Prince Georgians packed into the Wayne K. Curry Administrative Building in Largo on June 25 for a town hall about the future of what was formerly Six Flags America.
In April, the 515-acre Bowie site was sold to a joint venture between Atlanta-based real estate firm TPA Group and 35V, NBA star and DMV native Kevin Durant’s investment company.
Dozens of community members were in attendance, with so many present for the meeting that the council room reached maximum capacity and other attendees watched in a separate overflow space.
“We believe that community involvement and participation is critical and that’s why we’re here tonight,” said Steve Proctor, president of the Upper Marlboro-based lobbying firm G.S. Proctor and Associates, who participated in a panel as part of the town hall.
Sitting on a platform in the council chambers, panelists included Proctor, County Executive Aisha Braveboy, Wanda Durant, president of the Durant Family Charitable Foundation, and Adam Rashid, a lead member of TPA Group. The panel was moderated by Drew Hansen, assistant managing editor of The Washington Business Journal.
Maximizing the potential of the space was at the forefront of the discussion. Six Flags, Braveboy said, only utilized a quarter of the 515 acres and brought the county around $3 million annually. In comparison, National Harbor generates more than $80 million annually.
“So [we’re] really looking at a mix of uses that can elevate our local economy, provide jobs for young people, as well as those who are my age and maybe even a little senior,” Braveboy explained. “We want more jobs in the county, more amenities in the county.”
Rashid said that five pillars will drive the project’s vision: entertainment, education, health and wellness, housing and innovation. He also told the crowd that the survey results indicated a lot of community interest in a chef-driven food hall, fine dining and nature trails.
“We are here in the middle of what people would describe as the fourth industrial revolution,” he said, “We think our community has the ability to really step into that.”
Community Concerns, Input
During the discussion, Hansen asked questions based on a survey sent out by the developers to community members.
While attendees did not directly ask questions during the town hall, Proctor said the survey has received more than 1,100 responses.
For many present, the event was the first step in gaining clarity for the future of the Bowie site.
“I thought for the initial intro to all of this, it was informative,” Upper Marlboro resident Linda Bookhard told The Informer. “There’s still a lot of questions that I think I have, people have, but it was a good start.”
As data centers continue to be a hot button issue in the county— particularly since the proposed construction of one at the former Landover Mall site — land use for technological purposes has been a concern for some Prince Georgians like Bookhard.
The county is already no stranger to hosting leading technology firms, such as IonQ, a quantum computing company, based in College Park. With TPA Group listing digital infrastructure as a property type on its website, some residents are wondering about further steps toward technology companies in Prince George’s.
“What we didn’t want was a data center,” Bookhard said. “I don’t think he answered that question.”
Jada-Mercy Ayebae, an urban planning student at the University of Pennsylvania, valued the community engagement on the part of the developers but was concerned about sustained accountability.
“Because this was completely private from Six Flags to this group, how is there accountability for community voice,” she said. “‘I understand it’s a private investment, so I hope that what we get is best for the community.”
Rashid said that the project will continue having community engagements into the fall and develop its concrete plan into next year.
“We’re not going to let grass grow,” Braveboy said, “but we are going to be intentional and thoughtful.”
Proctor explained that the venture will hold future town halls, go directly to community centers and launch a website that will provide updates.
For the matriarch of the Durant family and other leaders on the project, keeping the community up-to-date on the project is critical.
“How the community can really weigh in is to stay connected and stay engaged with us,” she said. “Because we could have come in and said that ‘we want to do A, B, C and D, and that’s it,’ and we can start construction. But that’s not what the team wanted.”
