By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews
The Wayne K. Curry Civic Plaza in Largo has been finished for eight months. It has been fenced off, unused, for nearly as long. When Maryland’s state treasurer pressed county and state officials for answers back in early June, Prince George’s County Executive Aisha Braveboy’s office said the site would reopen “later this year,” once safety issues were addressed. As of this week, no reopening date has been announced, and no public update has surfaced since that promise was made.
This isn’t a breaking story. It’s an update on one that never got resolved, which is arguably the more useful kind. Maryland State Treasurer Dereck E. Davis raised the issue at a June 3 Board of Public Works hearing in Annapolis, and the exchange that followed laid out, in blunt terms, how little accountability exists once the state hands bond money to a local government for a signature project. Nothing in the two and a half months since has changed that.
What Got Built, and Why It’s Closed
“The Stadium Authority says it built what was designed and approved. The county says what was built isn’t safe enough to open.”
The plaza sits in the parking lot of the county’s administration building in Largo, named for Prince George’s County’s first Black county executive. The project was the first of five signature developments under the county’s Blue Line Corridor initiative, a redevelopment strategy built around Metro’s Blue Line stations between Capitol Heights and Largo. County residents took part in design workshops in 2024, and the plaza broke ground in April 2025 with plans for a lawn and stage area, a playground, a dog park, cornhole boards, and a “free speech” dais. Construction was substantially complete by December 2025.
Gary McGuigan, executive vice president of the Maryland Stadium Authority, told the Board of Public Works in June that the agency finished the job as designed and approved. Asked directly whether the finished plaza had been shut down, he didn’t dodge it, agreeing that was a fair way to put it.
County officials tell a different story. An official in Braveboy’s administration told NBC4 in May the plaza was poorly designed, citing playground equipment they consider hazardous, the absence of public restrooms, and a wheelchair ramp that had been paved over during construction.
According to Byrd, the Stadium Authority turned the finished site over to the county in the spring, and it was Braveboy who then authorized fencing it off. “The fence, right now, is to keep people out for their own safety,” Byrd said, adding that county officials had no input into the original design. Byrd told NBC4 the play equipment would be donated to a nonprofit.
That claim of having no input carries some weight on timing alone. The plaza’s design process ran under then-County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, who left office in December 2024 after winning a U.S. Senate seat. The groundbreaking, in April 2025, was led by acting County Executive Tara Jackson. Braveboy didn’t take office until June 2025, after winning a special election to fill out the remainder of Alsobrooks’ term. She inherited a project that was already under construction.
No Money Back
“So we’re just out $10 million, basically?”
— Maryland Treasurer Dereck E. Davis
The sharper problem for taxpayers isn’t who designed the plaza. It’s what happens to the $10 million now that it sits unused.
Davis asked McGuigan directly whether the state had any way to recover its investment. McGuigan said no conversations between the Stadium Authority and the county have taken place about reimbursement, and that no such mechanism exists in the memorandum of understanding governing the funds. Davis summarized the situation in one line: “So we’re just out $10 million, basically?” McGuigan’s answer: “Correct.”
That MOU traces back to legislation the General Assembly passed in 2022 and then-Gov. Larry Hogan signed, authorizing the Maryland Stadium Authority to issue up to $400 million in bonds for Blue Line Corridor development. The statute defines an eligible “Blue Line Corridor facility” narrowly: a convention center, an arts and entertainment amphitheater, and related infrastructure. A football stadium doesn’t fit that definition, and state officials said at the time that none of the $400 million would go directly toward a new stadium for the Washington Commanders, whose home field sits nearby in Landover. The Board of Public Works, then newly seated with Gov. Wes Moore, Comptroller Brooke Lierman and Davis, formally approved the bond MOU in January 2023.
“The plaza is only a fraction of the Blue Line Corridor’s $400 million authorization. But it’s the first finished project — and taxpayers still can’t use it.”
The plaza is a small slice of that $400 million authorization, but it’s the first completed project under the initiative, and it’s the one taxpayers can point to and ask what they got for their money.
A few key dates in the plaza’s timeline:
- April 2022: General Assembly authorizes up to $400 million in Blue Line Corridor bonds; Hogan signs the bill.
- January 2023: Board of Public Works approves the bond memorandum of understanding.
- 2024: County holds community design workshops for the plaza.
- April 2025: Groundbreaking, led by acting County Executive Tara Jackson.
- December 2025: Construction substantially complete, per the Stadium Authority.
- Spring 2026: Stadium Authority turns the completed site over to the county; Braveboy authorizes fencing it off.
- May 2026: County officials publicly cite safety and design concerns as the reason for the closure.
- June 3, 2026: State treasurer presses Stadium Authority officials for answers at a public hearing; Braveboy’s office says the plaza will reopen later in the year.
- Now, mid-August: No reopening date has been announced. The plaza remains closed.
Finished: December 2025.
Fenced off: Spring 2026.
Reopening date: Still unknown.
“The plaza is only a fraction of the Blue Line Corridor’s $400 million authorization. But it’s the first finished project — and taxpayers still can’t use it.”
A Democratic Dispute, Not a Partisan One
“Every major official in this dispute is a Democrat. The unanswered question isn’t partisan. It’s whether anyone is accountable once the money is spent.”
Every official in this dispute is a Democrat, which is worth noting for readers inclined to see this as a partisan jab. It isn’t. Davis, a former 27-year member of the House of Delegates who chaired the powerful Economic Matters Committee before becoming treasurer, made his complaint about the money, not about who spent it. Alsobrooks, now serving in the Senate, defended the project her administration designed. “The civic plaza must reopen,” she said in a statement, calling it wasteful to spend more money reworking a finished site while families struggle financially. Braveboy, up for a full term as county executive this year, has said only that the plaza will reopen “later this year,” without a firmer date attached in the weeks since.
“If a state-funded project sits unused after completion, who is responsible for making it right?”
What’s left unresolved is the accountability question Davis raised in June and nobody has answered since: if a state-funded project sits unused after completion, who is responsible for making it right, and does the state have any leverage to make that happen? Two and a half months later, the answer still appears to be no.
Sources: Maryland Treasurer’s Office and Board of Public Works, June 3, 2026 hearing remarks by Treasurer Dereck E. Davis and Maryland Stadium Authority Executive Vice President Gary McGuigan; NBC4 Washington, “Largo Civic Plaza just built for an estimated $10M will be partially torn down,” May 21, 2026; Maryland Stadium Authority project records for the Civic Plaza at the Wayne K. Curry Administration Building, Blue Line Corridor Project; Prince George’s County Office of the County Executive, April 9, 2025 groundbreaking announcement; Chapter 61 (House Bill 897), 2022 Laws of Maryland, as enacted and signed by then-Gov. Larry Hogan, authorizing $400 million in Maryland Stadium Authority bonds for Blue Line Corridor development; statements to reporters from County Executive Aisha Braveboy’s office, David Byrd of the Prince George’s County Office of Central Services, and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks’ office, as reported by The Daily Record, The Baltimore Banner, NBC4 Washington, and WUSA9. MDBayNews checked for more recent coverage or public statements as of August 21, 2026, and found none.
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