With Monumental Sports & Entertainment announcing plans to bring the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals to Potomac Yard, many Alexandria, Virginia, residents still have questions they want to answered about how the new arena and surrounding complex will affect them.
Their chief concerns are funding and transportation.
“I don’t think this is a done deal,” Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker said in a virtual town hall with the Del Ray Citizens Association Monday night. “It still has to go through General Assembly; it still has to go through city council votes.”
She even told the virtual crowd that if she had to vote today, she would vote no for the creation of the sports and entertainment authority.
The funding for the project is a primary worry of many residents that attended the town hall, according to Del Ray Citizens Association President Katie Waynick.
Alexandria Economic Development Partnership President and CEO Stephanie Landrum said the funding of the deal was “a complicated deal structure” and “the first really of its kind.”
The Virginia General Assembly would first need to approve the creation of a sports authority that could apply for two separate tax-exempt bonds for the project.
“Fifty-three percent of it would be funded through what’s called a project revenue bond,” said Landrum. “They would be backed by revenues generated on site — tax revenues and other revenues paid to the sports and entertainment authority.”
An additional 21% of the funding would be through lease revenue bonds that would be paid back through lease payments from Monumental to use the facilities.
Twenty-six percent would be an up-front cash contribution with Monumental taking care of just shy of $300 million.
Landrum said the only direct tax payer contribution would be $106 million from the city to pay for half of the performing arts center that would be on site — an asset that would be owned by the city — and a portion of the parking deck.
While funding dominated a large part of the hour-and-a-half conversation, other concerns came up.
“There are a number of quality of life concerns that residents have raised,” state Sen. Adam Ebbin said, namely how the project will affect transportation and traffic.
The new arena would sit off Potomac Avenue, next door to Metro’s newest station, Potomac Yard, and a block from U.S. Route 1.
“This project doesn’t work without the metro. And so I’m wanting to see a commitment from the state for how that will be funded,” said Bennett-Parker about Metro’s recent budget shortfalls.
The state has hired Kimley-Horn, an engineering and design consulting firm, to do a preliminary on-site analysis of the transportation needs.
Ebbin said the firm’s report is due this month.
“We flagged around $200 million worth of potential projects that would be needed to help move people through this district,” Landrum said, though the final amount could vary.
A preliminary list of improvements shared included large-scale regional improvements of interstates 395 and 495 and project, which would prevent cut-through traffic on neighborhood roads.
There are also “some bigger ideas like adding a water taxi connectivity, perhaps on Four Mile Run, thinking through how to best connect VRE, and Amtrak to our Metro system,” Landrum said.
“Transportation is probably the No. 1 quality of life concern that I’ve heard about from the residents (who) have written to me, and it will be really key to me and making my final decision,” Ebbin said.
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