JBG Smith breaks ground on two mixed-use towers in Arlington

Maryland-based developer JBG Smith Properties announced Tuesday that it had started construction on two mixed-use towers in National Landing.

The multifamily towers, located at 2000 and 2001 S. Bell St., will bring 775 rental apartments and nearly 27,000 square feet of retail space to National Landing.

“The start of construction at 2000 and 2001 S. Bell St. is a major milestone in National Landing’s ongoing transformation and delivers on our pledge to build new housing in lockstep with Amazon and Virginia Tech’s growth in the neighborhood,” Bryan Moll, executive vice president of development at JBG Smith, said in a statement.

New York-based architecture firm KPF designed 2000 S. Bell St. to be a 25-story glass tower with 355 units and 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Paris-based Studios Architecture’s D.C. office designed 2001 S. Bell St. to be a 420-unit, 19-story tower with 10,000 square feet of street-level retail. It will have a green-glazed brick façade. Both buildings are targeting LEED Gold Certifications.

Amenities will include rooftop views of National Landing and the Washington, D.C. skyline, co-working spaces, dog-grooming stations, in-garage bike parking and electric vehicle charging stations.

Demolition and other site work began in early 2021, and the Arlington County Board approved the project in May 2021. The project includes dedicated affordable housing and funding for a new library to be located in National Landing, as well as site and adjacent infrastructure improvements and dedicated funding for parks and open space.

The project is the second major multifamily development that JBG Smith has started in the past year. The South Bell Street towers are a block away from its planned 808-unit mixed-use development at 1900 Crystal Drive, which the company began construction on in March 2021. The development will have 808 units and 38,000 square feet of street-level retail across two 300-foot towers.

JBG Smith currently has 1,583 units under construction and an additional 1,760 units in a development pipeline. In November 2021, a company representative said that the developer’s housing portfolio in the National Landing neighborhood included 2,586 existing apartments.