By David Nakamura and Thomas Heath
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 28, 2005; B01
District officials are considering selling development rights on land adjacent to a baseball stadium to the Washington Nationals' new owner or development companies as a way to help cover potential cost overruns on the ballpark project, D.C. Council members said yesterday.
The proposal is part of an effort by Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) to win more support for a critical stadium lease agreement between the city and Major League Baseball. Council members have expressed concern about the rising costs of the stadium project.
Last week, Williams and council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D) delayed a council vote on the lease deal because it lacked enough support among the 13 members. Major League Baseball has threatened to take the city to arbitration if the lease is not finalized by Saturday, although Williams's aides said they believe baseball will allow the administration a few more weeks to try to resolve the deadlock.
Details of the plan to sell development rights remained sketchy because they were being worked out by Anacostia Waterfront Corp., a publicly chartered entity that Williams created last year to bring economic development along the Anacostia River.
Council members said the tentative plan is to sell the rights to develop land within the portion of the 21-acre footprint for the stadium project that will not be occupied by the ballpark itself. The structure is expected to take up 14 or 15 acres. Developers or the new team owner would probably pay tens of millions of dollars for the rights to the land, the council members said, for a chance to build a mix of shops, restaurants and office space.
"We are looking to the development community to help," council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) said.
Five of the council's 13 members have said they will probably support the lease agreement. The Williams administration is trying to figure out how to get at least two more votes, and administration officials said the key hurdle is to assure council members that the city will not get stuck paying for infrastructure and other costs that are not in the budget.
The price of the stadium project has soared from the $535 million the council approved last year to a recent estimate of $667 million by city financial officials.
Evans said that some of his colleagues remain concerned that the cost of 14 acres the city must acquire from property owners at the stadium site near South Capitol Street and the Navy Yard in Southeast Washington could rise above the $98 million the city has offered. Most of the 23 landowners have not agreed to sell, and the city invoked eminent domain in October to seize the property. If the owners continue to hold out, the ultimate price of the land will be determined in court, and the final price could increase, council members said.
Some members fear that construction crews will find significant environmental contamination at the site, which is largely industrial.
Council member Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large), who is considered a swing vote, said that Stephen Goldsmith, chairman of the board for Anacostia Waterfront Corp., is developing the plan to sell development rights to baseball or another entity to raise more money.
"What he's doing is trying to make council members feel comfortable," Brown said. But Brown added that he does not favor giving up a city asset -- land -- for the money. "I hope to talk with him about it. I hope it's not like other plans where they just force it down our throats."
Messages left yesterday for Goldsmith and Adrian G. Washington, chief executive of the waterfront corporation, were not returned.
Vince Morris, spokesman for Williams, said the administration is considering several ideas to persuade council members to support the lease deal. "We're working on several tracks. This [development rights plan] is just one of them," Morris said. He declined to elaborate.
The waterfront corporation has named four development companies to help build an entertainment district on land outside the 21-acre footprint. Those companies have promised $12 million to improve roads near the stadium. It is unclear how the development rights for excess land on the footprint would fit into the plan for the ballpark district.
"We want to be the developer of those rights," said Herbert S. Miller, head of Western Development, one of the four groups working on the ballpark district. "But that's not my decision."
