You may or may not be familiar with the Washington Nationals Ballpark that opened in March 2008 in Washington, DC. The ballpark was the collaborative effort of HOK Sport, HOK, and Deveraux and Purnell Architects. It was designed and built in approximately two years (the fastest anyone’s ever accomplished such a feat with a ballpark) and it received LEED Certification at the Silver level a couple of days before the season opened on March 30, 2008. It is the only professional sports facility to achieve LEED Certification to date and at the time of award, Brenden Owens, Vice President of Technical Development for the USGBC, stated that it was ‘the most ambitious project we’ve ever certified.’

Well now the Ballpark has a new distinction: the Washington Examiner reports that the new baseball stadium is now the most valuable property in the District, coming in just dollars shy of $1 billion. Assessed at $511 million for the land and $489 million for the building, the stadium’s value exceeds that of the White House, U.S. Capitol, Library of Congress and Verizon Center.

I have heard that green buildings are supposed to have greater value than their non-green counterparts – but in less than a year the Ballpark has gone from total value of $611 million (land and building) to $1 billion. That’s the quickest ROI I have ever seen!

Photo courtesy of HOK Sport.