The Las Vegas-Style Sphere Just Outside D.C. Is A Go

The path is clear for Sphere Entertainment Co. to build a 6,000-person sphere venue at National Harbor, a district right outside the nation’s capital. 

Prince George’s County A rendering of the 6,000-person Sphere planned at National Harbor in Prince George’s County

The Prince George’s County Council on Tuesday approved a legislative package authorizing incentives and financial obligations from the county for the project to get started. The sphere would be about a third of the size of Las Vegas’ venue. It’s set to rise 302 feet and span 389 feet wide, with an interior display spanning 3.7 acres.

The county council voted unanimously to approve up to $130M in bonds for the development — part of a larger, nearly $200M state, local and private financing incentive package. And it approved a Sphere Community Impact Fund, which would reroute at least 15% of the revenue generated by the venue to the surrounding community.

The venue would provide a revenue source for a county that’s suffered several recent economic setbacks and has historically lacked the same investment as its D.C.-area neighbors. Bowie’s Six Flags shuttered in November after being open since 1999. The county is slated to lose the Washington Commanders, who play at Landover’s Northwest Stadium, with their planned move to D.C. And the FBI’s planned headquarters move from D.C. to Greenbelt, Maryland, is in limbo as it goes through the courts. 

Sphere Entertainment announced in January its intent to plant its second U.S. location at National Harbor. The project is set to be the second sphere in the U.S., after the 18,000-person venue opened in Las Vegas in 2023. Another is also underway in Abu Dhabi. 

Site work is expected to begin next quarter, and the Sphere is slated to open in the second quarter of 2030. 

An EY analysis done for the county estimates that the project would generate more than $1.3B in yearly economic impact, about $465M resulting directly from the Sphere’s operations and about $860M in visitor spending. The development is projected to contribute $63M in annual tax revenue to the county once it’s complete.

A county presentation outlines that debt service payments are projected to be between $11M and $15M annually over 30 years.

Sphere Entertainment must adhere to equity and diversity requirements. Those include reserving 45% of construction labor hours for county residents, as well as allocating 50% of construction dollars and 45% of ongoing purchasing to county-certified small businesses, according to a county presentation. Forty percent of each of those spending requirements is required to go to minority-owned firms. 

The company is also required to enter into a labor peace agreement that would authorize its workers to unionize after construction is completed.

Source: www.bisnow.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.