D.C. Council Approves Stadium Deal Without Reeves, But It’s Not Over Yet

• December 3, 2014

by Lark Turner

The D.C. Council unanimously approved a bill to finance construction of a $300 million stadium for the D.C. United soccer team on Tuesday.

The bill was stripped of a controversial provision that would have authorized swapping the Frank D. Reeves Center at 14th and U Streets for land at Buzzard Point. The swap significantly overvalued the Buzzard Point property and undervalued Reeves, according to a cost-benefit analysis released last month. The cost of the proposed stadium is estimated at $286.7 million, which would make it the most expensive professional soccer stadium in the U.S.

But Tuesday’s move didn’t guarantee that the stadium can move ahead. Mayor Vincent Gray, who favored the Reeves deal, didn’t advance funding for the new bill, which authorizes $62 million for the project plus appropriates another $37 million from other projects to finance the stadium, according to The Washington Post. Moving forward without Gray, Council Chairman Phil Mendelson used money proposed by the mayor in an earlier bill to finance the measure — and no one’s yet sure whether what Mendelson did is legal.

The final vote on the stadium will take place in two weeks, Washington City Paper reports.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/d.c._council_approves_stadium_deal_without_reeves_but_its_not_over_yet/9288