JBG Eyes More Twinbrook Opportunities

JBG is investing a lot of time and energy in the future of the Twinbrook area - courting a Federal tenant and planning Twinbrook Station or "2.2 million square feet on the redline," as the developer calls it. Following the recent rezoning within the new Twinbrook Sector Plan, which encourages mixed-use development in an area once restricted to office space, JBG is now eying two parking lots that currently serve Parklawn, the Health and Human Services/Food and Drug Administration building. Anticipating the departure of FDA in July 2010 for White Oak, JBG hopes to secure HHS for a longer contract and take advantage of the reduced parking demands to build dense residential and retail in place of parking lots.

JBG submitted a bid to keep HHS in their current building; the design included a totally renovated Parklawn. HHS uses about 2/3 of the space, according to Greg Trimmer, a Senior VP at JBG. With the FDA out of the other 1/3, JBG would renovate the building in thirds, moving the current tenants within the building during construction. The HHS building is 18 stories and has 1.3 million s.f. of office space. Under the new sector plan, a building of this size would be a no-go, but JBG's Parklawn was grandfathered.

The firm does not currently have any defined designs for the use of the 5 and 10 acre parking lots on site. But in the next year or two, the developers will begin to develop a clearer plan and begin the zoning process for a development that will certainly fall in line with the sector plan and likely follow many recommendations from the Twinbrook design guidelines.

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