WASHINGTON (AP) — Already struggling to keep his Chinatown bar afloat, Youssef Tellawi sensed impending doom when he learned the owner of the Washington Capitals and Wizards wanted to move the neighborhood teams to Northern Virginia.
Leaving the teams from their home at Capital One Arena, he said, “would completely shut down Chinatown,” an area already hit hard by a post-pandemic drop in the number of downtown office workers and a sharp increase in serious crime in the area.
Across the Anacostia River, another fragile Washington neighborhood fears the effects of this stadium deal — which still needs approval from the Virginia General Assembly and the city of Alexandria.
Congress Heights is one of Washington’s poorest neighborhoods and, like Chinatown, has also suffered from the current spike in crime. And it’s also pinning its economic hopes on a sports arena and the crowds it draws to games, concerts and other events.
The 8-year-old Entertainment and Sports Arena is home to the WNBA’s Washington Mystics and the NBA G-league’s Capital City Go-Go and also serves as the Wizards’ practice facility. If the deal goes through, Ted Leonsis, majority owner of all four teams, is proposing that the Mystics move from their current home to the much larger Capital One Arena after it is vacated by the Capitals and Wizards.
“We’re all tying our plans to this arena to help power the east side of the river,” said Ronald Moten, a longtime local activist and community organizer. “It would take away a lot of the trust we’ve built.”
The fate of these two vulnerable neighborhoods now hangs in the balance during what could be several more months of political wrangling. Leonsis’ announcement of a tentative agreement with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin set off a flurry of public maneuvering, lobbying and negotiations — via press conference. The deal, according to preliminary figures, will cost $2 billion, with about $1.5 billion of that coming in the form of bonds that will be repaid through a combination of tax revenue from the stadium and surrounding complex, lease payments and other sources.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration, seemingly surprised by the Virginia deal, responded with a slightly dissonant two-track strategy. She convened a high-level task force to develop plans to reimagine Chinatown in the arena’s absence. But at the same time, Bowser and the D.C. Council have been trying to put together a $500 million bid to renovate Capital One, and they’re not hoping for the Virginia deal to fall apart so quietly.
Council President Phil Mendelson recently summed up the sentiment when he said, “I wish no harm on anyone. But if the deal falls through in Virginia, we’re ready to take it.
For Tellawi, who runs Bulldog Bar around the corner from Capital One, the potential loss of the establishment is an existential threat. His most profitable nights are when the arena hosts a big concert that floods Chinatown with fans. Capitals home hockey games usually result in a moderate spike in business. And for reasons Tellawi struggles to understand, the Wizards’ home games barely make the cut.
Tellawi needs to innovate to attract crowds. He hosts stand-up comedy events three nights a week, with the first drink free, but notes that most female comedians insist on finishing before 10pm due to neighborhood safety concerns.
“We’re still fighting right now,” he said. “Maybe you could say we’re on life support.”
In Congress Heights, residents and business owners also count on its 4,200-seat arena to anchor the neighborhood and help increase the neighborhood’s wealth. Moten, the local community activist, envisions the arena creating a “new Black Wall Street” and offering opportunities for a new generation of black entrepreneurs.
A recent visit to Congress Heights revealed some signs of what Moten is hoping for. The arena, located on the sprawling campus of the former St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, still looks slightly isolated – largely surrounded by red brick former hospital buildings in various stages of construction or disrepair. But right next to the door stands the shining blond tree of Sycamore and oaka multi-level shopping center featuring an eatery, boutique grocery stores, and multiple stores, all black-owned.
For business owners at Sycamore and Oak, which opened in the summer of 2023, the arena’s foot traffic for basketball games, boxing matches and the occasional concert is already an important lifeline.
“We definitely get a rush before and after the games,” said Dante Brown, owner of Triceys DC, an Afro-Caribbean restaurant. “It’s very important. And look around, this is just the beginning of what we’re trying to do.”
For now, the threat remains remote. Bowser flatly rejected Leonsis’ offer to move the Mystics to Capital One if the Wizards and Capitals left, saying the WNBA team’s shorter schedule would leave Capital One empty too often and that she had “zero interest in an underutilized arena.” .
She notes that the Mystics have committed to playing in Congress Heights until 2037, unless the city decides to vacate them. Leonsis also has a long-term commitment to Capital One Arena through 2047, but can buy out in 2027 by paying off $35 million in outstanding bonds. Officials with Leonsis’ Monumental Sports say Capital One will thrive in the absence of any sports teams — freeing up the schedule to host artists and events seeking multi-day engagements that the arena currently can’t accommodate during basketball or the hockey season.
Moten has thrown his support in Stop Arena movement — which recently sent a busload of activists to Richmond, the state capital, to lobby lawmakers. The prospects for the legislation underlying the deal they seem uncertain as the Virginia General Assembly session approaches its scheduled end date of March 9.
If the deal makes it through the state Legislature, the last major hurdle will be a potentially heated public battle in the Alexandria City Council. Opponents cite objections to public spending and the belief that traffic to the proposed new arena would overwhelm U.S. Highway 1 without major infrastructure upgrades.
Leonsis responded with a public letter claiming that the proposed sports and entertainment complex in Alexandria’s Potomac Yard neighborhood will be “like nothing ever built in sports and entertainment.”
The letter played down any divisions between the District of Columbia and the intertwined communities of northern Virginia and southern Maryland, arguing that they were all part of the same “supercity” and would all benefit from the new venture.
Leonsis also diplomatically pointed out one of the inconvenient truths of the Chinatown problem — the fact that public safety in the area around Capital One has deteriorated badly in a way that might scare off potential customers.
“It is clear to us and to many of our neighboring businesses and residents in Chinatown that the needs of downtown Washington, DC and its businesses and residents are significant and challenging for the city,” the letter states.
Violent crime in Chinatown is up 36 percent in 2023, according to the Metropolitan Police Department — part of a surge in murders and robberies across the city. In August, months before Leonsis announced his deal with Virginia, a public meeting on Chinatown safety involves multiple residents complaining to city and police officials about deteriorating conditions and what they claim is an open-air drug market right outside the main Gallery Place subway entrance.
Michael Shankle, a member of the Chinatown Neighborhood Advisory Commission, says the idea of Chinatown’s safety getting worse is part truth, part perception. Burglaries of parked cars and storefronts have increased since the pandemic, he said, along with sometimes aggressive crooks and the smell of marijuana 24/7 outside the Gallery Place escalators.
“I think people have a sense of greater vulnerability,” Shankle said. “I don’t feel unsafe walking around, but I can see where that perception comes from.”
Tellawi of Bulldog Bar feels these safety issues personally. Four people have been shot in the surrounding block since the bar opened — he said he witnessed one of the shootings. Last year someone broke into the bar, broke into the fridges and was caught by the police doing drugs upstairs.
“Honestly, things aren’t going well here, even with the arena,” he said. “If the crews do leave, my only hope is that the city government takes that $500 million that (Leonsis) is offering and pours it into making this neighborhood safe again.”
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Associated Press writer Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Va., contributed to this report.
