Therme Tells DC Council Its Poplar Point Resort Would Draw 2 Million Visits a Year
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At the first Council hearing on the deal, Therme’s US chairman projected 2 million or more visits a year to an $800 million resort on 15 acres leased for $1 a year. The Democratic nominee for mayor, who chairs the other committee, won’t hold a hearing this year.
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Therme Group expects its planned Washington, DC bathing resort at Poplar Point to draw 2 million to 2.1 million visits a year, and probably more, John Alschuler, executive chairman of Therme Group US, told the DC Council’s Committee on Human Services on October 28. He pointed to Therme București, which he said drew 1.7 million last year. The hearing was the first on the two bills that would make the deal happen.
The second bill, B26-0846, would lease Therme DC LLC about 15 acres of Poplar Point, on the east bank of the Anacostia River in Ward 8, for a 400,000 to 600,000 square foot “health and wellness facility.” Under the September 17 term sheet, the ground lease runs 60 years with one 20-year option, and rent is $1 a year for the first 20 years. Alschuler put hard construction costs at $500 million to $550 million and the total at about $800 million, all of it private.
The bills may not get much further this year. They also have to pass the Council’s Committee on Facilities, whose chair, Janeese Lewis George, is the Democratic nominee for mayor. She told The Washington Sun on October 7 that she wouldn’t hold a hearing on them. The Council’s session ends January 2.
Therme DC at a glance
- Site about 15 acres of Poplar Point, Ward 8, still federal land under the National Park Service
- Building between 400,000 and 600,000 square feet, with about 10 acres under roof and about a third of the facility outdoors, Alschuler said
- Bathing “dozens of saunas and wet rooms, thermal and mineral pools, waterslides,” in the District’s March 2025 description
- Visitors about 2 million to 2.1 million a year, by Therme’s estimate; the District had asked for at least 1 million
- Cost $500 million to $550 million in hard costs, about $800 million in all, privately financed
- Lease sixty years plus a 20-year option; $1 a year for the first 20 years, then a fair-market appraisal
- Tickets from about $50 a day, Alschuler said, with 1,000 free tickets a month through community groups east of the river
- Timing no opening date; Alschuler told Bisnow he hopes to finish around 2033
Therme’s projection rests on its own research
Asked where the 2 million figure came from, Alschuler cited Therme’s own polling, market research and focus groups. The bill’s record contains no independent market or economic study; the Council’s fiscal impact statement is due with the committee report. Therme has used the same number since March 2025, when CoStar, citing The Washington Post, reported that it expected “roughly 2 million visitors annually.”
That would put DC ahead of every resort Therme runs today. Therme Erding, outside Munich, had 1.9 million guests in 2024, according to the German trade magazine EuroAmusement Professional. Therme București, host of a 29-country aufguss festival this fall, had more than 1.7 million in 2025, Romanian business paper Ziarul Financiar reported. Therme Group says its five operating resorts in Germany and Romania draw 5.5 million visits a year. Alschuler told the committee that a third of Therme’s guests are tourists and that the average guest comes about 3.5 times a year.
The District would pay to move the Park Service
Poplar Point is still federal land. A 2006 federal law directs the Park Service to hand it to the District once the District meets the law’s conditions, and the companion bill, B26-0845, approves a land swap with the Navy and developer Redbrick that would move the Park Service and US Park Police facilities on the site to 12 acres at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling.
Deputy Mayor Nina Albert told the committee that moving those facilities would cost an estimated $250 million or more, a figure from last year, and that the District could use bonds to pay for it. She said the $1 rent reflects Therme taking on the utilities and environmental cleanup on its 15 acres. Alschuler said Therme would cover cleanup on its acreage up to a cap, and didn’t know the cap’s amount at the hearing. The land wouldn’t transfer until the Park Service’s new facilities are built, and Albert put the start of Therme’s construction five to seven years out.
“We have sought no tax exemption. We have sought no subsidy,” Alschuler told Bisnow in October, adding, “One hundred percent of the risk is on Therme.”
Ward 8’s advisory commission and the next mayor are opposed
The neighborhood commission for the area, ANC 8A, voted 7-0 on October 22 to support the land swap and 7-0 to oppose the Therme lease, its chair testified. The Committee of 100 on the Federal City asked the Council to table both bills. A witness for the Historic Anacostia Block Association said bidders had under six weeks to answer the District’s 2024 request, and that the jobs and ticket pledges aren’t in the bill or the term sheet. The request allowed 39 days, and Albert said Therme was the only qualified respondent.
“This is prime waterfront real estate that should be used to leverage the building of more affordable homes and the creation of good jobs,” Lewis George told The Washington Sun. “The current proposal does neither.” At-large Councilmember Christina Henderson told Bisnow she wasn’t hearing any residents “clamoring for a spa.”
More than 50 local organizations back the project, many of them in Ward 8, including the Anacostia Business Improvement District and Martha’s Table, Bisnow reported, and several testified in favor. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who leaves office in January, has said Therme would serve as “a catalyst for economic growth along the Anacostia waterfront in Ward 8.”
Therme’s other new resorts are years away
Therme is building its Manchester resort in the UK, with construction scheduled to finish in late 2028, and broke ground in Singapore in June for a 2030 opening. Its Dallas plan, a 450,000 square foot facility in the Cedars neighborhood, won the city plan commission’s approval in August and goes to the City Council next. Its Toronto resort at Ontario Place is in development.
Testimony closes November 4
The committee is taking written testimony on both bills until November 4.
