Overview
- The National Guard formally awarded the contract to Placemakr on July 27 to provide up to 2,000 furnished apartment-style units for personnel stationed in Washington, D.C.
- The $292 million award covers apartment-style lodging that officials say will replace scattered hotel billeting and roughly halve lodging costs compared with continued hotel stays.
- It is not yet known when troops will move into specific units or how the 2,000 apartments will be allocated across properties and neighborhoods.
- Local housing experts say 2,000 units equal less than 1% of the District’s roughly 250,000 rental units and are unlikely to change broader market trends, though impacts could vary by building or block.
- Placemakr operates multiple D.C.-area properties that could house troops, including 2500 Penn, Coda on Half, Dupont Circle, Buzzard Point and an Arlington Ballston site, and the move could ease hotel demand while concentrating renters in those buildings.