The District risks untold tax revenues, an escalating construction budget and legal damages if it doesn’t produce 1,225 parking spaces at the new ballpark by Opening Day 2008, the city’s chief financial officer said Tuesday, and D.C. officials said the ultimate cost could be as high as $80 million.
Despite its obvious benefits for future “separate development,” Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi said the time for costly underground parking at the Southeast ballpark has passed. The D.C. Council, he wrote in a letter to Chair Linda Cropp, must not delay any longer in deciding how it will assemble the spaces required under the city’s agreement with Major League Baseball.
“We are at a point where two below-ground-parking options that would have supported Separate Development are no longer feasible,” he wrote, going on to recommend either above-ground garages or surface parking.
Gandhi did not offer an estimate as to the costs of late parking delivery, though senior officials say privately the CFO is thinking upward of $80 million.
By delaying, Gandhi wrote, the District would lose anticipated tax revenues, reducing the money available to repay the ballpark construction bonds. Lingering also could result in an increase of the construction costs, he wrote, and the Nationals’ ownership would have justification to seek contractual damages.
The loss would be substantial, “anticipated baseball-related taxes will be significantly reduced, and payments due from the Team will be significantly reduced, while the financial obligations of the District could substantially increase,” Gandhi wrote.
Most city leaders back underground parking, or one of several combination proposals that make room for residential and retail ballpark development. But anything priced more than $25 million would bust the $611 million stadium construction cap and require legislative action — a move the council has been unwilling to make.
The stadium agreement provides the Nationals no more than $2.5 million if parking isn’t available as required in March 2008, Council Member David Catania said during a recent council meeting. It’s worth the penalty, he said, to wait a year and do it “thoughtful and circumspect.”
“I need us to stop this chocolate-factory mentality,” Catania said, “that if we don’t hurry up and jump to their tune, the sky will fall.”
Viable parking options
» $25 million for off-site surface parking
» $36 million for standalone above-ground garages
» $56 million for above-ground garages reinforced for development
