Nearly five years after Arlington County approved Vornado's plans 1.8M SF of office at the PenPlace development, JBG Smith is starting the project as residential.

The developer plans to build the first phase of the Pentagon City project as two seven-story apartment towers with 300 units and 40K SF of ground-floor retail, the Washington Business Journal reports.

Vornado/Charles E. Smith, before it merged with The JBG Cos. to form JBG Smith, got approval in September 2013 to build 2.1M SF on the vacant, 10-acre site along Army Navy Drive between South Fern and South Eads streets. The initial plans for PenPlace called for four office buildings totaling 1.8M SF, a 300-room hotel, 50K SF of retail and the option to switch one of the office buildings to residential.

JBG Smith plans to take the project through the county's site plan review process this spring, but did not provide a construction timeline or cost estimate. The developer told WBJ the switch to apartments comes because it does not have a lease signed yet to break ground on the office, and starting with residential could help it land a tenant.

The project sits just north of the 699-unit, Whole Foods-anchored apartment building, The Bartlett, that Vornado delivered in 2016. JBG Smith also took control of future phases of that development through the merger.