Thursday, February 14, 2008

Clark Realty Wins Poplar Point !

The Washington Business Journal reports that Clark Realty Capital has won the competition to develop Poplar Point. Mayor Fenty will formally announce the winner in Anacostia later today.

According to the article, a soccer stadium is still very much part of the discussions, although they are not releasing any further details. This is a very exciting day. Why? Potential for a deck built over 295 (woot!) and a soccer stadium bringing thousands of fans to our fair neighborhood (woot woot!) and finally the first steps toward a revived south / east of the Anacostia waterfront!



- - -

The Washington Post reports more about the soccer stadium:
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty has proposed using public funds to build a professional soccer stadium in Southeast Washington that would cost as much as $190 million, a drastic departure from his stance against public financing of the Nationals baseball stadium.

In a private meeting with the D.C. Council yesterday, Fenty (D) said the District has been collecting $20 million a year in excess revenue from city taxes related to the financing of the baseball stadium, according to government sources with knowledge of the meeting.

Fenty said the city could use that revenue to pay for construction bonds for a 27,000-seat soccer stadium for D.C. United, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussion was private.
Great News, for now at least.

- - -

...and more from the Examiner, which seems to point to this whole soccer stadium thing being a done deal (?!):
In a dramatic turnaround, the District of Columbia government has dropped its long-held resistance to a stadium for D.C. United and instead will announce today that it plans to contribute funds for the construction of a 27,000-seat arena at Poplar Point, the Examiner has learned.
Wow, I guess I will just have to be patient and wait for the announcement. Wish I could be there for it.

2 comments:

IMGoph said...

it's pretty damn awesome for you guys that the plan with the deck over the freeway won. if that works out, maybe someday you can get the whole freeway buried...

Douglas Andrew Willinger said...

Agreed.

That ought to happen with the existing SE Freeway, and its extension to RFK Stadium for sharing the burden, and for preventing a wall of traffic to separate neighborhoods from the waterfront as now proposed via converting the eastern SE Freeway to a boulevard.