"We are looking forward to beginning this major development in this area," Freida Wray of the Arlington County Board tells GlobeSt.com. "The staff was very pleased with the design of the buildings." Crescent submitted plans for 1 Potomac Yard about five months ago. Concerning the Board's decision-making, Wray says, "it was a very involved community process." Arlington's Cite Plan Review sub-committee participated, as well as the Planning Commission. "Crescent's development team was quite responsive to issues raised by the community and by the staff."

1 Potomac Yard is just a single facet of Crescent's planned development of the 300-acre site, which straddles both Arlington and Alexandria cities; 88 acres in Arlington and 212 acres in Alexandria. The developer purchased the property last year from Commonwealth Atlantic Properties, Inc. after having already won official approval for its plan to erect 2.8 million sf of office space, a 625-room hotel, 800 residential units and 100,000 sf of retail space in Arlington. Plans for the Alexandria portion of the property include 1.9 million sf of office space, a 625-room hotel, a 135,000-sf neighborhood retail complex and 1,900 residential units. Arlington County records describe the property as "office/paving on former railroad land" and show that Crescent paid nearly $55.5 million for it.

Wray was unable to give details on when exactly construction will begin on 1 Potomac Yard, and project officials at Crescent were unavailable for comment. Wray did say that, of course, there would be the typical permit-attaining process for Crescent to go through before any building can begin.