Next Up: the Baseball Stadium

Theodore N. Lerner, center, and his son, Mark, left, at a news conference last week introducing the Lerners as owners of the Washington Nationals. (By Lucian Perkins -- The Washington Post)

Washington area developers shared last week in the widespread relief that the Washington Nationals finally have a new owner -- and some were doubly pleased that it's one of their own.

Lerner Enterprises of Bethesda, the privately held family business of Theodore N. Lerner, has built more than 22,000 homes and 6,000 apartments in the Washington area. Its commercial projects include the Tysons Corner and White Flint shopping centers.

Now, not only will Lerner and his family own the baseball team, but their team will be the tenant of the $611 million stadium the city is building for it near the Navy Yard in Southeast Washington.

"It's tremendously positive to have the Lerners as owners because they're excellent developers, and they'll understand that between the stadium and the development surrounding it that we can create something that's a truly integrated district," said Jonathan Cordish, a top executive at the Cordish Co. of Baltimore, one of the developers chosen to help develop land around the stadium.

The stadium is expected to be the catalyst for redeveloping dozens of acres -- which now have mostly warehouses, taxicab shops and auto-repair garages -- into a mix of residential, retail and office space.

"Just having an owner's name is positive in that we have someone who can make long-term decisions," said Adrian G. Washington, president and chief executive of the quasi-public Anacostia Waterfront Corp. "And in particular having someone with development experience and retail experience will be helpful.

"They get it," Washington said of the Lerners. "They've created projects that work, and they'll be able to say, 'You've come up with an idea that's good,' or they can say, 'Have you tried this?' The more smart people you have, the better."

Washington's organization, four developers and a New York-based consultant soon will announce their "master development" plans for the area around the stadium. Some developers said they don't expect the Lerners to have much of an impact on those plans because most of the land is already spoken for by developers with firm ideas about what to build.

But the Lerners will help decide what is built on the 21-acre footprint of the stadium itself, city officials said. They also will have a 42 percent interest in the development of some land south of the stadium.

"We haven't had the opportunity to see all the plans and discuss with the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission and the [Anacostia Waterfront Corp.] all their plans," Edward L. Cohen, principal at Lerner Enterprises and one of Ted Lerner's sons-in-law, said at a news conference last week. "We're anxious to see them and give whatever thoughts we might have on them."

"We think it's a great area," Cohen said, pointing out that his company is building a 190,000-square-foot office building at 20 M St. SE and plans another building at 1000 S. Capitol St. SE.

'On Time and on Budget'

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For the media-shy Lerners, it was a week of cameras and speeches that included a groundbreaking for the stadium on South Capitol Street SE. Now some of the attention will turn to another wealthy businessman who shuns publicity: A. James Clark, chairman and chief executive of Clark Enterprises Inc. in Bethesda.