Politics & Government

Parks Commission Chair: 'Like Giving a Site in Yellowstone to a Hotel Chain'

Alexandria Park and Recreation Commission and Youth Sports Advisory Board express concerns over bid for massive sports complex on Eisenhower.

by Drew Hansen

Members of the Alexandria Parks and Recreation Commission and Youth Sports Advisory Group expressed concerns about handing city parkland over to the private sector following a briefing Thursday night on an unprecedented offer to build a huge athletics complex on the site of a city park.

In June, The St. James Group LLC presented an unsolicited offer to the city to build a massive sports and entertainment complexcovering all of Joseph Hensley Park on Eisenhower Avenue.

Nestled between Eisenhower Avenue and I-95 across from the Vola Lawson Animal Shelter, Hensley Park contains three ball fields and one rectangular playing field. 

Though impressed with the proposed project’s many amenities, members of the commission and advisory board said they took great issue with exchanging open space that is free to all for a private use to people who can afford it.

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Several members of the Park and Recreation Commission said they believed it was their charge to protect open space.

“I think it is like giving a site in Yellowstone to a hotel chain,” Park and Recreation Commission Chair Judy Guse-Noritake told Patch following the meeting.

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Guse-Noritake said she would inform Alexandria City Council that the two groups would like to slow the city’s process of considering the proposal and have a hearing on the project in October.

The proposed complex includes a multitude of amenities currently not available in the city, including an Olympic-sized indoor swimming pool.

Other features in the proposal include an 80,000-square-foot multi-purpose field house; a baseball center with four batting cages for baseball and softball; four NCAA regulation-sized basketball and volleyball courts; a therapy pool, water park play area for children, and outdoor family pool; two NHL-regulation ice rinks for hockey, figure skating and open skating sessions; a 15,000-square-foot gymnastics training space; 20,000 square feet of rock climbing walls; a golf and racquet club with year-round driving range, six indoor tennis courts and eight squash courts; 30,000-square-foot health center and a childcare center. Parking would be available on site.  

“This facility is the culmination of a lifetime involved in sports, a passion for sports, a passion for business and our passion for having a community impact,” said Craig Dixon, a cofounder of The James Group LLC along with Kendrick Ashton. Dixon is an alum of Episcopal High School and is currently a member of the school’s board of trustees.

“We think this is a great way to leverage this land to create a huge amount of recreation usage for the whole city,” said Cathy Puskar, a local attorney representing Dixon and Ashton.

She said the Hensley site was selected because of traffic and transit access and its location away from residential development.

Alexandria City Council will review the bid and decide to decline the proposal or open a request for proposals to see if there is other private interest in the parkland.

Because the bid may become subject to a competition process, many details about the project are being held—including membership fees.

Puskar said the facility would not charge “exorbitant” fees but that every citizen in Alexandria would probably not be able to afford membership.

“We want a lot of Alexandrians to come here,” she said. “We can’t survive unless they come.”

The planned facility was compared to the Chelsea Piers recreation complex in Stamford, Conn. Monthly fees for that facility run from $45 to $300 depending on the type of membership. One-time joining fees range from $95 to $1,800.

“It all boils down to who will be able to use it,” said Bill Cromley, a member of the Park and Recreation Commission.

The James Group is holding a second meeting to discuss the project with the public at 6:30 p.m. Monday, July 22 at the Courtyard Marriott located at 2700 Eisenhower Ave.


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