WASHINGTON, DC—The JBG Companies broke ground on Wednesday on its 13 | U residential project.

The eight-story development at 1300 U St., NW will feature 129 new market rate and affordable housing units, plus retail space. Rite Aid, which anchored the previous strip shopping center on the development site, will return to the property in a roughly 8,400-square-foot storefront. The development will deliver in 2017 along with 48 below-grade parking spaces. The company did not divulge the development cost of the project.

JBG has a portfolio of than 1,100 residential units and nearly 128,000 square feet of retail space in the submarket surrounding the 13|U development.

JBG is providing a $600,000 community benefits package earmarked for new recreational fields at Garrison Elementary, a play space at Westminster Place, a new Capital Bike Share station and funding to initiate a Business Improvement District.

At the groundbreaking event, a temporary public art installation by District-based nonprofit Words Beats & Life was unveiled. The artwork is on the inside wall of the temporary covered sidewalk along U Street, between 13th and 14th streets, and features a 264-foot-long mural by six local artists.