637 Apartments, 31,000 Square Feet Of Retail: The New Plans for Pentagon City TSA Site

• February 27th

by UrbanTurf Staff

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A new proposal is on the boards for the former home of the Transportation Security Administration in Pentagon City. 

JM Zell Partners is under contract to purchase the vacant office buildings at 601 and 701 12th Street S (map) from Brookfield Properties with a plan  to convert the complex into a mixed-use residential project with 637 apartments and nearly 31,000 square feet of retail. The proposal, designed by Arquitectonica, will also have a half-acre public plaza that connects to the Metro. 

Rather than demolish and rebuild, JM Zell is proposing an adaptive reuse approach — gutting the interior floors and stripping the facades while retaining the concrete structure and below-grade parking garage housing almost 900 spots. 

The site's path to this point has been a long one. Brookfield Properties, which acquired the two parcels in 2006, originally proposed redeveloping the site in 2019 with plans for four mixed-use towers to replace the existing office buildings. Those ambitions grew over the years: as recently as September 2024, the Arlington County Board approved an amendment that would allow up to 1,675 new dwelling units and 70,000 square feet of retail space. 

With JM Zell now under contract, the approach has shifted dramatically: instead of tearing down and building up, the new team wants to work with what's already there.

The 570,000-plus square feet of former office space has sat empty for four years, and the applicant notes that the larger redevelopment approved by the County Board is commercially unviable. The new plans, filed with Arlington County this month, will now make their way through the county approval process. 

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/637_apartments_31000_square_feet_of_retail_the_new_plans_for_pentagon_city_/24368.