Abe Pollin, co-owner of the Washington Wizards, philanthropist and a pioneering force behind the revitalization of downtown D.C., died Tuesday. He was 85.
Pollin suffered from corticobasal degeneration, a brain disease similar to Parkinson’s.
A Bethesda resident and successful real estate developer, Pollin was renowned in Washington for his philanthropy, his pivotal role in D.C. professional sports and his place in the resurrection of the District’s once-abandoned Chinatown neighborhood.
“Today the District of Columbia has lost one of our greatest treasures,” Mayor Adrian Fenty said in a statement.
Pollin, with his wife, Irene, was the senior owner in the National Basketball Association, having purchased the Baltimore Bullets franchise in 1964. In 1973 he built the Capital Centre in Landover and moved the Bullets there, to be soon joined by the National Hockey League’s newest team — the Washington Capitals. He was original owner of the Washington Mystics and a majority owner of Washington Sports & Entertainment.
NBA Commissioner David Stern called Pollin the league’s “most revered member.” He fought his illness, Stern said, “with a determination and valor that will remain an inspiration to all.”
In the mid-1990s, Pollin financed construction of the $220 million MCI Center. The facility, now called the Verizon Center, emerged as the hub of the District’s Penn Quarter and Chinatown renaissance.
“I had two goals when I decided to build this building,” Pollin said, as quoted on the Verizon Center’s Web site. “The first was that if I was building in downtown Washington, the nation’s capital, it had to be the best building of its kind in the country. The second was to be the catalyst that turned the city around.”
Pollin will be remembered most for his decision to relocate the Wizards and Capitals to the “essentially deserted” downtown, said Ward 2 D.C. Councilman Jack Evans. The D.C. Council in 2008 designated the 600 block of F Street as Abe Pollin Way.
He was a philanthropic force, putting his wealth behind numerous charitable organizations, including N Street Village, the Salvation Army and the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue.
Through the I Have a Dream Foundation, he pledged to finance the college educations of 59 Seat Pleasant elementary school students. Partnering with Calvary Baptist Church, Pollin’s Abe’s Table program fed the homeless twice a week over the past decade.
“He loved making sure everybody had enough to eat,” said the Rev. Amy Butler, senior pastor at Calvary. “That was his thing. He really put all of the resources that he had to bear on that, and it was great to partner with him.”
Ben Giles contributed to this report.
