A report done by the George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis says that the Monumental Sports & Entertainment campus proposed for Alexandria would ‘create more than 5400 workforce-affordable housing units between 2027 and 2036, far exceeding the city's goals.’
It was a study that project developer JBG Smith requested, and it’s likely that MS&E loves what it shows, especially given the amount of jobs the project would create or re-locate.
So does that maybe make you feel any better about the move?
“We talk about affordable housing all the time, and you and I gripe about how everyone jokes how in DC, they want more affordable housing and then a condo pops up nobody can afford,” Grant said, “but at least the study suggests that this will create more affordable housing in that area of Alexandria.”
“Certainly the idea there, right? We’re now in, I don't want to say the stalemate phase, but it’s the politics phase where everybody's gonna try to get their benefit out of it,” Danny replied. “Virginia seems pretty pot committed, or at least the key people are, as does Ted Leonsis, and I know that the DC Mayor and company are trying to find a way to keep the teams, so it is complicated – but I think the question I wonder now is, we’re two months past the initial announcement, so where are people now? I think the initial shock and anger and irritation, I don't wanna say it's worn off, but to me, I feel like Monumental is not highlighting the right stuff.”
So, is Danny still not feeling it, even as he thinks it will eventually happen?
“Their PR message to me is ringing hollow, falling on deaf ears and frankly irritating people,” Danny said. “When they post one of these things on their Twitter accounts or whatever, they're turning the replies off because it just doesn't sound right.”
“Well, in fairness, when you're moving out of DC into Virginia, the replies are not going to be good,” GP replied. “I don't care what their strategy was – if their strategy was, ‘we're going to recruit LeBron James and Connor McDavid, and they both said they'll come to DC with our new arena,’ everyone's going to be angry, or at least the commenters.”
Fair, but…
“Ted Leonsis says he’s not abandoning DC repeatedly…uh, kind of! So I wouldn't focus on that part,” Danny said. “To me, I’d say our facilities are inadequate, and we have to go to four different places to practice, to train, to lift weights, to do whatever. I'm going to build a thing where my basketball players can go practice and then get a nutritious meal, then walk over to the arena to get treatment. We're going to build a complex that's state of the art! That to me is the selling point.”
And then, Danny, in the way only he can, mixed comedy and tragedy to hit the point.
“Are you tired of never having the Wizards win ever? Are you exhausted by that? Let us try to do something to change it and try to have the first 50-win team in decades,” he said. “In addition to having competent basketball people in charge, we're going to try to have first in class facilities for the first time. Let’s do that instead of having to go to Ballston and reserve ice rink time there, because the Mighty Mites or figure skating is going in there; we're going to have our own situation for the Capitals right there on campus. We're trying to build something to compete in a competitive business. I would emphasize that a lot less than, ‘no, totally, we still love DC man,’ because that ship has sailed to me.”
Take a listen to G&D’s entire discussion above, which includes GP playing some clips of MSE leaders and executives discussing the project!