Step aside, Wharf, there’s going to be a new waterfront development in town.

A real estate developer is aiming to make The Yards in Southeast the D.C. region’s “largest waterfront development,” spanning 48 acres and 3.4 million square feet of office, residential, and retail buildings.

The proposed plans — mirroring the Wharf’s $2 billion buzzy Southwest dining and entertainment hub — come as a part of the Yards’ Phase II development, spearheaded by the real estate agency Brookfield Properties, which acquired the space in 2018.

Development would take place over the next decade, according to Brookfield Properties Senior Vice President for Development Toby Millman, and encompass an area stretching from the Navy Yard Metro stop to the Anacostia River.

Once complete, The Yards would be home to 2 million square feet of office space, 400,000 square feet of shopping and dining businesses, 3,400 “mixed-income” residential units, and 7.5 acres of green space — all situated near a new main street, Yards Place, that will connect the Navy Yard Metro to the Diamond Teague park on the Anacostia River.

A slew of architects have been selected to create the “curb-less, cobblestone, and pedestrian” destination according to a statement from Brookfield Properties, with an “open-air” design imagined for a socially distanced future.

The renderings for The Yards’ new concept seem to fit D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s recent proposal to create “commercial lifestyle centers”: large mixed-use or commercial areas (similar to other waterfront spaces like The Wharf and Georgetown) where patrons would be allowed to purchase alcohol at businesses and carry it throughout the designated area.

Since opening in 2010, Yards Park has expanded with grocery stores and restaurants, hosted various art installations (and drunk squirt gun fights), and earned national recognition for its architecture. The development was part of a major renovation for the Navy Yard neighborhood in the wake of the opening of Nationals Park. It’s now home to more than 10,000 residents and counting (many of them at one time were reportedly staffers of President Donald Trump), as well as dozens of bars and restaurants.

As the pandemic set in, Navy Yard was among the neighborhoods that saw a dramatic drop in rent prices. Rent in “Class A” apartments — those new, luxury buildings that are prevalent in Navy Yard — have dipped 11.9%, according to research conducted by real estate consulting firm Delta Associates. About 9% of those Class A units in the neighborhood are currently vacant, per Delta Associates.

Oh, and depending on who you talk to, it’s one of the most cursed places in the city.

Related:

Ten Facts You May Not Know About Navy Yard

This post has been updated to attribute a statement to Brookfield Properties’ Senior Vice President for Development Toby Millman.