840 Apartments, Creative Office and a Restaurant Row: The Plans for Pentagon City TSA Site

• April 22nd 2019

by Nena Perry-Brown

Note: The article has been updated with a statement from Brookfield Properties.

While Pentagon City prepares for the arrival of an Amazon headquarters campus, the exit of a current office tenant is creating opportunity for an ambitious mixed-use project.

Brookfield Properties has filed a preliminary development proposal for 601-701 S 12th Street (map) with plans for a four-building mixed-use project with office, retail, hotel and 840 residential units. The development would raze and replace the two 12-story office buildings currently occupied by the Transportation Security Administration.

Of the square footage, 520,590 square feet would be for either retail or office use, and the remaining 966,810 square feet would be for residential and/or hotel use, delivering up to 840 apartments if no hotel is included.

The office (southwest) tower would be 14 stories, and the northwest, northeast and southeast towers (all residential and/or hotel) would be 26, 24 and 20 stories, respectively. Two acres of the site would be a redeveloped public plaza, shared street and other open areas. There would also be 456 parking spaces for the office and retail components and 440 parking spaces for the residential/hotel components. Snøhetta is the architect.

The block would be divided in four by a pedestrian walkway from east to west and a shared multi-modal street from north to south; the former would offer a direct path to a reopened entrance to the Pentagon City Metro station. There would also be a "restaurant row" with options for outdoor dining, and the plaza could be activated with farmer's markets and other events. Roughly one-quarter of the office space, or three floors, is billed as "creative office" and will surround a separate outdoor courtyard. Each building, except for the northwest residential tower, would include ground-floor retail; either of the east towers could incorporate hotel use.

The applicant offers the possibility of a phased redevelopment, whereby one of the office buildings would be demolished and the other be repositioned for office use while the first phase is constructed.

“With Amazon’s HQ2 location immediately next door, we are exploring a number of options to bring about the best use of the site for the region," Andrew Brent of Brookfield Properties told UrbanTurf. "The proposed amendment to the Phased Development Site Plan is a first step of an important public process and dialogue.”

The application also hints at the likely plans for Amazon's adjacent Pen Place office development: five buildings, with a maximum height of 300 feet, surrounding a green square.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/840-apartments-creative-office-and-a-restaurant-row-the-plans-for-pentagon-/15294.