The deal is still tentative because Virginia legislature needs to approve the $2 billion funding.
Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns DC’s Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin have struck a tentative deal in which the team will leave their DC home and move to a proposed entertainment district in Northern Virginia. The $2 billion district still needs approval from the state legislature but in anticipation of the funding JBG SMITH has been chosen as the master developer of the nine-million-square foot district.
It will be anchored by a new arena for the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals in the Potomac Yard section of National Landing. Along with the arena, the plans call for a global corporate headquarters for Monumental Sports & Entertainment, a Monumental Sports Network media studio, the Wizards practice facility, a performing arts venue, and an expanded esports facility. They will be situated adjacent to the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus, the recently delivered Potomac Yard-VT Metro Station, and approximately 8.1 million square feet of future development opportunities.
JBG SMITH CEO Matt Kelly called the district “a dramatic game changer” for the neighborhood.
The arena would be constructed on a currently unoccupied 12-acre site situated between the Metro entrance and the first phase of the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus. The site is owned by JBG SMITH and its joint venture partner and will be sold to a proposed Virginia Sports and Entertainment Authority. JBG SMITH will serve as developer for the corporate MSE headquarters, arena, media studio, performing arts venue, and esports facility. The planned project also calls for significant joint infrastructure investment by the Commonwealth, the City, Monumental, and JBG SMITH.
