District Mayor Vincent Gray wants the Washington Redskins’ practice facility returned to D.C. as part of a plan to restore the Hill East area. On Thursday night, residents of the Hill East neighborhood gathered in eastern Capitol Hill at the D.C. Armory to listen to the mayor speak about the idea. Gray said, “I don’t know whether it’s a training facility or what, but we need to find something to jump-start Hill East.”
Nine years ago, a master plan to restore the Hill East area was approved, but the project was never brought underway. The master plan would renovate the site, where the D.C. General Hospital once stood, with retail, residential, office, and medical elements. “What this has been, frankly, is a conversation,” Gray told the crowd. “They are not ‘the Prince George’s County Redskins.’ They are not ‘the Northern Virginia Redskins. They are ‘the Washington Redskins.” If the mayor’s idea progresses into action, Gray says it would take years for the master plan’s revision and approval, but nevertheless, Gray feels strongly about the Redskins’ return to the nation’s capital.
