Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin announced plans for the public to subsidize yet another billionaire via a new sports facility. The beneficiaries are Washington Capitals and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis and his fellow partners, many of them private equity underwriters (PEU).
The project "will be financed through a proposed Virginia Sports and Entertainment Authority, which the General Assembly will be asked to approve in January. The authority would buy the land for the district from JBG and develop its portion of the project."
Youngkin was co-CEO of The Carlyle Group when it abandoned its lead developer role for the planned Corpus Christi port expansion, another public-private partnership. There was no fanfare when Carlyle dumped the Harbor Island expansion on its partner The Berry Group.
Potomac Yard will be rebranded National Island in the redo. It would have been too rich for it to be named Harbor Island. Nobody runs faster from failure than Glenn Youngkin.
Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one so they can take public money and steer it to their peers.
