National development firm Fore Property Co is making one of its first forays into the DC market with a luxury apartment play in a nontraditional market. Last week, Fore received approval to build a 342-unit, four-story building in Hyattsville, steps from the Prince George’s Plaza Metro station, across the street from the Mall at Prince George’s and the University of Town Center. “It’s a transit-oriented play,” Fore partner and head of Mid-Atlantic development Evan Feldman told Bisnow yesterday. “There’s been continued redevelopment around that Metro site, and we’re coming in right in the middle of it.”

The building will cost around $85M to develop, Evan says, and won’t have ground-floor retail because of the preponderance of shopping options in the immediate vicinity. It’s “super amenity-rich,” Evan says, with two courtyards, a pool and a dog park. The lobby, fitness center and business center are two stories right at the entrance. Walking into the building “is going to be a massive, eye-opening experience,” Evan says.

Seeing the development around the PG Plaza Metro could have the same effect for DC dwellers’ pre-conceived notion of Prince George’s County. “Depending on where you are in PG, it suffers from that stigma,” Evan says. “But at this Metro stop, there’s been a huge amount of investment and it’s created its own little niche submarket.” The apartment building, at the site of the old Kiplinger Magazine printing plant on East-West Highway, will only add to revitalization around the Green Line stop. “In terms of live/work/play, you’ve checked every box. You can walk to do whatever it is you want to do within five minutes.”

Ethan Rothstein, Bisnow DC