Monumental Sports & Entertainment plans to open a live-event theater next to Capital One Arena to be focused on esports, including Wizards District Gaming, Caps Gaming and others it owns or has a financial stake in.
The owner of in-real-life sports teams Washington Wizards, Capitals and Mystics has leased nearly 14,000 square feet on the first floor at the adjacent Gallery Place, retail space formerly occupied by Bar Louie and Thai Chili. The venue, District E Powered by Ticketmaster, will have a capacity of up to 200 people and is slated to open this fall.
Monumental was an early adopter in esports through investments in organizations including Team Liquid, which will establish an East Coast satellite office at the new venue. It also has stakes in Caps Gaming, the esports platform of the NHL’s Washington Capitals, and Wizards District, the reigning champion of the NBA 2k League, among others. Monumental anticipates District E will serve as a competition and training venue to host those franchises while also serving as a catalyst to foster the growth of amateur gaming in Greater Washington.
The theater will feature three main components: an esports competition studio with a capacity of 150 that can host more than 200 events a year, a restaurant and bar to be operated by Aramark and practice facility, where teams will have access to private streaming pods — think high-tech work stations for the video gaming world. Monumental has retained Reston-based Architecture Inc. and KBR Corp. to design and build out the space.
The undertaking is a «multimillion dollar investment, and we expect a multimillion-dollar return,» said Zach Leonsis, Monumental’s newly promoted president of media and new enterprises at Monumental, though he declined to disclose specific buildout costs.
The Covid-19 pandemic has served as an accelerant for the competitive video gaming industry, and it’s within that context that Monumental sought to double down on its stake in the business, Leonsis said. He believes esports has evolved from a fringe form of entertainment to one that has become mainstream and highly relevant since the start of the pandemic.
What’s more, it is complementary to the teams that compete at Capital One Arena, and many of those professionals have also taken to competing via esports. Monumental hopes that District E enhances the game-day experience for Caps and Wizards fans; the facility will be «intentionally welcoming,» according to a statement, with activity at the venue visible to passersby as they head into the arena.
“The pandemic accelerated several trends including esports, so we felt the time is right to build a destination for it on the other side of our building,” said Leonsis. «We think there’s a vibrant gaming community here in D.C., and they don’t have a great place to gather right now. We also want to make sure that people who aren’t familiar with esports, they can walk into this and say ‘Wow, I get it.'»
Monumental isn’t the only local player in the esports arena. Entrepreneur Mark Ein owns the Washington Justice and announced plans in March to open a sports venue at 415 Eighth St. NW in Penn Quarter. The Justice, part of the Overwatch League, has competed at venues including The Anthem and the District’s Entertainment and Sports Arena (ESA) in Congress Heights. Events D.C., which owns the ESA and has worked to pull in more esports competitions for the arena, sponsored a house in D.C. for an Overwatch team owned by Los Angeles’s NRG Esports in 2018.
In the larger Chinatown retail landscape, the District E lease helps to fill some of the gaps that have opened at Gallery Place over the past few years. In addition to Bar Louie’s closure, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Lucky Strike and Washington Sports Club have closed. The property’s owner, an affiliate of Oxford Properties, has retained Dochter & Alexander Retail Advisors to fill some of that empty space, which climbed to around 67,000 square feet at one point.
That vacancy is coming down now with the aid of tenants like Monumental and the forthcoming 8,000-square-foot Tom’s Watch Bar, which is replacing the former Circa restaurant that shuttered during the pandemic. JLL (NYSE: JLL) brokers Zach Boroson and Andy O’Brien represented Monumental in the lease negotiations.
“At this size and scale, District E Powered by Ticketmaster will be the first-of-its-kind in the D.C. region,” Boroson said in a statement. “The real estate market rebound has shown that we will see innovative and alternative uses for both office and retail spaces across the city and the new District E Powered by Ticketmaster is exactly that.»
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