Nationals Park Survives Permitting Scare, Remains Open for Final Games of the Baseball Season

The D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) gave quite a scare to baseball fans in the nation’s capital, waiting until the 11th hour to extend a permit to play games in National Park, home of the Washington Nationals. Without the extension, the Nationals would have needed to find another place to play for the final two homegames of the season.

The permit in question was the D.C.-issued certificate of occupancy for Nationals Park, issued by the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs in 2006, but ending on September 30, 2022—with two days left on the current season.

According to an article by Tristan Navera for the Washington Business Journal, the “2006 agreement with the D.C. Zoning Commission that set the nearly $700 million project into motion required that Events D.C., the stadium's owner, build out 46,000 square feet of of [sic] retail, services, entertainment or arts uses on the stadium premises.”

A few days after Navera reported the news of the potential demise of the baseball season in D.C., the DCRA granted a 15-month extension on the permit. Events D.C. ow has until December 31, 2023 to file plans to complete the required development on the southeast corner of the stadium site.

“Events D.C. has asked to downsize the development needed in the agreement so it can instead finish 17,000 square feet of retail partially built out along First Street SE. In filings with the D.C. Zoning Commission, which must sign off on the agreement, Events D.C. said the slowing of the real estate market during Covid-19 has made a lot of retail on this site impractical,” reports Navera in a more recent article, published after the extension.

“Giving Events D.C. a 15-month extension will give the Zoning Commission time to make its ruling and also to submit construction plans for review and approval,” according to a source cited in the article.