JBG Smith plans 1,000-unit RiverHouse expansion at National Landing

Published July 29, 2019 by Kate Andrews

Maryland-based developer JBG Smith Properties has submitted plans to Arlington County to add nearly 1,000 more housing units in its RiverHouse community at the edge of National Landing, where Amazon's $5 billion HQ2 East Coast headquarters is being built.

“One of our overarching goals through the design process was to submit a development plan that respects and complements the scale and character of the surrounding neighborhoods while creating a more cohesive sense of community,” JBG Smith Executive Vice President Andy Van Horn said in a statement. “It is our goal to deliver additional housing units concurrent with Amazon’s occupancy of its new headquarters to help meet anticipated new housing demand and mitigate upward pressure on rents in National Landing.”

About three quarters of the new residences would be rental units, including townhouses and two six-story multifamily buildings over the 36-acre development.

The two new buildings are proposed to be built between the existing 16-story James House and Potomac House rental buildings and will contain approximately 750 apartments, ranging in size from studios to three-bedroom units, according to JBG Smith. Each building would have a central courtyard and about 30,000 square feet of retail space at street level, including a potential daycare center and medical office. About 26 percent of the new residences will be offered for sale.

Currently, RiverHouse has 1,670 units in three high-rise towers, which were built in the 1950s and 1960s, according to the Washington Business Journal.

The filing last week comes two years after a merger between JBG Smith and Vornado Realty Trust, the previous owner of RiverHouse. JBG Smith is the main landlord in Crystal City and is acting as development manager for Amazon’s HQ2 in Arlington, which is expected to employ 25,000 people by 2030. In response, the county’s Crystal City-Pentagon City sector plan calls for 7,500 more residences by 2040.

JBG Smith expects to start construction in late 2020, subject to approval from Arlington County.

Rendering courtesy JBG Smith