Branching Out in Prince George's County

Bringing apartments to 19.37 acres near the Branch Avenue Metro Station, Archstone-Smith received approval last month from the Prince George's County Planning Department for Town Center at Camp Springs. Located on the east and west sides of Capital Gateway Drive and Auth Way, Archstone will create 801 rental apartments with 65,359 s.f. of retail in an effort to bring young professionals to the now under-developed section of Prince George's County.

What is their goal? "Humans," said Archstone-Smith Senior Vice President, Rob Seldin. "There's a lot to it. We're trying to take what is now a disaggregated series of different uses and put them together and use our project as a mechanism to create a community."

Seldin said the majority of Archstone apartment residents are between the ages of 25 and 36 and have at least a bachelor's degree. "We have about 85,000 units with 240,000 residents throughout the US. If Archstone was a city, it would be the wealthiest, most highly educated city in the US. We are very focused and targeted on expanding our brand within that demographic segment of the population."

While the Camp Springs project is still in the planning stage, according to the detailed site plan, it will be completed in three phases. Phase one will deliver 416 units, a 7,000 s.f. private club house, and a pool. Phase two will follow suit with similar amenities and 385 units. Phase three will be the retail space. The project will offer over 1,500 parking spaces for residents and shoppers at completion.

Seldin said the town center may even bring more jobs to PG County and that one of the things that drew the developer to the site was its proximity to not only Branch Avenue, but also Andrew's Air Force Base with 22,000 employees and the Suitland Federal Center with 9,500 employees.


"You have a very high concentration of reasonably highly compensated and educated employees working there, and no great place for them to choose to live. For us, this was an opportunity to give these people a chance to live where they work. It's difficult to create housing anywhere, in PG County, it is typically very difficult to have housing approved, so really, what's been happening is these highly educated, highly skilled, highly compensated workers have been systematically disenfranchised, so they go to Arlington, because they welcome them. Arlington knows that these people are great residents, everything good flows from an influx of successful young people. That was our market concept for what we think we would like the Branch Avenue are to expand into," said Seldin.

"If we can begin to recast this location as where this demographic can live, it will help foster entrepreneurial opportunities because office space is inexpensive there," he added.

The developer will finish its purchase of the now-vacant land from a private owner after the project receives all necessary approvals. Seldin said Archstone-Smith hopes to break ground in fall 2009. The Preston Partnership, LLC is the architectural team through entitlement; their portfolio includes the Alexan Dunn Loring in Falls Church and the Ketlands in Gaithersburg.

Andrews Air Force Base BRACing for Growth

As DCMud reported last year, the Andrews Business & Community Alliance (ABCA), has been incubating plans for 7 million s.f. of new development around Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George's County, in an attempt to expand the $1.2 billion in annual economic benefit the base brings to the county.

Andrews Air Force Base is part of the 2005 national BRAC (Base Closure and Realignment Commission) process that was used by the Department of Defense to streamline operations and reorganize bases to increase operational readiness, taking the strategic decisions out of the hands of provincial legislators. The BRAC program handed a net increase of personnel to Andrews, and the county is making plans to benefit from that increase.

At Andrews, BRAC will create 800 new military positions that will be in place by January of 2011. According to James Estepp, Director of Operations, Greater Prince George's Business Roundtable and the Andrews Business & Community Alliance, the realignment will lead to a net increase of 3,000 military and civilian assigned jobs. ABCA is a group of members of the surrounding business, community-service, and faith-based organizations who work to support "the mission at Andrews Air Force Base while fostering successful economic and community relations."

ABCA plans for a development to surround the base as the increase in personnel begins, including over 5 million s.f. of office space, 2 million s.f. of retail, and over 15,000 residential units to accommodate the population increase caused by the new employees, their families, and the additional businesses drawn to the area. The base proper is 5,000 acres, the land around it is owned by multiple individuals and corporations, a coordinated development effort of all the land is not yet assured.

“Our original idea was a vision and we are working on increasing our membership (in the alliance) to make that vision happen. There will be multiple developers in play because of the land, where it is, and how it is owned. We are talking about 5,000 acres. We are certainly drumming up support,” Estepp said.

He added that there would not be any major steps forward within the year because of the BRAC time frame. “BRAC isn’t law until 2011, so federal, state and local politicians will not be under pressure to move until closer to the deadline.”

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has authorized the creation of state “BRAC zones” for which areas in Maryland can apply to get matching state funds for infrastructure work around military bases. According to Estepp, this benefits the Alliance's plans as it provides incentives to the county for infrastructure for businesses moving near the base. The municipality would apply for such a zone.

Andrews is bound by Route 4, Branch Avenue, Old Alexandria Ferry Road and Allentown Road. Part of the Alliance’s plan involves extending Metro’s Green Line to the base.

Both Anne Arundel and Montgomery Counties are involved in the BRAC processes, moving jobs to Fort Meade and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda.