After three years, construction of The Wharf’s phase two is coming to a close. The $3.6 billion development, which turned a previously low-key stretch of Southwest waterfront best known for its fish market into a coveted live-work-play destination, initially debuted in 2017. While portions of phase two are still undergoing construction, the area will officially open to the public with a celebration October 12.
Visitors can now walk the mile-long path that stretches from the the open-air fish market to the newly constructed additions. Along the way, they’ll find 20 new tenants—almost all of the phase two spaces are leased, says Monty Hoffman, founder and chairman of Hoffman & Associates, which developed The Wharf alongside commercial real estate group Madison Marquette. Hoffman is also currently developing another mixed-use project in Buzzard Point.
Wharf newcomers include DC’s first Pendry Hotel, the luxury condo building Amaris, The Tides apartment complex, two Gordon Ramsay restaurants, a Blank Street Coffee, DC’s first location of the New York-based Mediterranean restaurant Limani, and another Lucky Buns outpost.
While many of the new additions won’t launch until 2023, The Tides is open and leasing to residents, Pendry Hotel’s official opening date is November 1, and Amaris and the Gordon Ramsay spots should be open by the end of the year. Employees have yet to move to The Atlantic’s or Freedom Forum’s new offices, but the law firm Williams & Connolly’s new HQ is open. A pharmaceutical trade association is opening an office in the new development as well, says Hoffman.
Many of the new Wharf sites are glam: Off the Pendry’s marble lobby, visitors will find its cozy-meets-luxe Bar Pendry featuring velvet seating, a curved bar with mirrored backsplash, and a fireplace. It also has a Latin-influenced restaurant called Flora Flora that overlooks the pool and a Japanese-influenced bar-restaurant called Moonraker, located on the penthouse level with 360-degree views of the city. The Pendry Hotel’s levels are cantilevered while the next-door Tides apartments are terraced, so that neither impedes the other’s view of the waterfront.
Meanwhile, Amaris—home to a $12 million penthouse—comes with an Olympic-sized indoor saltwater pool, a treatment room for massages and facials, an apartment for guests, and an elevator for your car. (Just drive it into the street-level elevator, and the valet will park it for you in the underground garage.) Its glass siding is curved via a process called cold-warping, giving it a Watergate-esque structure and maximizing views. Of its 96 units, over half are sold, says Hoffman.
And it won’t be all condos: The high-end Chinese restaurant Philippe Chow will open its first location outside of New York on Amaris’s bottom floor, where there will also be a Blank Street Coffee.
Additionally, The Wharf has added extra marina space, with slips by the forthcoming waterfront Limani restaurant where Hoffman says he’d like to one day see superyachts docked, a la St. Tropez. A fueling center for boats has been added, as well as a clubhouse where liveaboards can shower and do laundry.
That isn’t to say that the expansion is exclusively high-end. “A lot of this is an experience in contrasts,” says Hoffman. Near the parked yachts are kayaks for rent, and forthcoming restaurants like Bartaco and Slice of Matchbox (a spinoff of Matchbox) veer fast-casual. And over 50 percent of The Tides’s units are marked as affordable housing, according a Hoffman-Madison Waterfront representative.
The new stretch will have several green spaces, as well as public gathering spots like The Grove, an open-air section outside the Pendry with a gas fire pit and a stage. Outdoor chandeliers and light posts with lampshade-like tops are meant to blur the lines between indoor and outdoor living, says Hoffman. “The whole idea is to bring people together to socialize and connect and have more intimate, liveable spaces than large, grand civic spaces.”
The Wharf will celebrate both the grand opening of its phase two expansion and the five-year anniversary of phase one’s completion on October 12. Guests can expect pop-up entertainment, live music on The Wharf’s pier, specials at Wharf businesses, and fireworks.
Here is a full list of all the new spots coming to The Wharf’s phase two expansion:
- Pendry Hotel (including Bar Pendry, Flora Flora, and Moonraker)
- The Tides apartments
- Amaris condos
- Blank Street Coffee
- Bartaco
- Easy Company
- Georgetown Optician
- Goddard School
- Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen
- Gordon Ramsay Fish & Chips
- Kilwins Chocolates & Ice Cream
- Kinfolk Southern Kitchen
- Limani
- Lucky Buns
- Mason’s Famous Lobster Rolls
- Milk & Honey Café
- Philippe by Philippe Chow
- Scissors & Scotch
- Slice of Matchbox
Mimi Montgomery joined Washingtonian in 2018. She’s written for The Washington Post, Garden & Gun, Outside Magazine, Washington City Paper, DCist, and PoPVille. Originally from North Carolina, she now lives in Del Ray.
