No Takers for Silver Spring Arena Project, County Says
The Leggett administration had a grand plan in December to turn a pair of Silver Spring parking garages into a 5,000-seat sports and entertainment arena that could serve as a Montgomery County site for high school graduations.
A request for development proposals went out looking for the private half of a public-private partnership to build and operate the arena.
The April 10 deadline came and went, with no one responding, county officials say.
The next move, Leggett spokesman Patrick Lacefield said in a Tuesday email, “is to circle back to the likely suspects to see why they didn’t respond.”
The arena was to be constructed near the Silver Spring Transit Center at 1100 and 1101 Bonifant Drive — parking garages 5 and 55, both owned by the county. Together, the plots would add up to about 2.8 acres. The arena would be large enough to handle a minor league sports franchise and graduation ceremonies that currently need to go out of the county.
In December, County Executive Ike Leggett called the plan a chance to increase the economic vitality of Silver Spring and the county.
“We have long known that our community is in need of a multipurpose facility to house events such as high school, collegiate, and professional sporting events, graduations, and children’s shows and concerts. This site is ideal for this type of use as well as retail and high-rise residential structures,” Leggett said then.
perhaps developers, after seeing what happened with the SSTC public-private partnership, are waiting to see how the lawsuit plays out before about business with the county.