Work set to start in Dec.
on $500M Potomac Yard

Washington Business Journal - November 10, 2006
PROJECT
Potomac Yard - Alexandria


CLIENT
Crescent Resources


DESCRIPTION
The development of the Alexandria portion of the Potomac Yard property.

ccl RESPONSIBILITY
Civil engineering, land planning, surveying.


OFFICE
Fairfax

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Washington Business Journal - November 10, 2006
by Joe Coombs - Senior Staff Reporter

It has long been a big empty space on Alexandria's busy Route 1 corridor, but the $500 million Potomac Yard development is about to spring to life.

Infrastructure work will begin in December on the project's first phase, which will include 216 condominiums, 50,000 square feet of office space and 4,800 square feet of retail space. It took more than two years of planning and earning approvals from officials, but the start of the 167-acre community is at hand.

When finished in about eight to 10 years, the Alexandria portion of Potomac Yard -- which also includes part of Arlington -- will be home to 1,683 residential units, 1.8 million square feet of office space, 120,000 square feet of retail and 625 hotel rooms.

"This whole stretch of Route 1 is about to change," says Howard Katz, vice president of strategic land acquisition in D.C. for Centex Homes, one of the development's partners.

Centex, along with Potomac Yard partner Pulte Homes, will start next month on Potomac Yard's roads, and construction of the residences should begin in the summer.

The project's first phase is expected to be finished by the spring of 2008. Paperwork will be filed soon for the second phase, which will encompass 407 residential units and 115,000 square feet of retail space.

The entire 300-acre Potomac Yard tract spanning Alexandria and Arlington was once home to a major East Coast rail yard. In 2001, Crescent Resources bought the land from Commonwealth Atlantic Properties and eventually sold it off in pieces.

On the Arlington side, Bethesda-based The Meridian Group is planning a mixed-use development that will have up to 1 million square feet of office space.

On the Alexandria side, Pulte and Centex's property is getting a new Monroe Avenue bridge that will serve the Potomac Yard community. The first lane of the bridge is on track to open in the spring of 2007, and the work should be finished in the spring of 2008.

Many of the development's residences will borrow from styles in the nearby Del Ray neighborhood, says Catharine Puskar, an attorney representing Pulte and Centex. In discussions with developers, residents said they wanted the Potomac Yard project to mesh with other parts of Alexandria, Puskar says.

Consequently, several streets from Del Ray will connect across Route 1 with Potomac Yard, including East Glebe Road, and East Custis, East Swann and East Howell avenues.

"Potomac Yard will be a unique community, but there will be continuity with neighborhoods," says Puskar, an attorney with Arlington-based Walsh, Colucci, Lubeley, Emrich & Terpak. "It will fit in the larger community."

 

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