JBG Smith, the REIT that developed Amazon HQ2, is angling to convert more than 550K SF of vacant office space across two buildings not far from the tech giant’s East Coast hub.
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The company plans to convert 2100 Crystal Drive, an 11-story, 250K SF office tower in the Crystal City neighborhood of Arlington County, Virginia, into a more than 330-room hotel. It also seeks to turn 2200 Crystal Drive, an 11-story, 315K SF office tower, into a multifamily building with about 200 residences.
JBG Smith filed a first-of-its-kind application for the conversion under Arlington‘s new adaptive reuse policy, which the county enacted in November. The program offers a streamlined process for transforming obsolete office buildings into new residential and hospitality offerings.
“By creating this new framework, the County has taken an important first step to strengthen our mixed-use neighborhoods and foster a healthier long-term office market,” Matt Ginivan, senior vice president of real estate development at JBG Smith, said in a statement. “We look forward to working with Arlington County to advance this important redevelopment, which will generate much-needed new homes, hotel rooms, jobs, and local tax revenue.”
The REIT is the dominant property owner in the area between the Pentagon and Ronald Reagan National Airport that was branded as National Landing to court Amazon’s second headquarters.
Amazon occupies two 22-story towers nearby that JBG Smith developed for and sold to the Seattle-based tech company. It moved into the buildings in 2023 after leasing temporary space in Crystal City, including 2100 Crystal Drive.
JBG Smith decided to take that property offline after Amazon left but had been mum on its plans. The REIT’s move to convert it comes as it reduces its office portfolio overall in the struggling D.C. region where it is based.
It offloaded the office property at 2101 L St. NW, a 375K SF building near Washington Circle, to BG Ventures for $110M earlier this month.
The company lost four L’Enfant Plaza properties totaling more than 887K SF in October, when its lender, Blackstone, bought the buildings at a foreclosure auction. JPMorgan Chase took over its 256K SF Georgetown office building, The Foundry, earlier this year.
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