Eighty-acre development plotted for Armed Forces Retirement Home

A man plays a round of golf on the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home. (Photo by Matt McClain for The Washington Post)

With its rolling hills and forested paths, the Armed Forces Retirement Home, located on 272 acres in Northwest D.C.,providesAmerican veterans a bucolic setting in the middle of the city.

But the home is also in need of a funding source to provide for its future. And with neighborhoods on all sides booming, its managers see a real estate opportunity.

Next month the Old Soldiers Home, as it is often referred,will begin seeking a private partner capable of developing up to 80 acres of its campus, located between North Capitol Street to the east, Rock Creek Church Road and Park Place to the west and Irving Street to the south.

The homesmaster plancalls for an entire neighborhoods worth of housing, offices, medical facilities, retail and a hotel in the southeastern corner of the property. In all, it calls for 4.3 million square feet of development, a project larger than the one planned for 67 acres on the former Walter Reed Army Hospital northwest of the home and roughlyhalf the size of whats been built at National Harbor, the riverfront complex in Prince Georges County.

The plan leaves the majority of the homes property as it is, including veterans housing, gardens, trails and a nine-hole golf course, as well as President Lincolns summer cottage, a tourist attraction.

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Eighty-acre development plotted for Armed Forces Retirement Home