Prince George’s County is growing in fits and starts. New residences, offices, and healthcare and industrial facilities are pushing the county away from its suburban feel and toward a denser, more concentrated future.

Yet Prince George’s can’t quite drop the chip on its shoulder as Maryland’s second-most-populous county. In the neighboring Montgomery County, Bethesda and Silver Spring have seen more concerted development efforts as transit lines link the two towns as spokes in the wheel of greater Washington. All the while, Prince George's' stops on three Metro lines have stayed strictly suburban.

But development has been coming to the denser hearts of towns in Prince George’s County. Multifamily buildings are going up at the town center in Largo, as well as in New Carrollton. And around the area’s largest college, the University of Maryland, new residences and offices are rising.

Development could be spurred along further in a few years with the opening of the Purple Line, an orbital light rail system that will link New Carrollton and College Park with their neighbors to the west. Transit-oriented developments could crop up around the line’s 11 stations in Prince George’s County.

Further out from the center of Washington, industrial developments are the name of the game. Amazon may have backed out of its plans for a 4M SF development in Westphalia, but the county's cheaper land prices and geography have made it one of the DC, Maryland and Virginia area's most appealing places to build warehouses.

As the population of the metropolitan area continues to grow, the demands for same-day shipping rise, and Prince George’s County will almost certainly see more industrial interest as a logistics and last-mile hub.