Photo: Steve Thurston
Monument Sports and Entertainment, which developed the Capitals ice rink and corporate offices in Ballston, owes $100,000 to redevelop the park, at left. They have not paid because the county still needs to issue a certificate of occupancy.
The developer of the Kettler Capitals Iceplex owes the county $100,000 as part of the site plan agreement reached in 2004, the Mercury has learned.
However the developer, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, owner of the Washington Capitals, has not made the payment because the county has not issued the final certificate of occupancy for the building in the five years since the rink opened for business, said Michelle Cowan, the director of management and finance for the county. The development houses the Capitals practice ice rinks and corporate offices atop the Ballston Common Mall parking garage. It is still under an interim certificate, Cowan said.
The developer according to county documents was Lincoln Holdings, the company Ted Leonsis owned before he reformed it as Monumental Sports & Entertainment in 2010. Monumental Sports owns the Capitals hockey team, the Washington Wizards basketball team and the Verizon Center in D.C.
Cowan said she believed the process was very close to completion and she is researching it, adding that the money is still very much on the county’s radar.
The money will be put toward park redevelopment at the corner of N. Glebe Road and N. Randolph Street, as part of the site plan agreement reached between the county and the developer.
Developers often make payments to support public amenities. In exchange they often are allowed to build more floors on a building or can have fewer parking spaces. The ice rink site plan says the county would receive the money to build the park, but it does not say what benefit the developer received in exchange.
However, it does speak of the park area as staging ground for construction equipment and that the park would be constructed after the developer no longer needed it for staging.
The delayed money came to light at a public meeting in which county planners unveiled their latest idea for the park -- a set of two bocce fields.
The current $150,000 budget for the park comes from the county. The county plans to start construction this fall.
Park planner Scott McPartlin said during the meeting last week that any payment from Monumental could be used to add more amenities to the park later.
The ice rink and corporate offices of the Capitals sit atop the Ballston Common Mall parking garage in the Ballston neighborhood. The development was conducted as a joint venture between the Capitals and the county. The county uses the space for public skating.
Monumental Sports & Entertainment did not return late calls for comment.
