D.C. Council approves stadium lease

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In a remarkable finish to a marathon day, the D.C. Council early this morning approved a lease agreement for the Washington Nationals' new ballpark and passed a cap on construction costs for the stadium, mere hours after rejecting a nearly identical set of measures.

After initially rejecting the lease and failing to even vote on emergency legislation to cap the city's costs at $611 million, the council reversed course and passed a combined bill by a 9-4 vote that includes the cost cap and the lease.

The cap calls for the city to contribute no more than $300 million for the "hard cost" of the stadium and $175 million for "soft costs," like insurance and infrastructure. The remaining money, to cover land and lesser costs like financing, would be covered by the sale of development on the ballpark site.

Council members had first rejected the measures because of confusion about the true cost cap, as well as where money from development rights would go. But they changed their minds after agreeing on changes in language and clarifications on some points.

The lease and cost cap still must be approved by Major League Baseball and the city. After the council rejected the initial lease, MLB officials said they would take the city to arbitration to end the dispute.

"Today's vote is a serious setback to all those in the Washington community who sought the return of a team to the nation's capital," MLB President Robert DuPuy said after the initial vote. "I regret very much that D.C. officials have failed to honor the agreement they made when they successfully bid for the Expos to move to Washington. Baseball has no choice but to pursue arbitration so the terms of our original agreement can be honored and to begin to explore whatever options are available to us."

But late last night, the council began reconsidering the cap legislation, after receiving clarification on several provisions. It made it clear that the city would pay no more than $300 million for the "hard cost" of the stadium construction, plus $175 million in various "soft costs." The rest of the money would be used for land acquisition and financing costs. All overruns for the project would have to be paid for by the team owner or other outside sources.

Members also continued to debate the level at which the city should cap its costs, with some supporting a total cap of $589 million and others calling for a cap of $611 million.

The city plans to borrow $535 million for the project, but will also receive money from bond premium, interest and baseball revenue from 2005. It will also take in $55 million from the sale of land at the ballpark site.

Council members met in two separate closed-door meetings totaling more than four hours to hammer out details of the cap legislation. Earlier in the day, several council members, including Carol Schwartz, Vincent C. Gray, Ward 7 Democrat and Kwame R. Brown, at-large Democrat, called for the vote to be delayed and threatened to shoot down the lease if the vote was not postponed.