D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams will brief council members tomorrow and Monday on the city’s efforts to cap city costs for a new stadium for the Washington Nationals and said he will not postpone a Tuesday council vote on the stadium’s lease even if he doesn’t have the support needed for its approval.
“I don’t have any intention whatsoever of pulling this,” said Williams, who must convince seven of the 13 council members.
Council members have spent most of this week reviewing changes to the lease agreement signed with Major League Baseball, including the promise of a new baseball academy and an increase in free tickets for underprivileged children.
“The bottom line is that the deal has improved for the city’s side,” said William Hall, chairman of the baseball committee for the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission. “I remain confident we have struck a deal that will get the seven votes we need.”
But council members said they are not yet convinced and are anxiously awaiting details on how officials will cap the city’s responsibility for the costs of the project. The stadium is projected to cost $667 million with the city responsible for all costs, minus $20million provided by Major League Baseball.
“I like free tickets for kids, but that’s not what moves me,” said Kwame Brown, an at-large Democrat who is considered a swing vote. “There’s been some progress made, but there are some unanswered questions.”
The city is crafting a contract with the stadium construction team to build the ballpark for a “guaranteed maximum price,” likely about $320 million. Under the arrangement, the city would provide the funds to Clark Construction, Smoot Construction and Hunt Construction, who would then control most aspects of the project. The agreement also could include a contract between the construction team and the architect, Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum of Kansas City.
Members also will be briefed tomorrow on a plan involving the Anacostia Waterfront Corp. to handle overruns of the land costs by using development on the ballpark site and will hear about efforts to persuade the federal government and private developers to pay for infrastructure and upgrades to the Navy Yard Metro station.
Some council members suggested the vote be pushed to Feb. 14 so they have more time to review the lease and other documents relating to the construction.
“Rushing the vote is the wrong thing, and there might not be a positive outcome,” Brown said. “The council can’t look at it in three days. I would hope we have this vote pushed back.”
Williams suggested the vote could be postponed only if there were technical changes needed to satisfy financial or legal requirements. City and sports commission officials said they are working to re-insert language into the lease requiring a reserve of rent needed to gain an investment grade rating on the bonds used to finance the stadium. It is unclear whether that change will trigger a delay of the vote.
City sources said the contract itself may not be completed by tomorrow but that there will be ample documentation to convince council members the deal will be in place soon.
“The question for us is, ’What level of documentation can we provide?’ ” Williams said.
Quietly, some council members have expressed skepticism that the “guaranteed price” construction contract will be rock-solid because the cost of environmental remediation of the site is still unknown.
And cost containment is not the only remaining sticking point. Some council members, including Marion Barry, Ward 8 Democrat, and Carol Schwartz, at-large Republican, have insisted the city retain all the development rights on the ballpark footprint. The revised lease agreement calls for MLB to get 42.5 percent of the development rights.
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