Forest City Washington

Forest City, the firm already responsible for much of the development in Navy Yard and along the Southwest Waterfront, submitted to the D.C. Zoning Commission this week plans for a new plot that would include hundreds of apartments, retail space, and big multiplex.

The proposal, which was turned in on Wednesday, would cover four city blocks in what developers and real estate companies call the Capitol Riverfront district. Already, Forest City has built The Yards, which includes 1.8 million square feet of office space, 400,000 square feet of retail space, and 2,800 residential units.

Washington Business Journal reports that this newest project will sit just east of Nationals Park:

The planned unit development submission filed Wednesday with the D.C. Zoning Commission covers an area of roughly 235,130 square feet bounded by First Street SE, N Place SE, Diamond Teague Park and D.C. Water’s Main and O Street pumping stations. Most of the site is occupied by D.C. Water, either its facilities or its lots.

Forest City proposes to develop a 16-screen movie theater, two apartment buildings totaling 600 units (48 affordable) and 52,000 square feet of retail, arts and entertainment space, to expand Diamond Teague along the Anacostia River, to reintroduce the street grid and extend Potomac Avenue through the site.

The movie theater, to be operated by the Showtime Icon chain, would be first theater to open in the city since 2010, when the art house West End Cinema launched. The 16-screen venue, though, would compete more directly with other multiplexes.

In 2011, several city officials expressed a desire to see the construction of a movie theater east of the Anacostia River, where the last cinema closed in 1989. That plan, save a botched concession tax, has not moved much in more than a year, but a movie theater in Navy Yard would be the closest for D.C. residents who live across the Anacostia.