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After last month’s shocking announcement that D.C.’s NHL and NBA teams are set to leave Capital One Arena for Northern Virginia, the city is launching an effort to revitalize the blocks immediately surrounding the 26-year-old sports complex
Mayor Muriel Bowser, at a Monday afternoon press conference held at Chinatown‘s Shakespeare Theater Co. in the shadow of posters advertising Capitals hockey games, announced a new task force to recommend ways to reposition the arena property and the surrounding blocks.
The Chinatown-Gallery Place area has been hit especially hard by rising vacancy, increased crime and diminished foot traffic in the years following the onset of the pandemic. But the task force appears to be a direct response to Monumental Sports & Entertainment‘s plans to relocate the Capitals and Wizards – yet another gut punch in a slew of hardships for the neighborhood.
“This is about how old uses become new spaces, and we know we’ve done it before,” Bowser said.
Bowser first alluded to the task force at her press conference in December, just hours after Monumental’s announcement that it intends to move the teams to Virginia’s Potomac Yard. But she officially released the names of the committee and gave initial details about its plans on Monday.
The task force will be co-chaired by Edens CEO Jodie McLean and Uplands Real Estate principal Deborah Ratner Salzberg, previously head of Forest City Washington. They will work in conjunction with Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Nina Albert.
“I know we will actually bring the right vision, we will get the right support, guarantee the right investments,” McLean said at the event. “We can unlock a greater set of uses that will only continue to strengthen this neighborhood for years to come.”
