Plans for over 1,200 additional homes have been added to an already sizeable proposal to expand Pentagon City’s RiverHouse development.
JBG Smith now proposes to add a whopping 2,785 housing units to the apartment complex on S. Joyce Street — a hefty increase to a recent proposal draft that called for 1,515 more units.
By comparison, 2,227 new housing units were built in Arlington during all of 2023, according to the housing nonprofit HAND.
The new plans would bring the total number of residences at RiverHouse up to 4,461: a big jump that still remains within the bounds of what the Pentagon City Sector Plan envisions, according to new presentation documents uploaded within the past 24 hours.
The revisions propose two 22-story buildings, one 16-story building and one building partly 12 and partly 22 stories in height. In addition to increasing heights and density, the changes aim to decrease building footprints — creating a full acre of public space between the N1 and N2 buildings.
They remove plans for one small building and relocate another building to create an unobstructed line of site in another open space, also about an acre in size, along the primary green ribbon.
The changes, according to presentation documents from the county and JBG Smith, are the result of feedback at a previous Site Plan Review Committee (SPRC) meeting as well as comments from county staff and community members. Full presentations on the new plans are expected at the second SPRC meeting tomorrow (Thursday) from 7-9 p.m.
Prior to the release of the new documents, JBG Smith told ARLnow that some notable changes could be forthcoming but provided few details.
“Based on our discussions with and feedback from Arlington County staff and the Site Plan Review Committee (SPRC), we are revising our plans to significantly increase both the amount of open space and the amount of housing,” the company said in a statement.
“As with our previous plan, the three existing RiverHouse apartment buildings will be preserved and the new development will be primarily concentrated on the existing surface parking lots, which will be replaced by below-grade garages,” the statement continued.
The county provided little additional information when contacted for comment last week.
“During the January 16 SPRC meeting, the County anticipates that the applicant, JBG Smith, will present conceptual-level changes to their proposal,” county spokesperson Rachel LaPiana told ARLnow. “SPRC members will offer feedback to the applicant on the new concept so that JBG Smith may consider any additional revisions to the project before they officially submit revised plans.”
The county expects “several SPRC meetings” on the project, LaPiana said. Presentation documents indicate plans for at least five public meetings, with more “as needed,” prior to commission meetings and County Board consideration.
This isn’t the first time JBG Smith has changed its proposal for the expansive property that includes existing apartment buildings at 1111 Army Navy Drive, 1400 S. Joyce Street and 1600 S. Joyce Street.
At one point, the developer had sought to add 1,878 units to the existing RiverHouse development, bringing the total number of homes up to 3,554. It later reined in those plans for a variety of reasons, including community members’ requests for more open space and improved pedestrian connections in and around the neighborhood.
“As a result of this feedback, we made a number of substantive changes to our plan,” JBG Smith told ARLnow in June 2024. “While these revisions will result in a reduction of density, they will increase the amount of open space, enhance viewsheds, and improve pedestrian connections in and through the neighborhood. We think these changes have strengthened the plan for RiverHouse and we look forward to advancing this project.”
The changes also stemmed from modifications to the townhome unit types within Land Bay S and the elimination of the F2 building, which was part of the earlier submission but not included in the original Pentagon City Sector Plan, the county said at the time.
The proposed RiverHouse development, a centerpiece of the Pentagon City Sector Plan and by far the largest active project in Arlington’s development pipeline right now, dates back several years.
In 2016, what was then Vornado Realty Trust submitted a preliminary plan to add 933 housing units to the site. A few months after Vornado merged with developer JBG to become JBG Smith — and the project paused.
In 2019, JBG Smith submitted a new site plan application to build “nearly 1,000” new housing units, but those plans later grew significantly.
LaPiana did not provide an estimate on when the project might finally proceed to the Planning Commission and County Board, noting only that “dates for those meetings are still to be determined” following the SPRC process.
