Wizards and Caps could be moving to Potomac Yard

[Anonymous]

Awesome! I would finally go. People in this thread must all live in Maryland. Guess what, Virginia exists too!

[Anonymous]

Yea because Chinatown is a crime infested drug den.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yea because Chinatown is a crime infested drug den.

It always has been, there was just a brief blip of development that obscured the reality.

[Anonymous]

Not surprised.
It was reported years ago that a lot of Potomac Yards was going to be redeveloped in the coming years. Despite this, new construction and refurbishment continued.

Years ago they tried to build St. James in Alexandria City. It was supported by many residents but at the last minute despite all kinds of reports from the right agency, and buy in from City officials, some environmental study or maybe it was some long ago forgotten historical situation prevented it. I would not be surprised if the same thing doesn't happen here.

[Anonymous]

The Redskins thought about that probably 25 years ago or so before Potomac Yards was developed. I can’t imagine anything of that magnitude there now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll give up my season tickets. DC is pretty central and easy to get to on the Metro. I guess I’ll be saving a lot of money.

Three or four more stops down the yellow line. Not the biggest deal. The arena will probably be a tad smaller than Cap One so that’ll help absorb the loss of folks like you who won’t want to come further south. There is a relative dearth of restaurants in PY but that would be rectified if this really happens.

Don’t forget MSE can save significant tax $$$ moving operations from DC to VA. Corporate tax rates are lower. Although Alexandria does have a BPOL tax.

This would be a boon to the tax base in Alexandria and help fund schools, the APD and the ACFD as well as provide some seed money for the affordable housing they desperately need after committing to such a large unit increase several years back.

I was opposed to moving the Skins there 30+ years ago but this seems to be a different beast entirely. I think they will build high-ish mixed use along the east side of Rt 1 and that would basically face the proposed MSE build site and shield it from Rt 1 traffic. It might also work well with the HQ2 development going on. I’m mildly intrigued, albeit skeptical.

You might consider using fewer acronyms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yea because Chinatown is a crime infested drug den.

It always has been, there was just a brief blip of development that obscured the reality.

Not like it is now. How does 200+ cars get broken into on an event night. Crazy town.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Redskins thought about that probably 25 years ago or so before Potomac Yards was developed. I can’t imagine anything of that magnitude there now.

The city has wanted to get rid of the target strip mall for years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not surprised.
It was reported years ago that a lot of Potomac Yards was going to be redeveloped in the coming years. Despite this, new construction and refurbishment continued.

Years ago they tried to build St. James in Alexandria City. It was supported by many residents but at the last minute despite all kinds of reports from the right agency, and buy in from City officials, some environmental study or maybe it was some long ago forgotten historical situation prevented it. I would not be surprised if the same thing doesn't happen here.

Have you been to potomac yards recently? It has been redeveloped. It’s new office building and condos along with the Virginia tech campus

[Anonymous]

DC seriously can’t afford to lose all those events. They have plenty of tax revenue and congressional outlays to be realistic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC seriously can’t afford to lose all those events. They have plenty of tax revenue and congressional outlays to be realistic

With two serious bidders, the winner is not going to get much out of it financially.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not surprised.
It was reported years ago that a lot of Potomac Yards was going to be redeveloped in the coming years. Despite this, new construction and refurbishment continued.

Years ago they tried to build St. James in Alexandria City. It was supported by many residents but at the last minute despite all kinds of reports from the right agency, and buy in from City officials, some environmental study or maybe it was some long ago forgotten historical situation prevented it. I would not be surprised if the same thing doesn't happen here.

All of the land comprising Potomac Yard used to be a rail switching station and rail yard, so the ground was contaminated from trail chemicals, etc. Developers had to significantly remediate that land, including taking the dirt and burning it in an incinerator. I worked on the deal to turn the prior soccer fields and airport car rental lots into the residential park of Potomac Yards.

The part for this project would include all of PY shopping center, the strip mall.

[Anonymous]

I don’t understand what is in this for Alexandria. Arenas never yield the economic benefits they promise, and Potomac Yard isn’t some blighted area in need of recovery.

So Alexandria gets 100 nights a year of traffic disaster and pays higher taxes for the privilege? Unless Virginia can force them to do that, why would they want to?

[Anonymous]

If Leonsis was smart he would split the teams.

Ask Baltimore to build an arena for one and Dc area to build another for the other. I would say bring back the Baltimore bullets and have the caps in DC. That way he gets 2 arenas with the surrounding amenities.

[Anonymous]

Leonsis and Younkin go way back.