PENTAGON CITY, VA-Clarion Partners and Kettler are partnering to build the third luxury high-rise apartment building at Metropolitan Park. The latest building, the Acadia, will be developed at an approximate cost of $154 million. The 19-story, 411-unit asset will join the two existing buildings also developed by the duo: the Gramercy and the Millennium.

“The location—its close proximity to the Pentagon--is an obvious benefit,” Marc C. Deluca, Clarion managing director, tells GlobeSt.com. Of course the Pentagon is in firm sight of Congress’ budget cutters, but Deluca thinks the agency’s proximity is still a benefit. “We will bode better than other corridors [relying on the government] such as Southwest and the Waterfront.”

Development has been picking up in the DC area, but it has largely focused on the multifamily asset class because of its fundamentals. That is the trend in the nation and DC is no exception. “The Washington, DC corridor has been one of the best-performing markets in the nation over the past several years, and the fundamentals are in place to support further growth,” Deluca said in a prepared statement.

Certainly new figures from Reis bear this out. Last week, it reported that for Q2, the average vacancy rate in the US for the apartment sector was 4.7%--the lowest since the end of 2001. Current vacancy rates in the Pentagon City submarket are at 4%, according to Clarion. The company’s proprietary research also has Pentagon City’s annual market rent growth clocking in at 3.7%, on average, over the next five years.

The Acadia will be located one block from the Pentagon City Mall and Metro Station. It will be the first multifamily building in Pentagon City designed for LEED Silver certification. There will also be 16,350 square feet of ground-floor retail. Once it delivers, Metropolitan Park will have 1,100 apartments and 35,000 square feet of retail. Work on the project is expected to begin this summer with delivery scheduled for Q1 2015.