Xfinity Center (formerly Comcast Arena)

The University of Maryland’s $125 million, 450,000 SF Xfinity Center Arena is Maryland’s newest student activities building and home of Maryland Athletics. SmootDC and its joint partner built the arena in phases, and included early packages and multiple GMPs. A significant amount of preconstruction work was required for this project and SmootDC’s team of estimators delivered planning, design review services, preliminary cost estimating, value engineering and scheduling to the project.

The Xfinity Center provides a seating capacity of 17,950 fans for basketball, and serves as a campus site for university special events and select community events. The Xfinity Center houses the university’s athletics administration offices and includes a 7,000 SF Academic Support Center, providing an enhanced study atmosphere for the school’s nearly-700 student athletes on 25 teams. An additional 1,500-seat gym serves as home to the Terps’ volleyball, gymnastics and wrestling teams, and the Nextel Heritage Hall multi-purpose room (capacity 400) is equipped to host banquets, press conferences, large meetings and serve as a pre-game dining area overlooking the competition arena.

Twenty suites provide enhanced viewing and entertainment capabilities for Maryland fans. Maryland’s student seating capacity accommodates 4,000, with students ringing the first 10 rows around the floor and a majority of seats on the arena’s west wall. In addition to NCAA athletic events, the Xfinity Center also hosts a variety of special events including graduations, concerts, speaker series, student events, etc. Additional project features included significant audio visual technologies, utility relocation, roadway realignment, central plant expansion, new softball stadium and construction of a new 1,200-space parking garage.