With eyes on Washington's new stadium opening in 2030, *Commanders.com* is sitting down with key actors and decision-makers involved in the historic project. Andy VanHorn, the Commanders' Head of Real Estate, brings over 20 years of experience to this critical, first-of-its-kind role with the franchise.

Before joining the Commanders last year, VanHorn was the Chief Executive Officer of Dweck Properties, leading operations for their 7,200-plus unit portfolio in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Prior to Dweck, he was an Executive Vice President and Principal with JBG SMITH for over 15 years where he was responsible for entitlement, community and governmental activities associated with JBG SMITH's portfolio in National Landing, including Amazon's HQ and the associated infrastructure improvements.

As the Commanders' Head of Real Estate, VanHorn works closely with land seller(s), government entities and local officials, and is responsible for the design, construction and completion of the real estate elements associated with the new stadium as well as other team projects and properties in the region.

Q: What first drew you to a career in real estate?

A: "When I was a kid, I was always interested in building stuff. Whether it was doing a community project with Eagles Scouts or playing with marble chutes or later, building a firehouse, I realized I really liked how things come together and the complexity and the process of assembling things.

I came out of Lehigh University with an engineering degree, which gave me a strong base of skills to support the construction world. A stint at Clark Construction helped me realize that I wanted to step back more and direct the building of projects.

After working for a large developer, I went back to get my business degree at Georgetown, because I realized I needed to learn finance and accounting and other skills to drive this part of my career."

Q: After 25 years in the industry, what about this role with the Commanders stood out to you as your next professional challenge?

A: "I've worked on a variety of projects in my career -- built buildings right at the entrance of Nationals Park; built two really large projects in the heart of Rosslyn; and helped redevelop that whole kind of Arlington market. Then, I was able to lead the entire strategy of bringing Amazon to the region and help redevelop and reinvigorate National Landing. From my perspective I was thinking, 'Oh, I won't do anything bigger,' and then this job came calling.

Having the ability to impact not only where the franchise is located but thinking about how you bring something back to RFK was intriguing. And then we have the six or seven million square feet of development around it that we control which is truly region-changing. The opportunity to be part of that was incredibly exciting. I really find meaning in improving our communities and delivering something for folks who live there, and this was the ability to do all of that times 10."

Q: Turning to the historic new stadium project, some initial renderings of the team's future home in D.C. have been unveiled. What felt most important to convey to fans with these first looks?

A: "We wanted to show that we heard them. We knew their love for this site and for the old stadium that was there. We felt that. The renderings we've shown have the heritage of RFK in them. They locate the stadium in the exact same spot, but they also added that D.C. monumentality. I think the combination of knowing you're in DC and knowing that this is what the stadium looked like before is pretty incredible for our fan base."

Q: There are a couple different new stadium projects in the works around the league. Unique to this one is that the stadium will be built on the site of the team's former home, RFK Stadium, a venue that held so much history and meaning to fans and the city. What has been your approach to balancing old and new with this project?

A: "I think the one thing that does differentiate our stadium is it really isn't going to be what people picture as a new stadium today. It's a bit of a throwback in many ways. There's going to be a lot of really powerful colonnades, some concrete, but it's also going to be incredibly accessible, like our monuments. There will be openings in the façade. You'll be able to walk up to it. You'll have landscaping all around it.

It won't have a modern hard edge. It will be very much this integrated facility into the neighborhood and into D.C., and I think that is something very different that hasn't happened for decades. But that is something that throws back all the way to Roman times when you think about how the Coliseum and other features were built. They were part of the community, and they were part of the mixed use and built environment. And so, bringing it back into RFK and then adding the neighborhood around it is really unique for a stadium being built today."

Q: The first look showed a stadium that fits right in with its surroundings. Can you walk us through how the venue's design is uniquely D.C.?

