PN Hoffman’s cranes have been hacking away at DC’s Southwest Waterfront for the development firm’s massive Wharf complex since March. While work continues on the $2 billion mixed-use behemoth, the company has announced its next project for the neighborhood—and it’s right next door to the Wharf.
PN Hoffman plans to build a 105,000-square-foot, 108-condominium unit at 600 M Street, Southwest, slated to open in early 2016. The new condo building, which will be re-addressed as 600 Water Street, will take the place of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, a 53-year-old congregation that once counted Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall among its members. As part of the project, PN Hoffman is also building a new, two-story church for St. Augustine’s on an adjacent lot facing Water Street.
The Wharf—a multi-phase project scheduled to open its doors with more than 1,000 residential units and hundreds of thousands of square feet of retail, commercial, and entertainment space—has already transformed the area by clearing out many of the decades-old establishments from the waterfront. And PN Hoffman is the dominant player in Southwest DC, much like JBG is in the U Street corridor, where it has numerous projects.
People who buy at 600 Water—sales start next spring, PN Hoffman says—won’t have to depend on their neighbors at the Wharf for all their amenities, though. A press release for the forthcoming building promises a clubby atmosphere with a residents’ lounge, a courtyard with plenty of water features, and access to a new park.
Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.
