Real Estate Company Mixes It Up Around New Nationals Stadium

Forest City Washington Blends Residential, Retail, Office

Deborah Ratner Salzberg is president of Forest City Washington and a director of Forest City Enterprises. Salzberg, who has a bachelor's degree from George Washington University and a law degree from the University of San Francisco, has worked at the real estate company since 1985.

Salzberg told staff writer Thomas Heath about what the company is working on here and what she sees as the future of the area around the Nationals stadium.

Q What type of development project attracts Forest City Washington's attention?

AWe thrive on urban infill mixed-use projects that blend residential with retail and office. Historically that has been our strength as a company. As the mid-Atlantic hub of Forest City, we're working on projects from Baltimore to Richmond.

On the north side of the D.C. metro area, we're working on an exciting mixed-use project, Konterra, at the intersection of Interstate 95 and the new Inter-County Connector in Prince George's County. Working with our partner, Gould Property Co., we'll be creating a new town center that will include 1.5 million square feet of fashion retail as well as restaurants, residences, office and hotels.

Having lived in the D.C. area for more than 27 years, I am particularly excited about the three large-scale projects we also have under development in Southeast and Southwest D.C. With our partners, we are developing close to 90 acres, including Waterfront Station, where we are under construction on a new neighborhood hub for Southwest. Our first two office buildings there -- which have already been leased by the District of Columbia, a new Safeway and other great stores -- will be opening in early 2010.

The first two buildings have opened at Capper/Carrollsburg [redevelopment project] in Southeast, one of which is dedicated to senior housing and the other to workforce housing. New mixed-income townhouses will be underway this summer. Construction on our largest project, the Yards -- 42 acres situated between the new Nationals baseball stadium, the Navy Yard, M Street SE and the Anacostia River -- is well underway.

Now that Nationals Park has opened, bring us up to date on the status of the Yards.

We've been building roads, laying utilities, grading and building parking lots for baseball. We're just beginning construction on the Pattern Shop Lofts, 170 incredible loft units in the building that used to house the Navy Yard's carpentry shop. This summer, construction will begin on our first retail building and our world-class five-acre waterfront park.

We'll have over 5 million square feet of development including 2,800 residential units, 1.8 million square feet of office and 300,000 square feet of retail.