The first phase of Federal Realty's massive Pike & Rose project in Rockville is finally showing signs of life. On Friday, outside one of the apartment buildings, we snapped senior marketing manager Vanessa Rodriguez with development point man Evan Goldman. The Phase 1 office building is 50% leased after Federal signed Bank of America Merrill Lynch to 40k SF, and Evan tells us the firm is "far along" with a tenant to take another floor. The apartments behind them, called PerSei, are 72% leased after opening up in June, as residents flock to the hip building features. Says Evan: "We're going to own the building forever, so we don't mind spending a little more on the details." The firm will spend $250M on Phase 1 alone, he tells us.

On one side of the PerSei building, the firm has paid tribute to the Corby family, which owned a bakery nearby. Ground-floor retail adorns every portion of Phase 1: PerSei, the office building, and another apartment building called Pallas. Del Frisco's Grille will open underneath the office building this week, while &pizza, La Madeleine, Summer House, Stella Barra Pizzeria, and a concept from Michael Babin's Neighborhood Restaurant Group are slated to open soon. A Sport & Health fitness center will open by the end of the year, as will Gap, City Sports, and several other retailers.

From one of PerSei's units, we snapped construction workers, on the right, putting touches on AMP, a 250-room music venue that'll be operated by Strathmore. It could be open for events (weddings, corporate events, etc.) by the end of the year, while performances may hold off til the spring. Under AMP lies a high-end iPic movie theater—the first East Coast location for that brand. Vanessa says it'll open up in early November—in time for the Hunger Games premiere. Aside from indie movie offerings, iPic dishes out pillows and blankets. It will also feature a full restaurant for before or after a screening. (Modern films may be more immersive, but nobody will go hungry at the The Hunger Games.)

15-foot ceilings are one of the highlights of some units in the PerSei building, along with the ample storage space built in "since couples are who we have in mind," Evan says. Pallas, a higher-end building, will deliver next spring. He also tells us Federal plans to employ one of the biggest trends in DC multifamily buildings—microunits—in one of Phase 2's apartment complexes.

Here's a shot of one of the office building's column-free floors. A green roof is being assembled right outside. If you think this is a lot for one development, think again: Phase 2 of Pike and Rose will triple the size of Phase 1, and Evan and Vanessa say by the project's completion, it'll include 450k SF of retail, 1.1M SF of office, 1,500 residential units, and a boutique hotel.