$10M for closed-off project in Prince George’s ‘flushed down the proverbial toilet,’ official says

Listen to this article

ANNAPOLIS — Maryland State Treasurer Dereck E. Davis called for fiscal transparency Wednesday after reports that a $10 million, completed civic project in Prince George’s County had been fenced off from public use.

“As the state’s treasurer, it’s my job to be … as diligent as we possibly can in managing dollars, and so when people come and we find ways to fund projects — to give money — we expect that money to be used the way it was intended and that it’s not willy-nilly discarded as if these aren’t real dollars,” Davis, a Democrat, said at an Annapolis hearing of the Board of Public Works. 

Davis said he had been in communication with constituents from Prince George’s County who said a civic plaza in Largo that had received its funding from the Board of Public Works has been fenced off and its equipment given away.

According to the Maryland Stadium Authority website, the memorandum of understanding between the county and the authority for the plaza located in the parking lot of the Wayne K. Curry Administration Building was approved by the Board of Public Works in 2023. Residents participated in interactive design workshops with the project team in 2024. Ground was broken on the project in April 2025, and it was completed last December.

Gary McGuigan, executive vice president of the Maryland Stadium Authority, appeared at Wednesday’s meeting virtually and confirmed he was familiar with the plaza. The state treasurer asked then him, “Where’s our money?”

McGuigan said the $10 million was spent constructing the plaza that was programmed and approved by the county’s previous administration, and that the stadium authority followed the memorandum of understanding approved by the Board of Public Works.

Asked if the plaza, which should be open to the public, had been shut down, McGuigan said, “That’s a fair representation.”

“We completed the project in December, and the county installed the fence immediately afterwards to not allow access to the property,” he said.

The project was approved under U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, a Democrat who served as the Prince George’s County executive from December 2018 until she resigned in December 2024 after successfully winning her senatorial bid.

A request for comment from County Executive Aisha Braveboy’s office was not immediately returned. Braveboy is up for reelection this year. 

“I’ve had predecessors … we may not always agree with what they did, but they were duly elected and so forth just like we were, and so we have to live with some of those decisions, even if they aren’t our own. Because at the time that they were made, they were made by people who were entrusted with that responsibility,” Davis said.

“To say nothing and then watch $10 million just flushed down the proverbial toilet like it’s nothing — I can’t do that,” he said. “Somebody needs to … explain to me … why this is happening. But more importantly, since all of this was agreed upon before we gave the money, if we’re now having second thoughts, how is the state going to get its money back? And if the state can’t get its money back, then that’s another conversation I think we need to have.”

The plaza was part of Prince George’s Blue Line Corridor economic development initiative. Other projects include a library, a cultural center, a magnet charter school and a fieldhouse.

According to McGuigan, no conversations have occurred between the stadium authority and the county regarding reimbursing the investment, and no mechanism was written in the memorandum of understanding, which accounts for up to $400 million in bonds, ensuring that would happen. 

“So we’re just out $10 million, basically?” Davis asked.

“Correct,” McGuigan answered.