Developer Akridge still hasn’t been won over after losing a chance at taking the Reeves Center in the D.C. United land swap. This morning, Bowser administration officials said negotiations with the developer are still going on, nearly two years after Vince Gray proposed building the soccer stadium at Buzzard Point.

Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Brian Kenner told the D.C. Council that the city has had “preliminary conversations” with Akridge about its two acres. In January, Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said that the city and Akridge were “very far apart” on what the District should pay for the land.

With the fate of Akridge’s parcel still unclear, that leaves the city to negotiate labor agreements and prep for environmental clean-up ahead of a September deadline to take over the site. At breakfast, though, Bowser hinted that she’d be fine with using eminent domain to take Akridge’s land. While she didn’t actually call it “eminent domain,” Bowser said her office had started to discuss with Attorney General Karl Racine how to use “that process” to take the land if negotiations with Akridge don’t succeed.

Photo by Mike Madden