Six phases, three years, and the Wizards and Capitals never miss a home game. That’s the constraint Clark Construction is building Capital One Arena under.
The transformation carries a price tag above $1 billion, with $515 million from the District of Columbia under legislation the Council approved in December 2024 and the balance from Monumental Sports & Entertainment. Gensler is the designer. CAA ICON is owner’s representative. Clark holds the construction manager at risk contract, with Clark Foundations on the foundation work.
Project Scope
The arena runs about 1.1 million square feet when the work is done. The largest single move is a 200,000-square-foot expansion into the adjacent Gallery Place atrium, which absorbs kitchens and back-of-house support that the 1997 building never had room for. Concessions roughly double. Restrooms increase about 40 percent. A 10,000-square-foot team store replaces the existing retail. Renderings released in August 2026 show a reconfigured seating bowl the team is calling the Visibowl.
Construction is phased around the NBA and NHL calendars, with heavy work compressed into offseasons and lighter scopes running through the season. Phase 2 was underway as of August 2026, with final interior work and the Grand Pavilion targeted for completion by the end of summer 2027, in time for the 2027-28 seasons.
Why It Matters
Arena renovation is now a bigger market than arena construction. The 1990s building boom produced a generation of venues that are structurally sound and commercially obsolete, and owners are finding that a billion dollars of surgery beats two billion of replacement plus the relocation fight that comes with it. Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena is running the same play on the same timeline.
What separates the good jobs from the bad ones is phasing discipline. Every scope that crosses an offseason boundary has to be substantially complete or safely dormant before the first event, and the penalty for missing is measured in canceled dates. Clark is delivering roughly 200,000 square feet of new construction and a full bowl reconfiguration inside that window, which is why the contract is CMAR and not lump sum.
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Project Team & Details
| Owner / Client | Monumental Sports & Entertainment |
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| Architect | Gensler |
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| Consultants | CAA ICON (Owner's Representative) |
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| General Contractor | Clark Construction |
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| Major Subcontractors | Clark Foundations (Foundations) |
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| Status | Under Construction |
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| Delivery Method | CMAR |
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| Funding Source | Mixed |
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