Caps, Wizards would stay in D.C. under deal announced by Bowser, Leonsis

Under the terms of the deal, D.C. would spend $515 million over three years to help Leonsis modernize the arena and the owner would sign a new lease keeping the teams in D.C. for 25 more years.

The agreement includes other provisions that address some of Leonsis’s concerns about the state of downtown and allow his company, Monumental Sports and Entertainment, to additionally expand in the city.

Among the provisions to which the two sides have tentatively agreed, D.C. would allow Leonsis to take over management of the Mystics home facility in Southeast D.C., utilize parking at some District-owned buildings for Monumental employees, keep a minimum number of police officers downtown and plan for a new future downtown practice facility for the Wizards.

The agreement marks a sharp change in plans for Leonsis, who three months ago joined Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) to announce a handshake agreement to build a new arena in the Potomac Yard area of Alexandria as part of a $2.2 billion mixed-use development. Although the Virginia House of Delegates gave the idea initial approval, the proposal never passed the Senate and was left out of the state’s budget.

In a joint interview with The Washington Post Wednesday, the mayor and owner said they had stayed in regular touch since Leonsis’s announcement in Virginia. Leonsis said a number of moves made by Bowser and the council, including the formation of a plan to revive downtown and the council’s passage of a new crime bill, gave him greater confidence that he could comfortably grow and expand his business in the District.

“We appreciated our discussions about how we could grow together,” Bowser said. She said after Leonsis’s announcement that he planned to leave “it became very clear about how our community feels about our teams.”

Leonsis credited the mayor with continuing to make progress on improving the business climate downtown. He said after one of his meetings with her, “all of a sudden I really felt like we were in this together and that D.C. — it’s where I wanted to be.”

A deal in D.C. will not be complete without approval by the 13-member D.C. Council. But in December, members of the council unanimously signed on to legislation offering Leonsis $500 million in upgrades over three years, closely mirroring the terms Leonsis and Bower described Wednesday.

Youngkin released a written statement shortly after the news came out Wednesday afternoon in which he hailed the lost promise of a “one-of-a-kind project” that he said would have brought thousands of jobs and billions in revenue to the state.

“Virginians deserve…