Clarion, Kettler Team on $154M High-Rise Apartment Project in Tight Suburban Washington Market

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

As is the case across the metropolitan Washington, D.C., apartment market, demand in Arlington, Va.’s Pentagon City neighborhood is enviably strong, and Clarion Partners L.L.C. and Kettler are doing their part to answer the call for more luxury rentals. The companies are teaming up to develop The Acadia at Metropolitan Park, a $154 million project that will add 411 units to the market.

Demand isn’t expected to wane anytime soon in Pentagon City, which surrounds the 6.5 million-square-foot Pentagon and sits less than three miles across the Potomac from Washington, D.C. The submarket’s success is predominantly due to that prime location. “Pentagon City is still a very convenient area,” Anthony Liberto, a senior associate with Cushman & Wakefield Inc., told Commercial Property Executive. “You still have the amenities that renters look for; you’ve got (subway service), you’ve got shopping.”

Acadia will sprout next to The Gramercy and The Millennium, two apartment towers also developed by Clarion and Kettler. Together, the properties will form a three-building complex known as Metropolitan Park. Acadia will feature a host of the amenities renters expect in a luxury apartment community, including high-end finishes, diverse community space and 16,350 square feet of retail and restaurant offerings. The 19-story high-rise is also being designed to obtain the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Silver certification.  Construction of Acadia is on track to commence this summer and reach completion in the first quarter of 2015.

Upon Acadia’s completion, Metropolitan Park will offer an aggregate 35,000 square feet of retail space, two acres of public park space and 1,100 apartments. Given the popularity of the Pentagon City submarket, the complex should have little trouble attracting residents. According to Clarion’s research, the vacancy rate in the submarket is just 4 percent and rents will increase an average of 3.7 percent annually over the next five years. Clarion attributes the strong demand for luxury accommodations to the area’s relatively low unemployment level, as well as the abundance of well-educated professionals with upscale preferences.