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Developer JBG Smith filed plans Monday to redevelop the shuttered Americana Hotel site in Arlington's National Landing neighborhood.
The proposed development at 1400 Richmond Highway would include 650 residential units above street-level retail, UrbanTurf first reported. It would replace the hotel, which closed in 2020 in part due to the pandemic.
JBG Smith acquired the hotel in December in a multi-property deal that also included the Inn of Rosslyn, the Williamsburg Apartments and the Fern Gardens apartment property. All of those properties were owned by the Green family, which sold the properties because they were "hemorrhaging money," Katherine Green told ARLnow.
The acquisitions are part of a larger strategy by the REIT to dramatically increase its footprint in the National Landing neighborhood as the region prepares for the opening of Amazon HQ2. JBG Smith is leasing office space to Amazon and is partnering with the tech giant on the HQ2 development.
JBG Smith broke ground in March on an 808-unit apartment project at 1900 Crystal Drive, and it said in its Q3 earnings report it has the potential to add another 2,535 multifamily units to the National Landing submarket in the near term.
"In our role as the largest property owner and most active developer in National Landing, we’re always looking for new opportunities and the potential to grow," JBG Smith Chief Development Officer Kai Reynolds told Bisnow in January. "We've long viewed the Americana site as one of best opportunities for development in the area."
Open since 1963, the Americana hotel was one of the oldest in Crystal City. BKL Architecture submitted the draft plans for the site, and it will be working with the developer to transform a property that survived an earlier attempt to demolish it when the Richmond Highway, then known as the Jefferson Davis Highway, was redeveloped.
According to the site plans, the new site would have a lobby entrance on South Eads Street directly across from Amazon's Metropolitan Park development. That development, which constitutes the first phase of HQ2, will include two 22-story office buildings and is scheduled to open in 2023.
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