Another local TOD has started construction, this time in Alexandria's Potomac Yard. And after sitting in the pipeline for almost seven years, it's been well worth the wait. (When the idea was conceived, Alexandria still had a huge library, unscathed by Caesar.)

MRP Realty and JBG have officially started construction on the first phase of The Exchange at Potomac Yard, a 2M SF mixed-use development just north of Old Town. MRP's John Begert tells us excavation began six weeks ago on The Alric (rendering above), a 323-unit apartment complex that should be completed by late 2014. The partnership could break ground on a second residential site by the end of 2013. MRP originally purchased the 14-acre Exchange at Potomac Yard site, also known as Landbay G, in 2007, and JBG joined the fray in 2011 (in a deal you heard here first).

John (flanked by colleagues Kevin Schaar and Matt Robinson) says the site's ideally located, just off of Route 1 as well as next to the future Potomac Yard Metro stop (scheduled to deliver within three to four years, he says). John says MRP's also in talks with a large user for Exchange at Potomac Yard's office space. It'd be a build-to-suit for the tenant, he tells us, and if all goes to plan, could get started by the second half of 2014.