A: "We thought about some very important things. One being the field runs east west, which is an extension of the National Mall -- the National Mall runs directly through from the Lincoln Memorial, through the Capitol, through our site. Aligning the field and the entries of the stadium and our big windows along that axis felt very D.C., very important and very monumental.

The stadium also kind of has that dip in the middle, which does bow to the Capitol and has that respect for its location with the Capitol being the most important building on that axis. And the stadium being a clear icon there in the form of light and shape, and its colonnade, but it is clearly deferential, which I think is really an incredible movement."

Q: In addition to the old RFK Stadium and the city of D.C., what else or where else are you drawing inspiration from for the design?

A: "We certainly are visiting lots of the newer stadiums in the league, from SoFi to Minneapolis to Atlanta. I think inspiration comes in many forms. We're thinking about how to best handle parking in an urban environment. Atlanta does a great job of that. When it comes to lighting and access from a roof system, Minneapolis and SoFi are best-in-class. Dallas' concourse, for example, has very convenient access for fans. I think it's really a blend of all those best factors.

We're doing an incredible amount of diligence when it comes to questions such as, 'How do you think about how the fans flow into the stadium?, 'How do fans experience the stadium around it? How does the stadium work on a non-gameday?'

Most of those stadiums still sit in a sea of parking or in an isolated area. Our stadium will be integral to daily life. We envision the landscape around the stadium being running paths and biking paths, and that being a very close up approach unlike a stadium kind of on an island. We were also looking at Chase Arena over Super Bowl weekend when we were out in San Francisco and how that integrates directly into the neighborhood. It was a really helpful example of how we want to make our retail flow and how we want people to be able to access the grounds and the stadium proper."

Q: From the outset, the team has been very vocal about developing a site that has lasting value for District residents. With features like a transparent roof, what is the vision for transforming the 180-acre campus into a destination that goes beyond Commanders gamedays?

A: "Of the 180 acres, there's about 90 acres total of development. The balance is open space primarily and of that 90 we control about 75 acres. The stadium sits on a portion of that, but the balance really is intended to be a vibrant front door and entertainment district with live entertainment and other great anchors such as retailers, movie theaters, a really great food and beverage scene with restaurant and bar options along the main street, among other things.

And then we have the festival plaza. As we think about that, that really tries to bring that mix of hotels, retail, anchor uses and housing in to make sure that there is a vibrant community 365 days a year. The stadium's really only one leg of the stool. We do need this mix of great hospitality uses, and this mix of great retail uses to really make sure the site works year round, and that residents want to be there, and that there's great options for jobs and things like conferences. And so, when we think about the mix of uses on the site, we do need to make sure that we are hitting on all cylinders there.

Then we have the riverfront district, which is down near the water -- a little bit quieter, a lot more housing. We have a goal of delivering 6,000 units of housing. Thirty percent of those are affordable, and so we do think about that great diversity of housing opportunity for people as well, so that there is a broad range of access for everyone."

Q: How are you and your partners thinking about maximizing the value of the gameday experience for fans, both inside and outside the stadium?

A: "The stadium does sit in a park-like setting, and what that means is that we have these incredible outdoor spaces at all four entries. The front door on the west, coming from the Metro, is clearly our largest and could handle 10 to 15,000 people.

And then at the north and south entries, where our clubs and our VIP entries will be, we can certainly have a much more curated fan atmosphere and give people a different experience. We are expected to have a live entertainment venue near the north entrance, so ideally, we could do small concerts and other really great gameday and non-gameday activities.

On the east side near the river, we're thinking of a beer garden approach. Maybe something a little family friendlier, a little lower key, where you can bring people around, give them kind of a quieter spot to come in the backside of the stadium.

So, as we think through the stadium grounds itself, we think we have three or four great opportunities for pregame and postgame activities. Obviously, because it's in a city, people can come out of that front door and flow back into all kinds of activated events and into the bars and restaurants and the retail that surrounds the stadium, which is an incredible opportunity. That's something we felt really deeply in Madrid walking right back into the city and walking down the street, being able to stop at a cafe or a restaurant or a bar on your way back to your hotel."

