After last month’s shocking announcement that D.C.’s NHL and NBA teams are set to leave Capital One Arena for Northern Virginia, the city is launching an effort to revitalize the blocks immediately surrounding the 26-year-old sports complex.
Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the task force to revitalize the Gallery Place-Chinatown neighborhood surrounding the Capital One Arena.
Mayor Muriel Bowser, at a Monday afternoon press conference held at Chinatown’s Shakespeare Theater Co. in the shadow of posters advertising Capitals hockey games, announced a new task force to recommend ways to reposition the arena property and the surrounding blocks.
The Chinatown-Gallery Place area has been hit especially hard by rising vacancy, increased crime and diminished foot traffic in the years following the onset of the pandemic. But the task force appears to be a direct response to Monumental Sports & Entertainment’s plans to relocate the Capitals and Wizards – yet another gut punch in a slew of hardships for the neighborhood.
“This is about how old uses become new spaces, and we know we’ve done it before,” Bowser said.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Emily Wishingrad over at Bisnow
