Peterson and Bozzuto Partner for First National Harbor Apartments

Washington, DC—Set on the banks of the Potomac River, since 2008 National Harbor has been advancing as a 300-acre mixed-use community of upscale restaurants, retail stores, entertainment, hotels and a marina. And with the joint venture of two DC area-based, family-owned development companies—The Peterson Companies and The Bozzuto Group—National Harbor will now have its first apartment community.

The Peterson Companies is the developer of National Harbor. Peterson brought The Bozzuto Group on board to co-develop, build and manage the new apartment community, which will consist of 350 residences, approximately 25,000 square feet of street-level retail space, and will be LEED certified. Residents will be within short walking distance of an array of dining, recreation and shopping options, and their building’s amenities will include a pool, fitness center, cyber café, gaming room and Zen garden.

“We’re really fortunate to be involved,” Toby Bozzuto, president of Bozzuto Development Company, tells MHN. “As far as we’re concerned, this is an extraordinary development that the Peterson Companies has done. It’s robust with retail, office, hotels and condos. The only thing it doesn’t have yet is rental housing.”

By adding a missing element to the Harbor’s mixed-use community, local business should benefit from the new residents just as much as the residents will benefit from proximity to the businesses. “It’s a symbiotic relationship,” Bozzuto says. “The restaurants will benefit. The bars will benefit. In any mixed-use environment, to have renters—especially this quality of a product—will have a great effect.”

Construction is expected to commence in the fall of 2011, with first occupancy in 2013, but much of the Harbor community is already open for business. “If you opened the door right now, you would have an extraordinary amount of retail, a ton of restaurants, entertainment, farmers markets. That’s today,” Bozzuto says. “You could open it today and it would be a fabulous place to live.” And with Disney opening a hotel soon and a national children’s museum being built next door, “I think the future is even brighter at National Harbor.”

National Harbor is located along the Capital Beltway in Prince George’s County, 10 minutes from Washington, DC. While the Harbor currently offers condominiums, townhouses and manor homes, this will be its first rental community. Plans for National Harbor call for an eventual 10 million square feet of development and 2,500 residential units.