National Harbor, a 358-acre development scheduled to open in early 2008, will bring convention, hotel, office, residential and retail space to Prince George’s County’s Potomac waterfront on a massive scale that is a first for the Washington region, according to area officials.
“It’s certainly one of the largest mixed-use projects this region has seen and that has been planned in a long time,” said Paul Desjardin, chief of housing and planning for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. “We think it’s a great opportunity for the county.”
National Harbor is located just south of the Wilson Bridge in Prince George’s County, less than two miles from Alexandria across the bridge and just south of the D.C. border on the Potomac side.
Denise Roberts, spokeswoman for County Executive Jack Johnson, said the project is a gateway to the region.
“This is going to change the way people enter the state of Maryland,” Roberts said.
A scale model of the development shows motorboats moored near several blocks of low-rise, multi-use buildings. Some structures will house high-end retail and dining establishments, Roberts said, but she did not disclose the names of some of the companies she heard are interested in the property.
The six hotels planned for the project will add 2,900 hotel rooms to the 6,000 that exist in the county today. The high-end condominiums, townhomes and timeshares also included in the development are “things that Prince George’s County residents have never had in their own community before,” Roberts said.
Portions of the project remain unclear. National Harbor property adjoins the Beltway, but Roberts said she did not know how visitors would access it from the highway. Roberts said she also was not sure whether cars would use existing roads or newly constructed streets to reach National Harbor. Representatives of National Harbor’s development firm, The Peterson Companies, could not be reached.
Bonnie Bick co-founded the Campaign to Reinvest in the Heart of Oxon Hill, a community group that has scrutinized various aspects of the National Harbor project over the years.
With the rumors of gambling on the site put to rest, Bick said the group turned its attention to the impact the development would have on a nearby neighborhood. The group successfully battled to keep National Harbor traffic off of nearby Oxon Hill Road, a two-lane neighborhood thoroughfare.
“They wanted to widen the road,” Bick said. “They agreed not only to not widen the road but to improve the road.”
BY THE NUMBERS
» 6,000 hotel rooms presently in Prince George’s County
» 2,900 hotel rooms to be built at National Harbor
» 2.2 million square feet of retail, dining and entertainment space currently at Tysons Corner
» 1 million square feet of retail, dining and entertainment space planned for National Harbor
» 703,000 square feet of exhibit space now available at Washington Convention Center
» 400,000-square-foot convention center slated for National Harbor
