Skanska Starts First DC Apartment Development
The NoMa community will include ground-floor restaurant and retail space.
Washington, DC—Skanska, the Swedish development and construction giant, has started work on its first apartment development in Washington, DC. The company is both developing and, through Skanska USA Building, building the structure, for a total estimated investment of about $112 million.
The 12-story, 326-unit apartment building will be at 22 M St. NE, in a part of Washington called NoMa. The building, called Resa (Swedish for “journey”), includes ground-floor restaurant and retail space. It is targeting LEED Silver certification.
The project is the first part of a three-building, mixed-use development called Tyber that Skanska is currently planning. Eventually, Tyber will include 581,000 square feet of office space, 30,000 square feet of restaurants and retail, and an open-air courtyard, besides the apartments in Resa.
The apartments are in a growing part of DC. Across the street is the Capitol Point development by the JBG Cos., which includes office space and a Landmark Theatre. Resa is also close to a Metro station, so it counts as TOD. Construction, which is now under way, will be completed in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Overall, Washington DC, has seen supply growth in excess of 10,000 units for two of the last three years, and vacancy has trended lower, reported Marcus & Millichap in its third-quarter report on the market. Rents have also been edging up.
That dynamic underscores the strong demand for apartments, especially near major transportation routes and employers. The dynamic is expected to continue, since job growth has picked up again in metro Washington. It will be up about 85,000 by the end of this year, Marcus & Millichap predicts, for a 2.3 percent increase.
