WMATA To Buy 30-Acre Prince George's County Site For $400M Maintenance Facility Project
The D.C. region's transit agency is planning to build a major new maintenance facility in Prince George's County.
WMATA's board voted Thursday to allow General Manager Paul Wiedefeld to negotiate a deal to buy 30 acres of industrial property in Landover for the project, the Washington Business Journal reports.
The board expects the acquisition will cost over $1M and the project will cost between $300M and $400M. WMATA said it needs the facility to consolidate heavy maintenance functions that currently take place at the Greenbelt and Brentwood rail yards and to free up storage space at those facilities.
The site, near the interchange of MD 410 and U.S. 50, consists of three separately owned properties next to an existing WMATA facility. The three properties, totaling about 30 acres, are owned by Knickerbocker Properties Inc., Prince George's Development Associates LLC and Landover Beverage Realty LLC. At least two businesses operating on the site, Rew Materials and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Co., would need to relocate to make way for the project.
The facility would sit along the Orange Line in between the New Carrollton and Landover Metro stations. It would include service bays for up to 40 rail cars, storage tracks for up to 24 rail cars, a power substation, an operations control tower and administrative offices. WMATA could employ up to 300 people at the site.
