Ground Breaks on Phase Three of $500M Project

WASHINGTON, DC-JPI has broken ground on 900 New Jersey Ave., a 13-story tower here in the District's Baseball neighborhood. This project is the third of four planned apartment buildings the developer is constructing at the $500-million mixed-use project, Capital Yards.The tower will contain 237 residential units and 6,000 sf of retail. Development costs for 900 New Jersey Ave. are roughly $87 million, EVP Greg Lamb tells GlobeSt.com.

Next year, JPI plans to break ground for its final building, 23 Eye St., with 421 residential units and up to 35,000 sf of retail space. When completed, Capitol Yards will add over 1,325 new units to the neighborhood.

The first two developments in Capital Yards are 70 Eye St. and 100 Eye St., as reported in GlobeSt.com. The 70 Eye St. project will have 448 units in two towers designed in an industrial warehouse style; while 100 Eye St. will provide 246 units in a glass and white terrazzo marble building. These two projects will deliver in the summer of 2008, shortly after the Nationals open their first season in their new hometown stadium. Lamb says that the company will begin preleasing the apartments within 16 months and the retail component within six months.

The total development cost for the three buildings currently under construction is approximately $320 million. The fourth building planned at 23 Eye St. has an estimated development cost of $150 million.

Capital Yards will be luxury apartments--JPI's core business. Increasingly, though, JPI has been moving to include mixed-use among its products. Both rental housing and mixed use is developing rapidly in this part of the city, in anticipation of increased demand for living space as the office, retail and entertainment developments also come online.

For instance, Onyx on First, a 14-story, 266-unit condo on First Street, located one block from the new Nationals baseball stadium, is under construction. Housing will also be a key component in the $800-million redevelopment of the 47-acre stretch of public waterfront along the Washington Channel. "This is one of DC's busiest markets now," Lamb says.