JBG SMITH, J.P. Morgan Form National Landing JV

Image by Lorenzo Cafaro via Pixabay.com

JBG SMITH and institutional investors advised by J.P. Morgan Global Alternatives have joined forces to own, design, develop and manage roughly 2 million square feet of new mixed-use development in Potomac Yard, the master-planned neighborhood taking shape in the National Landing area of Alexandria, Va.

The investors advised by J.P. Morgan Global Alternatives are contributing a land parcel entitled for 1.3 million square feet of development within the 69-acre Landbay F, the neighborhood’s largest sector, which is also called North Potomac Yard. JBG SMITH added more than 700,000 square feet of development capacity at Landbay G, an adjacent area also known as Town Center.

JBG SMITH will serve as pre-developer, developer, property manager and leasing agent for all future on-site commercial and residential properties. Following the transaction, its ownership of Potomac Yard development rights increased by more than 285,000 square feet and its economic ownership interest in National Landing expanded to 79 percent of all future unencumbered development.

During the next phase of the project, JBG SMITH will develop two multifamily buildings totaling 419,000 square feet, with groundbreaking anticipated within the next 12 months. The majority of planned development—1.6 million square feet —will follow in subsequent years.

Located in the southern portion of National Landing, the joint venture’s assets are adjacent to Virginia Tech’s $1 billion Innovation Campus and approximately 1 mile south of Amazon’s new headquarters, both developed by JBG SMITH. The site is near the new Potomac Yard Metro station, which is slated for a spring 2022 opening.

North Potomac redevelopment

North Potomac Yard came online in the 1990s as a 590,000-square-foot shopping center. In 2010, the city of Alexandria adopted the North Potomac Village Master Plan, setting in motion the area’s redevelopment. McCaffery and RREEF, together with architects Antunovich & Associates, laid down the plans for the 7.5 million-square-foot project.

Updated in 2017, the current plan for North Potomac Yard envisions 1.9 million square feet of office space, 1.1 million square feet of residential space, 900,000 square feet of retail and 300 hotel rooms, as well as more than 9.3 acres of open space.

As the sector’s master developer since 2013, JBG SMITH is working with five different architecture firms for the first phase of North Potomac Yard redevelopment: SmithGroup, Hickok Cole Architects, Elkus Manfredi Architects, Hord Coplan Macht and CookFox Architects.