “structure.”
- The stadium would be owned by the city, meaning Commanders owner Josh Harris would indeed get that $429 million property tax break that Geoff Propheter estimated yesterday.
- In exchange for getting development rights to the bulk of 180 acres of public land, Harris would pay all of $1 a year in rent for the next 30 years for the stadium, and for the next 28 years for the surrounding development. If we use the average price per acre in D.C. of $6.6 million, then this free land is worth close to $1 billion, even before accounting for the full property tax exemption it would receive.
- While D.C. would pay for a large chunk of the costs, it would get 0% of stadium revenues: The team would receive all “stadium operating revenues, including from naming rights, sponsorship, advertising (both interior and exterior), premium seating, ticket proceeds, merchandise, food and beverage, and parking for both NFL and non-NFL events.”
- That’s not to say that nobody in the public sphere gets anything: The mayor and D.C. council would receive the use of two free luxury suites, something that sure doesn’t smell like a quid pro quo or anything.
- Some good news: Harris would be responsible for keeping both the stadium and the garages in state-of-the-art shape, so at least D.C. wouldn’t be on the hook for those upgrades.
- Coupled with some more bad news: Parking and personal seat license sales would both be exempt from sales tax, and sales taxes on anything else sold at the stadium would get poured into an “RFK Campus Reinvestment Fund” to be used to pay off construction costs and for future “maintenance and repairs and capital expenses,” so D.C. could be on the hook for some upgrades after all.
- “The District recognizes the public value in providing spaces for women’s sports and is discussing with TeamCo whether such an opportunity can be provided for professional women’s soccer at the Project.” Cool! Who would pay for that, and would it get the same tax and rent breaks as the rest of the deal? The term sheet doesn’t say.
That all adds up to … I dunno, $2.5 billion in public subsidies? $3 billion? It would surely set a new record for the most taxpayer money poured into a single stadium in the history of the U.S. if not the known universe, in any case.
Whatever the final tally, the main takeaway is: Josh Harris gets to pay only $1 a year in rent for a huge tax-free swath of public land, while keeping all revenues from the stadium and other development he builds there, even as the district pays to build everything from parking garages to the stadium’s foundation. And the council — where Ward 3 representative Matthew Frumin has now declared himself “could be for it, could be against it,” leaving the overall body leaning slightly no but with several potential swing votes — only has until July 15 to vote it up or down in one indigestible lump, as the term sheet includes a clause declaring that if the council “materially changes” the terms, then the whole agreement is null and void. Mayor Bowser clearly wants to railroad this thing through before anyone takes a closer look — which makes sense, because on closer look this thing is a dumpster fire.
Wow, that is just about the biggest taxpayer screwjob I’ve read about in a while, and we’re living in an era of essentially hourly taxpayer screwjobs.
I recall when the Federal Government owned the land, there were restrictions on what the land could be used for. It pretty much had to be a stadium back then. Do they have similar restrictions now?
No. Per the D.C. government’s request, those restrictions were lifted under the new lease. The main remaining restrictions are 1) to protect the wetlands along the Anacostia, and 2) to require that 30% of the remaining land be parks & open space.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/4984/text
Our ballot initiative states that that land can not be used for a professional sports stadium, and instead develop affordable housing. Join the fight to stop the deal! www.homesnostadiums.org
Bowser is easily the worst big city mayor in the country.
With the deal for the Caps/Wizards renovation this is well over $3 billion gifted to team owners?
I doubt that, simply because there is just so much competition for that title.
She’s pretty bad. Been in office for a decade. Crime went up a few years ago when it was going down elsewhere. The District’s police crime lab got decertified during her tenure.
DC mayor is hamstrung by the feds, so they kinda get a pass there, but in her decade+ in office there’s not a whole lot of pluses.
Brandon Johnson in Chicago has probably the lowest approval rating, but he’s not gonna survive the next primary, so it’s hard to get too worked up about his time in office.
There’s some weird Karen Bass polling that isn’t good, but it polls LA county residents, not city. So it’s kind of a waste of time.
Eric Adams is a criminal, skipping the Dem primary. I think he’s probably going to end up losing in November.
The frustrating thing about Bowser is she’s bad but there’s really nobody on the horizon who has a shot of beating her.
Someone who knows DC real estate should provide a detailed estimate of how much the city could sell the land for if was parceled up and sold with zoning allowing for multi unit housing. Does DC still have a regulation that no building can be taller than the Washington Monument?
Even if the city paid for roads, sidewalks, sewers, and a Metro station, the difference between the costs and immediate sales price and future tax revenue would likely be huge.
IIRC, the land was zoned for a stadium (which its been for 60+ years). Re-zoning it for multi-family residential would be an entirely different process (would the federal government be involved?).
The restriction on housing wasn’t zoning, it was a lease restriction. That’s been removed now that the stadium campus has been turned over to the district by the feds.
The land hasn’t been turned over to D.C. It’s another 99-year lease, but it has a lot fewer restrictions.
Right, I meant control turned over, not ownership. But good catch.
A google map shot would indicate that its a pretty damn good spot for development. So I would think in a flat out sale it would catch a pretty penny. However, if its just a 99 year lease you can’t sell for say condos:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/RFK+Stadium/@38.8894565,-76.9746498,2105m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x89b7b781447e4419:0x42e33d0b097a39ed!8m2!3d38.8898525!4d-76.9718698!16zL20vMDJnZjM3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDQyOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
There is a condo building right across the potomac from it that is under a land lease that is expiring in another 30 years, River Place. So it isn’t impossible to sell condos under such a lease, but it is trickier of course.
> “Does DC still have a regulation that no building can be taller than the Washington Monument?”
We still have a Height Limit, yes, but buildings aren’t allowed to be anywhere near as tall as the Washington Monument.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Height_of_Buildings_Act_of_1910
The height limit is actually 20 ft higher than the neighboring street. Which is why when the Navy Yard was redeveloped 1st SE was 6 lanes wide even though it doesn’t need to be remotely that wide.
The original rule was for fire safety as that height allowed fire trucks to reach the highest floors, but has since been shoehorned into stunting the growth of the city for pointless reasons.
That type of thinking is sick. Why would I as a tax payer want to see over inflated rent prices when I cab enjoy a new stadium. It’s that type of thinking that cost Oakland it’s sports teams. This website has inspired owners of all sports to double down on public subsidies. Stop making enemies out of billionaires. Be happy that the Redskins/Commanders are moving back to D.C proper.
I assume this is just the starting offer so he can make some minor concessions to let persuadeable members of the council to save face.
The cosmic ballet goes on.
I’m assuming the women’s soccer thing is for PR as Audi Field is big enough for the Spirit and DC Power draws maybe 100 fans to the game.
No way one of those teams could draw an NFL stadium sized crowd on a weekly basis.
Man, no wonder the Bears are so envious of what everyone else gets. This is highway robbery at its finest. I mean, not even keeping the revenue from non-football events? Parking or concessions? This deal would be a steal for Harris even if DC charged him market rate for use of the stadium (say, around $750,000- $1 million per game). The $1 sham consideration on top of it all is galling.