Newsroom

You’ve heard of “The Three Rs,” right? Reducing, reusing and recycling? Well, a massive project hopes to bring all three to the heart of Washington, just south of the National Mall, by turning 15 blocks in to the “SW Ecodistrict.”

Roughly a year before Hoffman-Madison Waterfront delivers the bulk of its Southwest Waterfront overhaul known as The Wharf, the development team, with the District, will flip the switch and turn on the lights.

The first residential building at the Wharf, a 3.2 million-square-foot, $2 billion redevelopment on the Southwest Waterfront from developers PN Hoffman and Madison Marquette, will deliver in 2017.

Hoffman-Madison Waterfront, the developers of the $2 billion, world-class Wharf waterfront community in Southwest Washington, D.C., announced last week that leasing is now open for two of the office buildings included in Phase One of the development.

In the Southwest Waterfront neighborhood in the District, you can easily walk or bicycle to the water’s edge, shops, Metro station, library and playground. Residential streets are peaceful and tree-lined. Squirrels dash across sidewalks and birds chirp.

The Southwest quadrant of the District is often overlooked for commercial real estate development. It is by far the smallest quadrant within D.C., and development has been slow over the past two decades.

Jackhammers pound away at the asphalt. Buildings from previous generations — deemed too old or too small — tumble into rubble. Almost everywhere, it seems, cranes tower overhead, a sign of dramatic new things to come.

The Wharf is a $1.5 billion redevelopment of the Southwest Waterfront with 26 land acres and a similar amount of water acreage with 2/3 mile of shoreline by the Hoffman-Madison Waterfront team, headed by PN Hoffman and Madison Marquette.