WeWork UMD
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WeWork’s first location on a college campus opened earlier this year at the University of Maryland. The UMD space will be the flagship of a model that the coworking company hopes to spread across the nation.
The 18K SF space features private offices and hot desks, though in a somewhat smaller format than most of its Washington-area locations. The occupants of the space so far include graduate and student-led startups, branches of companies looking to recruit from the UMD talent pipeline and former WeWork D.C. users who have decided to move their memberships closer to home.
Because of its proximity to a large college, WeWork decided to not offer alcohol, usually a staple of its coworking spaces, in favor of a kombucha keg.
WMATA at New Carrollton
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The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority will occupy a new office building next to the New Carrollton Metro station. The building will be part of the 2.5M SF development on Metro-owned land that the agency in 2016 selected Urban Atlantic to build. Metro will occupy a full building directly in front of the southern entrance to the station that will be between 275K and 300K SF.
Kaiser Permanente already has a few thousand employees working in the new development. The New Carrollton office parallels a WMATA office planned for Alexandria in Virginia. The two new offices will act as satellites from the agency’s new headquarters in L’Enfant Plaza.
Ivy City Smokehouse — Capitol Heights
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Ivy City Smokehouse, a lauded seafood restaurant, is looking to open a second location in Prince George’s County. The restaurant will be part of the Hampton Park Mall in Capitol Heights, a planned mixed-used district that will break ground this fall.
The restaurant’s first location, in its namesake Northeast D.C. neighborhood, features a rooftop patio and live music, and has helped contribute to the revitalization of the area, formerly an industrial district south of Amtrak and freight rail tracks. Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks said that these sorts of businesses are exactly what “we have been missing” in the county, the Washington Post reported, and that consumers and diners in the area are eager for innovative dining and entertainment experiences.
Alsobrooks hopes that the arrival of other businesses like the smokehouse will provide a much-needed boost to the many strip malls and retail centers in Prince George’s County, a signature goal of her tenure in office.
