By David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 28, 2005

A plan to provide private financing for a new baseball stadium has stalled because the D.C. Council does not support any of the proposals for the $535 million project.

A $246 million offer from Deutsche Bank has failed to garner majority support on the 13-member council, members said. That has prompted Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), chairman of the council's Committee on Finance and Revenue, to cancel a markup of private financing legislation that had been scheduled for next week.

"Nothing's completely dead yet," Evans said yesterday of the search for private financing. "But right now, there's nothing to mark up."

The meeting's cancellation was first reported in this week's Washington City Paper.

Evans said he intends to confer next week with council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D), who pushed for private financing during the stadium financing debate last fall.

Cropp was out of the city yesterday and could not be reached for comment. Her spokesman, Mark F. Johnson, said that "it looks like the game might be over for private financing."

Johnson added: "The chairman, when she sought the idea of private financing, listened to the constituents, the will of what people in city thought was best. If that ends up not being the best deal, she does not want to see baseball die, so she probably won't be committed to private financing. But she put up a good fight."

Council sources said Cropp may give up the push for private financing because she fears that with no single plan gaining majority support, a council vote could open the door for legislation to move the stadium site from the Anacostia waterfront in Southeast. Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) and others want the stadium built next to Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, which would be cheaper because the city would not have to obtain land.

If no private plan is approved, the Anacostia waterfront would be funded through a combination of gross receipts tax on large businesses, a utility tax on businesses and federal buildings, an annual rent payment by the Washington Nationals and a ballpark concessions tax.

In December, after months of debate, the council narrowly approved the financing package with the condition that Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) find at least $140 million in private money.

Eight companies submitted offers, but only two were certified by Natwar M. Gandhi, the city's chief financial officer. After further analysis, Gandhi recommended the Deutsche Bank proposal.

Under that proposal, the stadium would be financed with $313 million in publicly financed bonds and the $246 million from the bank. In exchange, Deutsche would control the revenue stream from taxes on ballpark concessions.

But some mayoral advisers and council members fear the bank's plan would make the ultimate cost of the stadium project more expensive, up to $607 million. Also, the city would have to make up the difference if the concessions taxes failed to reach $18 million a year.

Gandhi endorsed the deal largely because it reduced the city's borrowing debt, but Evans said yesterday that two Wall Street bond rating agencies told him recently that the stadium bonds would not diminish the city's credit rating.

Council member Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5) said that the public financing plan approved in December has always been the cheapest way to build the stadium.

"We had the best plan in place," Orange said. "We've lost a lot of time, but sometimes you have to go through the process and let the best plan emerge."

Council member Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large) said he hoped the council would continue to examine some of the private offers that Gandhi did not certify.