Q: A stadium in the heart of D.C. brings up different considerations around gameday transportation. What can you tell us about metro access, parking and tailgating at the stadium site?

A: "We have to be multimodal. The stadium will only have about 8,000 parking spaces stabilized, and that's intentional in that we don't want parking eating up too much of the site. That'll get us about 25,000 people coming via car if they wish to.

We obviously have Metro directly at our front door, and we're working with the city right now which has a $2 million study underway with WMATA to figure out if we can improve that number and get Metro capacity up from what is now -- about 25,000 people an hour -- closer to 30,000 or 35,000. That would give us almost 60,000 of our total guests coming in via Metro and car.

And then we feel like there's great multimodal options with bus, biking, and then, of course, there are Uber and Lyft options. We think those will kind of complement the balance of how we have people access, but it will be a primarily non-vehicle access stadium, which is pretty amazing."

Q: We know HKS has come on board as the stadium's lead architect. Who else is expected to be a part of the project? How might fans and the community be involved as the stadium continues to take shape?

A: "So the stadium will be moving forward under HKS' direction. We'll bring on an interior architect, which will help us think about our clubs, our restaurants, our spaces in the stadium. We'll also bring on a master development partner for the mixed-use environment around the stadium. So, we'll likely bring on a partner who's been kind of prominent in D.C. and understands large sports and mixed-use environments. And they'll collaborate with us on the entire mixed-use plan that's coming forward. The district will be leading a master planning and comprehensive plan update for our site starting in March.

There's going to be an incredible amount of community input, and dozens, if not hundreds of meetings, over the next few years to have conversations around what does this community want to look like and feel like as it surrounds the stadium.

As for fans, we are definitely looking back to RFK and what people really loved, not just with the architecture, but fan experience elements like the . We believe we can replicate that experience in an intentional way and give the fans an area of bouncing seats, which would be delivering that incredible impact when that fan wall at the old RFK got moving, literally."

Q: The National Capital Planning Commission recently approved the project's initial design concepts. Remnants of the old stadium at the site continue to be cleared. What are the next steps in this new stadium build process?

A: "We have a few more meetings with the NCPC that will extend through the fall, and that will hopefully be the completion of their advisory review. It will go not only through the stadium architecture, but into some landscape elements and other transportation elements. And we feel like we're on track for all of that, which is great.

Beyond that, we are advancing our drawings through schematic design now, which is one of the earlier phases, and we're picking lots of finishes and details. As mentioned before, we are making sure we are gathering input and feedback from fans on what they are looking for in the building so that we can integrate their input into the design. We'll also have our survey coming back defining what our fans are looking for in the building, from a premium aspect, from a seating aspect, and out of the kind of ways that we'll make sure we can integrate into the design.

We'll also be finalizing roof system selection and other key matters like grass or turf -- things that we were focused on from ownership and how they impact the building and what's most effective for football. So, we'll be evolving all that through the next phase of design documentation, and then we'll be into construction drawings by the end of the year and then breaking ground next year."

Q: So much progress has already been made with much more to come. What has been the most rewarding milestone so far, and what future moment are you most looking forward to?

A: "The most rewarding milestone was probably getting our deal approved by City Council. Aligning on all the deal terms and getting full approval of the project took a lot of time and coordination amongst all the parties involved. We got the Mayor's term sheet last April, then we took it to City Council and spent several months in meaningful conversation. The goal throughout this process was to land on a deal that was going to be beneficial for all parties involved and deliver something that the District and its residents were going to be proud of, and I think we were able to accomplish that. While we had prep work going on behind the scenes, getting through the deal approval last September really gave us the ability to go. Before that, it all felt uncertain, and that was a clear starting point for us, which was the ability to say, 'Our partners are there.' We have to document it, but we know that they are aligned and that they're bringing resources to the table."